Nate Kharrl is the Co-Founder and CEO of Spec (specprotected.com), a San Jose-based fraud prevention platform that uses behavioral analytics to detect and block sophisticated fraud, bots, and abuse before they impact customers. With a career spanning Akamai Technologies, ThreatMetrix, and eBay, Kharrl channeled nearly a decade of watching fraud fighters struggle with siloed tools into founding Spec in 2020. The company has raised over $33 million in funding, including a $15 million Series A led by SignalFire in October 2023, and protects Fortune 500 companies transacting billions in online commerce.
Spec is an AI-resistant fraud prevention platform that monitors the entire customer journey - not just login or checkout - to detect bots, fraud rings, and abusive AI agents in real time. Founded in 2020 in San Jose by ex-eBay and ThreatMetrix operators, Spec protects Fortune 500 consumer brands across e-commerce, ticketing, food delivery, and marketplaces.
Maxx Lobo is the Chief Executive Officer of Ask Media Group, the IAC-owned digital media and performance marketing company behind Ask.com and other properties reaching 245 million people monthly. A two-decade veteran of ad-tech, cloud infrastructure, and digital media, Lobo rose through the ranks as CTO and COO/President before taking the top role in 2025. Under his operational leadership, Ask Media Group tripled its EBITDA from $50 million to over $100 million in four years, cementing his reputation as one of the more quietly effective operators in the digital media landscape.
Thanh Tran is Co-CEO of A5 Labs, a Foster City-based AI company building game integrity infrastructure for competitive online gaming. With a PhD in Computer Science from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a background scaling Upwork's data science team through its IPO, he now leads a 180-person team applying deep reinforcement learning, blockchain reputation systems, and real-time behavioral analytics to eliminate bots, collusion, and cheating from online poker and beyond.