7 Go-to-Market Lessons from Gem Security’s Journey to Building a New Category

When most founders build products, they wait until they have something to show before approaching customers. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Arie Zilberstein revealed a contrarian approach that helped Gem Security cut through the noise in the crowded cybersecurity market: sell before you build.

1. Sell Before You Build “Initially when we opened the company, one thing that we had in mind is that we sell the product from the first moment that we have the company, even before we have the product, because we want to understand that we’re selling something that is viable now,” Arie explains. This early validation helped ensure they were building something the market actually wanted.
2. Turn Early Customers into Design Partners Rather than treating early customers as mere buyers, Gem Security engaged them as strategic partners. “We got to work with a few amazing companies that believed in us, believed in team, believed in the proposition, and we spent a few months building the product together with them,” says Arie. This collaborative approach not only validated their direction but created strong advocates for their solution.
3. Create a New Category to Stand Out In a noisy market, Gem Security didn’t try to compete in existing categories. Instead, they created their own: “We’re not quite a SIM solution. And on the other side, we’re not quite a cloud security solution. We’re actually both,” Arie explains. This positioning as Cloud Detection Response (CDR) helped them differentiate while addressing an unmet need.
4. Target Multiple Decision Makers While many startups focus solely on the end user or the C-suite, Gem Security recognized the need to engage both. “Most of our customers today, we started from the CISO angle and then we only evolved to the security operation team. But never a deal would happen without having the bind from the security operators,” Arie notes. This dual-track approach ensures both executive buy-in and user adoption.
5. Let Customer Success Drive Marketing Instead of relying on traditional marketing, Gem Security leverages customer success as their primary marketing engine. “The best recognition that we get so far is having happy customers that speak about us and they would drive the actual differentiation of the product among the crowd, peer to peer,” Arie shares.
6. Build from Practitioner Experience For technical products, deep domain expertise proves crucial. “Having a practitioner experience is something that is crucial. Being and serving some time as a practitioner… is so crucial to get good perspective, realistic perspective of how the world looks like,” Arie emphasizes. This expertise helps in both product development and customer conversations.
7. Focus on Scale After Validation Once the model works, the focus shifts to scaling. “The next challenge for us is getting that success at scale,” Arie explains, highlighting how their 2024 priorities center on scaling up the go-to-market team to replicate their early successes across a broader market.

The key insight from Gem Security’s journey isn’t just about individual tactics – it’s about approaching go-to-market strategy holistically. By selling before building, creating a new category, and engaging customers as partners, they’ve built a foundation for sustainable growth in a crowded market.

Their experience shows that success in enterprise software isn’t just about having the best technology – it’s about understanding market needs, positioning effectively, and building strong customer relationships from day one. As Arie concludes, looking toward the future: “We see gem as one of the critical piece that would revolutionize security operation in the cloud era.”

For founders building complex technical products, these lessons offer a blueprint for cutting through market noise and building a sustainable go-to-market strategy based on deep customer engagement and clear differentiation.