E155: How 2016 US Election Inspired a Billion Dollar Startup | Abhishek Agrawal (CEO, Material Security)

The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

In 2016, Russian hackers broke into John Podesta’s Gmail during the US election. That single breach exposed how vulnerable email really is – and it directly inspired a billion-dollar cybersecurity startup.

At the time, even the most powerful people in the world couldn’t fully secure their inboxes. Once hackers got access, there was nothing stopping them from reading everything: drafts, attachments and sensitive documents.

Instead of trying to prevent email hacks, three ex-Dropbox engineers — Abhishek Agrawal, Ryan Noon, and Chris Park — asked a better question: What if you assumed the breach would happen, and protected the inbox anyway?

Material Security built a powerful layer on top of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, locking down sensitive emails, verifying identity before access, and giving security teams real visibility — all without requiring a migration.

In this episode, I sit down with Abhishek Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO of Material Security. We dive into their journey from pre-idea validation to scaling to a billion dollar valuation in about 5 years, lessons in management and leadership, and most importantly understand how Material Security is redefining email security for enterprises.

If you're starting out or searching for your billion-dollar idea, this is a masterclass on going from zero to scale.

⏳ Timestamps:

1. Trailer (00:00)
2. Intro (01:39)
3. How Material Security began? (03:30)
4. Why and how did the team visualize exit scenarios? (09:45)
5. What did their pivot feel like? (11:58)
6. How they used feedback to create their product (24:51)
7. How did they deal with rejections? (26:15)
8. How did the early version of their product look like? (33:44)
9. Did they consider changing ICPs? (38:17)
10. Was it easy to convince investors? (40:46)
11. How did the internal mindset shift feel like? (50:51)
12. What specific shifts did Abhishek have to bring in? (57:15)
13. What are the things Abhishek would do differently, if starting now? (01:07:17)
14. What’s Abhishek’s advice to his younger self? (01:24:01)

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