Ken Carnesi is the CEO and founder of DNSFilter, a DNS threat protection solution that uses artificial intelligence to protect organizations from online security threats. Ken previously started the company Anaptyx in 2007 while attending Boston College, earning him a spot on EMPACT’s “30 under 30” list two years in a row. Ken is passionate about emerging technology and markets as well as car and motorcycle racing.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Sure. So, before DNSFilter, all the way back in 2007, I had started an ISP called Anaptyx. While working at Anaptyx I started paying more attention to the vendor side of things, particularly after OpenDNS (a DNS filtering service) was purchased by Cisco Umbrella. I was a Cisco Umbrella customer for a little while. And I just hated what they did to the product. There was no more innovation. Pricing was convoluted and not sustainable, and they really couldn’t care less about helping out MSP and ISP partners. So I was done with OpenDNS and Cisco, and it led me to come up with the idea for DNSFilter.