69: How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market w/ Lewis Henderson

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:08.150 You're listening to be tob revenue acceleration, a podcast dedicated to helping software executives 2 00:00:08.150 --> 00:00:11.789 stay on the cutting edge of sales and marketing in their industry. Let to 3 00:00:11.830 --> 00:00:17.629 get into the show. Hi, welcome to the BTB Revenue Acceleration podcast. 4 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:21.030 My name is dancyber. Can come here today with Lewis Henderson, BP of 5 00:00:21.149 --> 00:00:24.660 threat intelligence at glass or. Lewis, how are you today? Are Good. 6 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:27.339 Thanks for having me. Good, thanks for coming on. I will 7 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:32.500 be on horrendously rainy and Wendy Day outside in UK. So today we'll be 8 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:35.500 talking about how to stand out in a crowded market. But before we go 9 00:00:35.659 --> 00:00:39.409 into that conversation, that's can you please introduce self to our audience and tell 10 00:00:39.409 --> 00:00:43.170 us more about yourself and the company you represent, which is, of course, 11 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:46.049 gloss all. Yeah, sure, I think one of the first things 12 00:00:46.049 --> 00:00:50.119 is what is a VP of threat intelligence and and what does that roll sort 13 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:52.200 of entail and go on. Said, you know who we are as a 14 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:57.520 company. So my role in threat intelligence a technology company is slightly different from 15 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:00.359 the people that we actually sell to. So someone that's typical customer of ours 16 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:04.829 would be very interested in their own ecosystem in terms of cyber threats looking to 17 00:01:04.909 --> 00:01:11.390 analyze those. Threat Intelligence, when you're a technology company, is actually getting 18 00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:15.069 that Fiftyzero foot view across all of your cuss customers, you know, looking 19 00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:19.180 at events that are happening across the industry, you know, cyber threats, 20 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:25.379 cyber risk friends, and consolidating all of that into something that your customers can 21 00:01:25.620 --> 00:01:29.500 both understand and then action on as well. So I have a quite a 22 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:32.969 proven is roll really, because I have access to a lot of our customer 23 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:36.650 data. But it's how I use that data and translate it into something that 24 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:41.609 that's really usable for them and, in addition to that, helping our customers 25 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:46.450 and future prospects understand our product value. So Threat Intelligence, you know, 26 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:49.319 I'm a geek by nature and quite nerdy, so I love it and I 27 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.319 love all the data and I like talking about sort of fight cyber threats and 28 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:56.799 big evangelist about that. But the roles quite critical because, you know, 29 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.319 yes, I'll technology actually does something, but you know, the threat intelligence 30 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.670 role helps me communicate to the market, communicate a sort of future customers. 31 00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:09.669 So glass will as a company. So are UK based cybersecurity company and over 32 00:02:09.710 --> 00:02:15.500 the last sort of fifteen years or so we've been developing a technology that's fairly, 33 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:20.500 fairly unique and sort of fairly stand out and as a company we've just 34 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:25.139 emerged from about five years or so from work deep within intelligence services across the 35 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:29.780 globe. So put on that the UK and US and our technology. Doesn't 36 00:02:29.819 --> 00:02:32.889 it clearly fairly simple, fairly elegance, which is instead of trying to identify, 37 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:38.449 now we're and sand box types of technologies. are identify the bad stuff. 38 00:02:38.689 --> 00:02:42.770 I'll fold you know, I'll technology just revolves around file and document security. 39 00:02:42.969 --> 00:02:46.280 So very, very simply we take a file, we take it apart 40 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:51.639 and we rebuild a new, safe, clean version of that original file in 41 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.680 under a second and then get that onto a user. So use case for 42 00:02:54.759 --> 00:03:00.310 that is that we have that technology concept into an email security platforms, as 43 00:03:00.310 --> 00:03:02.870 a SASS offering, as a cloud offering and some other use cases, especially 44 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:08.150 within intelligence services, take that concept and apply in environments where you may wish 45 00:03:08.229 --> 00:03:14.580 to secure a highly sensitive network of users and protect them in a protective bubble 46 00:03:14.780 --> 00:03:17.099 from from the Internet. So for example, so we feel this the technology 47 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:21.500 is fairly simple and fairly elegant, but clearly there's lot of science behind it. 48 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:24.379 So one of the tricks in how we talk about it is is how 49 00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:28.969 do we make this simple and, you know, and human readable as possible, 50 00:03:29.169 --> 00:03:31.129 saves the language you use. Okay, interesting. Thanks for that. 51 00:03:31.409 --> 00:03:36.729 And of course, throughout your career you have mainly worked within the security space, 52 00:03:36.889 --> 00:03:39.849 which you mentioned. Glass will be a disruptive solution between know it's very 53 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:44.960 crowded. There's lots of new exciting vendors and technology coming to market all the 54 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.240 time. Whether it's highly back to US companies, UK companies, is rarely 55 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.039 venders. Obviously there's a look come from different angles. From your experience throughout 56 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:58.870 your career in the industry industry, what is a secret or what's important for 57 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:02.789 vendors to do to make it through such crowded market and ultimate differentiate yourself? 