HR The Next Leap
Echo: “Employees have become very good at identifying performative culture”
Vik Rozenshtrom, Head of People at Echo, discusses how AI has raised the performance baseline across the board, and why superficial company perks are no comparison to credible leadership, as part of CTech’s HR: The Next Leap series.
“I think employees have become very good at identifying performative culture,” says Vik Rozenshtrom, Head of People at Echo, an AI-powered container security platform that creates vulnerability-free container images. With the flashy tech perks of yore no longer sufficient to counteract endemic employee burnout throughout the sector, she notes that the most important benefit a company can offer is flexibility and transparency. “Resilience is not built during emergencies, it’s built beforehand,” Rozenshtrom explains.
At the same time, she believes there is something “unique about building from Israel right now.” For many professionals, particularly in cybersecurity and infrastructure, she observes that “there’s a strong sense that the work here matters. That creates a different level of commitment.”
From active and looming war threats, to AI rapidly and constantly redefining what it means to be productive, running a company in Startup Nation brings with it its own category of challenges and rewards. HR: The Next Leap takes a glimpse into the heart of Startup Nation via the HR professionals shaping its culture. We survey the executives whose jobs are more demanding and more vital than ever, as they heed the future-proofing of their workforce, while simultaneously ensuring business continuity and employee wellbeing during relentlessly unprecedented times.
Meanwhile, when it comes to hiring dynamics amid the current employer’s market, Rozenshtrom notes that “a year ago, companies were often hiring for potential alone. Today, especially in infrastructure and security, we’re looking for people who can create impact quickly.” At the same time, the AI revolution has produced a massive wave of highly polished application assets, which in turn makes “authenticity much more valuable.” As a result, she says, “we’ve become much more conversation-driven in our hiring process.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Company Name: Echo
Sector: Cybersecurity, AI, Cloud Infrastructure
Founders: Eilon Elhadad and Eylam Milner
Year of Founding: 2025
Investment stage: Series A
Total investment to date: $50M
Investors: Notable Capital, Hyperwise Ventures, N47 and SentinelOne’s S Ventures
Current number of employees: 41
Open positions: 22
Website: www.echo.ai
Social Media: LinkedIn, Instagram
As of March 2026, the market officially shifted into an 'employer's market'. How have your screening criteria changed, and do candidates - including senior-level ones - still hold any leverage in negotiating salaries and terms?
A year ago, companies were often hiring for potential alone. Today, especially in infrastructure and security, we’re looking for people who can create impact quickly, operate independently, and stay effective inside ambiguity.
At the same time, AI changed the recruiting landscape completely. Everyone now has a polished CV, perfectly written answers, and optimized LinkedIn profiles. Ironically, that makes authenticity much more valuable. We spend less time evaluating how candidates present themselves, and more time understanding how they think.
We’ve become much more conversation-driven in our hiring process. We care about depth, judgment, curiosity, and ownership, not just whether someone knows how to interview well.
Strong candidates absolutely still have leverage but the conversation changed. Senior candidates today are evaluating things like technical challenge, leadership quality, product vision, and whether the company is building something meaningful, not just compensation packages.
Especially in cybersecurity, great people want to feel they’re solving a real problem, not just joining another company.
How have/are you managing operational continuity and recruitment while the economy navigates the emergency state triggered by the conflict with Iran? With the threat of escalation looming at any moment, how are you and have you been handling everything from interviews interrupted by sirens to managing teams thinned by massive, ongoing reserve duty?
One of the things we learned over the past year is that resilience is not built during emergencies, it’s built beforehand, through trust and clarity.
Like most Israeli companies, we’ve had employees called into reserve duty, partners serving for extended periods, interviews interrupted by sirens, and entire workdays that suddenly looked completely different than planned.
We don’t try to force a fake sense of normality. Instead we operate with a very high level of flexibility and transparency.
That means practical support where people actually need it: helping employees set up proper home workstations, covering babysitting support during periods without school frameworks, assisting employees who needed access to protected spaces, and sending care packages to employees in reserves and to families carrying additional pressure at home.
In high-growth startups, it’s easy to speak only about velocity. But moments like these remind people they are part of something human, not just productive.
Beyond the role of empowering employees, which roles has AI eliminated over the past year, what percentage of your workforce was reskilled to avoid being phased out, and how has this impacted entry-level hiring?
We haven’t approached AI as a headcount reduction. What AI changed most for us is not who we hire but what we expect from people.
Tasks that are highly repetitive, operational, or execution-only are naturally shrinking. The new baseline is much higher. We expect employees across functions to use AI tools fluently as part of their daily workflows, whether they’re engineers, recruiters, marketers, or operators.
We’re less interested in people who only execute instructions, and much more interested in people who can analyze, adapt, ask smart questions, and learn quickly.
Against the backdrop of the unstable security and political climate, are you seeing an increase in relocation requests or 'quiet quitting' by top-tier talent moving abroad, and what is the most proactive step you are taking to retain them in Israel?
There’s definitely more emotional fatigue than there was a few years ago. People are carrying a lot, professionally and personally. Many employees are looking for stronger connection and meaning in the places they choose to work.
The most effective retention strategy today is not perks, it’s credibility. People want to trust leadership. They want transparency. They want to feel the company understands the reality they’re living in instead of pretending everything is normal.
There’s also something unique about building from Israel right now. For many people, especially in cybersecurity and infrastructure, there’s a strong sense that the work here matters. That creates a different level of commitment.
