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As the Founder and CMO of Accel Growth Partners, I work with AI and B2B SaaS companies as…
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Kathie Johnson shared this1.8M apps were reverse engineered on Google Play store. It's time to start protecting more than just your primary app. At Digital.ai we help our customers protect more than 2B app instances. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gjrFbr_DKathie Johnson shared thisOn September 10th, Anthropic’s Threat Report revealed that a foundation model had been used by the ShinyHunters threat actor group to reverse 1.8 million apps on the Google Play store. The threat actors then downloaded, decompiled, and scanned the apps for credentials, API endpoints, and more. Within 34 hours 2100 Azure AD tokens were disseminated. This is a brave new world. Open AI warned us about this with their call for collective action. If you haven’t applied protections against reverse engineering to your mobile apps already, now is the time. If you need help, hit me up on DM. If you’d like an easy way to use AI to fight AI, check out the link in the comments for a description of our Quick Protect Agent, an agent that will apply basic protections that will provide resiliency against reverse engineering attacks.
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Kathie Johnson shared thisIdeas becoming shipped products in weeks instead of years. It is definitely a changed environment that we are all working in today! This episode with Digital.ai Derek Holt and TPG Brian Goffman is worth a listen!Kathie Johnson shared thisNew Episode 🎙️ of Released: The Story Behind the Software Ideas becoming shipped products in weeks instead of years. New businesses challenging established players almost overnight. That's the pace Brian Goffman, Managing Director of AI @ TPG, is seeing across the portfolio, and it raises the real question underneath the speed: How do you turn that velocity into value that actually lasts? In the newest episode of Released, Derek Holt sits down with Brian to talk through what company building looks like in an AI era, from the economics of software development to the trust and security that make speed sustainable instead of just fast. If you're building a product, or building a business, this one's worth your time. Full episode link in the comments. 👇
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Kathie Johnson shared thisProud mom post ❤️ My daughter, Morgan Wedge graduated from Sacramento State this past May with a degree in Business Management and she is now looking for the opportunity to launch the next chapter of her career. And yes, I’m biased. But I’ve also spent my career building and leading teams, and I know what I look for in people early in their careers: initiative, curiosity, grit, leadership and a willingness to jump in and figure things out. Morgan has all of those. While completing college, she: • Studied International Marketing in Greece and Italy, gaining firsthand exposure to different cultures and approaches to business • Built a career in residential real estate while still in school, selling $950K in real estate, including closing a deal while studying in Europe • Served as Vice President of her sorority, building leadership, teamwork and event experience • Worked with the Alzheimer’s Association on walks and fundraising events, raising thousands of dollars Now she’s looking for her first post-college opportunity, with particular interest in marketing, social media and events, ideally within the technology industry. She is open to opportunities in the Sacramento area or remote. This is where I’m hoping my network might help. If Morgan sounds like someone your company should meet, or if there is someone you think she should know, I would be incredibly grateful for an introduction, connection or share. Sometimes that first opportunity comes from someone willing to open a door. I’d love to help her find hers. And Morgan, I couldn’t be prouder of you. ❤️
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Kathie Johnson shared this"Be great with the basics"! Great tip from the CEO of Delinea in his conversation with Derek Holt.Kathie Johnson shared thisWe ended my recent conversation with Art Gilliland, CEO of Delinea, with a little rapid fire on AI and identity security. One answer has stuck with me even more after the events of the past week: We may be spending too much time trying to find every AI agent, and not enough time protecting the assets that actually matter. That feels increasingly relevant. Last week’s industry open letter and call to action highlighted just how quickly AI is changing the threat landscape. Attackers can now discover and exploit vulnerabilities at machine speed. Our response at Digital.ai was grounded in a similar principle to Art’s: we can’t assume we’ll always find, patch, or stop every threat before it reaches the application. We also have to make the application part of the defense. Identity security and application defense are different layers of the stack, but the underlying idea is the same: protect what matters, control access and behavior, and assume AI will make the environment faster and less predictable. A few more rapid-fire takes from Art in the clip below. Worth a listen. I’ll put two links in the comments: → The full conversation with Art → Our Application Defense Toolkit and response to last week’s call to action
