Mark Sasson’s Post

Me yesterday when all my LinkedIn connections and content disappeared for a few hours.

Is the AI market on a similar hype trajectory as cybersecurity was in 2021/2022? TechCrunch specifically uses the word "bubble" when outlining a FOMO driven investment vehicle that's increasing AI startup valuations.

Providing VISIBILITY to sought-after candidates can be THE differentiator between a successful and failed recruitment campaign. “In the absence of true information, even palpably false information will always appear as the next best thing.” ― Philippe Paquet 🤔 In other words, without plausible information on *who, why, how, and when*, industry professionals will try and fill in the blanks. And usually, the assumptions are incorrect and patently negative. Visibility can come in many forms, one of which is 📢 Communicating the hiring process up front. Most people talk about the need to keep the interview process relatively lean. The concern is that a lengthy process can result in a candidate losing interest or accepting another offer. While those are reasonable concerns, most serious professionals seem to appreciate an opportunity to get various perspectives from interviewers. In our experience, candidates drop out more often due to a feeling that the process is being artificially extended. 😕 “Maybe they’re just keeping me warm while they see if they can land their preferred candidate.” While that happens, most of the time companies are not “keeping them warm”. It’s simply that there are a lot of stakeholders that need to vet the candidates. But without visibility, it can seem like a never-ending exercise. The easiest way to mitigate this issue is by communicating, up front, who the interviewers will be and WHY. Not only does that remove the need for a candidate to fill in the blanks, but it shows THOUGHT and STRATEGY were implemented into the process. While THOUGHT and STRATEGY seem like a no brainer in this respect, most cybersecurity professionals have probably been through a wayward process (or 10). It’s a big differentiator, give it a try!

Ever ask yourself “why don’t recruiters just tell me who the company is⁉ ”. The primary reason: It’s a business risk. Many recruiters work on a contingent basis where they are competing with other external recruitment agencies on ▪ the same search 🤦♂️ ▪ As a result, recruitment agencies won’t share who they represent up front because they don’t want the prospective candidate to access the opportunity through a different source. That = not getting paid! This throw it at the wall hiring approach represents LOST OPPORTUNITIES for all parties: ▪ The employer loses because when a recruiter confidentially represents their company, that employer is not capitalizing on the opportunity to extend its brand recognition to a very targeted set of industry professionals. ▪ Recruiters lose because the industry professionals don’t take them seriously. It takes substantially more effort to attract prospective candidates when recruiting confidentially. ▪ Industry professionals lose because they are fatigued by so much BS outreach. They might overlook a solid opportunity. Many potential clients have walked away from our services because I insist on search exclusivity. The result however is a near perfect search : fill ratio. Very hard to accomplish in any contingent format. AND Considerable ▪ ROI for our clients ▪ around increasing their visibility in the market, all while reducing the times it takes to fill a search.

Cybersecurity vendors raised $740 MILLION over 25 rounds in July. Some comparative data below. -The $740 Million raised in July 2024 represents a 48% increase in funding raised when compared to July 2023. -25 funding rounds were tracked in July '24 compared to 21 in July, '23. -Early-stage funding (Seed, Series-A) represents 68% of all July 2024 funding rounds recorded. -YTD vendors raised $6.4 Billion, a 20% increase over the same period in 2023.

Inconvenient truth: technology solutions don’t sell themselves. *Link to discussion in comments* Mark Bartig shares unfiltered thoughts on the importance of GTM execution for cybersecurity start-ups. This isn’t just a gloss over. Mark was generous with his insights, and elements of his playbook, around helping start-ups achieve their revenue goals. Investors, founders, and cybersecurity pros, give it a listen and let us know your thoughts.

United Health's going to be dishing out >$2,300,000,000, this year, because it couldn't contain a cyberattack. Wondering how much premiums for customers are going to go up in 2025 🤔

We tracked 28 funding rounds in June totaling $881 Million. **Full list of transactions in comments**. Below are select companies that seem to be gaining traction in their respective segments and lifecycles 👏 Liminal -US HQ -AI/LLM -$5M Seed -Lead Investor Fin Capital Entro Security -US/Israel HQ -Permissions/Identity -$18M Series-A -Lead Investor Dell Technologies Capital Odaseva -US HQ -Data -$54M Series-C -Lead investor Silver Lake Huntress -US HQ -Detection/Response -$150M Series-D -Lead Investor Kleiner Perkins

Answer to this headline: Only if the goal is to remove incentive, substantially reduce investment, and crush innovation.

We unpacked the cybersecurity funding data for Q2 and sprinkled in some analysis. If you've got an opinion on any of this - even if it conflicts with ours - would love to see it!