Well, as to the AV software, the recommended and often repeated advice here is: uninstall it. Starting with Catalina, Apple has sequestered the OS and all its system files in a inaccessible/read only volume for security - which means that your AV stuff cannot access what it wants to look at. That may be at least one reason for the long startup. Aside from that, Mac OS has excellent security built in, so there is no need to install the irrelevant apps which will not be helpful.
As for the other one - it sounds like an overkill. I am not familiar with it, but your built in firewall as well as the firewall in your router/modem should suffice nicely. The inaccessibility of the OS/system may be another reason for the app to be so slow - trying to access something it cannot. I'd contact the developer and ask what purpose it has on the new mac OS security.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210650