For most of my career, I built security for institutions.

Apple. The White House. Fortune 100 companies.

We designed systems for administrators, analysts, security teams, and highly trained professionals. We optimized for efficiency, scale, and technical capability. We assumed users would read warnings, recognize threats, and make rational decisions.

Then my mother got targeted by a sophisticated scam.

Suddenly, decades of security expertise collided with a much harder reality: the people most affected by technology are often the people technology was never designed for.

Seniors. Caregivers. Disabled users. People under stress. People overwhelmed by complexity. People making decisions while scared, distracted, grieving, or exhausted.

In this talk, cybersecurity founder and TEDx speaker Catherine Karow shares how that experience fundamentally changed the way she thinks about product design, security, AI, and innovation. Drawing from her journey building ZoraSafe, she explores why so many products fail the people who need them most, how attackers exploit those gaps, and what it means to design technology for real humans instead of ideal users.

Because the most vulnerable users are not edge cases.

They're often the people we're building for.

Session Type: Founder Story, Product Leadership, Keynote, General Session

Target Audience: Founders, product managers, designers, AI builders, cybersecurity professionals, startup leaders, innovation teams, and executives.

Technical Level: All Levels

Preferred Duration: 30-45 minutes, with optional Q&A

Audience Takeaways:

• Learn why many products unintentionally exclude the people who need them most

• Understand how stress, cognitive load, trust, and vulnerability affect technology adoption and security outcomes

• Explore practical frameworks for designing products that work in real-world conditions

• Learn how human-centered design can improve safety, usability, and trust

• Gain a new perspective on who the "user" actually is and how product decisions shape real lives

Themes: Product Design, Human-Centered Design, AI, Cybersecurity, Accessibility, Consumer Technology, Entrepreneurship, Leadership

Session History: New for 2026/2027. Based on lessons learned transitioning from enterprise cybersecurity to building consumer-focused technology designed to protect individuals from scams, fraud, and digital manipulation.