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Kathie Johnson shared thisYou will never patch faster than AI can find and exploit. Digital.ai CEO Derek Holt shared an open letter that is worth reading -- outlining how Digital.ai will help organizations assess their exposure, expand protection across more of their application portfolios, and deploy always-on, AI-resilient application defense.Kathie Johnson shared thisYou will never patch faster than AI can find and exploit. That is the uncomfortable reality every technology and security leader must confront. Yesterday, more than 100 organizations—including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft—issued an urgent call for collective action on cyber defense. The window to prepare for AI-enabled attacks is short—and closing. AI and agents have changed the economics, scale and speed of cyberattacks. They can understand applications, discover vulnerabilities, and operationalize attacks at machine speed. While remediation and patch deployment still move largely at human speed. Yes, we must accelerate how we find and fix vulnerabilities, but in an agentic world patching alone is no longer enough. The application itself must become an active participant in its own defense—able to conceal sensitive logic, resist modification, detect hostile conditions, and respond at runtime. Digital.ai plays a critical role as part of the broader security ecosystem that must mobilize to meet this challenge. Through more than two decades of market leading work by our teams, we have a critical role to play at the application layer which is quickly becoming the new security parameter. Today, via our own open letter we are outlining how Digital.ai will help organizations assess their exposure, expand protection across more of their application portfolios, and deploy always-on, AI-resilient application defense. The application is now the perimeter. It must become part of the defense. Link to our open letter can be found in the comments. #Cybersecurity #ApplicationSecurity #AI #AppSec
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Kathie Johnson shared thisDigital.ai is hiring - SVP of Product! Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, this role will lead all Product Management efforts with a focus on driving innovation and customer value across our market leading software development, delivery, testing, security, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and agentic software development solutions. Come join a great team in an exciting space! Learn more about the role and apply here: https://lnkd.in/g_GBt5hw
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Kathie Johnson shared thisI’m excited to share the next chapter for me and Accel Growth Partners, LLC. In June, I began working with Digital.ai one day a week. Starting today, I'm stepping in full time (four days a week) as Interim CMO for the next six months as part of my Interim CMO: Bridge to Scale offering. I’m especially excited about the space Digital.ai is in right now. The company helps some of the largest enterprises plan, secure, test, release and deploy software across the entire software delivery lifecycle. We’re in an era where AI is dramatically changing how software gets built. But faster coding alone doesn’t solve the enterprise challenge. It also raises new questions around how software is tested, governed and protected as the pace and complexity of development accelerate. That’s what makes this such an interesting moment for Digital.ai. With their agentic AI-powered software delivery solutions, Digital.ai helps enterprises capture the speed and potential of AI while maintaining the confidence, control and resilience they need to deliver software at scale. A big thank you to Stephen Elop for making the introduction to Derek Holt and the Digital.ai team. Stephen gave me the opportunity to put this model to work first at Nintex, and I’m thrilled to now bring it to another TPG portfolio company. Over the next six months, we’ll focus on building the marketing foundation and growth engine Digital.ai needs for its next chapter, while continuing to run the business, strengthen the team, and ultimately prepare for the transition to a permanent CMO. I’m excited to partner with the ELT, Derek Holt, Craig Jones, Patricia Prince-Taggart, Wing To, and Keith Stewart, and the marketing leadership team, including Daniel Shugrue, Nick Santaniello and Lauren Tartaglino. One of the things I’ve loved most about building my own company is seeing an idea become a repeatable model: assess the business, identify the few priorities that matter most, build what needs to be built, and create the bridge to the leader who will take it forward. Now, on to Digital.ai. Six months. A lot to build. And a great team to build it with. www.digital.ai
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Kathie Johnson shared thisCongratulations to my former employee and friend Shannon Flanagan for publishing her first book. This is truly a labor of love. The writing on the first page says it all: To every woman who has ever had a career taken from her, Walked away from one that no longer fit, Or dared to want something more - You are not lost. You are not late. You are not starting over. You are rewriting. You are choosing. You are becoming. This book is for you. I am so proud of you Shannon. You are a builder. You are a sharer. And you are an uplifter for all women who cross your path.
