5 Critical GTM Lessons from OneLayer’s Enterprise Security Journey
Finding the right market opportunity isn’t just about identifying problems—it’s about positioning yourself where emerging technology meets established enterprise needs. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, OneLayer founder Dave Mor shared crucial insights about navigating the complex landscape of enterprise security, revealing key go-to-market lessons that resonate far beyond the cybersecurity sector.
- Navigate Between Red and Blue Oceans
Most founders face a binary choice: enter established markets with better solutions or pioneer entirely new categories. Dave reveals a third path, drawing from patterns he’s observed in Israeli founders: “If you are looking about the ex military guys, you have actually here several units. And there are guys that come in for one of the units that looking for the most red ocean and are sure that they can build the best product. And there are guys that coming from a different unit, they’re looking for the most blue ocean that can have a huge challenge to overcome.”
Instead of choosing either extreme, Dave advocates for finding the sweet spot: “I look for a new technology that is growing very fast. There is no engineering barriers for the technology to explode. But it hasn’t been touched enough yet, haven’t been solved the pain yet.”
- Turn Security from Afterthought to Advantage
OneLayer’s success stems from recognizing a critical pattern in enterprise technology adoption. “Security taken as an afterthought at the beginning of the pilot stage,” Dave notes. “And then the it team want to connect this amazing network to the rest of the organization network and the CISO or other security teams say, stop, you cannot connect that to my network. Where is the security stack?”
This insight led to a crucial GTM strategy: position security as an enabler rather than a blocker, turning a common point of friction into a competitive advantage.
- Build Multi-Stakeholder Value Propositions
Rather than targeting a single buyer, OneLayer developed value propositions for multiple stakeholders within enterprise organizations. Dave explains their comprehensive approach: “We have the it that we simplify their life. We have the digital and innovation team that have the eager to push this domain forward and we have the economic buyer that really sees the value in the cost reduction once the product is being deployed.”
- Embrace Transparent Risk Communication
When it comes to enterprise sales and fundraising, many founders focus solely on upside potential. Dave takes a contrarian approach: “A lot of founders that I meet see in my ecosystem and also ask questions the past, try to highlight the upside, the positive side and ignore or reduce the downside of the risks and try to do the opposite.”
This transparency builds credibility with sophisticated buyers and investors: “If investors really see that allocating attention to your gaps and this is your mitigation plan, this is how you are not ignoring the risks, you are looking them straightforward… you are building a much more balanced company and not just have a great dream of a pink future.”
- Prioritize Market Intelligence Over Sales Execution
Perhaps Dave’s most counterintuitive lesson comes from reflecting on OneLayer’s early days: “As much as we receive more data we can move faster. So I would allocate much more attention of capabilities to open more doors, to have more dialogues, to learn more and having more capabilities of top of the funnel versus the bottom of the funnel.”
This focus on market understanding rather than immediate sales execution has proven particularly valuable in complex enterprise environments. Dave notes that even as an early-stage company, they face “a challenge of over demand… because the domain is so defined, because IoT problems in enterprise domain is very clear, and because there is no good technologies that really designed for the private cellular because it’s a new domain.”
The Power of Systematic Problem-Solving
Underlying all these lessons is a systematic approach to problem-solving that Dave attributes to his military intelligence background: “Once you allocate the right attention to details, once you’re breaking down, really, the challenge and the gaps and the barriers, once you’re bringing the best guy to your team, everything is impossible.”
For founders navigating complex enterprise markets, these lessons highlight a crucial truth: success often comes not from following conventional GTM playbooks, but from deeply understanding market dynamics and building value propositions that address multiple stakeholders’ needs. By combining systematic analysis with transparent communication and strategic market positioning, teams can build sustainable growth even in the most challenging enterprise environments.