58 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:05.389 Yeah, I'd like to say I had the secret. I can probably just 59 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:09.629 say this is this is our experience and this is kind of how we've gone 60 00:04:09.629 --> 00:04:12.860 about it. So I've been with glass war for about just over five years, 61 00:04:13.099 --> 00:04:15.620 but I've actually been in Cybersecurity for about twenty years and I think over 62 00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:21.379 the time, you know, the language that cyber security technologies of used used 63 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:26.850 to be one of absolutes so it's interesting to still see that being used today 64 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:29.569 and I think that's something that, you know, should be encouraged to be 65 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:31.850 faced is that when I say absolute, I mean, you know, claims 66 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:36.370 of a hundred percent protection, you know, for all vectors, all manner 67 00:04:36.410 --> 00:04:41.879 of different threats. It's just it's just not the case. And I actually 68 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.879 my personal story, you know, prior to Glass Wall is, I actually 69 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.639 got out of the cybersecurity industry because after fifteen, fifteen years or so at 70 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.480 that point, I became quite disillusion because I, you know, I was 71 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:56.670 working for technology companies that couldn't actually deliver on the marketing promise. So for 72 00:04:56.790 --> 00:04:59.709 me, you know, exit in the industry was, you know, I 73 00:04:59.750 --> 00:05:02.709 di didn't feel great about it, but also felt better because I wasn't basically, 74 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:05.670 you know, taking technologies I didn't have total faith in, and that 75 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:10.100 faith stemmed from the messaging, you know, that it was. It was 76 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:14.860 taking something to market that you were really emphasized to say it worked to the 77 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:18.699 tune of a hundred percent or it gave absolute protection. So certainly I wouldn't 78 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:23.730 necessarily say it's a secret, but I think the recipe of how we've been 79 00:05:23.769 --> 00:05:28.290 successful, you know, in the intelligence services, definitely, but certainly with 80 00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:30.610 our customers within the legal sector. Is just approached them very, very differently 81 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:34.879 and be the upfront and be honest. You know, our technology only does 82 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.560 file and document security. We don't do anything else. And I think just 83 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:45.639 being really up front and really really clear with your messaging, you know, 84 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:47.959 a certainly helped us over sort of last last last few years, and it 85 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:53.670 helps in that initial piece because it helps you focus and makes the messaging quite 86 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:56.389 simple, but it also, you know, that then carries all the way 87 00:05:56.430 --> 00:06:00.189 through to the customer experience, you know, to just just so that everyone 88 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:01.790 understand exactly what page you are on in the value you have to add as 89 00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:05.660 well. So to being really really clear, really really simple and just being 90 00:06:05.699 --> 00:06:10.579 completely honest about, you know, the claims around your products. That's work 91 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:13.699 for us. So, you know, like I said, it probably isn't 92 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:15.620 isn't a secret, it's just a formula and it seems to really work for 93 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:18.410 us over the last few years. Yeah, and we're talking before this as 94 00:06:18.449 --> 00:06:21.610 well, and I think one of the other things that you mentioned was around 95 00:06:21.649 --> 00:06:27.610 actually how you've been creating a lot of noise through your debty and blogging as 96 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.689 well so obviously that's another I guess, channel if you like, or tactic 97 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:35.360 that can help you differentiate in a non traditional marketing way path. Yeah, 98 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:40.519 definitely, it's I think. So we've been really fortunate have a guy called 99 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:43.600 dynnists crews join us. So he's a he's our see so on, our 100 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:47.430 VP of engineering. But what he's brought is this really disruptive force for good 101 00:06:48.430 --> 00:06:51.470 in terms of lifting the lid on the team of really, really talented people. 