Security engineering training built by folks who shipped the code themselves.
Appfend exists because the security engineering training we ran in our previous lives didn't actually train anyone. We're fixing that.
15+ years of watching the same pattern repeat.
Before Appfend, I spent 15+ years building security programs at Amazon and Adobe, running secure coding training across thousands of engineers, sitting in audit rooms, owning vulnerability metrics. The pattern was always the same: engineers got pushed through a quarterly video or some madeup code snippet, clicked through a few questions, hit the completion checkbox, and shipped the same bugs the next sprint.
The training market wasn't unaware of the problem. It just kept building variations on the same answer: longer videos, gamified snippets, slightly smarter sandboxes. The product was still passive. The environment still wasn't real. The developer still walked away with a certificate and no new instincts.
I thought there had to be a different answer. Train developers in the actual tools they use (a real IDE, a real Git host, a real cloud) on products that looks like what they ship. Add an AI tutor that knows when to give a hint and when to wait. Map every lab to the frameworks compliance teams actually care about, so the audit story writes itself.
That's Appfend. Built in Ireland, supported by Enterprise Ireland and Cyber Ireland, with OWASP as a corporate supporter.
Four things that shape everything we build.
Hands-on beats watch-and-listen.
Developers learn by reviewing, doing, fixing, and debugging. Anything else is theatre. We measure ourselves by what a developer can still defend a week later, not the box they checked yesterday.
The environment has to be real.
Toy sandboxes, snippet exercises, and fake IDEs teach instincts that fall apart in production. Train in the tools that ship the code. If your stack is unusual, we'll build labs on it. The environment isn't real if it isn't yours.
AI should guide, not solve.
An AI tutor that hands over the answer doesn't teach anything. The Appfend AI tutor knows when to give a hint and when to make the developer sit with the problem. Socratic by design.
Compliance is a byproduct of good training.
If your training actually teaches, the audit evidence is a side effect. We map every lab to the frameworks auditors care about, but the training works whether you have an audit coming or not.
Trusted by industry and supported nationally.
In progress
See if the way we think about training fits your team.
Book a 30-minute demo. Bring your team's stack, your compliance posture, and your honest skepticism. We'd rather earn the deal than pitch it.
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