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Disrupting Legacy Distribution: How Hive Watch is Rewriting Physical Security’s GTM Playbook

Physical security software has traditionally followed a predictable path to market: complex distribution channels, lengthy implementation cycles, and arm’s-length customer relationships. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Hive Watch’s Ryan revealed how rethinking these established GTM patterns is transforming an industry that hasn’t meaningfully evolved in over a decade.

Most enterprise security departments lag significantly behind their organizations in technology adoption. While other departments have embraced digital transformation, physical security remains anchored to legacy systems and outdated processes. This gap created an opportunity, but it also presented a unique GTM challenge: how do you sell innovation to an industry that’s historically resistant to change?

The answer lies in fundamentally reimagining the relationship between vendor and customer. “The way in which they make sense of all of this information is by throwing more people at the problem to do manual analysis,” Ryan explains, describing the status quo. Traditional vendors have been content to let this inefficiency persist, profiting from the complexity rather than solving it.

Hive Watch’s approach turns this model on its head. Rather than accepting the industry’s conventional wisdom that implementation should take over a year, they made rapid deployment a core differentiator. “The legacy products in our space have an average 14 month deployment cycle,” Ryan notes. “One of the North Stars for Hive Watch is that an organization should be able to get us up and operational within 30 days.”

This speed-to-value proposition required dismantling the industry’s traditional distribution model. Physical security has historically operated through a byzantine network of manufacturers, distributors, value-added resellers, and system integrators. “By the time the product actually touches the customer’s hands,” Ryan explains, “number one, it’s seen I don’t even know how many markups, but number two, the support available to the customer is restricted to the people within that channel.”

Instead of accepting this status quo, Hive Watch built a direct-to-customer model centered on 24/7 support and deep customer relationships. They even created an internal customer advisory team staffed with industry consultants – expertise that customers would typically have to pay for separately.

This GTM transformation hasn’t been without challenges. When pitching to investors two years ago, Ryan found that “almost every VC we talked to didn’t have a thesis on the physical security space and really just didn’t understand it.” But by October of their Series A, these same firms had developed investment theses around physical security, recognizing the potential in modernizing this “very sleepy but very important industry.”

The shift extends beyond just the sales motion. Traditional physical security information management (PSIM) systems have developed such a poor reputation that, as Ryan puts it, “PSIM is literally and figuratively a four letter word.” Rather than try to rehabilitate this damaged category, Hive Watch is focused on defining an entirely new one.

Their experience offers valuable lessons for founders targeting other legacy industries: Sometimes the biggest GTM opportunity isn’t in building a better product, but in fundamentally restructuring how that product reaches and serves customers. By eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, shortening time-to-value, and providing direct support, you can transform industry inefficiencies into competitive advantages.

The results speak for themselves. Despite operating in an industry not known for rapid adoption, Hive Watch has grown from 25 to over 65 employees in less than a year while maintaining “almost no turnover.” They’ve achieved this while building what Ryan describes as “one of the most diverse companies in our industry” – no small feat in a traditionally homogeneous sector.

For B2B founders looking to transform legacy industries, the lesson is clear: Don’t just accept established GTM patterns. Question every layer of complexity between you and your customer. Sometimes the most innovative aspect of your business isn’t the product itself, but how you deliver it to market.