The friends-of-friends GTM model in cybersecurity | Elad Ben Meir

About this episode

Onit Security builds AI agents for exposure management, helping security teams cut through the noise of tens of millions of vulnerability scanner findings to identify and prioritize the ones that can actually be exploited. The company is built from the ground up on agentic infrastructure, positioning itself as the fifth generation of exposure management tooling in a category that has evolved from basic vulnerability scanners to AI-native platforms over three decades.

In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with Elad Ben Meir, CEO & Co-Founder of Onit Security, to learn how a cybersecurity founder with a marketing background is building go-to-market motion in one of the most competitive markets in tech.

Topics Discussed:

• How Onit Security's AI agents filter tens of millions of scanner findings to identify the ones that can actually be exploited
• Why exposure management is still an unsolved problem after three decades and how the category has evolved through five generations
• Why early GTM in cybersecurity is built entirely on relationships and CISO trust
• How Elad used channel partnerships at his previous company SCADAfence to scale from early stage to growth, and why he's running the same playbook at Onit Security
• The "mailbox money" channel model where partner sellers identify opportunities and hand off to Onit Security's sales team
• Why spreading marketing risk across field marketing, brand, digital, social, and employee evangelism is the right approach at the early stage
• How a branding agency investment Elad almost didn't make became one of the best decisions in the company's history
• The VC defensibility question: how Onit Security is building its moat as frontier AI models expand into adjacent markets
• Why technical founders find storytelling the hardest GTM skill to develop

GTM & Technology Adoption Lessons:

• Trust before pipeline: Elad said early GTM in cybersecurity is "all about relationships." The first customers came from existing CISO relationships built over years. The story wasn't about product features alone -- it was about the founding team's personal track record and direct understanding of the problem. One co-founder had their previous company breached by a nation-state actor, and the forensic investigation traced the cause to an unmanaged vulnerability.

• Friends of friends compounds without effort: The second phase after direct relationships is peer referrals within the CISO community. Elad said the community is "very well knitted and close to one another," and successful deployments generate organic pipeline through peer trust.

• Channels are how you move from zero to scale: At SCADAfence, the GTM inflection came from strategic channel partnerships. Partners would identify the opportunity, open the door, and SCADAfence's sellers would close. Elad called it "mailbox money."

• Spread marketing risk early: At the early stage, a data-driven marketing machine is aspirational, not operational. Elad's approach is deliberate diversification: field marketing, brand building, digital, social, personal brand, and employees as evangelists.

• Branding is a bet, not a line item: Elad almost didn't sign the branding agency contract. The cost didn't justify itself analytically. His co-founders persuaded him: "We're building something big here. Let's bet on something big." He called it one of the best decisions the company has made.

• Marketing background as both asset and filter: Elad's time as VP of Marketing at a previous company gives him patience with early-stage marketing economics -- no direct correlation between money and results when you're starting -- and zero tolerance for agency narratives that don't hold up.

// Sponsors: Front Lines -- Silicon Valley's leading Podcast Production Studio. We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. Mention you are a listener and get a 10% discount. www.FrontLines.io/Podcast-as-a-Service