Gary Martin from Scan Ninja AI

Gary Martin from Scan Ninja AI

Author: collide. May 19, 2026 Duration: 50:20

Cybersecurity is invisible until it isn't, and Gary Martin, CEO and founder of Scan Ninja AI, is on a mission to make continuous vulnerability management affordable for startups and mid-sized companies hackers love to target. Gary walks through SOC 2 readiness without the once-a-year scramble, how AI agents are changing scanning and remediation, why he ditched CapEx pricing to disrupt the market, and the brutal lessons from going all in after two and a half years building on the side.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.


Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.
Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
Apply today at collide.io


Click here to view the episode transcript.

00:00 Intro
00:28 Meet Gary Martin and Scan Ninja AI
02:03 Vulnerability scanning and AI-driven remediation
05:16 Third-party risk and what enterprises like ExxonMobil require
05:58 What SOC 2 actually is and the 90-day audit
07:33 Continuous compliance vs the once-a-year scramble
08:47 Vibe coding, npm vulnerabilities, and what slips through
11:46 Why Gary finally went full time
13:20 The reality of hacks on small and mid-sized companies
15:05 Where the Scan Ninja name came from
17:33 Detection, remediation, and built-in project management
21:35 Business model, MSPs, and tokenization
23:52 Who actually needs Scan Ninja
26:09 Sponsor break: Saffron
26:46 Lessons from leaving Exxon and starting up
31:32 The pivot from selling product to selling solution
34:48 Pricing, perception of value, and the no-discount rule
39:08 Building a lean company in the age of AI
41:08 Sales outreach with Apollo and token-based economy
43:30 What he loves most about being a founder
45:15 Advice for anyone thinking about taking the leap
47:03 Five-year vision and the Super Bowl commercial
48:13 How to find Scan Ninja AI

https://twitter.com/collide_ai

https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io

https://www.facebook.com/collide.io

https://www.instagram.com/collide.io

https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io

https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social

https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai


They say everything's bigger in Texas, including the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change. That's precisely why Houston has become a surprising epicenter for the global energy transition. In H-Town, the fourth largest city in the United States, a new wave of entrepreneurs is converging, partnering with established industry titans to forge the technologies that will slash emissions and power a low-carbon future. This is the landscape explored in Energytech Startups, a podcast from collide. that goes straight to the source. Hosts Nada Ahmed and Jason Ethier sit down with the very people driving this change-the founders, investors, and innovators who are building companies at the intersection of energy and technology. Each conversation digs into the real work: the engineering breakthroughs, the complex business models, and the hard-won lessons from the front lines of a sector undergoing massive transformation. It’s a direct line to the strategies and stories shaping the future of energy, making this podcast an essential listen for anyone curious about the business and investment dynamics behind building a sustainable world. You’ll hear frank discussions about funding, scaling, and the practical realities of bringing a transformative idea to market, all set against the backdrop of a city historically known for oil and gas now betting big on its own reinvention.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Energytech Startups
Podcast Episodes
Matthew Dawson from Elementium Materials [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:49
Batteries might not seem sexy, but they're literally powering the future and turns out, we've all been sleeping on electrolytes. We sat down with someone who's shaking things up by rethinking battery design from the insi…
Rhiannon Parker from Loop Bioproducts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:15
Who knew cactus could be the future of clean energy and sustainable farming? Rhiannon Parker, the brains behind Loop Bioproducts, is flipping the script by turning prickly pear into biofuels, eco-friendly products, and a…
Mush Khan from Alchemy Industrial [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:30
Energy storage isn’t just about batteries, it’s about reshaping the future of American manufacturing, and Mush Khan knows it firsthand. From running supply chains in China to now building Alchemy Industrial from the grou…
Ngu Morcho from Vitellaria PdDC [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:40
Energy tech meets real-world impact in this one, Ngu Morcho shares how he's helping startups unlock overlooked markets with a boots-on-the-ground approach that blends health, energy, and finance into something seriously…
David Aaronson from Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:04
Apartments and EV chargers, why is it such a headache? That’s exactly what we’re tackling with David Aaronson, the real estate pro behind Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions. With EV adoption skyrocketing, renters are dema…
Jason Assir from EnergyGigs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:23
Finding the right talent in energy is a headache, but EnergyGigs is flipping the script. CEO Jason Assir joins us to talk about how his platform is making it easier for companies to connect with consultants, freelancers,…
Yao Huang from Carbon Optimum Corporation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:28
Tackling the 40-gigaton CO2 problem isn’t for the faint of heart, but Yao Huang is all in, turning climate challenges into financial opportunities with some seriously cool tech. After two decades in the tech world, a pan…
Sandeep Roy from Planckton Data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:06
AI and sustainability, two buzzwords that actually make a lot of sense together, especially when you’ve got sharp minds like Robin Goswami and Sandeep Roy putting them to work. These guys built Planckton Data to crack on…
Jason & Nada from Energy Tech Nexus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:04
Houston isn’t just the oil and gas capital, it’s shaping up to be the energy innovation hub of the future, and Nada Ahmed and Jason Ethier are right in the middle of it. As the brains behind EnergyTechNexus, they’re buil…
Zimri T. Hinshaw from Rheom Materials [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:12
Plastic doesn’t have to be the villain of the story anymore, Rheom Materials is flipping the script. From brewing kombucha to brewing up a whole new way of thinking about sustainable plastics, they’re proving that bio-ba…