In this episode, I sat down with Andy Ellis, a longtime industry security leader who has turned investor, advisor, and mentor. We discussed how security vendors can build effective marketing and sales teams and discussed Andy's experience in identifying and investing in industry-leading security startups.
Don't miss this chance to hear from an industry legend who has worn multiple hats and excelled as an operating, investor, and overall security leader.
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Andy dropped a wealth of wisdom in this episode, and we covered a lot of ground, including:
Andy’s experience as a cyber practitioner, leader, investor and advisor, and how his time and expertise from being a practitioner helped him be a more effective invest and advisor later in his career.
Why security practitioners often think they are the center of the universe, and fail to realize the business has more pressing concerns often than security, and how security can truly be a business enabler.
What some of the best and worst moves teams make are when it comes to building successful go to market (GTM) and sales teams and the importance of conviction and passion.
What Andy calls the “9 truths” and key distinctions between sales and marketing, including cultivating a market category and building interest and awareness, all the way through selling.
Balancing the demands between GTM/Sales and product when operating in a startup and scale-up with competing demands and finite capital.
Why CISO’s and security leaders often bemoan cybersecurity sales and marketing interactions and how we can positively change that to have interactions be more collaborative and productive.
Conversely, what CISOs and security practitioners can learn from marketing and sales when it comes to communication, empathy, story telling, building rapport and more - knowing as a CISO, you are selling, but you’re selling your company on the concept of prioritizing security.
What effective leadership looks like, regardless of your role or function in an organization.
You can find out more about Andy and what he offers:
Duha - Andy’s organization offering consultancy around security, leadership, product, messaging, GTM and more.
Andy’s book 1% Leadership, Leadership and CISO Resources and more
