Rodrigo Leme

Marketing Director

Bio

Rodrigo Leme is the Marketing Director at Right-Hand Cybersecurity. With over 20 years of experience in technology companies across Brazil, the US, Canada, and other countries, Rodrigo is known for his expertise in tech, marketing, and cybersecurity. He has successfully led various marketing initiatives, enhancing the company’s visibility and engagement within the cybersecurity industry. Rodrigo also has a passion for tech, music, writing, and hockey (go Canucks!).

Rodrigo Leme is the Marketing Director at Right-Hand Cybersecurity. With over 20 years of experience…

Company:

Right-Hand Cybersecurity

Location:

São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Description:

Right-Hand Cybersecurity is a human risk management platform that focuses on enhancing cybersecurity awareness and resilience within organizations. The platform uses advanced tools and training to mitigate human risk, optimize budgets, automate processes, and support informed cybersecurity decisions. Right-Hand Cybersecurity empowers employees to become the last line of defense against cyber threats, ensuring a strong cyberculture within companies.

Right-Hand Cybersecurity is a human risk management platform that focuses on enhancing cybersecurity awareness and…

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Actionable
Takeaways

Adopt an Education-First Marketing Approach:

Emphasize educating your audience rather than selling directly to them. Create content that informs, teaches, and adds value, helping to build a more informed customer base and establish your brand as a thought leader in your niche.

Embrace the Evolution of Marketing Channels:

Stay adaptive and open to incorporating emerging platforms and technologies into your marketing strategy. As Rodrigo illustrated with the transition from direct mail to social media, new channels can offer unprecedented opportunities to reach and engage your audience more effectively.

Utilize AI as a Supportive Tool, Not a Replacement:

Leverage AI technologies to streamline content production and research, but maintain a human touch in your content creation process. Use AI to enhance productivity and creativity, ensuring your content remains personal, relatable, and genuinely useful to your audience.

Balance Long-Form and Short-Form Content:

Develop a dual strategy that includes both in-depth, long-form content for SEO and thought leadership, and short-form, engaging content for social media platforms. This balanced approach helps cater to diverse audience preferences and maximizes your content's reach and impact.

Cultivate a Culture of Open Communication and Collaboration:

Encourage your team, from founders to front-line employees, to share their insights, experiences, and ideas. A collaborative and communicative culture not only enriches your thought leadership but also ensures your marketing messages resonate more authentically with your target audience.

Conversation
Highlights

From Brazilian Startup to Enterprise iPaaS: How Right-Hand Cybersecurity Built a $40M Business Without Traditional Sales

Most integration platforms start by targeting enterprises. Right-Hand Cybersecurity did the opposite—and stumbled into a GTM strategy that would define their entire trajectory.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Rodrigo Leme, Marketing Director of Right-Hand Cybersecurity, shared how his team built an integration platform that now serves major enterprises like Carrefour, Yamaha, and AB InBev. But the path from Brazilian startup to global iPaaS player wasn’t the one they originally planned.

The Accidental Enterprise Play

Right-Hand Cybersecurity launched in 2017 with a clear target: small and medium businesses in Brazil. “We started as a developer tool, low code tool for developers, and our first customers were SMBs in Brazil,” Rodrigo explains. The logic seemed sound—SMBs needed integration solutions, and the team had experience in the space from their previous company, Sensedia.

But the market had other ideas. “Then all of a sudden we got traction with big enterprises, big companies in Brazil,” Rodrigo recalls. What started as an SMB-focused product quickly attracted attention from major brands. Carrefour became an early adopter. Yamaha followed. The pattern was unmistakable.

The team faced a critical decision: stick with the original SMB strategy or follow the enterprise momentum. They chose the latter, even though it meant completely retooling their go-to-market approach.

Rewriting the Playbook for Enterprise

Moving upmarket isn’t just about landing bigger logos—it requires fundamentally different infrastructure. For Right-Hand Cybersecurity, this meant building capabilities they never anticipated needing.