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Kathie Johnson liked thisKathie Johnson liked thisThat's a wrap on DevOpsCon NYC 👋 Congratulations to our winner on taking home the LEGO giveaway! 🎉 & A big thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, listened in on Ankur's session, and talked shop with Trey Doescher, Ankur Trivedi, and Fernando Vázquez. See you at the next one! #DevOpsConNYC
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Kathie Johnson reacted on thisKathie Johnson reacted on thisSuper proud of our first son, Zach Jones for this well-deserved recognition and, more importantly, for the grind he brings every single day. Watching him chase sales goals while building and providing for his beautiful little family makes me incredibly proud. There are some things you simply can’t teach: being hungry, staying humble, and being smart enough to keep learning and adapting. Never settle. Keep chasing what others might call impossible. There is no such thing as perfection, but the pursuit of it can create something pretty special. Keep grinding, young man. What you do in your 20s will help shape the life you get to enjoy in the years ahead and I hope you’ll always be proud of what it took to get there. Proud of you, Zach. Keep leading. Keep working. Keep believing. #Leading #Sales #Driven #WorkEthic #ProudDad
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Kathie Johnson liked thisKathie Johnson liked thisI'm sad to announce that the Summer of Smirle is officially over, but VERY HAPPY to announce that I will be joining ServiceNow's incredible Digital team later this month! I'm rested, refreshed, and ready to rumble!
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Kathie Johnson reacted on thisKathie Johnson reacted on thisTLDR: Jenn Steele is joining Heinz Marketing today as our new COO and President. My title shifts to founder and CEO. I feel like I just won the lottery. A couple years ago when Maria Geokezas told me she was ready to retire, I knew I’d need to start looking for a new COO. And honestly Jenn was on my short list from the beginning, as something between a long shot and pipe dream. She’s a values fit, she’s a wicked-smart marketing leader, plus she’s run multiple companies. She checks all the boxes. But there’s no way she’d consider not only joining us but running the company, right? Then over lunch in January, she pitched ME on the idea. I still can’t believe it. So as of today Jenn runs the company day to day and I get to spend more of my time on the things I love – content, community, more time with marketing leaders and at events. We have BIG plans and BIG ideas for what’s to come for Heinz Marketing. I’m excited for you all to see it in the coming months. It’s easily the people that make this job so gratifying. We have an incredible team and I can’t wait for what we’re going to do together next.
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Kathie Johnson reacted on thisKathie Johnson reacted on thisWe’ll be welcoming a fantastic group of leaders to this year's Super Huddle, including Oana Manolache, Katrina Wong, Dave Anderson, Michael Atalla, Sangram Vajre, Liza Adams, Kate Bullis, and Ross Simmonds. I'm genuinely excited to learn from all of them 💜🐧 A few tickets remain. For anyone who can make Friday but not both days, we’ve also added a Friday-only option. Details in the comments.
Experience & Education
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
Publications
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Marketing Lessons From Salesforce to Startups: Meet Kathie Johnson from Talkdesk
CMO Diaries - Goldcast
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Life Dream Video
3ds.com
See publicationImagine if we could predict illnesses and begin curing them before their onset. By connecting data and information, the Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform can help improve patient outcomes and ultimately put the power of our health in our own hands. Learn more at www.3ds.com/life-sciences
Projects
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Advertisement campaign IF WE, Dassault Systèmes group
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2012 International Advertising Association Award, best corporate Campaign
Other creatorsSee project -
Advertisement campaign IF WE, Dassault Systèmes group
- Present
2012 International Advertising Association Award, best corporate Campaign
Other creatorsSee project
Honors & Awards
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Elite 18 Customer Focused CMOs 2023
Influitive
https://influitive.com/fearless-50-elite-18-awards-2023/
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Women in CX Technology Award
CX Today
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Public Relations & Marketing Excellence Award - 2021
Business Intelligence Group
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The CMO Transformation & Growth Award
The CMO Club
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