Happy New Year ! Wisdom from Product Leaders as We Start 2025
Three strategic choices for Cyber Builders. What customers interview means from Wiz first PM. Hard Truth: Customer Empathy Is Not About Kindness.
Hello Cyber Builders 🖖
This week, during my weekly run, I found myself absorbed in two eye-opening episodes of Lenny Rachitsky's podcast (here and there). These conversations struck me, and I had to share them as we started this transformative year.
2024 has been momentous, as we launched CyGO entrepreneurs alongside my cofounder Aurélie. We embarked on this journey with a clear mission: to empower EU entrepreneurs to shape a more secure future for Europe. This isn't just about cybersecurity—it's about protecting our democracy, jobs, and digital economy.
Instead of giving you another prescriptive list of New Year's resolutions, I want to share transformative insights from two product and marketing leaders. Their perspectives on strategic choices and customer understanding must influence how you work and build the next generation of cybersecurity champions.
The Power of Choice
In his conversation with Lenny (link), Seth Godin delivered a profound truth: success isn't about waiting for a “moment” but making three fundamental choices that most founders and product managers overlook.
First, choose your customers. You are used to designing personas. However, choosing your customers is also about making the hard decision about who you won't serve. Too many Cyber Builders try to serve everyone from small businesses to enterprises, spreading themselves thin across healthcare, manufacturing, and beyond. That's a recipe for mediocrity. If you are starting, start small, become a leader in your niche, and then expand.
Second, pick your competition. Most founders I meet see competition as something that happens to them. They react to competitors' moves, features, and pricing. Seth flips this mindset: you actively choose where to compete. It's about finding your unique space rather than playing someone else's game. For example, if you are willing to compete against Microsoft or Cisco, don’t be surprised to see large enterprise deals bundling your product segment with another part of their extensive portfolio.
Third, choose your distribution. This is where most Cyber Builders stumble. "We're talking to customers" or "attending events" isn't a distribution strategy. How will you reach your market at scale? Through channel partners? Cloud marketplaces? Direct sales? Not answering these questions is not choosing. It’s forgetting… and you will probably end up in a failure situation.
From Theory to Reality: The Wiz Story
The power of these choices became crystal clear when I listened to Wiz's Chief Marketing Officer share their journey (link). Their story is a masterclass in Product Discovery and Customer Interviews.
In the company's earliest days, they spent months conducting customer interviews. They started with a concept around reinventing network security, but something unexpected emerged. Every conversation pointed to the same pain point: cloud security. Instead of pushing their original vision, they listened. They pivoted.
The results? Unprecedented growth - reaching $100M ARR in 18 months and surpassing $500M ARR by year five.
I see the Wiz story as a validation of Seth's framework in action. Wiz chose their customers (cloud-first enterprises), picked their competition (legacy security tools), and nailed their distribution strategy.
The Real Meaning of Empathy
Seth said one sentence that resonated with me during his interview.
Customer empathy is not about kindness
He emphasized that customer empathy isn't about being friendly or polite during meetings. It's about truly understanding their world - their constraints, fears, and aspirations. It's about feeling what they feel.
This resonates deeply with our mission at CyGO Entrepreneurs. We're not just building another accelerator but creating a space where founders can make these crucial choices with clarity and confidence, where customer understanding goes beyond surface-level conversations.
Meeting with customers BEFORE a product, BEFORE coding, BEFORE almost everything is hard. Engaging with them to find real “Design Partners” is even HARDER. I am happy to engage with Cyber Builders who want to discuss this in depth. Please send me a message.
Choosing is refusing
As we close 2024, I challenge every Cyber Builder to reflect on these three choices. Which customers are you serving? Where are you choosing to compete? How will you reach your market?
The answers might be uncomfortable. Most of the time, you have not made any choices.
You have customers and do business with them. What is the issue? The point is that you are probably stressed by competition on pricing and features. Your distribution is chaotic, and you have channel conflicts.
Making choices forces you to decline opportunities, but that's precisely the point. Success in our industry isn't about following a predefined playbook—it's about making intentional choices that shape your future.
Let’s make better choices in 2025.
Laurent 💚
Found value in this post? Follow me for more insights on building successful cybersecurity companies. Want to dive deeper into these topics? Check out the full episodes:
