S12 Bonus: Dr. Aqib Rashid, Glasswall

In this bonus episode of Code Story, host Noah Labhart interviews Dr. Aqib Rashid, Applied AI Lead at Glasswall, about his journey from completing a PhD in AI-driven malware detection to building a groundbreaking product called Foresight. The conversation dives deep into the technical and strategic challenges of developing an AI-powered system that detects malware by analyzing the structural telemetry from Glasswall’s proprietary Content Disarmament and Reconstruction (CDR) technology. Rashid shares how the team validated their hypothesis that malicious files exhibit statistically different structural patterns, then iterated through an MVP phase focused on proving scientific feasibility before transitioning into a commercially viable product. He emphasizes the importance of scalability, reliability, and engineering rigor—especially in building a repeatable machine learning pipeline capable of processing millions of files in hours. The episode also explores team-building principles, the value of curiosity and high standards, and the critical mindset needed to navigate failure and iteration. Rashid concludes with advice for young entrepreneurs: prioritize building trust and sustainable solutions over flashy, easily replicable ideas, especially in the age of AI acceleration.