How Reco validates AI security bets: A three-signal framework before scaling any decision | Ofer Klein

**Ofer Klein** (0:00)
They would like to have a magic wand with one solution that fits everything. All of my eye will be secured. It never happened. I don't believe it will ever happen.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Welcome back to another episode of Builders. As always, this show is brought to you by frontlines.io, Silicon Valley's leading B2B podcast production studio. If you're bringing technology to market and want to learn from your peers, we have a library of more than 1200 interviews with venture-backed founders and marketers where they talk all things go to market. Of course, if you want to launch your own podcast, we offer podcasts as a service to more than 80 tech startups. The idea there is very simple. You show up and host and we do everything else. Now, with all that said, let's jump into today's episode.
Today, our guest is Ofer Klein, co-founder and CEO of Reco. Ofer, welcome to the show.

**Ofer Klein** (0:50)
Thank you for having me.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:51)
Of course, looking forward to the conversation, let's jump right into it. You were telling me pre-interview, you've made two big bets for the company. Let's talk about the biggest of those two bets.

**Ofer Klein** (0:59)
Yeah, so we started the company basically on AI first, building a graph that is a heartbeat of every company. And we didn't really know exactly where it should take. We believe that SaaS is going to be everywhere and then AI is going to be embedded everywhere. And it wasn't completely focused. And we built the first few years, the technology, the graph, the AI, the patents, all of that.
And then the first bet was, let's double down on basically securing the SaaS layer, the Salesforce, Workday Service now, et cetera. And then we started growing very quickly. And the second big bet was double down on AI, every SaaS become AI, every AI become agent. And then we started growing exponentially.
So every change seems easy, but do we need to change? What does it mean? Then, you know, pros and cons for that. How do you communicate internally, externally? All of those things are crucial in order to make it successful.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:51)
Do any stories stand out to you from when you were making those changes just hard moments or tense moments or difficult moments that you had to navigate?

**Ofer Klein** (1:59)
Yeah, we have one of our customers basically telling us, what do you mean you change? We built our practice on top of Reco. If you change, what should we do?
And then we had multiple conversations with them to say, what is staying, what is drifting basically to the next level as an evolution of their platform. Eventually, they stayed, they doubled down last year, they're extremely happy. But the immediate conversation of, am I disappointing my customers that trusted me from day one? And sometimes, by the way, you have to take tough decisions. For some customers, it's not good enough because they still want to protect the past or whatever. But in high level, 95% of the customers from that day stayed with the Reco and doubling down and tripling down for the future, basically securing the I.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:45)
What are you telling yourself when you're going through those moments of change, when you're making a big bet? I feel like just for founders, it sounds sexy, right? Someone's like, oh yeah, let's bet everything on this direction. But the reality, I think, behind the scenes, that's scary and painful and not always pleasant to do it. So what's going on inside your head as you're making these big decisions and implementing these big changes?

**Ofer Klein** (3:05)
Yes. So my DNA coming from the Air Force, I was a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, you continuously debrief, brief, understand what you did well, what you didn't do well enough, and then you go and change. And inside you, it's not only you personally, it's you as a team.
And once you have this DNA in the company as well, continuously listen to your customers. By the way, unfortunately, your customers will not tell you where to go. They can just tell you their pains.
What should I do with it? I don't know. That's your problem. All right. So how do you filter continuously listening to your customers, seeing what they actually do, listening to the market as well, and then taking a decision? I think the most important thing in taking the decision is having markers of, if my decision here is right, what does it mean in the market? I will need to get more pool, bigger deals, more logos, whatever it is, but you have to measure it right away to make sure that your decision is right.