Why We Quit Our Jobs to Develop a Cybersecurity Customer Research Platform

I have a confession to make.

I’ve been a digital and demand gen marketer for almost 15 years, six of those years spent navigating the wild terrain of the cybersecurity market. 

But for nearly a decade of my professional career, I was trapped in a cycle of doing things that didn’t matter.

I spent 50% of my time relentlessly chasing my audience, trying to grab their attention with tactics that added zero—scratch that, negative—value to my business and revenue goals. 

I was drowning in the same old routines, and worse yet, these so-called “strategies” didn’t just fail to help my customers; they actively made their experience worse.

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How to Poke a Bear and Survive to Tell the Tale

I was overwhelmed, stressed out, and utterly bored. Aggressive growth goals loomed over me like a giant existential anvil. 

My career felt stagnant, and my daily grind was filled with tactics that made me feel like a hamster spinning on a wheel.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse... it did. 

I poked the bear. And not just any bear.

A grizzly bear with a painted purple beard, a taser in one hand, and a wet fish in the other, ready to smack some sense into anyone who dared cross him.

Enter: Chris Roberts. 

If you don’t know Chris, let me paint a quick picture: he’s the guy who takes “brutal honesty” to a whole new level, especially when it comes to calling out shady marketing and sales practices.

So, what really happened? 

I found myself on his bad side during a website audit session, and I used a buzzword in the completely wrong context. 

When I say “bad side,” I mean I might as well have painted a bullseye on my forehead. I could hear his voice over the Jabra, “Whoever said that, take them out back and taser them right now.”

That’s when my life as a cybersecurity marketer changed forever.

When Reality Hits You Like a Wet Fish

Suddenly, I found myself at a crossroads, faced with two choices: 

Take the blue pill, retreat to my cozy cave of ignorance, and continue churning out ineffective marketing tactics that drained my time and energy, or take the red pill and plunge headfirst into a world where I could genuinely understand my audience, sparing myself the embarrassment of being out of touch.

I opted for the truth. I could handle it. So, I asked Chris the hard questions:

• "Why did I piss you off, Chris?"

• "What didn’t work for you?"

• "What could I have done differently?"

• "How does a different approach impact your goals?"

• "What are your goals?"

What followed were brutal, unapologetic answers that stung but ultimately ignited a fire within me. 

Instead of retreating, I became obsessed with learning, asking better questions, and truly understanding my buyers. 

I was determined to delve so deeply into their needs that I would never again feel the sting of a wet fish slap.

I realized that I had been doing it all wrong. I had spent years shouting into the void, hoping something would stick. 

My strategies revolved around chasing attention, spamming inboxes, overpromising, underdelivering, and failing to do my homework.

I was just another cog in the marketing machine, and I hated it.

Chris illuminated what I had been missing: the truth.

I had to leave behind my comfortable marketing cave and genuinely prioritize my audience.

I needed to stop guessing and start listening.

Commitment to Understanding My Audience

So, I committed myself to understanding my audience—not just superficially but at a core level.

What did they need? What were their fears? What truly mattered to them?

I began interviewing one ideal customer every week, eliminating assumptions and guesswork.

These weren’t just data points; they were real conversations with people who had real needs.

And you know what? It changed everything. I finally stopped wasting time on useless tactics and started building a business that mattered. 

I set my sights on one goal: no more spray-and-pray marketing, no more burning through budgets with no ROI.

Just straight-up, no-BS, customer-led growth.

This shift transformed my role as a demand gen marketer in a high-growth cybersecurity company. 

Sales teams began to come to me instead of the other way around. 

The CMO sought my input instead of scheduling analyst calls. 

I had a seat at the table, and most importantly, I earned the trust and respect of real cybersecurity practitioners because I put in the work to understand their needs before engaging with them.

The Moment I Quit My Job (And Why I’m Grateful I Did)

Despite my newfound clarity, a massive problem persisted. 

My peers continued to resort to shady tactics. During a community call with other cybersecurity marketers, we discussed ways to engage security practitioners. 

Several suggested sending $25 gift cards to lure buyers onto the phone.

My heart sank. 

Just a month later, I learned that the head of the SDR team had hired an agency to cold email prospects using fake LinkedIn profiles—without consulting the CMO. 

Shortly thereafter, I received a heated email from a CISO at a major retail company, slamming our sales organization for calling him on his personal cell phone.

What in the hell was happening?!? 

The foundations of trust I was trying to build were crumbling before me. I had to fix so many mistakes. Most surprisingly, I faced resistance for advocating a more genuine, customer-centric approach!

So, I made a bold choice. I quit my “comfortable” full-time job without having another lined up. 

I knew I needed to go all-in on customer research and help my peers and their customers—those on the digital (and sometimes physical) frontlines.

Meeting of the Most Curious Minds

During my relentless journey of interviewing customers, I encountered a remarkable CISO named Dmitriy. 

