348: Deliver Trust & Speed with Mailani Veney

Mailani Veney, CEO of Kana Systems, is driven by a mission to help people and organizations flourish through the aloha spirit by delivering trust and speed while transforming complex government data into actionable intelligence that empowers better decisions. By combining advanced AI-powered data solutions with a people-first culture rooted in trust, curiosity, and service, Mailani has built Kana Systems into a trusted defense technology company that helps government organizations solve mission-critical challenges faster while enabling employees, customers, and partners to thrive.

In this conversation, Mailani introduces The Aloha Way Framework—Know Who You Are & Why You Are The Prize, Aim for the Bullseye, and Co-Build with Speed. She explains why leaders must first understand their unique identity and value before attracting the right people and opportunities, how curiosity and empathy uncover customer needs while building lasting trust, and why collaborating with customers accelerates innovation and delivers measurable business outcomes. Mailani also shares how decades of service built the trusted reputation that led to government recruitment and enabled Kana Systems to transform siloed data into AI-powered solutions that strengthen long-term partnerships and dramatically improve operational efficiency.

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Deliver Trust & Speed with Mailani Veney

Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Mailani Veney, the CEO of Kana Systems, a company changing the future of defense technology by transforming siloed, messy data into usable information to drive better insights for government customers. Mailani, welcome to the show.

Aloha.

Aloha. You sent me a link this morning with the correct terms that I should be using for a Hawaiian native on the podcast, and I read the article. It was very long. But I figured that there are some terms that I may be able to use on this podcast as well. So thanks for doing that.

Yes, absolutely.

So you have a very interesting background. You’re from Hawaii, but you studied in Central Europe, in Slovenia. You run a company in Nebraska, but right now you’re calling from Florida, so it’s a little bit confusing. So tell me, how did you fall into government contracting, and why not do it from Hawaii?

So I actually was recruited by the largest customer in the world, our U.S. government, to help modernize technology, and it was in the area of nuclear weapons technology. So I actually didn’t choose this particular career path or this domain. I was running another technology company at the time, and our government found me and recruited me to help with this very important initiative. And this was pre-generative AI.

I had a platform that I was using in my other company to help small businesses make better decisions using data, and that was using machine learning and artificial intelligence. So I’ve since expanded the scope of what we’re doing across the department and spreading aloha spirit, which is helping others flourish. We help people be heroes at work. And when they do their work well, our country stays safe.

Wow. That is very cool. One of the terms that I noticed in your article was ʻohana.

Yes.

We’ve been staying in a beach house in Sandbridge Beach for the last few years called Ohana Bay, and we always thought it was something to do with Omaha Bay. I never thought it meant family, community, that kind of stuff. So that was super interesting. This is a super-secret project.

I don’t know if we are allowed to talk about it on the podcast. Your nuclear technology and machine learning, that’s probably highly confidential. So what I’d really like to ask you is, what is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in Kana Systems?

Yes, and I want to relate this to the people who are watching. 348: Deliver Trust & Speed with Mailani Veney Share on X That’s how I was raised. That’s how my ʻohana is. That’s how I run my businesses. That’s how I serve. It’s that mentality. It’s that service above self, which is the Rotary motto. I’m a fervent Rotarian. That is really the ‘Why’.

But let me dive into that a little bit more. I’ve taught fitness for 30 years. I still do. I run a defense intelligence company that the U.S. government recruited me to build. People don’t expect those two things to go together, but to me, they’re the exact same job because what I’ve done my whole life is one thing. I find people, and I help them flourish. So in a fitness class, that’s obvious. I help them feel good about themselves and their health.

In the businesses that I’ve started, when I was a professor, when I was the president of one of the largest Rotary clubs in the world, doing good across the world and in our own local communities, all of those things. And then the most important job I’ve ever had, which is raising three children, two of whom now help me run this company. I never did that to build a reputation.

Although when I was a professor at the University of Nebraska and we got to meet with Warren Buffett—he’s a pretty successful businessman—one of his famous quotes is about reputation. But what he told us in person was, “Your reputation is really the only asset you have.” People who chase building a reputation rather than authentically building it up—I think that’s the big difference.

