Francois Marais

Francois Marais

Cybersecurity founder building Tenarie.

About

I’m Francois, based in New Zealand, and I’m building Tenarie. I’ve spent 24 years in cyber security, which mostly means I’ve seen a lot of confusion, spreadsheets, risk registers, acronyms, and people quietly wondering, “Are we actually getting better?” That question is why I started Tenarie. I want to make cyber security clearer, more practical, and easier for organisations to act on. Less noise, less box-ticking, and more useful guidance on where you stand, what needs attention, and how to improve. I’m here to learn, meet other builders, share the journey, and get honest feedback.

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Forums

25d ago

What's the smallest, dumbest thing that made you completely lose trust in an AI agent mid task?

It doesn't even have to be a big dramatic failures, more the small moments where something clicked and you went from trusting the output by default to double checking everything. For me it was watching an agent confidently rename a function across twelve files, then leave the original function untouched in a thirteenth file it apparently didn't search, with zero indication anything had been missed. It wasn't even a hard case, the file just wasn't in the directory it happened to grep first.
What was your moment? And did it actually change your workflow afterward, or did the trust creep back in after a week like it always seems to for me?

26d ago

How many users does it take to validate a product?

When you're a first-time founder/maker, and you're the only person using your own product, you probably overlook important things. That's why you need to test the product with as many people as possible.

The problem is that time is limited. You have to decide not only how many people will test it, but also who those people should be.

1mo ago

We’re Automating the Boring Bits of Control Testing

Control testing should not feel like a group project nobody signed up for.

We re building Tenarie.com to make cyber security assurance easier through smarter workflows, automation, evidence tracking, and clearer visibility over whether controls are actually working. We re planning our Product Hunt launch for early August 2026, but before then, we d love a few more early testers to put the beta through its paces.

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