102 00:06:53.069 --> 00:06:56.550 And you know, this is this is not sales, this is not 103 00:06:56.790 --> 00:07:00.910 marketing, this is just allowing a team of individuals who really, really talented 104 00:07:00.949 --> 00:07:04.540 and know the stuff to just talk and share ideas safely in the public domain. 105 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:09.100 And previously, and it's a bit unusual for a technology company, and 106 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:13.100 certainly for us, we're sat on, you know, our own intellectual property 107 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:16.569 and patterns and and you know, over the years you get protective over that 108 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:21.050 stuff. So that's that's that's okay, but you shouldn't have to you know, 109 00:07:21.250 --> 00:07:24.930 lift, you know, put a lid on the entire company and it's 110 00:07:24.970 --> 00:07:28.569 really important to start to let people actually talk. So, you know, 111 00:07:29.009 --> 00:07:31.600 for me person the I'm going also going on my own journey in terms of 112 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.600 openness and transparency. So I'll be talking about a whole bunch of stuff that 113 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:41.360 isn't really related to our core messaging. Good example of that is I'm actually 114 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.550 again being a bit bit of a nerd. I actually quite like crafting powerpoint 115 00:07:45.629 --> 00:07:48.149 you know. So I'm going to be writing a blog about how I created 116 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:54.709 a powerpoint deck out of our corporate color scheme and how I make it easy 117 00:07:54.790 --> 00:07:57.189 for users to be able to just, you know, right click on a 118 00:07:57.230 --> 00:08:01.939 layout without them having to construct something all themselves. And that's nothing to do 119 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:05.540 with our core technology and it's just trying to bring out this this human side 120 00:08:05.579 --> 00:08:09.060 of the business. But there's this really, really other positive side of doing 121 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:11.060 this is that once you get a team of people being a bit more transparent 122 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:15.810 and open and sharing and blogging, and that's really important, is that suddenly, 123 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:18.689 you know, they out they also get their peers out there. You 124 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:22.129 know, what you're doing is really exciting, you know, certainly from our 125 00:08:22.129 --> 00:08:26.930 perspective, we think it's really exciting, and that excitement also attracts talent, 126 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:31.360 but also attracts ideas and advice and guidance from people that are just there to 127 00:08:31.039 --> 00:08:35.320 help you and for no other reason for that as well. So it's really 128 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:37.480 interesting to watch US kind of go through this process of being really, really 129 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:43.710 closed working with intelligence services, to being now really really open about our methodology 130 00:08:43.870 --> 00:08:48.070 without, you know, corrupting or doing anything, you know, to, 131 00:08:48.830 --> 00:08:50.710 you know, take away from our intellectual property. So so yeah, I 132 00:08:50.789 --> 00:08:54.190 think you know, openness, transparency, you know, certainly for us as 133 00:08:54.230 --> 00:08:56.299 a company, and we haven't been doing this very long, you know, 134 00:08:56.379 --> 00:09:00.340 admitted. These are all we're all going through learning care from on sort of 135 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:03.299 how to do it. But but no, it's going to work for us 136 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.659 and it's just really exciting to see us do that as well. Interesting, 137 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:11.809 and you mentioned that your products. Being developer, thinks something like fifteen years. 138 00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:15.289 So clearly, over those years, though, there will have been new 139 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:18.970 categories created, new buckets of competitors that you may have been put up against 140 00:09:18.970 --> 00:09:24.009 over those years, even when perhaps not not having product that's released in the 141 00:09:24.090 --> 00:09:26.080 market. But what we hear is at a lot of markets say that you 142 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:31.320 should create a new crack category as a startup or as a disruptive technology so 143 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.360 you don't actually have competitives. If that is a strategy that the company chooses 144 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:39.429 to follow, do you think the full product should be an updated or adapted 145 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:41.750 to create a new market, or do you think it's a check case of 146 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:46.509 actually just shifting the messaging and shifting how you market and and you'll go to 147 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:50.350 mark. Yes, the interesting points I seek. I think for us we 148 00:09:50.669 --> 00:09:56.259 created a technology that has created a market segment. So I think if we 149 00:09:56.299 --> 00:09:58.500 say, look, cyber security is actually a massive market. I mean this 150 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:01.980 is now, you know, gone beyond the multi billions and it's heading towards, 151 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:05.659 you know, trillion dollar market certainly, certainly in a few years. 