So for me, we build reputation, and I build my personal reputation by doing good for others over and over and over for years. Share on X So when the government, I get asked this question all the time: “How did they recruit you?” They went looking for someone to trust—an entrepreneur to trust—in a very specific domain. They researched. They found me. They found 30 years of that. I didn’t chase that largest customer.

They came to me because of the service. And I build a business the same way I build a strong body—not with one big move. You can’t do it in one big move. You show up day after day, and you do good reps for a very long time. So that’s my ‘Why’. And that’s what I do for the world, for my ʻohana, and just in life in general.

I love it. Very inspiring. It’s very reassuring. So thank you for having that ‘Why’. That’s very powerful. I didn’t realize that you got recruited because of your reputation. I mean, they say they hire people for who they are and then train them for the skills. That’s basically what they did, I guess, on a big scale when they recruited you. Yeah.

And I specifically… At first, when they recruited me and I was running another company, I was getting ready to be president of Rotary 14, and I told them no because I don’t like to do a job that I can’t do well. So then, for about six months, they impressed on me the importance of bringing in small businesses with innovation, speed, and a different outlook. They’re called non-traditionals.

Originally, when they said they wanted me because I was non-traditional, I was thinking, “Well, it’s because of my gender, my ethnicity, or my age. I don’t know.” And they said, “No, no. It’s that you have not had a cost-based contract with the government.” So “non-traditional” has a very specific meaning. The government is very smart in recognizing that, “Hey, we need to bring in those waves of new ideas and entrepreneurs.” That’s what they were looking for when they found me.

And my reputation, they told me, I said, “What is the reputation you’re hearing?” And they said they heard that I was a good person, that I had a really strong culture, and that I got really good results. That’s the reason they recruited me. The technology that I brought over is a byproduct of those things, but they didn’t recruit me just for the technology.

Okay. So now I’m very, very curious about your system. I know that it’s based on your personal identity, your ethics, and all that stuff, but I love to turn things into systems. And you say that your secret sauce is finding people and helping them flourish. So how do you do that? Do you have a framework that you can share with me and with our audience about the steps to finding people and helping them flourish?

Sure. So we have our own Kana Operating System, and it's something I highly encourage companies to do—to really spend the time and create their own operating system. Share on X It’s not one-size-fits-all. But within that Kana Operating System, we have a system called The Aloha Way. So ha is breath, and aloha is, of course, the way we say hello, goodbye, and greetings. But it’s also a time to exchange good energy and compassion.

So really spending the time on The Aloha Way to think about what that operating system is—all of it stems around our values. And this will tie back to what you’re asking me as far as recruiting. There are three steps in this. One, you have to know who you are and know that you’re the prize. I think this is an area… I’ve been an angel investor for 20 years. I’ve been in the entrepreneurship world for decades now. Those companies, founders, and entrepreneurs who don’t know who they are, don’t know why they’re the prize, and cannot articulate that are at a severe disadvantage. So that’s step number one.

Number two in The Aloha Way is Aim for the Bullseye. And I can tell you how I do that a little bit later. But it’s finding that bullseye because it’s a two-way street. This is never about pushing on somebody, pushing on a company, or pushing on someone you want to hire. So, Aim for the Bullseye. How do you know what’s in the bullseye? And then number three is Co-Building with Speed. That is really what we’rezon AWS and Microsoft.

We’ve literally had meetings this morning and yesterday where, again, they’re emphasizing how fast we work as a company—with good results and trusted results. So those three things make up The Aloha Way: Know You’re the Prize, Aim for the Bullseye, and Co-Build with Speed. And where do people fall into this? They’re at the very top. People always come first in what we’re doing. When we know who we are, what our mission is, and the fact that we're here to make an impact in a good way, we have a terrific track record of recruiting the right people. People know they're going to flourish. People know we're going to treat… Share on X

And in turn, they become excellent partners with us. We just got off the phone with our 401(k) provider. We are one of the very few companies they know of where, when they ran the data, we give a 5% match to every employee, whether they’re part-time or full-time. We don’t call them interns in our company because everybody has value. Part-time and full-time employees get the 401(k) match from day one. For us, that’s investing in our people because we know we’re the prize. We know our people are going to be doing really good, impactful work, and we need to treat them very well. So that’s just one example. People like to be paid well.

