We only take on 4 clients per month. Join our June cohort. 1 spot left.
Conversation
Highlights
Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Jason Martin, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Permisso, a cloud identity detection and response platform that aims to find evil in the cloud, whether it’s inadvertent misconfigurations or malicious activity by adversaries. The company has raised $10 million in funding to date.
Key topics discussed in this episode:
- Jason’s 25+ years of experience in cybersecurity, including his roles on the offensive and defensive side, as a CISO, and most recently as the global head of product and engineering at FireEye Mandiant.
- The admiration for Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, and his principles of respecting competition, learning from them, and doing what they do better.
- The influence of the book “Thank You for Being Late” by Thomas Friedman, a non-techie’s view of the major technology tailwinds that society is facing and their potential impact on day-to-day life, politics, and society.
- Permisso’s mission to find evil in the cloud across SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS environments, detecting precursors, identifying breaches, and helping customers respond and remediate the impact.
- The disappointment with the cybersecurity industry’s lack of progress in solving fundamental problems, despite the influx of capital and talent, due to the shortage of skilled people, the rapid pace of technological change, and the confusion created by vendors claiming to do everything.
Actionable
Takeaways
Focus on the Problem, Not the Acronyms:
Instead of getting caught up in the alphabet soup of cybersecurity categories and acronyms, focus on the fundamental problem you're trying to solve and how you can address it in a unique and effective way. Permisso's approach of finding evil in the cloud, regardless of the specific environment or attack vector, exemplifies this mindset.
Invest in Differentiated Branding and User Experience:
In a noisy and serious industry like cybersecurity, differentiating your brand through playful, engaging design and a focus on user experience can help you stand out and win hearts, not just minds. Permisso's fun, consumer-inspired branding and emphasis on simplifying complex security concepts reflect this approach.
Validate Your Vision Through Customer Discovery:
Before building anything, Jason and his co-founder conducted 100 interviews with enterprise security leaders to understand their cloud security challenges and validate their assumptions. This early customer discovery helped them refine their vision, identify design partners, and build a product that addresses real-world needs.
Embrace the Co-CEO Model with Clear Delineation:
Sharing the CEO role with a trusted partner can work well if there's a high degree of trust, respect, and clear delineation of decision-making authority. Jason and his co-founder split responsibilities based on their strengths and passions, with Jason focusing on product and engineering and his partner on sales and marketing.
Stick to Your Intuition and Vision:
As a second-time founder, Jason has learned to trust his intuition and stick to his vision, even in the face of uncertainty and the need for validation. His advice to himself would be to stay the course, knowing that the journey will be challenging but ultimately rewarding if you're pursuing a problem you're passionate about solving.
Recommended Founder
Interviews
David Etue
CEO of Nisos
David Etue, CEO of Nisos: $33 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Intelligence
Josh Shaul
CEO of Allure Security
Josh Shaul, CEO of Allure Security: $6 Million Raised to Help Businesses Win the Battle Against Online Scammers
Philippe Humeau
CEO of CrowdSec
Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cyber Threat Intelligence
Arie Zilberstein
CEO and Co-Founder of Gem Security
Arie Zilberstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Gem Security: $34 Million Raised to Power the Future of Cloud Detection and Response
Justin Beals
CEO, Co-Founder of Strike Graph
Justin Beals, CEO of Strike Graph: $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of Automated Security and Compliance
Ian Amit
CEO and Founder of Gomboc
Ian Amit, CEO & Founder of Gomboc: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Security Remediation
Marina Segal
CEO and Co-Founder of Tamnoon
Marina Segal, CEO & Co-Founder of Tamnoon: Over $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Security
