Pushpak Pujari

Founder @ Harden
ex-Amazon AGI, Verkada, Sony
Wharton MBA, IIT Delhi

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

Harden is trending #2 on @ProductHunt right now 👀

https://t.co/9gDKmipKk2

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

I remember my mom would stay up with me until 2 or 3 in the morning,

when I was preparing for @iitdelhi.

Sometimes, she’d fall asleep right at the table while I studied.

I had lost my dad when I was in 10th grade, and I didn’t want to leave my family to move to Kota for coaching. So I stayed home and prepared mostly on my own.

My first attempt, I ranked 2790th in India. It was a good rank, but not enough to study what I wanted at the IITs I wanted.

So I decided to try one more time.

I started college and prepared for IIT alongside it. That meant skipping the Goa trips, college fests, and a lot of what my friends were doing that year.

Through all of it, my mom was there with me.

I remember seeing her stay up night after night while I studied, sometimes dozing off at the table. Seeing how invested she was in me making it through kept me going.

The second time, I ranked 183rd in India and got into Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Getting in was one of the proudest days of my life.

But when I think about that year now, I don’t think about the rank first.

I think about seeing my mom there with me, night after night, while I studied.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@Wharton is one of the top business schools in the world.

But most of what you learn there never leaves Wharton.

So I’m going to start sharing some of my biggest lessons from my 2 years there.

Lesson 1: There is no universal yardstick for success.

Before Wharton, there was always a way to measure yourself. Grades, test scores, rankings.

Then I got there and met people who had lived completely different lives.

I remember interviewing at McKinsey alongside a classmate. I’d spent years in Japan building tech products.

He had literally jumped out of helicopters in Afghanistan.

How do you compare the two?

You can’t.

Everyone has their own context. The only person you can really compete with is yourself.

Know thyself.

Lesson 2 soon :)

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@eriktorenberg exciting times!

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@hraness @DevinAI @zeddotdev The software factory is here.

Now we need the security factory. @hardenrun

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

1200 Agents were being tested on cybersecurity tasks and worked around their restrictions to break into another company looking for answers. This week the US Treasury Secretary said responsibility sits with @OpenAI's management, which I think is fair.

But working on agent security, I keep coming back to what could've possibly stopped it.

The agents were supposed to be isolated and weren't. They found a way to pass messages, and about 700 joined the break-in because another agent asked for help.

Investigators found agents recognizing that the attack was outside their instructions and continuing anyway. In one case, an agent paused, then proceeded after another agent gave it the go-ahead.

Where did that other agent get the authority to approve anything?

They didn't have any. But an agent reads everything the same way. Files, tool output, a message from another agent. It all arrives as text, so a request starts to look like an instruction.

You can't fix that by asking a person to approve each step. One task is thousands of actions, and nobody reads the thousandth one.

That’s why I think each action needs a separate check before it runs:

𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 → 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 → 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸

Reading a config file may be fine. Sending a key from that file to an unapproved destination needs its own decision. Permission to read shouldn’t automatically become permission to share.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@OpenAI's agents broke into @huggingface

Who’s responsible for that?

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

An agent was about to upload 247 GB of company data using a personal @awscloud account.

Harden caught it in 47 milliseconds.

[Menlo Times @menlotimes]

Product Hunt @ProductHunt Top Products of the Week, Sep 7 - 13.

(This round-up is for informational purposes only, and the order is as given here: https://t.co/xLu84iCIaT.)

1) Mastra @mastra: Led by Sam Bhagwat @calcsam, Shane Thomas @smthomas3, and Abhi Aiyer @abhiaiyer, Mastra helps you build AI agents with a modern TypeScript stack. Know More At: https://t.co/5ovnLFEiqU

2) Switch @flint_ai_: Switch brings AI agents into the collaboration tools your team already uses. Know More At: https://t.co/hLGNitj6h8

3) https://t.co/b22Rf6HHxU @anysite_io: Led by Andrew Kulikov and Dmitry Kononov, https://t.co/b22Rf6HHxU is a B2B data layer living in your favorite AI agent. Know More At: https://t.co/BuLmrhxcA5

4) Widgo @widgoai: Led by Trevor Lowe and Adam Kamaneh, Widgo is an AI sales rep that lives on your website. Know More At: https://t.co/bJuiR7WMhQ