152 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:09.769 So whilst we wouldn't say, you know, we created a market, we 153 00:10:09.129 --> 00:10:13.409 certainly we certainly entered a market segment. And it's really interesting actually because Gartner 154 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:18.210 kind of beat us to it a little bit. So back in I think 155 00:10:18.210 --> 00:10:20.639 two thousand and fifteen, we started a relationship with gardener and the way our 156 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:26.200 technology works is fundamentally very different really any other cyber security technology. So we're 157 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:30.559 not going to get into server technicalities and fundamentals today, but the way that 158 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:35.990 we described our technology to gardener meant that we didn't fit inside any box or 159 00:10:35.230 --> 00:10:39.950 any quadrant for that matter. It was just something a completely new concept of 160 00:10:39.029 --> 00:10:41.669 them. So, you know, that was two thousand and fifteen we started 161 00:10:41.789 --> 00:10:46.070 relationship with them and then about two thousand and sixteen, they came up with 162 00:10:46.269 --> 00:10:50.299 this really elegant phrase and description that perfectly, you know, described us as 163 00:10:50.340 --> 00:10:54.139 a technology. So for us, as a bunch of geeks basically just, 164 00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:58.820 you know, developing this technology and trying to get this technology in front of 165 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:01.820 people, they did a much better job than we could have ever done and 166 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:07.610 came out with this phrase of called content, disarm reconstruction, or CDR, 167 00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:09.049 to use the acronym, and it has a whole paragraph, you know, 168 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:13.090 describing it and it's really neat and this really elegant. So in a way 169 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:18.120 our technology created this this market segment called CDR, which was actually quite interesting. 170 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:22.360 So we almost we didn't go out and purposely do that. What we've 171 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:24.840 done since is actually certainly that. One of the methods that I've tried to 172 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:28.519 do is, you see, many, many cyber threats have their own category 173 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:31.870 and I think probably the one that's all the two that are probably most famous 174 00:11:31.870 --> 00:11:37.950 a ransomware and, in particular, fishing, and I think these become so 175 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:43.190 mainstream that, you know, generally, an almost other general public actually know 176 00:11:43.269 --> 00:11:46.110 what these are. You know tax are happening. So often people understand that 177 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:50.899 fishing is someone, you know, trying to reach them, typically through email, 178 00:11:52.419 --> 00:11:54.620 and even that evolved over time. So, you know, fishing is 179 00:11:56.019 --> 00:11:58.860 one thing that the general public can understand, but when you start to talk 180 00:11:58.059 --> 00:12:03.610 the slight and more technical audience that we have, cybersecurity people, that fishing 181 00:12:03.769 --> 00:12:09.809 category in its own right evolved into something called spear fishing and that, you 182 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:13.889 know, the general definition of spear fishing is is, you know, an 183 00:12:13.929 --> 00:12:18.000 attack on a company where they're trying to get the users to click on links, 184 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.960 open email attachments, kind of do all that that sort of standard sort 185 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:24.240 of fishing stuff. But this was very much from an attacker to it to 186 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.639 a single organization, and what I saw was an opportunity for us to create 187 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:33.509 another extension of that as well. So again, my in my rollers as 188 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:35.350 VP of threat intelligence, like I said, I get to see all our 189 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:39.750 customer data, I get to see all these trends and one of them I 190 00:12:39.909 --> 00:12:43.299 noticed. And then this is also really interesting, a good case of looking 191 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:48.779 at all your customer data and trying to use it as a positive, you 192 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:50.860 know, out in the marketplace. So what I saw in amongst all our 193 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:56.100 data, which is based on malicious email attachments, it's a seventy percent of 194 00:12:56.220 --> 00:13:01.529 them represented a completely unique event and this was unlike a lot of other types 195 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:03.289 of cyber attacks that I'd seen. So, you know, for example, 196 00:13:03.289 --> 00:13:07.129 I think a good example of the the want to cry ransomware on our NHS 197 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:11.049 in the UK. You know, that was a global event. That was 198 00:13:11.169 --> 00:13:15.799 one hacking group that managed to disrupt, you know, a lot of machines 199 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.919 across the Internet and almost what I was seeing in our data was almost like 200 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.240 the complete opposite of that. You know, these were malicious email attachments coming 201 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:28.549 from a single email address, you know, going to a single recipient with 202 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:33.070 a completely unique email attachment. When I say unique, I mean the data 203 00:13:33.110 --> 00:13:37.190 set was twenty five million email attachments. So you're talking about a one in 204 