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Conversation
Highlights
Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Michael Assraf, CEO & Co-Founder of Vicarius, a vulnerability remediation platform that has raised $29 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
- Hands-On Leadership: Despite leading a company of 50 people, Michael still writes code, emphasizing the importance of staying connected to the product.
- Military Influence: Michael attributes much of his entrepreneurial drive and problem-solving skills to his experience in the Israeli military, where young people are given significant responsibilities.
- Founding Story: Vicarius was inspired by Michael’s early fascination with computers and his co-founder’s experience in cybersecurity. They aimed to solve big problems in vulnerability remediation.
- Product Overview: Vicarius Topia integrates vulnerability scanning, prioritization, remediation, and automation into a single platform, streamlining processes that are typically handled by multiple products.
- Community Focus: The V Society community is a growing initiative that invites IT admins and security engineers to collaborate and share vulnerability remediation strategies, moving towards a crowdsourced approach.
- PLG Strategy: Vicarius has embraced a Product-Led Growth (PLG) approach, focusing on making their product accessible and easy to use, with significant reliance on user feedback to continuously improve the product.
Actionable
Takeaways
Stay Product-Connected:
Founders should remain closely involved with their product to ensure they understand and can directly influence its development and user experience.
Leverage Early Experiences:
Draw on diverse past experiences, such as military service or other high-responsibility roles, to cultivate a problem-solving mindset and leadership skills.
Simplify Complex Processes:
Integrate multiple complex processes into a single platform to offer a more streamlined, efficient, and user-friendly solution.
Build and Engage Communities:
Foster a community around your product to crowdsource ideas and solutions, enriching your platform and creating a collaborative environment.
Commit to PLG:
Fully embrace a Product-Led Growth strategy by focusing on product accessibility, user onboarding, and feedback loops to drive growth and continuous improvement.
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