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From Microsoft Engineer to Cybersecurity Founder: The PVML Go-to-Market Story

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Rina Galperin, CTO and Co-Founder of PVML, a data access platform that’s raised $8 million in funding, shared how a frustrating encounter with production data at Microsoft sparked the creation of an entirely new approach to data security.

The Problem That Started It All

Rina’s founding story begins with what should have been a simple task. As a software engineer at Microsoft working on a virtual classroom solution, her product manager asked for basic statistics on average exam grades in a specific region. “It sounds like a legitimate two second analysis, right? Well, turns out not really,” Rina recalls. “I mean, this was the first time ever I actually encountered the complexities of analyzing production data.”

The issue wasn’t technical capability—it was privacy. An average exam grade could potentially be traced back to individual students with additional queries. “Statistics are tricky,” she explains. “They can either tell a broad story, a very precise story, or even a malicious story. It all depends on the data, the question, and the user’s intent.”

Instead of extracting simple statistics, Rina was restricted to calculating only approximate, high-level figures. Her reaction? “As cliche as it sounds, I swear I told myself there has to be a better way. I mean, if one of the most powerful tech corporates is struggling with sensitive data access, then everybody else is just doomed.”

When Problem Met Solution

The timing proved fortuitous. While Rina grappled with data access limitations at Microsoft, her future co-founder Shachar was completing his PhD in computer science, specializing in differential privacy—”a mathematically quantifiable definition of privacy. And yeah, that’s a thing. It actually exists,” Rina notes. This technology was designed specifically to unlock analytics without compromising privacy. “That’s kind of how problem met solution. And it just clicked and we decided to found PVML.”

The Early Customer Acquisition Journey

Landing their first paying customer took approximately six months—a period Rina describes as intensive learning. “We both were quite new to the whole entrepreneurial world, first timers, two techie people, and we really just went door knocking.” Without insider connections or startup ecosystem experience, they took a direct approach: “We had close to zero inside connections, and we’re new to the startup ecosystem. We just started reaching out to people on LinkedIn and email and just trying to get meetings booked.”

The key wasn’t just understanding potential clients as companies, but understanding the individual buyers within those companies. “We spent a lot of time digging into the problem domain and understanding the pain of not only our potential clients, as in the companies, but specifically the buyer in the company, what drives and motivates him, what sets him back, and so on,” Rina explains. This granular focus on buyer personas helped them target their ideal customer profile effectively.

Redefining a Crowded Category

PVML positions itself in the data access category, but Rina emphasizes they’re fundamentally changing it. Traditional data access solutions focus on restriction and limitation—anonymization, masking, encryption. “Basically, let me hide or remove your data because I don’t want to risk a data breach,” she summarizes.

PVML’s differentiation is twofold. First, their differential privacy technology actually unlocks more data for analysis without alteration or risk. “The first technology that actually helps unlock more data for analysis without altering it and without risking it,” Rina states. Second, they provide agnostic data access, eliminating the need for customization across different data sources. “I would say it’s data access, but it’s enabling instead of limiting.”

Creative Marketing in a Crowded Space

With cybersecurity being notoriously saturated, PVML has adopted what Rina calls “creative marketing.” Their philosophy: “I think it’s important to be bold and take risks with marketing. Otherwise you’re just blending in.”

Their tactics range from the simple to the customized—handing out coffee vouchers at conferences to land prospect meetings, creating personalized mugs for client onboarding days. “You sometimes need to risk having a door shut at your face to potentially land something big and suppress competition,” Rina explains.

Beyond creative tactics, PVML faces a market education challenge given their unique technological approach. Their strategic response has been to attend domain-specific events rather than broad cybersecurity conferences. “We do try to look for clients not specifically in, I mean, you mentioned events and not specifically in cyber events, but maybe branch out more to domain specific events that we’re seeing traction specifically in fintech, mobility, healthcare,” Rina shares.

Building the Marketing Function

One of PVML’s most significant go-to-market decisions was hiring a head of marketing—a move Rina wishes they’d made sooner. The search revealed important distinctions in marketing talent. “I think there are many people in marketing that are either closer to the sales and understand the sales process and others who are more like proactive and more technical,” she observes.

The ideal candidate needed to be both creative and bold while deeply understanding buyer personas. “We found out how difficult it is to find this unique person, the person that is creative enough, bold enough, but also deeply understanding the buyer Persona,” Rina notes. The key insight: both types of marketers are valuable, but companies need to understand which they need at specific growth stages.

Mastering the Fundraising Frame

Through raising $8 million, Rina learned that fundraising is fundamentally about framing. “I’ve learned that fundraising is a skill that you can learn and improve on. But I think the main thing is that frame is key in fundraising.”

She breaks this into two critical elements. First, framing the round itself: “You need to frame the fundraising ground, and you need to find the right clinic to kick it off and decide how long you’ll keep the opportunity open for investors to join.” This requires a specific mindset—viewing the round as an opportunity for investors, “even if investors may not see it that way as an opportunity, but that’s okay. I believe this should be your mindset anyway.”

Second, framing individual meetings: “You have, let’s say, 1 hour to cover everything that’s important. It’s not an easy task, and it kind of goes back to the mindset again because you need the confidence to manage the meeting effectively and stay in control.”

The Vision Ahead

PVML’s three-to-five-year vision centers on geographic expansion and vertical domination. “We want to conquer the european and american markets, especially in areas where we’re market leaders, such as mobility, transportation, but also healthcare and fintech, where we see significant traction,” Rina shares.

Currently bridging Tel Aviv and New York, the company is actively expanding into the US market, betting that ground demand will translate into substantial American business growth.