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:41.860 twenty five million incident. And like, as from a customers perspective, which 205 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:45.500 I always try and put myself in their shoes, like how on earth are 206 00:13:45.500 --> 00:13:48.100 you going to protect yourself against that? But how are you going to spot 207 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:50.220 it? But as from my perspective, like how am I going to define 208 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:54.970 this? So, you know, taking that extension of a fishing which which 209 00:13:56.169 --> 00:14:00.330 you know, morphed into spear fishing. Actually came up with a new threat 210 00:14:00.409 --> 00:14:03.009 category called invasive spear fishing, and it was the only way that I could 211 00:14:03.009 --> 00:14:07.289 elegantly describe what was happening, you know, around all these unique events, 212 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:09.320 and it's really interesting from our perspective. So, you know, if base 213 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:13.000 of spear fishing and what it's done for us and coming up at this new 214 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.399 category meant that, you know, the press and the media were interested and 215 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:20.440 start to write about it because it was something new, something they hadn't heard 216 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.200 of and they wanted it explaining to them. And I think that's really interesting. 217 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.309 From a market hear sort of perspective, is that, you know, 218 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:28.870 yes, go and spend time with the Geeks, you know in your company, 219 00:14:30.350 --> 00:14:33.629 sit and talk to them about what's really going on and and what they 220 00:14:33.710 --> 00:14:39.820 find interesting, because the likelihood is that your audience is potentially will also find 221 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:41.659 that interesting as well, because you know who is your audience? Ours is 222 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:46.700 certainly, you know, cyber security people, and if I found this interesting, 223 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:50.139 they probably would too. So yeah, definitely, from a from a 224 00:14:50.299 --> 00:14:54.649 sort of marketing and sort of messaging perspective, you know, take time to 225 00:14:54.730 --> 00:14:58.409 go and speak to your developers, you know, take time to get someone 226 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:01.330 to look at your day to and see how you can translate it. And 227 00:15:01.409 --> 00:15:05.009 something really interesting happen when I started to write about evasive spear fishing in the 228 00:15:05.049 --> 00:15:09.639 public domain. Because, you know, I've written this, this this mini 229 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:13.480 white paper, this bulletin. It has, you know, had stats and 230 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:18.840 it had some very basic infographics because, again, I'll marketing isn't that sophisticated, 231 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:20.870 let's face it. And what started to happen is that other people were 232 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:26.070 taking this and translating it into their language, their design language. So good 233 00:15:26.149 --> 00:15:30.830 example, US, company that were actually pretty good friends with now took what 234 00:15:30.950 --> 00:15:35.779 I'd written and created infographics, but infographics in their own branding, you know, 235 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:37.740 in their own iconography, in a what sort of really interesting stuff, 236 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:41.019 you know, referencing us as a company. But they really wanted to use 237 00:15:41.059 --> 00:15:43.899 this material and marks their customers as well. And in addition to that, 238 00:15:45.059 --> 00:15:46.980 you know that we also saw, you know, the press pick up on 239 00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:50.289 it and you know, I like to say that, you know, we 240 00:15:50.370 --> 00:15:52.649 all, you know, like to have a bit of a legacy, you 241 00:15:52.690 --> 00:15:54.370 know, if you spend long enough time in the industry. So for me, 242 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:58.009 one of my legacies that I can sort of leave behind almost. Is 243 00:15:58.049 --> 00:16:02.769 this this new threat category that we we created as this small UK company that 244 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:06.360 seemed to get sort of picked up and get people talking? So so, 245 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:07.200 yeah, I think, you know, there's a couple of things out of 246 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:11.879 it. Yes, you know, create a category that's an extensions, is 247 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:15.519 something that people can associate with an already understand. Certainly build on that. 248 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.429 You know, spend time going through, you know, areas of the business 249 00:16:18.590 --> 00:16:22.590 that you may not already talk to people. So start talking to people in 250 00:16:22.629 --> 00:16:26.389 the corridor if you work for a big company. You know in a smaller 251 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:29.870 company, just just start asking people they find interesting. You just never know 252 00:16:29.990 --> 00:16:33.539 what you may find. And and it's by these sort of almost like these 253 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:37.539 happy accidents of just me one day looking through our data and noticing this sort 254 00:16:37.539 --> 00:16:41.299 of trend that that led to this category sort of being created. So yeah, 255 00:16:41.340 --> 00:16:42.779 I would I would like to sit here and say it was all genius 256 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:45.860 and it was all planned, but it really wasn't so good. So yeah, 257 