Customer videos · Ben Baker · TAGS: About Expel
Ajai Paul and Sneha Regmi from Affirm sit down with Yanek Korff, Chief of Staff and Co-Founder at Expel, to talk about why they chose Expel MDR, the onboarding experience, and the ROI they’ve seen since partnering. Click here to read the full case study.
Why did Affirm choose Expel MDR?
Yanek Korff: Let’s start with the big question—why Expel?
Ajai Paul: Back in 2021, we were just starting to build out our security operations program. Our team was small—just three to five people—and we had to decide: do we build an internal SOC or go the MDR route?
The overhead of hiring, training, and integrating was high. That’s when we started evaluating MDR providers. We chose Expel MDR because the integration was seamless. It was low effort and turnkey. Expel plugged into our stack holistically—it was invaluable.
Sneha Regmi: I’ll echo that. What stood out was the breadth of coverage. Other MDRs might just cover endpoints or just the cloud. Expel gave us full-spectrum visibility and let us hit the ground running.
What was the “aha” moment?
Yanek: Once you were up and running, what was your first “aha” moment?
Ajai: Honestly? It was about a week in. You were ingesting our data, and suddenly alerts were showing up in Workbench. I remember thinking—wait, that’s it? We didn’t have to do anything magical on our side. The magic happened on yours.
Sneha: For me, it was when we reviewed our first quarter of metrics. We’d processed millions of events, and our team barely had to touch noisy alerts. Seeing that data summarized—it really hit. I already knew Expel MDR was helping, but the numbers told a powerful story. We even brought those metrics to our executives to show the clear ROI.
Any standout use cases?
Yanek: Are there any unique use cases of Expel MDR that you can think of?
Ajai: Yeah—this one’s a bit nontraditional. We had an audit requirement to monitor GitHub branch protection. We needed alerts if someone deleted or modified branches. We integrated GitHub with Expel on day one. Within three weeks, we had full visibility and alerts flowing. That kind of speed and responsiveness—it’s rare.
How has your use of Expel MDR evolved?
Yanek: You started with three integrations. Where are you now?
Sneha: We’re at 10 to 15 now—and growing. But it’s not just about the number. It’s about the value those integrations bring.
Some drive alerts, some enrich the context. Tools like Wiz are a great example. We use Wiz for enrichment, and it’s a huge part of our daily workflow now.
Ajai: The technical breadth matters, too. We’re not worried about bringing in new tools anymore. Expel scales with us. No coverage gaps, no stress.
What’s the partnership been like?
Sneha: When Expel integrates across our entire security stack, the value multiplies. That’s what makes this partnership special. It’s not just detection—it’s a force multiplier for our entire program.
Ajai: Working with the Expel team has been easy. The transparency, the support—it feels like an extension of our own team. That’s what makes Expel MDR stand out.
Final thoughts
Yanek: Ajai, Sneha—thank you both for sharing. It’s been incredible to see how Affirm has grown with Expel MDR.
Sneha: Thank you! It’s been an awesome journey.
Ajai: Likewise. Appreciate the partnership!
This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.
For more testimonials from Expel’s customer base, visit expel.com/customers or see our customer video playlist on YouTube.