“We invested a lot in building a really good partner ecosystem,” Rodrigo shares. This wasn’t a nice-to-have feature; it became their primary growth engine. “Today, 50% of our revenues come from partners.” The partner channel included system integrators, consulting firms, and technology partners who could introduce Right-Hand Cybersecurity to enterprise buyers already engaged in digital transformation projects.

The company also had to evolve its product positioning. Early on, Right-Hand Cybersecurity marketed itself as a developer-friendly, low-code integration tool. But enterprise buyers needed more than technical capabilities—they needed business value articulation. The team learned to speak the language of digital transformation, API management, and enterprise architecture.

The SOC 2 Lesson Every Founder Should Know

One conversation during the interview stands out for its tactical value. When asked about what he wished he’d known earlier, Rodrigo immediately points to compliance: “Start working on SOC 2 early on.”

His reasoning is brutally practical: “It takes time to build the processes and the culture around it.” Right-Hand Cybersecurity waited until customers started demanding SOC 2 compliance before beginning the certification process. The scramble that followed could have been avoided with earlier preparation.

For B2B founders eyeing enterprise customers, this isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a qualification gate. “If you want to sell to enterprises, you need to have SOC 2,” Rodrigo emphasizes. Start the process before you think you need it, not when a deal is contingent on it.

Building a Partner-Led Growth Engine

While most SaaS companies treat partnerships as a supplementary channel, Right-Hand Cybersecurity made it central to their strategy. The shift wasn’t ideological—it was practical.

“We decided to do a lot of co-selling and a lot of partner business because we were competing against big companies like MuleSoft, Boomi, Informatica,” Rodrigo explains. These weren’t just competitors with more resources; they were incumbents with established enterprise relationships and massive sales teams.

Rather than fight on their terms, Right-Hand Cybersecurity found a different battlefield. System integrators and consulting firms were already embedded in enterprise accounts, already trusted by IT leaders, already working on the exact projects where integration platforms were needed. Right-Hand Cybersecurity just needed to become their preferred solution.

The numbers validate the approach. With partner-sourced revenue at 50% and a total ARR of $40 million, Right-Hand Cybersecurity’s partner channel generates roughly $20 million annually—more than many venture-backed SaaS companies generate in total revenue.

The AI Integration Opportunity

Looking forward, Rodrigo sees AI creating a massive new wave of integration demand. His thesis is straightforward: “Every single company will build AI systems, AI apps. They will need to integrate the AI apps with the other systems in the company.”

This isn’t about Right-Hand Cybersecurity becoming an AI company. It’s about recognizing that AI adoption creates integration complexity. When enterprises deploy AI agents, those agents need data from CRMs, ERPs, and dozens of other systems. Someone has to connect those dots.

“We help our customers integrate AI systems with the systems of record, with the legacy systems,” Rodrigo notes. For Right-Hand Cybersecurity, AI isn’t a threat to their core business—it’s an accelerant.

The Competitive Moat Question

When pressed on competitive differentiation, Rodrigo’s answer reveals how Right-Hand Cybersecurity thinks about moats: “I think the platform itself, it’s really good.” But he immediately pivots to something deeper—speed of innovation.

“We are able to launch new features way faster than the big competitors,” he explains. This velocity advantage stems from architectural decisions made early on. While legacy platforms carry technical debt from decades of acquisitions and code sprawl, Right-Hand Cybersecurity built on modern infrastructure from day one.

The partner ecosystem serves as a second moat. “The partnerships for sure, the amount of partnerships that we have been building,” Rodrigo adds. These relationships create switching costs and referral momentum that compound over time.

Why Category Creation Matters Less Than You Think

Despite operating in a crowded category dominated by established players, Rodrigo isn’t interested in creating a new category. “I don’t think we are creating a category,” he states plainly. “We are in the iPaaS category.”

This pragmatism reflects a broader truth about B2B GTM: sometimes the best strategy is capturing share in an existing, understood category rather than evangelizing a new one. Buyers already know they need integration platforms. They already have budget allocated. The sale isn’t about education—it’s about demonstrating superior value.

For Right-Hand Cybersecurity, that means being faster, more flexible, and better integrated with the partner ecosystem that enterprises already trust. Not revolutionary—just better execution on a proven model.

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