Prompt Security delivers a complete solution for all generative AI security in the enterprise. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Prompt Security co-founder and CEO Itamar Golan to learn more about the company.
Itamar Golan’s Background
What is Golan’s background? Golan said:
“Since my high school days, I’ve always been fascinated by math, data, and AI in its early stages. Interestingly, my thesis work was focused on transformers in neural networks, which are now foundational to LLM models. Little did we know back in 2017. This passion was evident in my academic studies, my military service in the IDF, and later in my initial career choices as a data scientist, which soon began to intersect with the world of cybersecurity. I started at Check Point and later joined Orca Security, where I met Lior Drihem, my co-founder and Prompt’s CTO.”
Formation Of Prompt Security
How did the idea for Prompt Security come together? Golan shared:
“A year and a half ago, the first API of OpenAI was released. Shortly after, Lior and I, during our time at Orca, worked on the first feature within a security tool that was powered by GenAI capabilities, helping users with their workflows within Orca: we leveraged GPT-2/3 to enhance Orca’s ability to generate contextual actionable remediation steps for security alerts, speeding up customers’ mean time to resolution. Working on this project made it even clearer that a completely new attack surface was emerging: applications of any kind that would feature GPT-like capabilities would be vulnerable to a new array of attacks. And so, fast forward to August 2023, Prompt Security was born.”
“As part of our ideation, we spoke to dozens of AI and security practitioners, to confirm that the new attack vector was indeed real and that there was both concern about it but also interest in exploring the right tools to secure GenAI (and that it wasn’t going to be just another transitory buzzword with a technology behind it with unclear goals.) We’ve also been involved from the beginning in the research and creation of OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, a list of the most critical vulnerabilities found in applications utilizing LLMs.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Golan’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Golan reflected:
“The moment after working tirelessly on the product for months, and hearing from a customer, ‘Oh boy, that’s exactly what I needed.”
Core Products
What are Prompt Security’s core products and features? Golan explained:
“Prompt Security is a platform that protects organizations from GenAI risks on all its aspects, whether it’s employees using tools like ChatGPT or Jasper, and for this, we have a browser plugin that monitors and alerts of any potential data leaks to the IT of the organization, and we also protect the GenAI integrations in customer-facing products.”
“Think for instance of an app that uses Generative AI to offer a certain customer-facing service. Using either our SDK, API or Reverse Proxy, we can protect the application from external risks like Prompt Injection, acting like an ‘AI Firewall’. Everything is managed from a single dashboard, giving leadership complete visibility and governance over the GenAI tools used within their organization.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Golan faced in building the company? Golan acknowledged:
“AI security is arguably the hottest market we’ve seen in a long time. Therefore, it is essential to stay one step ahead, executing tasks more accurately and swiftly than ever, with the most talented individuals in the field that strive for excellence.”
Evolution Of Prompt Security’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Golan noted:
“We’re continually developing functionality in the platform, staying current with all the GenAI risks to protect our customers, and improving the user experience.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Prompt Security’s most significant milestones? Golan cited:
“Having a working product that currently runs on thousands of endpoints across several organizations and inspects millions of prompts every month.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Golan about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We had a large prospect that effectively blocked any use of GenAI before we came. However, after deploying Prompt, we enabled widespread and safe adoption of GenAI across the entire organization and witnessed a significant increase in the productivity of their business without sacrificing data privacy and security. That’s our goal – to enable innovation safely.”
Funding
After asking Golan about the company’s funding information, he revealed:
“We just went out of stealth with $5 million seed funding.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Golan assessed:
“GenAI is widely adopted in most organizations across industries, so our TAM is pretty large. Currently we’ve seen a lot of traction with innovative companies that want to stay ahead of the curve while not compromising on security, but given how fast GenAI is being adopted, we expect organizations of all sizes and industries to catch up very fast. Since our deployment is very easy – takes only a few minutes to set it up and start getting insights – we expect POCs and sales cycles to be fairly short compared to other security platforms, as we’re able to deliver value quickly and without much friction.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Prompt Security from its competition? Golan affirmed:
“From all the startups that we’ve seen out there, we’re currently the only one that has a fully working product to secure both employees and applications in a one-stop platform. Our ease of deployment – takes only a few minutes to set it up and start getting value from the tool -, being LLM agnostic (we can work with OpenAI, Mistral, Llama, Copilot, etc.), and our low latency, minimal false positive rate and accurate detection makes it a robust security platform to fully address the risks of GenAI.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Golan concluded:
“Become the centralized platform for enterprises for all GenAI footprint in the organization, enabling CISOs and AI leaders to securely embrace the technology and all the potential it brings with it.”