5) Harden @hardenrun: Led by Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari and Pushpendre Rastogi @Pushpendre89, Harden is a free, local security tool for AI coding agents. Know More At: https://t.co/sGXyZwB76i

6) Loqua: Led by Joshua Zhou, Loqua helps you speak naturally and move from thoughts to being done. Know More At: https://t.co/EsX3lK4n7E

7) Kombai @Kombaico: Led by Dipanjan Dey @Dipanjan_Dey and Abhijit Bhole @bholebababa, Kombai is Your AI Design Engineer. They have launched Kombai Gallery to help you build standout UIs by giving your agent design taste. Know More At: https://t.co/zhjePHtkK6

8) Typewise @typewise_app: Led by Janis Berneker @big_berny and David Eberle, Typewise is an AI agent platform that gives every customer a first-class concierge across service, sales, delivery, billing, and retention. Know More At: https://t.co/t63By8PJrW

9) Coldtea @ColdteaAI: Led by Favour Ohanekwu @ohans_favor and Ohans Emmanuel, Coldtea is an agentic IDE where your coding agents build, visual QA agents catch regressions, and AI monitoring watches production, so your team can keep moving at agent speed without breaking anything. Know More At: https://t.co/cbAAspuspO

Post: https://t.co/HHPC1baBoX

Source: https://t.co/pPEqpGPIqk

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐔𝐬: 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐬 helps technology companies build in India: two ways. Hire vetted remote engineers, product leaders, designers, and GTM professionals directly onto your team. Or partner with a proven development studio to design, build, and ship your product end-to-end. Learn More At: https://t.co/GZpxYBBqrR

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

BREAKING NEWS: I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns. There will be NO COST to the United States! At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America. Additionally, from now on, no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval. For over 100 years, Presidents have known the strategic importance of Greenland, but NONE of them were able to do anything about it. I am proud to be the President that permanently and conclusively addressed this very important situation. This is an “Infinite Life” Agreement, there is no end! We are very honored and proud of what has just taken place, and everything agreed to today will be cherished by the American People. We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many. We will work with the people of Greenland in its development and construction. This solution is a great one for the United States of America, Denmark, Greenland, and all of our Allies. We look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland toward a magnificent future with respect to this large, and highly strategic, parcel of land. We will be very protective of it! This is a dream come true for the United States of America, one that is very important, historic, and special. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@tankots Polishing feels productive.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

At @amazon, my biggest takeaway was how much your manager matters.

Big company life can be great when you work with a manager who is ambitious and willing to take you along as they grow.

When evaluating a role, it’s easy to focus on the company, title, and compensation. It’s also worth understanding the person you’ll report to.

A few useful questions:

How have people on this team grown?
What responsibilities could I grow into?
How do you help someone take on a bigger role?

Listen for specific examples.

The opportunity you’re joining includes the person who will help you make the most of it.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@_ananthhh Keep pushing!

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@PavanKumarNY @0xCL4R @TejasGupta67820 Keep pushing legends!

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@nico_laqua 1000%

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

We outpaced @Meta, @OpenAI, and @Google on @ProductHunt yesterday.

Harden finished #2 Product of the Day.

399 points. 112 comments. 0 → 1,300+ followers.

Featured at the top of Product Hunt’s newsletter. Supported by Ryan Hoover.

Thank you to everyone who showed up for us ❤️

[Harden @hardenrun]

Harden after outranking frontier companies 💀

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

@andrewdsouza @boardyai insane growth! Boardy has been really helpful!

[Harden @hardenrun]

We’re live on @ProductHunt 🚀

https://t.co/h7Laxbmn9h

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

7/ We raised $2M before we had a product.

8/ Then coding agents took off.

We changed direction and started building Harden.

Harden launches today on Product Hunt.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

Everything I tried before raising a $2M pre-seed:

1/ Spent 4 years at @amazon building products, including Alexa.

2/ Moved to the US for my MBA at @Wharton.

3/ Cold emailed the leadership at @VerkadaHQ and eventually joined as Director of Product.

[Pushpak Pujari @pushpakpujari]

4/ Moved to Japan for my first job at @Sony. I was the only non-Japanese person on my floor and learned Japanese to do my job.

5/ Ranked 183rd across India and got into @iitdelhi.

6/ In 2025, I quit my job to start an AI company with a friend I’d known for 25+ years.

We started with vision-language models. Wrong direction.