From the moment we connected, it was clear we shared a unique rapport. Our discussions generated so much value for cybersecurity go-to-market teams—details for another time!

Among the many things I owe Dmitriy is my introduction to Ben Siegel, a powerhouse in building communities within the cybersecurity space. 

Dmitriy was advising Ben on his startup, The CyberNest, and insisted we connect. Intrigued, I took the call.

Right off the bat, Ben and I discovered that we were two go-to-market professionals navigating the same turbulent waters, both frustrated by the ineffective tactics and superficial GTM strategies that plagued the cybersecurity space.

The Disconnect: Vendors vs. Buyers

Ben, known for his no-nonsense approach and ability to cut through the noise, had been deeply entrenched in the industry as part of Gartner's Emerging Tech Team. 

As our conversations and collaboration became deeper, we saw two worlds colliding, each pulling in different directions.

We’ve seen firsthand how this creates a rift between cybersecurity companies and their buyers.

It’s not that buyers are difficult; it’s just that they’ve been burned by vendors so many times before.

Ben shared my struggles—those sleepless nights spent validating endless cycles of tactics that failed to resonate from dated qualitative and quantitative data, coupled with the pressure to deliver results that often felt like chasing shadows instead of building real connections.

We bonded over our shared experiences and frustrations, but more importantly, we recognized a mutual belief: there had to be a better way to access real customer data than relying on outdated tactics like analyst reports, online forums, and abstract customer calls.

In that moment, we envisioned a new approach—one that would empower cybersecurity vendors to directly engage with their audience and derive meaningful insights for both security companies and security practitioners. 

Little did we know that this meeting would lay the groundwork for something transformative.

A Shared Mission: Upending the Traditional Analyst Model

We both knew that what the industry needed wasn’t another generic research tool, but an accessible and transparent platform that could deliver true buyer insights quickly and cost-effectively in the cybersecurity space. 

That’s when it clicked.

We both had the same idea—to build something that didn’t just talk about customer research, but actually did it.

We knew that if we combined our skills, knowledge, failures, insights, and network we’d gathered throughout the years, we could create a solution that would help cybersecurity vendors break free from the same cycle of frustration that we had been stuck in. 

The Power of Direct Engagement: Building Real Relationships

So, what’s the solution? It’s simple: direct engagement with your ideal customers.

Mind blowing. Right?

We set out to build CyberSynapse—a buyer research platform to help customer-obsessed go-to-market teams access real cybersecurity practitioners so they can get the deepest buyer insights to refine their products, sharpen their marketing, and accelerate their sales.

We set out on a mission to reimagine the ridiculous analyst relations process to drive way better go-to-market decision-making with active cybersecurity decision makers.

To democratize customer research for cybersecurity organizations.

Looking back, that was one of the best decisions we ever made. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we also knew that the only way to change the game was to be the ones brave enough to start.

Why CyberSynapse?

We marketers and sales professionals have become far too comfortable in our echo chambers, cycling through trivial tactics and vanity metrics, losing sight of what it truly means to be a marketer—understanding people and persuading them to care.

We've abandoned the foundation of our craft—empathy. 

Instead of doing the hard work of listening, learning, and engaging directly with buyers, we've outsourced that responsibility to third-party intermediaries, like analysts, to think and act for us. 

This reliance on external insights feeds short-term tactics that chase easy wins, meeting traditional KPIs that look good on paper but don’t actually move the needle.

It’s time for marketers to get back to basics—doing the work ourselves, building relationships with the people behind the markets we serve. 

The real value lies in understanding buyers' challenges, fears, and motivations in real-time. 

The traditional analyst model only widens the gap, delivering insights too late to make an impact and keeping marketers at arm’s length from the audience they need to connect with most. 

To drive meaningful growth, marketers need to abandon these outdated practices and re-engage with their buyers directly—without waiting for someone else to interpret the story for them.

I want you to take a moment and think about this:

What if you took one hour a week to truly listen to the ideal customers your care about? 

What if you leaned into your customers with curiosity and empathy rather than a sales pitch? 

Kind of like I did when I pissed off Chris.

Poking the Bear Saved My Life

Looking back, I’m grateful for that embarrassing, uncomfortable moment with Chris.

And damn, am I glad I took the red pill. 

It forced me to confront the reality of my situation. 

It made me realize that I needed to change—radically.

Had I never poked the bear, I wouldn’t have:

• Become a more confident marketer.

• Leveled up in my career.

• Gained a seat at the table internally working for vendors.

• Established credibility with cybersecurity buyers.

• Quit my job, met Ben, and created CyberSynapse.

What a wonderful rabbit hole to go down.

And had we never quit our jobs, Ben and I wouldn’t have connected, shared our frustrations, and combined our passions to build something truly transformative.

So here’s the question: are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and join us on this journey? 

If so, let’s talk.

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