They do. So, Mailani, please explain to me exactly what it means. Why are you the prize? Is this something because your mission is more attractive, or what does it mean?

This goes back to some mentoring that I had from Oren Klaff. Oren Klaff has a whole system on teaching companies and people how to pitch and raise money. Although we’ve never raised money, our cap table is completely clean. But the reason why this is important is it goes back to who you are and what your identity is. So that’s the very first thing that I do whenever I start a company or start an organization.

We have a lot of thoughtful discussion about who we are. When you know who you are, and you know why you're unique, and you know why you can do something better than almost anybody else, that makes you the prize for the right people, for the right organization, and for the right circumstance. Share on X We’re the right company right now because we invested early on, saying, “Hey, people making decisions with this overload of data.” Our core product is called Kana Wave.

So instead of getting crushed by the wave, we help them ride it. It’s a little surfing analogy. But we were ahead of our time with that, and we knew that in the future this was going to be more and more important. Obviously, when GenAI jumped on the scene, it became vastly apparent. So knowing we’re the prize in this area is very important because then you’re able to attract the right people, you attract the right opportunities, and really not pay attention to those that don’t fit.

One of the best things that we do is we get to no fast. That is something we chase. Getting to a no is a gift. It’s a gift because then that opens you up to the right yes. I see this too often. People want to hold on. It’s the wrong thing. It’s a little bit of yes, but it’s not enough. So get to no.

Yeah, I love it. This is very smart. It’s very wise. Okay, so knowing who you are and why you’re unique, why you’re the prize, I love it. I love the sentiment behind this, the pride behind it. It’s fantastic. So what is number two? Aim for the bullseye. What does that mean? What do you mean by that?

I love that question. There’s a very famous “sell me a pen” in The Wolf of Wall Street, and when I do this, I do it differently. So I ask people to sell me a pen. If they try and just tell you about the features of a pen, “Here’s my pen. You should buy this pen because of this,” or, “Do you need something to write with?” there’s so many assumptions in your background that go into those things. The easy button that most people don’t do is they just ask.

You can do all the research. I researched you, Steve. I listened to a whole bunch of the podcasts when you guys reached out wanting to have me on this podcast. But at the end of the day, all I have to do is ask, “What’s most important to you, Steve, for having me as a guest on your podcast?”

I’d like to learn your framework.

Okay.

And I’d like to learn about you and see why you’re the prize.

“See why we’re the prize.” So that very thing right there is the bullseye. A lot of times people miss the bullseye, and it doesn’t do anybody any good. That’s the “get to no fast” as well. So if I’m trying to tell you about the Kana Wave platform and you’re doing something completely different, we’re just wasting each other’s time, right? I don’t want to do that. There is a lot more than I can cover in this podcast, but that’s what we do when we train our people.

A lot of it starts with empathy, and it starts with that aloha spirit. Share on X So when you go into something not trying to push or sell or win something, but you’re genuinely curious, and when people ask me, “What’s the one quality that everybody in my company, everybody that we contract with, and our major vendors and partners all have?” We all are curious. A lot of that curiosity is in the form of intelligence, but it’s that curiosity first.

When you’re curious, you ask the right questions. So I have two magic questions for your audience. One, “What are you looking for?” Two, “What’s important to you?” Sounds so simple. I see it happen so rarely in business, and I see it happen so rarely in relationships. People would just get along a lot better if we could just have upfront, honest, transparent conversations around those two things. Right off the bat, what they’re telling you is a guide as far as, “Do you want to continue this conversation? Is there a way that we can help?”

If their bullseye matches up with your value, or the value of your company, your product, or your service, then you’re off to the races to have a conversation. But you can’t do that without that foundation. It really flips it on its head from when I was trained in corporate sales at the beginning of my career. I like this a lot better because then we really genuinely get to know what somebody else wants. At the end of the day, businesses, organizations, and the military are a bunch of people. So treat people like people. That's the Hawaiian part. That's where the aloha spirit really comes in. Share on X

So when you’re explaining this, I’m thinking that “know who you are” and “why you’re the prize” is basically the way to build trust. Then “Aim for the Bullseye.” Then you’ve already built the trust. Maybe I’m getting this wrong, but then you can ask those questions that require some level of vulnerability from the other person to actually tell you what they’re really looking for.