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:49.330 no, it's it's work for us and said it's something a little bit 258 00:16:49.330 --> 00:16:55.490 different, interesting and obviously you've shared your example there around how you in a 259 00:16:55.649 --> 00:16:59.929 niche market created in more niche category if you look at the kind of broader 260 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:06.359 cybersecurity landscape and potentially even outside cybersecurity. But from a tech if we look 261 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:10.640 at the technology industry from a marketing perspective, what are the key trends that 262 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.160 you're seeing? Whether that's something that you're applying yourself, something that you really 263 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:17.950 respect another company or part of the industry for doing, what what some of 264 00:17:17.990 --> 00:17:21.630 the trends that you're typically seeing? Amm What I mentioned a keyword earlier, 265 00:17:21.670 --> 00:17:26.069 and I think that's that sort of transparency and with that comes this this honesty 266 00:17:26.150 --> 00:17:30.299 and it's really refreshing and I think, if you so, are audience generally 267 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:34.019 really well educated. And, let's face it, their salaries range between four 268 00:17:34.059 --> 00:17:37.940 hundred thousand and five billion right. These are these are, you know, 269 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:41.220 chief information security officers in some pretty big companies, but also some m t 270 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:45.970 it directors in some knots of big companies. So and I think they're they're 271 00:17:47.049 --> 00:17:52.730 just completely saturated with so many messages of what I was referred to earlier as 272 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:56.369 these absolutes. You know, this is promises of a hundred percent protection. 273 00:17:56.529 --> 00:18:00.559 You know, from soybersecurity perspective, that just complete neatly fatigued by all of 274 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:06.359 this. And also there's this very, very robotic sides of all these companies 275 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:10.319 that are just pumping out the same messages and it's very, very confusing. 276 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:12.549 So if you think of the audience from a from a cyber security perspective, 277 00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:17.670 is actually very difficult to distinguish a hundred companies that are all saying the same 278 00:18:17.710 --> 00:18:22.230 thing. But if you look at the company WHO's actually talking publicly and openly 279 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:27.420 about their methodology in terms of development, you tend to get slightly more human 280 00:18:27.460 --> 00:18:32.220 side of the business. So for us it's really working to get our development 281 00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:37.700 team all writing their own blogs and getting that out publicly, because it starts 282 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:41.140 to create something more than just the technology, and I'm not talking all these 283 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:44.130 abstract things are ground sort of brand. It's just, you know, we're 284 00:18:44.210 --> 00:18:48.329 powered by a bunch of human beings. There isn't some autonomous sort of robot 285 00:18:48.410 --> 00:18:51.970 in the background. And and yeah, and I think you know people do 286 00:18:52.250 --> 00:18:56.559 genuinely buy from people and just being open and transparent and on this is it 287 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.599 certainly got that shift towards us, you know, as a small company that 288 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.680 you know shift towards that sort of slightly more human element, and this is, 289 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.240 as I said, without compromising any of our intellectual property. You know, 290 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:11.910 what we're talking about publicly is just here's what we're doing his how we 291 00:19:11.069 --> 00:19:15.789 build really robust clown services. And then, like I said, you know, 292 00:19:15.829 --> 00:19:18.509 I'm blogging about powerpoint. It's got nothing to do with with, you 293 00:19:18.630 --> 00:19:22.670 know, our technology, but you know, in the hope that if I 294 00:19:22.710 --> 00:19:26.019 talk about this, you know, our own people, our own employees, 295 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:29.859 are going to actually use what I created and in decisions that someone might be 296 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:32.819 sold though. These are these guys are actually like quite cool. They don't 297 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:37.380 really talk about, you know, complete nerdy cybergeek stuff all the time and 298 00:19:37.859 --> 00:19:41.250 and that's that's coming through in all these sort of blogs again, you know, 299 00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:45.009 just going and doing something a bit off the wall, like, you 300 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:49.170 know, for example, recently we posted a linkedin picture of myself from one 301 00:19:49.170 --> 00:19:52.519 of our marketing guys with a banana stuck to the wall, you know, 302 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:56.000 as a way to do something different and as a way to do something, 303 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:00.880 you know, a bit away from the boring, stuffy stuff that we you 304 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.200 know that we probably sort of pushed out recently a probably for reference that that 305 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:07.430 banana starts the wall was the artwork that sold for a hundred twenty thousand dollars. 