Assertion Contradicted AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Gupta: We coined the term 'cloud security posture management' in 2017

Nikhil Gupta · The "Kiss of Death" That Kills 90% of Startups | Nikhil Gupta, ArmorCode · Sep 8, 2026 · at 2:16

Nikhil Gupta, founder and CEO of ArmorCode, discusses the origin of his prior startup and the industry category cloud security posture management (CSPM).

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“We actually coined that word back in 2017, cloud security posture management, and the whole idea was getting that kind of visibility, and then we are also helping them with taking an action and things like that, and it was super easy.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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