They’re not going to tell it to a stranger they don’t trust because they might feel sensitive about it or they might not want you to know. So is there something to do with trust and trust allowing you to aim for the bullseye?

One hundred percent. That is one of the two things that we deliver. We deliver not just speed, but we deliver trust. For us, trust is solving one problem, and it expands, and it becomes the next and the next. That’s what I’ve seen in my corporate career, my other companies that I started, and especially in this company. Trust begets trust. Again, it’s like, “Well, how do you build trust?” You start with your mindset. “I want to help you flourish, Steve.” “I want to help my customers flourish.” “I want to help our bank flourish.” We’re paying our bank, but I want to help them flourish too.

If you have that mindset first, those are the reps I’m talking about that build your reputation, that build your trust, and then people start referring you. It’s such a beautiful flywheel when it’s done well. The other famous Warren Buffett quote is, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” So just doing good over and over again. For me, trust starts with the mindset first.

Yeah. I always believe that you can only create trust by trusting first because people cannot trust someone who doesn’t trust them. I think it’s a very dangerous place to trust someone who doesn’t trust you, right?

Yeah.

Because they won’t have your best interest at heart. So I love it. Go first. The aloha spirit. Look for ways to help the other person, then be curious and learn what the bullseye is so that you can aim at it. Then what do you mean by Co-Build with Speed?

Thank you for asking. That’s the final step. In the three steps that we do, that’s the final one. What we deliver is a solution that makes people’s lives better. One of the key psychology pieces is that most people want to feel important in whatever job they’re doing, in whatever aspect of life they are. So let’s empower people to feel important and to be heroes at work, regardless of what the job is.

With that mentality, we came in and said, “Okay, we’re really, really, really good and experts at developing advanced technology solutions.” But here’s what we’re not really good at. We’re not really good at everything outside of that. That’s where we have to have a partner. So we do not sell commercial off-the-shelf software. We do not sell custom software. We're in this really awesome, scalable center where we have Kana Wave, which is a very powerful data and intelligence platform that can be used like Lego. Share on X

What we don’t have is the front-end piece that matches everybody’s workflow. But this is where the speed comes in. We can quickly build that, and the way we do that is we partner with our customers. They know their domain. They know their workflow. They know the problems and challenges. So we do a little bit of tweaking on that, and that’s how we’re able to generate products so quickly that really are unique and maximize the value to the customer in the work they’re getting done.

As an example, our very first project was the “Can I Fight Tonight?” Dashboard. Our country has nuclear weapons. Underpinning those nuclear weapons is the technology to make sure everything is running. The philosophy behind nuclear weapons is strategic deterrence. But in order to deter, you have to have the credibility that everything works. So every two weeks, five people in an underground location were pulling together all of this information manually, putting it into spreadsheets upon spreadsheets, massive horse blankets of spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and manually handling all of this data.

It was taking five people two weeks. We came in, we worked with them, we built the solution. We worked with them to co-build what they actually needed, and we brought that down to where one person could do it in 30 minutes. We’ve done that over and over and over again. We’re working with another government customer right now where it’s taking them 150 hours to get a project done, and we can do it in one hour.

So when I’m talking about co-building with speed, we’re building the last little bit that they actually need on top of this really powerful engine. That has proven to be such a successful model because they’re the ones who care about getting the problem solved, and we’re turning them into the heroes at their own job. It’s so gratifying. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my career because we see the impact every single day of what we’re doing.

That’s fascinating. So the Kana Wave platform—you said it’s like Lego. It’s a data engineering platform, and then you take the workflow of that customer and adapt it to this, or somehow interface it with this platform, or use the knowledge of that workflow to essentially streamline the process and go from 150 hours to one hour? Love it. That’s very interesting. So what’s one thing that you’re trying to figure out in Kana Systems right now?

The thing that keeps me awake is not optimizing the opportunities we have. So we’re trying to figure out who the right partners are. We’re a small business, and we know we’re a small business. That’s our superpower, but it also holds us back in some regards. So the thing we’re trying to figure out right now is which companies to partner with. Like I told you, we’ve partnered with Microsoft and Amazon.