306 00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:10.670 But interestingly, you know, I took a picture. There was a 307 00:20:10.710 --> 00:20:14.470 picture of me at an award ceremony where we won a few it awards, 308 00:20:14.710 --> 00:20:15.910 and I just, on the spare of the moment, decided to just pull 309 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:19.430 a pose that I wanted to, not just one that the shareholders would be 310 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:22.619 interested in, which is me to this stupid high kick, and I was 311 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:26.420 really excited and happy in the moment. So I had that picture, but 312 00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:30.380 or so I wrote a blog about. Why did this award actually means so 313 00:20:30.460 --> 00:20:33.460 much in that moment, and it was really because we put so much hard 314 00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:37.289 work and effort into the years that sort preceded it felt like a really cool 315 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:41.890 moment and that was me sort of celebrating on behalf of the company because I 316 00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:45.529 know that everyone in the company's really excited, and I did think twice about 317 00:20:45.529 --> 00:20:48.609 putting it on social media, but actually got over and I think that likely 318 00:20:48.690 --> 00:20:52.640 five thousand views and a whole bunch of like people just saying this is great, 319 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.240 this is like such a such a cool picture, and it's the similar 320 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:59.640 one with the one that we taped the banana on to the wall. You 321 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:02.400 know, it's just this crazy moment and we just thought, you know, 322 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:07.029 let's just do this. And the point that of that we're recording this today, 323 00:21:07.309 --> 00:21:08.390 you know, we did it yesterday and it's about two and a half 324 00:21:08.390 --> 00:21:12.390 thousand views already and like really positive views and comments and you know, people 325 00:21:12.470 --> 00:21:17.549 just like seeing that, that human side and, like I said, it's 326 00:21:17.750 --> 00:21:19.259 you don't have to do it in every post. You know, there is 327 00:21:19.299 --> 00:21:22.420 a serious site of what we do. You know we have some extremely serious 328 00:21:22.460 --> 00:21:25.660 sort of customers, but I think you know, when you go out, 329 00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:27.980 you know publicly commercially, you're allowed. You're allowed to kind of have a 330 00:21:29.220 --> 00:21:33.170 have a human being actually sort of represent the company. And Yeah, that 331 00:21:33.369 --> 00:21:36.210 is just like I said, that's that's working really well and, you know, 332 00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:38.049 above everything else, is actually been a bit of fun. So I 333 00:21:38.529 --> 00:21:41.450 you know that that that's really important a well and that shines through. So 334 00:21:41.650 --> 00:21:45.529 the people that have been seeing US actually having a bit of fun and being 335 00:21:45.569 --> 00:21:49.039 a bit off the wall really responding positively to it as well. Absolutely, 336 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:52.599 and and I guess a last question or point, if you like, from 337 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:56.160 me would be making marketing fund making a bit of a noise, doing things 338 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:02.430 slightly differently from your traditional marketing. I think in particular, sybersecurity space becoming 339 00:22:02.710 --> 00:22:04.869 ever more important. Talking to a lot of our clients are in the space, 340 00:22:04.950 --> 00:22:08.509 they find it difficult more and more these days to get public references, 341 00:22:08.869 --> 00:22:11.710 public case studies that you can talk about, which, of course, would, 342 00:22:11.750 --> 00:22:15.339 I believe, would make someone in your position, it would make your 343 00:22:15.380 --> 00:22:18.339 life more difficult at least to get them right. The name out there from 344 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:22.420 a glass will technology perspective. So in just case getting the name of glass. 345 00:22:22.579 --> 00:22:26.539 Well, they're exactly and one of the so, for example, our 346 00:22:26.660 --> 00:22:30.930 customers are to call them sort of risk a versus an understatement. So we 347 00:22:32.049 --> 00:22:34.769 have to think along the lines of critical national infrastructure, like, you know, 348 00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:41.130 electricity companies, some of the world's you know leading law firms, you 349 00:22:41.210 --> 00:22:45.279 know family funds. I mean you know what's at stake behind our technology is 350 00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:48.599 massive. But of course, you know, with a risk averse type of 351 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:52.519 customer you will never be allowed to mention them by name publicly. We reach 352 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:56.359 some of our customers through partners. So yes, we can mention them and 353 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.190 and we do that. That sort of no problem. So the way I 354 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:04.150 found myself, you know, I've found myself go a bit frustrated because, 355 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:07.230 you know, we've got one case study and it's a really good case study 356 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:11.710 with a global technology company brand, but I can't write anymore and it's been 357 00:23:11.750 --> 00:23:15.220 this really sort of frustrating thing. So what I've what I've basically been doing 358 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:18.900 in the background, and we will be publishing these as to the point of 359 00:23:18.940 --> 00:23:22.259 this recording. There not out yet, but they're what I call Customer Success 360 00:23:22.299 --> 00:23:26.890 Stories and I've written them in such a way that each one is no more 361 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:33.049 than