Disruptive CEO Nation · 2026-06-03 · 29 min
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue. It is a business survival issue, and every leader needs to understand where the real risks are hiding. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dave “merk” Merkel, CEO and co-founder of Expel, about the evolving world of cybersecurity, AI, and business resilience. Dave shared the founder’s journey behind Expel, how the company grew by solving cybersecurity as a technology-driven scale problem, and why businesses of every size need to think seriously about 24/7 protection. We also explored the growing risks created by supply chains, fragmented systems, AI adoption, and increasingly sophisticated threat actors, while still keeping the conversation grounded, practical, and encouraging for business leaders. Here are the highlights: Cybersecurity matters for every business, not just large enterprises. Dave explained that even smaller companies can become targets when they are part of the supply chain for larger organizations. Expel was built to solve the scale-and-quality problem in cybersecurity.
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