Peter Prizio Jr
CEO of SnapAttack
Peter Prizio Jr, CEO of SnapAttack: $8 Million Raised to Power the Future of Threat Management
Stijn Vande Casteele
Founder of Sweepatic
Stijn Vande Casteele, Founder of Sweepatic: $4.4 Million Raised to Build the Future of External Attack Surface Management
Mollie Breen
CEO and Co-Founder of Perygee
Mollie Breen, CEO and Co-Founder of Perygee: $6.4 Million Raised to Build the Future of IT/OT Security
Paul Valente
CEO and Co-Founder of VISO Trust
Paul Valente, CEO and Co-Founder of VISO Trust: $17 Million Raised to Build the Future of Third-Party Cyber Risk Management
Michael Assraf
CEO & Co-Founder of Vicarius
Michael Assraf, CEO of Vicarius: $29 Million Raised to Build the Future of Vulnerability Prioritization
Matteo Bogana
CEO and Co-Founder of Cleafy
Matteo Bogana, CEO & Co-Founder of Cleafy: $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of Online Fraud Prevention
Dave Mor
CEO and Co-Founder of OneLayer
Dave Mor, CEO and Co-Founder of OneLayer: $15 Million Raised to Protect Private Cellular Networks
Spencer Thompson
CEO and Co-Founder of Prelude
Spencer Thompson, CEO and Co-Founder of Prelude: Over $30 Million Raised to Build the Future of Continuous Security Testing
Scott McCrady
CEO of SolCyber
Scott McCrady, CEO of SolCyber: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Security
Stephen de Vries
CEO and Co-Founder of IriusRisk
Stephen de Vries, CEO and Co-Founder of IriusRisk: $40 Million Raised to Build the Future of Threat Modeling
John Milburn
CEO of Clear Skye
John Milburn, CEO of Clear Skye: More Than $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Identity and Access Governance
Ryan Lasmaili
CEO & Co-Founder of Vaultree
Ryan Lasmaili, CEO of Vaultree: $16 Million Raised to Build the World’s First Fully Functional Data-in-Use Encryption
Rodrigo Leme
Marketing Director of Right-Hand Cybersecurity
Rodrigo Leme, Marketing Director at Right-Hand Cybersecurity: Standing Out in a Crowded Market – Niche Targeting and Customer-Centric Approach
Kyle Hanslovan
CEO & Co-Founder of Huntress
Kyle Hanslovan, CEO of Huntress: $160 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Security
Will Wilson
Co-Founder of Antithesis
Will Wilson, Co-Founder of Antithesis: $47 Million Raised to Build the Future of Autonomous Testing
Sivan Tehila
Founder and CEO of Onyxia
Sivan Tehila, Founder and CEO of Onyxia: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cybersecurity Performance Management
Danny Lopez
CEO of Glasswall
Danny Lopez CEO of Glasswall: $60+ Million Raised to Make the Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) Category Mainstream
Ryan Schonfeld
Founder & CEO of Hivewatch
Ryan Schonfeld, CEO of Hivewatch: $25 Million Raised to Build the OS of Physical Security
Tom Jermoluk
CEO of Beyond Identity
Tom “TJ” Jermoluk, CEO of Beyond Identity: $200 Million Raised to Build the Future of Multi-Factor Authentication
Austin Gadient
CTO & Co-Founder of Vali Cyber
Austin Gadient, CTO & Co-Founder of Vali Cyber: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of Linux Security
Ani Chaudhuri
CEO & Co-Founder of Dasera
Ani Chaudhuri, CEO & Co-Founder of Dasera: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Security
Edward Wu
CEO and Founder of Dropzone AI
Edward Wu, CEO & Founder of Dropzone AI: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI SOC Analysts
David Brumley
CEO of ForAllSecure
David Brumley, CEO of ForAllSecure: $38 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security Testing
Christian Almenar
CEO & Co-Founder of Monad
Christian Almenar, CEO of Monad: $19 Million Raised to Solve the Cybersecurity Big Data Problem
Arjun Bhatnagar
CEO & Co-Founder of Cloaked
Arjun Bhatnagar, CEO of Cloaked: $25 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Privacy
Paul Lewis
Founder and CEO of Calamu
Paul Lewis, CEO of Calamu: $20 Million Raised to Build the Cyber Storage Category
Pukar Hamal
CEO and Founder of SecurityPal
Pukar Hamal, CEO and Founder of SecurityPal: $21 Million Raised to Power the Future of Customer Assurance
Tiffany Ricks
CEO and Founder of HacWare
Tiffany Ricks, CEO and Founder of HacWare: $2.6 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security Awareness
Neil Serebryany
CEO and Co-Founder of CalypsoAI
Neil Serebryany, CEO & Co-Founder of CalypsoAI: $38 Million Raised to Power the Future of AI Security
Mykolas Rambus
CEO & Co-Founder of Hush
Mykolas Rambus, CEO & Co-Founder of Hush: $7.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Privacy