two paragraphs, but each paragraph in paragraph one is about presenting the problem, 362 00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:37.690 you know, the scenario, and laying it up, and then paragraph 363 00:23:37.809 --> 00:23:41.759 to is about how we helped our customers overcome that problem and then getting creative 364 00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:44.400 with a title. So one of them is, you know, how do 365 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:47.559 we keep the lights on in Canada? Is a really cool story about how 366 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:52.920 we stop ransomware reaching one of our customers while simultaneously another organization of a similar, 367 00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:56.869 similar level actually got hit with ransomware. So it's nice to always have 368 00:23:56.990 --> 00:24:00.190 that here's how we helped our customer and that duality of is what happens. 369 00:24:00.390 --> 00:24:03.309 You know, if you you know, you know what happens when you when 370 00:24:03.309 --> 00:24:07.309 you don't have this particular technology. It was good to have that example. 371 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:11.819 But I think what's really, really important is writing these in really plain English 372 00:24:12.099 --> 00:24:15.339 and which is something that I struggle with. So again, might being a 373 00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:18.180 bit eeeky, I can get a bit overly technical, te you know, 374 00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:22.500 technical and lose people. So my measure and the way that I do that 375 00:24:22.660 --> 00:24:26.609 is sometimes I open source these stories and I let a whole bunch of people 376 00:24:26.650 --> 00:24:30.130 read them before I get before I post them publicly, and in doing so 377 00:24:30.730 --> 00:24:34.130 with a range of people who were nontechnical, that certainly helps me, you 378 00:24:34.210 --> 00:24:37.009 know, makes me better at writing, makes me better at you know, 379 00:24:37.130 --> 00:24:41.240 how do I how do I kind of unpick something that's actually pretty complicated and 380 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:44.200 talk about it in plain English, and I think a proof of that was 381 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.960 our PR team and our Pur Company, their copyright, you know, read 382 00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:51.880 through these I've got for that that I've sort of crafted in the background, 383 00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:55.950 and he came back actually making sort of pretty minor changes but interestingly said these 384 00:24:55.990 --> 00:24:59.029 are really cool, you know, and that's that's the exact response I wanted 385 00:24:59.069 --> 00:25:02.910 to try and get. So you know, if you are constrained in this 386 00:25:03.269 --> 00:25:04.950 in this way, and you may not have a bunch of customers that you 387 00:25:04.950 --> 00:25:07.619 can either talk about. You may not ai even have a bunch of customers. 388 00:25:08.299 --> 00:25:11.859 They're probably is some really, really interesting stuff that you could sort of 389 00:25:11.900 --> 00:25:15.220 still write about that. But again, you know, the writing style has 390 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:18.779 to be really, really sort of plain English and and I've found ways that 391 00:25:18.900 --> 00:25:21.140 if I can, if I can share and be open with the stories with 392 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:23.490 a bunch of people before they go public, really helps get your point across 393 00:25:23.490 --> 00:25:26.809 about you know what you're trying to do originally. Okay, excellent, cool, 394 00:25:26.930 --> 00:25:32.009 all right. Well, I think we're approaching the end of our conversation 395 00:25:32.089 --> 00:25:34.130 today, so I really appreciate the insights and appreciate your time. Yes, 396 00:25:34.210 --> 00:25:37.480 the last sort of finishing point from your side is if anyone wants to connect 397 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:41.839 with you to learn more about glass wool or continue this conversation or indeed open 398 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:45.319 up another conversation, would be the best way for them to get in touch 399 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:48.359 with you and the come. Yeah, we're part from searching up. You 400 00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:51.549 know, Bernarda takes a wall picture, you know that sort of stuff. 401 00:25:52.150 --> 00:25:56.710 So linkedin really good. I'm on Linkedin Louise Henderson on the glass wall should 402 00:25:56.710 --> 00:26:00.150 be sort of fairly, fairly sort of searchable and obviously throughout our website, 403 00:26:00.190 --> 00:26:03.069 glaspel Solutionscom. So there's a whole bunch of people you can sort of reach 404 00:26:03.150 --> 00:26:06.140 out through that, but linkedins. It's really goods really easy and I on 405 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:08.819 that publicly. Okay, fantastic. Well, once again, appreciate your time. 406 00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.299 Louis has been great at me on the show, so thanks for having 407 00:26:11.299 --> 00:26:19.329 me. operatics has redefined the meaning of revenue generation for technology companies worldwide. 408 00:26:19.369 --> 00:26:26.210 While the traditional concepts of building and managing inside sales teams inhouse has existed for 409 00:26:26.329 --> 00:26:30.089 many years, companies are struggling with a lack of focus, agility and scale 410 00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:37.000 required in today's fast and complex world of enterprise technology sales. See How operatics 411 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:44.160 can help your company accelerate pipeline at operatics dotnet. You've been listening to be 412 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:48.029 tob revenue acceleration. To ensure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to 413 00:26:48.069 --> 00:26:52.549 the show in your favorite podcast player. Thank you so much for listening. 414 00:26:52.549 --> 00:26:52.710 Until next time,