We only take on 4 clients per month. Join our January 2025 cohort. 1 spot left.
Frontlines.io | Where B2B Founders Talk GTM.
Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
CEO & Co-Founder of Dasera
Ani Chaudhuri, CEO & Co-Founder of Dasera: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Security
CEO of Qohash
Jean Le Bouthillier, CEO of Qohash: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Security
CEO and Co-Founder of Opal Security
Umaimah Khan, CEO & Co-Founder of Opal Security: $32 Million Raised to Build the Future of Identity Security
CEO and Co-Founder of OneLayer
Dave Mor, CEO and Co-Founder of OneLayer: $15 Million Raised to Protect Private Cellular Networks
CEO & Co-Founder of Cloaked
Arjun Bhatnagar, CEO of Cloaked: $25 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Privacy
CEO & Founder of Chainguard
Dan Lorenc, CEO & Founder of Chainguard: $250 Million Raised to Power the Future of Software Supply Chain Security
CEO and Co-Founder of Tamnoon
Marina Segal, CEO & Co-Founder of Tamnoon: Over $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Security
CEO, Co-Founder of Strike Graph
Justin Beals, CEO of Strike Graph: $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of Automated Security and Compliance
Founder & CEO of Hivewatch
Ryan Schonfeld, CEO of Hivewatch: $25 Million Raised to Build the OS of Physical Security
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
CEO & Founder of Trusona
Ori Eisen, CEO & Founder of Trusona: $38 Million Raised to Power the Future of Account Takeover Prevention
CEO & Co-Founder of Vicarius
Michael Assraf, CEO of Vicarius: $29 Million Raised to Build the Future of Vulnerability Prioritization
CEO and Co-Founder of Cleafy
Matteo Bogana, CEO & Co-Founder of Cleafy: $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of Online Fraud Prevention
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
CEO of Allure Security
Josh Shaul, CEO of Allure Security: $6 Million Raised to Help Businesses Win the Battle Against Online Scammers
CEO of ForAllSecure
David Brumley, CEO of ForAllSecure: $38 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security Testing
CEO of Beyond Identity
Tom “TJ” Jermoluk, CEO of Beyond Identity: $200 Million Raised to Build the Future of Multi-Factor Authentication
CEO & Co-Founder of Hush
Mykolas Rambus, CEO & Co-Founder of Hush: $7.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Privacy
CEO & Founder of VU Security
Sebastian Stranieri, CEO & Founder of VU Security: $24 Million Raised to Build the Future of Digital Identity & Fraud Prevention
CEO & Co-Founder of Cyrebro
Nadav Arbel, CEO & Co-Founder of Cyrebro: $51 Million Raised to Build the Future of ML-Backed MDR
CEO of Nisos
David Etue, CEO of Nisos: $33 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Intelligence
CEO and Founder of HacWare
Tiffany Ricks, CEO and Founder of HacWare: $2.6 Million Raised to Build the Future of Security Awareness
CEO and Founder of Strata Identity
Eric Olden, CEO and Founder of Strata Identity: $42 Million Raised to Build the Identity Orchestration Category
Founder and CEO of Onyxia
Sivan Tehila, Founder and CEO of Onyxia: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cybersecurity Performance Management
CEO of CrowdSec
Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cyber Threat Intelligence
CEO and Founder of XONA
Bill Moore, CEO and Founder of XONA: $30 Million Raised to Build the Future of OT User Access
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
CEO of Glasswall
Danny Lopez CEO of Glasswall: $60+ Million Raised to Make the Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) Category Mainstream
CEO of Clear Skye
John Milburn, CEO of Clear Skye: More Than $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Identity and Access Governance
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
CEO of SnapAttack
Peter Prizio Jr, CEO of SnapAttack: $8 Million Raised to Power the Future of Threat Management
Chief Marketing & Alliances Officer of DataDome
Aurelie Guerrieri, Chief Marketing & Alliances Officer at DataDome: 20 Years in Silicon Valley – Insights on the Evolving Tech Landscape
CEO and Founder of SecurityPal
Pukar Hamal, CEO and Founder of SecurityPal: $21 Million Raised to Power the Future of Customer Assurance
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
CEO & Co-Founder of Monad
Christian Almenar, CEO of Monad: $19 Million Raised to Solve the Cybersecurity Big Data Problem
CEO of SolCyber
Scott McCrady, CEO of SolCyber: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Security
CEO & Co-Founder of Entro Security
Itzik Alvas, CEO & Co-Founder of Entro Security: $24 Million Raised to Build the Future of Non-Human Identity Management
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
CTO & Co-Founder of Vali Cyber
Austin Gadient, CTO & Co-Founder of Vali Cyber: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of Linux Security
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
CEO & Co-Founder of ElastiFlow
Robert Cowart, CEO & Co-Founder of ElastiFlow: $8 Million Raised to Power the Future of Network Performance and Security Analytics
VP of Marketing of Shift5
From the Pentagon to B2B: Colby Proffitt’s Journey and ABM Insights
CEO and Co-Founder of CalypsoAI
Neil Serebryany, CEO & Co-Founder of CalypsoAI: $38 Million Raised to Power the Future of AI Security
CEO & Co-Founder of Huntress
Kyle Hanslovan, CEO of Huntress: $160 Million Raised to Build the Future of Managed Security
Founder and CEO of Calamu
Paul Lewis, CEO of Calamu: $20 Million Raised to Build the Cyber Storage Category
Founder of Sweepatic
Stijn Vande Casteele, Founder of Sweepatic: $4.4 Million Raised to Build the Future of External Attack Surface Management
CEO and Founder of Dropzone AI
Edward Wu, CEO & Founder of Dropzone AI: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI SOC Analysts
CEO and Co-Founder of Anjuna
Ayal Yogev, CEO and Co-Founder of Anjuna: $42 Million to Build The Future of Confidential Computing
CEO and Founder of Gomboc
Ian Amit, CEO & Founder of Gomboc: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Security Remediation
CEO & Co-Founder of Nudge Security
Russell Spitler, CEO & Co-Founder of Nudge Security: $17 Million Raised to Build the Future of SaaS Security