Snehal Antani has been tinkering with technology since childhood. His father, an electrical engineer, would give him broken devices and task him with fixing them.  He moved into computer science as an undergraduate, eventually earning his master's degree. He then worked for IBM and eventually served as CIO for GE Capital and CTO for Splunk. In 2018, he joined Joint Special Operations Command, a division of the United States Special Operations Command, as CTO. He started Horizon3.ai, an AI pen testing company, with JSOC colleague Anthony Pillitiere in 2019. Here, he describes his unusual career path and how he deploys the skills he learned along the way to facilitate innovation. Can you tell me about your early tech education? When I went to undergrad at Purdue, I knew I was going to do computer science. What I love about computer science is that it’s horizontal -- so I can apply that to any vertical that I'm interested in. I was interested in stock trading while I was an undergrad, so I was able to write code to learn how to trade stocks. The software programming and systems architecture skills that I picked up could be applied to solve any job. What did the early portion of your career teach you?I optimized for learning. I used to sit in the hallway in front of my team lead’s office at IBM. He couldn't see me, but I could see his whiteboard. I would try to understand something he had explained to me. I was too afraid to go in and ask for more information, so I would literally sit on the floor and just stare at it, trying to make sure I understood it in detail.  Related:I wanted to be an expert in distributed systems and enterprise software. The first few jobs I took were all about learning as much as I could in that domain.  I was an awful speaker. I forced myself to become a better communicator. I then moved over to learn how to launch products in product management. I was an awful product manager the first year. But there was no way I was going to get better except by throwing myself into that arena and trying to figure it out.  In 2012 I got recruited to be a CIO at GE Capital. I had never managed anyone before. GE made a bet on me. I learned a lot and I was able to impact the organization as well. Having a solid technical foundation and being able to communicate well were probably the two most important skills I developed early in my career. Can you describe a scenario in which you felt out of your depth? When I was in IBM, there was a customer in Germany struggling with their tech. Their banking system kept crashing. Steve Mills, who was a legendary senior vice president, sent out a message that said, "This customer is struggling. No one can figure out what's wrong. Who here knows how to fix this problem?" I was a nobody at IBM. I replied directly to Mills and said, "I think I can fix this problem. Send me." Related:Once it got there, they were explaining their problem. I had no idea what they were talking about. All I could think was, "I’m going to get fired. I just embarrassed myself and my company." Suddenly, everything in my brain clicked: every single aspect of enterprise software technology, operating systems, distributed systems. We ended up solving the problem about 90 minutes later.  How has life in the C-suite changed for tech folks? I remember going into meetings at GE Capital. People thought I was there to manage the projector. Some of those teams struggled to understand the role technology played in creating a competitive edge. GE had just come off gutting and outsourcing the bulk of their technology DNA. Throughout the 2000s it didn’t seem that there was a belief that technology was a competitive advantage. I think there was a realization that they had gone too far. They started to try to bring in more technical talent. In the mid 2000s through 2015, tech was a back-office function. I believe that’s shifted dramatically, especially now when you think about AI and the advantage you can create using technology. There are certainly CIOs in my network who still view themselves as a back-office function. They don’t want to learn the business. But I believe that type of CIO is in the minority now. Related:Why did you join Joint Special Operations Command in 2018? I was 21 when 9/11 happened. I remember this feeling of both helplessness and the desire to do something about it. Was there a multiplier way to affect change -- one calorie in causing 10 calories of impact? There wasn’t an obvious way for me to do that. I remember in 2014 watching the rise of ISIS. The desire to make a difference came back at a much more intense level. The Special Operations community had invited me to do some planning sessions with them. How could they increase the velocity of innovation in order to keep up with the adversary?  Terrorist organizations were able to use off the shelf technology -- open-source software, cloud computing, drones -- to innovate lethal capabilities that were otherwise only available to armies. And so, the question was, how do we accelerate the innovation velocity? A lot of that experience was drawn from my time at GE Capital. I was able to join as the first ever CTO. For me, it was about purpose and impact. There’s no clearer mission than looking at human beings putting themselves in danger to help others. Anything that we could do using technology to reduce risk to them was an incredible opportunity. How did you come to found Horizon3.ai? I met Tony, my co-founder, at JSOC. We saw a challenge: We have no idea we’re secure until the bad guys show up. Are we fixing the right vulnerabilities? Are security tools actually working? We wanted to find a way to build an autonomous system that allows you to hack yourself as often as you want. Fiercely prioritizing problems that mattered was the first thing that we were able to do because our autonomous agent was able to hack organizations, tell you exactly how it hacked them, and then tell you exactly what to fix and how to fix it. Once you fix it, you can run a retest to verify that you're good to go. Find, fix, verify is the primary experience within the product.  #horizon3ai #cofounder #talks #transition #cto