How to sell to Founders at Cybersecurity companies
Founders in cybersecurity are primarily measured on their company's growth rate, particularly in terms of customer acquisition. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of compliance challenges, such as SOC 2 readiness, and how your solution can streamline their processes, reduce risk, and save time, allowing them to focus on scaling their business.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 569 cybersecurity company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- delays in achieving SOC 2 compliance
- overwhelmed by regulatory requirements
- high costs of compliance failures
- difficulty in scaling security measures
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use platforms like Crunchbase to filter for cybersecurity companies that have secured funding in the last 3 months. These founders are often looking to scale quickly and may need compliance solutions to support rapid growth.
- 02
Highlight compliance pain points
Craft your outreach by referencing specific compliance challenges faced by newly funded cybersecurity startups, such as SOC 2 audits. Show that you understand the urgency and importance of maintaining compliance while scaling operations.
- 03
Mention industry partnerships
In your outreach, reference any partnerships with recognized cybersecurity firms or compliance organizations. Founders are more likely to engage if they see that you have credibility and connections within their industry.
- 04
Address common objections
Be prepared to counter objections related to budget constraints, especially from founders who have just raised capital. Emphasize the potential cost savings and risk mitigation your solution offers, making it a worthwhile investment.
- 05
Follow up on engagement
If you receive a positive response, propose a call within a week. Founders are busy, so timing is crucial. Suggest a specific day and time to increase the likelihood of booking the call.
Can cybersecurity companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 569 cybersecurity companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 30.3% of 1–10-person companies against 91.3% of the largest — 61 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Navigating SOC 2 challenges
- Funding and compliance solutions
- Streamlining your security processes
Questions
- Why do founders in cybersecurity avoid sales pitches about compliance tools?
- Founders often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of compliance requirements and may view sales pitches as additional noise. They prioritize solutions that clearly demonstrate ROI and address their specific challenges, rather than generic offerings.
- What compliance issues keep cybersecurity founders awake at night?
- Many founders worry about maintaining compliance with evolving regulations and the potential repercussions of data breaches. The fear of losing clients due to non-compliance or inadequate security measures is a significant concern.
- How can I get a founder's attention in a crowded market?
- To stand out, tailor your messaging to address specific pain points in the cybersecurity space. Use industry jargon and examples that resonate with founders, demonstrating that you understand their unique challenges and can provide relevant solutions.
- What timing is best for reaching out to cybersecurity founders?
- The best time to reach out is shortly after they secure funding or launch a new product. During these periods, founders are often focused on scaling and may be more receptive to solutions that can help them manage compliance and security effectively.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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