Dhillon Kannabhiran, founder and CEO of Hack in the Box (HITB), joins LeaderSpeak to explain how a desire for an affordable, technically strong security conference grew into a global community. The conversation also explores experimentation, the realities of running events, a pandemic-era coffee venture, and the mindset that has sustained HITB for two decades.
Dhillon began his career as a technology journalist during the dot-com era, writing for publications including PC World, ZDNet, MIS Asia, and CNET. He later moved to a Malaysian telecommunications company as its chief IT officer. His best-known venture is HITB, whose security conferences have taken place in Malaysia, the Netherlands, and other international locations.
Guest link: LinkedIn
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Malaysia’s network-security community was small, while travelling to major US conferences was prohibitively expensive. Dhillon and his friends wondered whether they could bring similarly strong content closer to home at a price local practitioners could afford. They did not know whether overseas speakers would travel to Malaysia, but decided that they would never know without trying.
That experiment became HITB. The team tested different locations, including Bahrain, established a long-running event in Amsterdam, and kept refining the model. Dhillon describes it as a passion project rather than a business designed primarily to maximise profit. Only a small core works for HITB directly; a larger volunteer crew gives its time because it values the community, content, and competitions. Sponsorship remains important because it helps HITB offer student tickets and community exhibition space.
When the pandemic disrupted in-person conferences, Dhillon had time to investigate another interest: coffee. Curious about why specialty beans were expensive while farmers received only a small part of the final price, he spent much of 2020 learning about sourcing, import permits, roasting equipment, and roast profiles.
That research led to Coffee for Hackers. The venture was not presented as an attempt to disrupt an industry, but as another practical experiment: find beans he enjoyed, roast them well, and share them with a community that already consumed a remarkable amount of coffee at HITB events.
Dhillon starts early, usually around 5:00 or 5:30, and begins with coffee. Experience taught him not to answer email immediately after waking. A short pause gives him time to think and communicate more carefully. His broader approach is to accept that the inbox and its problems will never truly be finished.
He distinguishes external circumstances from personal response. Events such as the pandemic cannot be controlled, but people can control how they interpret the situation, what they do next, and whether they spend their energy complaining or building.
For graduates facing an unpredictable job market, Dhillon recommends focusing on the present rather than attempting to forecast every future role. Pick an area that genuinely creates curiosity, learn by doing, and teach what you learn—even if the first audience is simply a YouTube camera.
He also stresses cooperation over competition. Finding others with the same interests creates mutual motivation, while the hacker habit of questioning assumptions can reveal better ways to build. In his view, hacking is fundamentally about improving and creating, not merely breaking.
