How to Sell to the CISO Guide with Mike Hanley of GitHub

How to Sell to the CISO Insights from D e cib el’s CIS O C ouncil with Mike Hanley o f GitHub

You Love Customers.

So Do We. Whether you are validating an idea or trying to find product and market fit, access to customers is the lifeblood of an early stage company.

Through hundreds of conversations across the industry, we found that technical founders desired coaching on how to engage with IT executives. At the same time, many of our most experienced and forward-leaning members of our CISO Council wanted to share practical advice on how founders can build more meaningful long-term relationships with potential customers. We can help.

Decibel’s CISO Council member Mike Hanley, CISO of GitHub, joined us for a discussion on recent cybersecurity incidents and the evolving environment. In his role, he’s responsible for protecting one of the largest and most advanced platforms in the world and navigating new challenges in an unprecedented time.

In collaboration with Mike Hanley and our CISO Council members, the following guide aims to help founders understand and build relationships with early adopters. It’s packed with wisdom and insights that will hopefully make the journey a lot easier for you.

A d a y i n t h e l i fe o f a C I S O

Organized chaos Multiple fires to put out Big breaches top of mind Delivery pressure Cost pressure Tooling overload Managing a large, complex organization

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I’m thinking about security threats and breaches all day. I don’t need more fearbased engagement tactics. I prefer to connect with people who have a deep understanding of the concrete problems I’m trying solve and can offer specific solutions.

Mike Hanley CISO, GitHub

How to connect with a CISO Do find authentic, warm, and quality referrals through a VC, another trusted CISO, or existing mutual relationships.

Do make it easy to schedule time to talk, prepare to be truly helpful, and share interesting information.

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There’s no one size-fits-all approach to engaging with CISOs. Do your research, customize your approach for the individual, and come prepared.

Vanessa Pegueros Chief Trust & Security Officer, OneLogin

Do personalize emails. They work if you get the subject and preview text right. It can show us that you did the research.

Do not send mass mailings or e-mails or start with any e-mail solicitation.

Do not request introductions that are not warm referrals or from a trusted source.

Problem identification and solution Work to ensure the security problem you’re trying to solve is a top priority for the CISO. Consider other stakeholders in early conversations with the CISO, including IT, engineering, or compliance.

Recognize the complexity the CISO is addressing and help simplify it.

Align your solution to larger strategic business goals, like accelerating digital transformation, modern architecture adoption, and agiel development.

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If you can show me that, for the same cost of one employee, I can solve a top problem and free up time and transition five people on my team to work on another priority, that’s a great deal. I’ll happily write that check every year.

Mike Hanley CISO, GitHub

The impact of incidents can drive new opportunities Cybersecurity is global topic and a board-room level priority across organizations and industries.

To prepare for possible breaches, CISOs may have increased budgets to improve detection and response.

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Because of recent incidents, CISOs are advocating for and gaining higher priority within the business to detect and respond to breaches. Any organization can be within the blast range of an incident, so we’re all working to make sure we’re prepared.

Caleb Sima CISO, Databricks

CISOs are looking for solutions that address the problem that is top-ofmind and most time-sensitive for the organization.

Building long-term relationships with the CISO Be honest and authentic with CISOs about the product’s progress.

Allow for CISOs to become true strategic partners in the product development, whether in an advisory capacity or as design partners.

Stay ahead of technology and industry trends and keep CISOs informed of best practices.

Be proactive and share insights from your experiences.

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We want to build long term relationships and reduce the complexity of the portfolio that we need to manage. Like most CISOs, I would rather partner with a small number of proactive strategic partners who stay visible and help us stay ahead of trends.

Mike Hanley CISO, GitHub

CISO Council Members Sean Cassidy Head of Security, Asana

Cory Scott CISO, Confluent

Chad Small CISO, DevSecOps Lead, Bind

David Lindner CISO, Contrast Security

Garrett Held CISO, Carta

Aman Diwakar Security Engineer Manager, DoorDash

David Hahn CISO, CDK Global

Jon Oberheide Co-Founder, Duo/Cisco

Joe Sullivan Chief Security Officer, Cloudflare Jason Hayes Head of Information Security, Cohesity Myke Lyons CISO, Collibra Will Gregorian CISO, Color

David Tsao VP Security Engineering, Marqueta Jill Cochrane VP, Global Security, MetLife Vanessa Pegueros Chief Trust and Security Officer, OneLogin

Michael Montoya CISO, Equinix

Caleb Sima, Chief Security Officer, Robinhood

Fritz Wetschnig CISO, Flextronics

Sean Catlett CISO, Slack

Mike Hanley CISO, GitHub

Helen Patton CISO, The Ohio State University

William Bengtson Dir Threat Detection & Response, HashiCorp

Christopher Zell Head of Security, The Wendy's Company

The Exponential Power of our Network Creating an Unfair Advantage Decibel is an independent venture capital firm pushing the conventional boundaries of early stage investing. We invest in seed, Series A, and early Series B software companies that are accelerating the digital transformation of the global economy, leveraging the disruptive forces of cloud, mobility, open source software, artificial intelligence, and pervasive connectivity.

Decibel combines the speed, agility, and independent risk-taking traditionally found in the best venture firms, while offering differentiated access to the scale, entrepreneurial talent, and deep customer relationships found in one of the largest tech companies in the world. Whether founders are validating an idea or trying to find product and market fit, we believe access to prospective users in diverse verticals, and across companies both large and small, is key to gaining early traction. Through our access to over 750,000 customers through Cisco, we amplify the voice of our founders and help startups gain unrivaled access to key customers.

Learn more at www.decibel.vc