They’ve been phenomenal partners in the technology-enabling area. There are other partners out there that we’re considering right now. Again, the only metric I care about—I run the company off one metric. For me, it’s about aloha spirit. How much aloha do we deliver? The way that we look at this is how many people find what we’re helping them with to be useful. Everything else derives from that, right? The growth. The revenue. We make millions, but that’s not the metric I’m chasing.

So what I’m looking for with these new partners is who can help us improve that one metric so we can deliver more aloha. Naturally, we’re looking at larger companies. There are a few small companies that we’re looking at that have interesting edge AI use cases where we can help out. Those are the things that are really challenging me right now as CEO and founder.

So is it about how you measure the deliverable aloha quotient of those target partners that’s the challenge, or is it reaching the target partners to have the opportunity to provide the aloha for them, or is it about something else?

I think it’s a matter of choosing the right partners in a fast, trusted way. It’s a process. With us working so quickly, being able to choose the right partners, but we also don’t choose the wrong partners. So it’s less about the aloha metric. If we’ve qualified them enough that we’re interested in partnering with them, we can figure that part out pretty quickly. But it’s getting over those last few. Do you have any answers?

Yeah. I wonder if it’s something to do with the judgment, whether the judgment to choose those partners is scalable in the company or not. And to what degree your growth is constrained by your ability to transfer the ability to judge the partners to the rest of the organization. So it’s no longer a constraint at your level. What would it look like for the growth of Kana Systems if you didn’t have to be part of the partner selection process anymore because the judgment would be equivalently good at lower levels in the organization?

Well, in that case, then I would think it would be faster.

Okay.

We’re in incredible times right now. As an example, our platform can ingest all kinds of data, tag it, chunk it, organize it. There are entire companies worth billions of dollars just doing one segment of that. The fact that we can do all of that at a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost—that’s why we’re situated very well right now for growth, and that’s why we’re having so much fun right now. It’s a really fun time in our company.

We have a lot of people who are interested in not just partnering with us and investing in us and acquiring us. We’re getting inundated with a lot of requests for that. Trying to stay focused on who are the right people and companies to be speaking with right now, in addition to our customers, of course. So I think that’s a challenge that companies dealing with factors of scale have to deal with.

Okay. So what makes a potential partner, listening to this podcast, know that they’re the one, that they should give you a call because they would be a big recipient of aloha?

Yeah. Actually, that’s a great question. The things that we look for, number one, they don’t have to call it aloha spirit. It goes by different names. But at its heart, they are people or organizations that are here to do good. What we’re doing right now in the world of defense are things that absolutely can carry over into any line of commercial work. The fact that we can work with sensitive data in some of the most trusted environments in the world means that we can do that in other areas.

We’ve talked to people in finance, capital structures, and energy. There’s a lot of interest in those kinds of other areas to carry over some of our best practices and learnings. We absolutely want someone who is helping us be the best version of ourselves. There is an opportunity for us to sell all or part of the company in the next few years to a strategic partner. That’s something that we would entertain as well.

But really it’s that idea that, hey, together we can build something that’s more impactful than what we currently have. So we can sniff out pretty quickly if people are aligned with the same kind of reasons that we are.

But what I understand is that your two ideal companies, the clients you mentioned, were AWS and Microsoft. These are both huge companies, which means there are huge opportunities to create value, Aloha, perhaps. And you mentioned energy. You mentioned defense. So are these big infrastructure-type platforms where aloha can best be manifested or delivered? What are the commonalities?

Because we don’t know on the face of it whether those companies have the kind of people that you’re looking for. Sometimes you can know that a company has a lot of good people, but for larger companies, it’s harder to know. So what are the commonalities?

At its stake, of course, these are large companies. We’ve been really fortunate that we work with small groups within these very large companies. Those small groups, we can tell right away whether or not they’re a fit. Both of those companies have been very good. We’ve partnered with other much, much smaller companies than that. Well, let me tell you one of my personal ways that I determine ethics.

It’s the Four-Way Test from Rotary. Of the things we think, say, or do: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? I run through that all the time, and I hold my team and myself to that very standard. We’re always looking to do things that are beneficial to all concerned. They don’t have to be equally beneficial, but they cannot benefit only one party. So as we’re looking at partners, those are some of the things that we’re considering too.

The other piece… We’re in a capitalistic society. We totally embrace that. But you can do good and still be a capitalist. That’s what we’re proving over and over again. I lost my train of thought with what the last part of your question was, Steve.

No, I think you answered it. Basically, it’s not a size issue.

No.

It’s an attitude issue. You’re looking for win-win partnerships. If you find the right kind of people, then the chance of successful collaboration is going to be great. Obviously, as you grow the company, you want to leverage yourself more with your people, which means that you’ll tend to do business with larger companies as well, I believe.

Yeah. You know what’s been so fun about this? I’m one of the 3% of women who own a defense technology company, according to the Small Business Administration. There aren’t very many women in this space. It’s been really interesting because I lead with the soft skills first. A lot of people ask me if I have a background in computer science or artificial intelligence. I have a background. My number one Gallup strength is Strategic. But what I really care about is helping people flourish, optimizing people, and bringing people together for a common mission—not only to accomplish it, but to have fun doing it.

I think that’s something that gets lost. I’m a Gen Xer, and I was taught that you’ve got to put in your chops, you’ve got to sacrifice, and it’s got to be hard. I don’t believe in that. I like to have fun. I like things that are easy. Everybody likes easy things. If I’m good at something, it’s really easy. So trying to give people the opportunity to do those things. This is where it’s been so much fun. Business can be super fun, and I think that’s something we lose out on. In Hawaii, there’s an ancient way of fishing called the Hukilau.

It’s one of our product names. In the Hukilau, instead of fishing by yourself, there’s a hula with this. Instead of fishing by yourself, where you only catch fish for yourself, as a community you come together and fish. You throw out a big net, then you pull the net in together. Here’s the really cool part. Everybody can be different. A little kid next to a big person next to an older person.

But together you’re bringing it all in. Then the part that’s really great—and Hawaiians are known for this—we have the luaus. We party. We eat. We drink. We have music. We dance. We enjoy it. That makes you want to do it again. So why can’t we do that in business too? Why can’t we do this in a super-serious, top-secret environment? Most of our team have Top Secret clearances. We have our facility clearance. It’s pretty unheard of, as small of a business as we are, to have all of these things. But we still have fun.

We still have fun doing all of this. I think that’s something with the Aloha Way that I didn’t call out. How do we actually get to that? If you have the mentality, then people want to show up and continue doing good work. Even our customers will say, “Oh, this is my one fun meeting of the day with Kana Systems.” We just had a meeting with one of our partners, and they said, “This is the one meeting that we look forward to all week because we have a good time.” So I think that needs to be highlighted as well.

No, I agree. People can learn, absorb, and buy in when they have fun much more than if they’re forced to do something. That’s obvious, and I totally relate to it. All right. So if someone is listening to this and they say, “I might be a company that could create these impacts with Kana Systems,” then how do I find out? How do I get in touch? How do I learn more? How do I connect with you guys?

They can email us at aloha@kana.systems. K-A-N-A dot systems. That’s one way. They can reach out to us on LinkedIn. I can be found pretty easily. There’s nobody else with my name on there. They can go to one of the events. We’re going to be speaking at the Amazon DC Summit at the end of the month. We’ll be in San Diego next month for the War Hackers Hackathon. We’re out and about at quite a few defense- and technology-related events. Yeah, that’s about it. Don’t send smoke signals. We can’t see those.

Fantastic. So if you’re looking for a partner who brings a technology platform that could leverage you, and you want lots of good vibes, good results, and a fun work environment, then check out Mailani Veney, who’s the CEO of Kana Systems. She’s on LinkedIn. She’s easy to find. The website has an interesting domain, kana.systems. Check her out speaking around the country. Mailani, thank you for coming and sharing your wisdom and your frameworks. Super fun. If you’re listening and enjoyed this, then make sure you tune in because twice a week we come out and share with you an exciting story from a unique entrepreneur. So thanks for coming, Mailani, and thanks for listening.

Aloha, everybody.

Aloha indeed.