Ron Vider began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 15, when he built a platform to increase exposure on social networks. The use of the platform gained momentum and reached more than half a million users. “Then I built a business model, and the system started generating revenue – I even received offers for acquisition”, he recounts. “That’s when I also understood that what excites and drives me is the ability to combine entrepreneurship and technology – to explore and identify a gap or problem, understand the need, define a vision for a solution, build a plan – and finally, execute it”.
He was exposed to the world of cybersecurity during high school years, when he learned hacking and defense techniques and then building automated tools. Thanks to the knowledge he acquired, he was recruited to Unit 8200. “During my service, I developed an understanding that the topic of command and management attracts me, and I went to an officers’ course out of a desire to contribute and learn”, he says. “I returned to the unit and led teams that dealt with the flagship projects of the security community. The projects succeeded and constituted a conceptual and technological breakthrough, for which I received an excellence award from the unit commander”.
About three years ago, he was a partner in establishing Oxeye – a startup in the field of identifying security vulnerabilities in application code. The company has raised funds from leading venture capital funds and currently has customers from all over the world. Last year, it was chosen by Forbes as one of the most promising cybersecurity companies in Israel, and even won international cybersecurity competitions.
And then the war broke out. “Immediately I was enlisted for reserve duty”, he recounts. “From a professional perspective, many challenges arose, with almost half of the development group being recruited for reserve duty on all fronts, while the customers – most of whom are not in the country – continued to operate as usual. We had to work around the clock to ensure that everything continued to function in the best possible way”.
