Why Cyber Startups Need CISO Advisors

#1737480: Why Cyber Startups Need CISO Advisors

Description:	All security startups will tell you they talk to potential customers. The problem is that you limit your development when you only talk to CISOs who might buy. It's not the same guidance you'll get from a CISO who advises. Building for whom? Great engineering and market fit are not the same thing. "Every product company has brilliant engineers and technical savants. With all that expertise building products, how many of said product geniuses have spent time in end-to-end architecture build and security design from edge to apps to cloud and now AI," asked Jon G Shende of Thales Cybersecurity Products. Knowing what CISOs, CTOs, GRC teams, and legal care about is a different skill set. Marielle Palm found that too many startups have these blinders on. "Building in a bubble is the silent killer. Real validation isn't just talking; it's brutal, unfiltered, and in the room with the people who'll buy. If your advisors aren't challenging you, you're just confirming your bias. That's the real risk." The only feedback loop that matters Not everyone is convinced that advisors move the needle. "Only customers matter. People who don't deploy, don't buy, and don't feel the pain don't shape winning products," challenged Aviv Nahum of Above Security. Advisors, he argued, won't deploy because of conflicts of interest, which removes them from the feedback loop that forces the truth. Luigi LENGUITO of BforeAI \| The PreCrime™ Company trusts hard numbers. Revenue tells you more than any indication of intent. "Closing sales is a much better indicator that you're on the right track, and at seed one should already have sensible ARR," said Lenguito. In his experience, advisory signals are too variable to trust until procurement enters the picture. Valid, but for whom? Founder conviction is an asset until it becomes a blind spot. Anton Chuvakin of Cloud Security Podcast by Google put it well: "The founder thinks they build based on a valid experience. And it is valid. But valid at Google does not mean valid at a 4000-person agricultural equipment maker in the Midwest." Nrupak S. of Coles Group added another dimension to that gap. Security products don't just need to work, they need to be easy enough for non-security users to adopt. The real implementation challenge is making cybersecurity capabilities accessible to people who didn't sign up to be cybersecurity practitioners. Rethink the advisor roster CISOs open doors, but they may not be the sharpest source of product feedback in the room. Anatoly Chikanov of Primary Ventures suggested founders target a different level of the org chart: "Your VP of security or director will often be great advisors because they are closer to the reality of running XYZ products in production." That proximity to day-to-day operations produces more technically targeted product input. "CISOs can help with logos and intros, but you also need some closer leadership practitioners to help balance that out with some technical acumen."
More info:	https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-cyber-startups-need-ciso-advisors-cisoseries-mz1yc/

Description:

All security startups will tell you they talk to potential customers. The problem is that you limit your development when you only talk to CISOs who might buy. It's not the same guidance you'll get from a CISO who advises.

Building for whom?
Great engineering and market fit are not the same thing. "Every product company has brilliant engineers and technical savants. With all that expertise building products, how many of said product geniuses have spent time in end-to-end architecture build and security design from edge to apps to cloud and now AI," asked Jon G Shende of Thales Cybersecurity Products. Knowing what CISOs, CTOs, GRC teams, and legal care about is a different skill set. Marielle Palm found that too many startups have these blinders on. "Building in a bubble is the silent killer. Real validation isn't just talking; it's brutal, unfiltered, and in the room with the people who'll buy. If your advisors aren't challenging you, you're just confirming your bias. That's the real risk."

The only feedback loop that matters
Not everyone is convinced that advisors move the needle. "Only customers matter. People who don't deploy, don't buy, and don't feel the pain don't shape winning products," challenged Aviv Nahum of Above Security. Advisors, he argued, won't deploy because of conflicts of interest, which removes them from the feedback loop that forces the truth. Luigi LENGUITO of BforeAI | The PreCrime™ Company trusts hard numbers. Revenue tells you more than any indication of intent. "Closing sales is a much better indicator that you're on the right track, and at seed one should already have sensible ARR," said Lenguito. In his experience, advisory signals are too variable to trust until procurement enters the picture.

Valid, but for whom?
Founder conviction is an asset until it becomes a blind spot. Anton Chuvakin of Cloud Security Podcast by Google put it well: "The founder thinks they build based on a valid experience. And it is valid. But valid at Google does not mean valid at a 4000-person agricultural equipment maker in the Midwest." Nrupak S. of Coles Group added another dimension to that gap. Security products don't just need to work, they need to be easy enough for non-security users to adopt. The real implementation challenge is making cybersecurity capabilities accessible to people who didn't sign up to be cybersecurity practitioners.

Rethink the advisor roster
CISOs open doors, but they may not be the sharpest source of product feedback in the room. Anatoly Chikanov of Primary Ventures suggested founders target a different level of the org chart: "Your VP of security or director will often be great advisors because they are closer to the reality of running XYZ products in production." That proximity to day-to-day operations produces more technically targeted product input. "CISOs can help with logos and intros, but you also need some closer leadership practitioners to help balance that out with some technical acumen."

More info:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-cyber-startups-need-ciso-advisors-cisoseries-mz1yc/

Date added	May 14, 2026, 10:53 p.m.
Source	LinkedIn
Subjects	PodCasts / Webcast / Webinar / eSummit / Virtual Event etc. Security Management/Strategic Security/ROI/ROSI - CISO and Higher Level