Over the past three years, we’ve interviewed more than 1,200 venture-backed tech founders on our show BUILDERS (Formerly known as Category Visionaries). Among them, a standout group has come from one of the hardest markets to sell into: cybersecurity. These founders aren’t theorizing about go-to-market—they’ve earned their lessons the hard way, selling deep tech to skeptical buyers, navigating complex sales cycles, and carving out space in crowded, fear-driven categories. We’ve pulled together the single best GTM lesson from each. No fluff. No backstory. Just the real tactics that actually worked.
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25+ Cybersecurity
GTM Lessons
Pukar Hamal
CEO of XYZ Inc.
Name the Pain Your ICP Already Feels But Can't Articulate
When SecurityPal introduced “customer assurance” as a category, Pukar discovered the market didn’t need education on the problem itself — they needed language for it. “The market already understands that this is a problem,” he explains. “It’s just that they haven’t been able to put a word on it.” The validation came immediately when speaking to sophisticated buyers: “I just went in front of the leader of a incredibly successful company, right. A $30 billion company, american software company, in the databases space. And when I talked to her about this problem, she got it right away. She was like, yep, like, this is exactly correct.” Category creation isn’t about inventing pain — it’s about articulating what your ICP experiences daily but lacks the vocabulary to request. When the words land, “it is indeed resonating. That’s the feedback that we receive.” — Pukar
John Smith
CEO of XYZ Inc.
Fundraising Now Requires Velocity & a Big Enough Idea
“Oh gosh. The landscape has changed enormously in fundraising since we started the business. Right. We started in, I’d say the best of times, found ourselves in the worst of times from a fundraising perspective. And now I think today we’re probably somewhere middle of the road in terms of the investor landscape. We’ve been fortunate to have great investors from angels who have backed other technology companies as well as institutional investors and also some family offices. I can go into each of those categories in depth, which I wont do, at least to begin with, but I think rightfully so. Investors are very skeptical, as they should be regarding a companys prospects. Theyre looking for outsized returns, as they should be, companies that can return the fund. And so is the idea big enough and is the approach to go to market distribution model thoughtful enough and fast enough with enough velocity to be able to capture that kind of market? So look, I think investors are asking all the right questions. I think they’re just doing more of that and less of the fluff that happened three years ago.” — john smith, CEO of XYZ Inc.”
John Smith
CEO of XYZ Inc.
Fundraising Now Requires Velocity & a Big Enough Idea
“Oh gosh. The landscape has changed enormously in fundraising since we started the business. Right. We started in, I’d say the best of times, found ourselves in the worst of times from a fundraising perspective. And now I think today we’re probably somewhere middle of the road in terms of the investor landscape. We’ve been fortunate to have great investors from angels who have backed other technology companies as well as institutional investors and also some family offices. I can go into each of those categories in depth, which I wont do, at least to begin with, but I think rightfully so. Investors are very skeptical, as they should be regarding a companys prospects. Theyre looking for outsized returns, as they should be, companies that can return the fund. And so is the idea big enough and is the approach to go to market distribution model thoughtful enough and fast enough with enough velocity to be able to capture that kind of market? So look, I think investors are asking all the right questions. I think they’re just doing more of that and less of the fluff that happened three years ago.” — john smith, CEO of XYZ Inc.”
John Smith
CEO of XYZ Inc.
Fundraising Now Requires Velocity & a Big Enough Idea
“Oh gosh. The landscape has changed enormously in fundraising since we started the business. Right. We started in, I’d say the best of times, found ourselves in the worst of times from a fundraising perspective. And now I think today we’re probably somewhere middle of the road in terms of the investor landscape. We’ve been fortunate to have great investors from angels who have backed other technology companies as well as institutional investors and also some family offices. I can go into each of those categories in depth, which I wont do, at least to begin with, but I think rightfully so. Investors are very skeptical, as they should be regarding a companys prospects. Theyre looking for outsized returns, as they should be, companies that can return the fund. And so is the idea big enough and is the approach to go to market distribution model thoughtful enough and fast enough with enough velocity to be able to capture that kind of market? So look, I think investors are asking all the right questions. I think they’re just doing more of that and less of the fluff that happened three years ago.” — john smith, CEO of XYZ Inc.”
John Smith
CEO of XYZ Inc.
Fundraising Now Requires Velocity & a Big Enough Idea
“Oh gosh. The landscape has changed enormously in fundraising since we started the business. Right. We started in, I’d say the best of times, found ourselves in the worst of times from a fundraising perspective. And now I think today we’re probably somewhere middle of the road in terms of the investor landscape. We’ve been fortunate to have great investors from angels who have backed other technology companies as well as institutional investors and also some family offices. I can go into each of those categories in depth, which I wont do, at least to begin with, but I think rightfully so. Investors are very skeptical, as they should be regarding a companys prospects. Theyre looking for outsized returns, as they should be, companies that can return the fund. And so is the idea big enough and is the approach to go to market distribution model thoughtful enough and fast enough with enough velocity to be able to capture that kind of market? So look, I think investors are asking all the right questions. I think they’re just doing more of that and less of the fluff that happened three years ago.” — john smith, CEO of XYZ Inc.”