Madeline Lawrence
28 May 2026etn. Live at Panathenea
Madeline Lawrence & Henri: Aikido Security and Singular
Singular partner Henri outlines the firm's lead-every-round, deliberately tiny-team strategy and recounts leading Aikido Security's Series A when it was 14 people in Ghent, drawn in by unusual inbound SMB demand for security tooling. Aikido co-founder Madeline Lawrence shares growth since her last ETN appearance — 150 to 260 people, a new Chicago HQ, and over $1 million in net new ARR per week — and explains how the no-BS brand emerged naturally from her relationship with co-founder Willem. The segment ends mid-story on the Neo conference stunt that earned ETN's inaugural Startup Stunt of the Month award and the trade-show commitments behind their Series B launch.
Aikido Security & Singular: New AI Attack Vectors and the Mythos Hype
Closing out the Aikido Security & Singular segment, Madeline Lawrence recounts Aikido's viral RSA Conference booth — a recreated Matrix set with 'Neo' lookalikes hired off the internet, a spray-painted fake booth, and her hiding in the screen eating a sandwich — as lessons in standing out. The guests explain that AI and agents have exploded the number of attack vectors: agent-written code, infected packages and skills, and non-developers vibe-coding straight into production, which is why security now requires an AI-native consolidated platform. They also break down the Mythos model release as master-class marketing ('too dangerous to release, named after a god') that loosened security budgets and created urgency regardless of which model ships next.