Video summary

Siber Güvenlik Teknolojileri: Yatırım, Çıkış Stratejileri ve Küreselleşme | Dilek Dayınlarlı

Main summary

Key takeaways

Business

Investment landscape (2023 close & why funding slowed)

  • 2023 global cybersecurity VC investment: $8.2B across ~692 startups
  • Trend: funding decreased vs. prior year, with the lowest dollar level cited as comparable to 2018

Why funding slowed (Dilek Dayınlarlı)

  • Normalization after COVID-era liquidity/valuation inflation
    • The earlier period was characterized by “zero interest rates” and unusually extreme startup funding conditions.
  • Product strategy shift to end-to-end platform approaches
    • Public cybersecurity leaders (Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Zaler) pushed broader platform models.
    • This increases competition pressure for smaller, narrowly-focused startups.
  • Seed-stage investing became more selective
    • Investors now want more signals before deploying early capital, beyond the classic trio of:
      • good team
      • good product
      • good entry point

Frameworks / decision logic used by the investor

Founder + market “why now” interrogation

Investors challenge founders with questions like:

  • Why now
  • Why this company
  • Why it will be different

Customer-validation loop (expert-led)

  • Engage field specialists/experts
  • Run structured discussions with:
    • Potential customers
    • External specialists and domain experts
      • (A referenced format/channel example: “Siso”)

Narrative conversion as a growth lever

  • Investment and client acquisition depend on the story you can tell
  • This is especially important in cybersecurity, where risks/technology can be hard to visualize

Global expansion gating (especially for US investors)

  • When seeking US traction, the absence of US customers is treated with “complete suspicion”
  • Implicit go-to-market rule:
    • take action in the target region only after validating customers there

Key business execution tactics for scaling & globalization

Global GTM via “lighthouse customer” strategy

  • Build credibility through marquee customers so the market trusts the product
  • Buyers/analysts act as trusted references, supported by:
    • Presence at major events (e.g., RSA)
    • Sponsorship / booth-level visibility
    • Inclusion in Gartner reports (positioned as critical because buyers research vendors)

Team/ops capability building

  • Recruit commercial leaders with proven US-scale GTM experience
  • Example reference: hiring ex CMO talent and people who built/sold billion-dollar companies

Maturity-building through domestic-to-export path

  • Sell first domestically, mature the product, then export
  • Turkey is cited as feasible due to its defense ecosystem
  • Analogy: Israel’s domestic-first → world sales pattern

Concrete examples / portfolio anecdotes (case studies)

Pusu (Pikus referenced in dialogue)

  • Described as winning offshore clients using:
    • founder/operator travel (London/US)
    • direct customer acquisition

Kondukto

  • Investment “through a fund”
  • Emphasis on complementary expertise (partner from another sector) to strengthen explanatory power and market balance

Becken (Kuku)

Timeline and scaling signals:

  • Ideation stage: around 2019
  • Investment/partnership: about 1.5 years ago
  • Global acceleration was supported by:
    • outbound credibility through RSA / serious market presence
    • lighthouse-like traction with customers in America and London
  • Expansion path:
    • from Turkey + one US customer
    • to Europe + America
    • with top US companies starting to buy

Metrics & quantified risk signals mentioned (high level)

Cyber risk externalities affecting investors

  • 200,000 companies went bankrupt due to cyberattacks (2023)
  • A cyberattack occurred every 39 seconds worldwide

Funding preference / expected returns (explicit target)

  • VC expectation cited: minimum “5–10x” return

Growth outlook / market forecasts (execution-relevant)

  • Cybersecurity investment market forecast for 2024: $215B
  • Sector growth forecast: 10–15% annual CAGR until 2030
  • A benchmark/observed preference mentioned:
    • “loving VC when returns exceed ~122%”

Exit strategy & timing considerations

Why exits can be harder / longer in cybersecurity

  • Historically, there are fewer clean exit examples → less predictability for early-stage founders
  • Investors seek not just exits, but very large outcomes (including billion-dollar potential)

Acquisition as a likely pathway

  • Platform vendors increasingly acquire successful companies
  • Examples: Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike

“Crown jewels” market rationale

  • As digitization increases, the value at risk (“crown jewels”) grows
  • More attacks → more cybersecurity demand
  • Nuance: while she believes in the sector, she “wishes” attacks weren’t so frequent, because demand is driven by harm

2024 trend directions (business execution implications)

AI-driven shift in cybersecurity infrastructure

  • On-prem/cloud is being re-architected into new patterns, framed as:
    • Open Cloud
    • AI Cloud

More user-centric security

  • Rationale: major vulnerabilities often come from users
  • Execution implication: invest in UX/UI usability, education, and workflow fit

Cloud security + automation/chatbots as fastest-growing

  • Repetitive tasks increasingly automated
  • Referred to as the area where most money is spent (per a “recent report” mentioned)

Dev-to-production security shift

  • References practices like shift-left
  • If developers don’t write securely, security teams scramble later
  • Goal: align security earlier in the delivery pipeline—“bringing it to the production line”

Change-management difficulty

  • Adoption is the hard part:
    • new behaviors
    • new “language” for developers/end users
  • Ongoing challenge: translating security jargon for operational teams

Actionable recommendations emphasized

For founders seeking investment

  • Articulate a clear, credible “why now” and differentiation story
  • Expect more investor scrutiny at seed stage (beyond team/product)
  • Validate target-region customers early, especially US
  • Build market credibility via:
    • major events (e.g., RSA)
    • analyst/vendor listings (e.g., Gartner)
    • lighthouse customers

For operating teams scaling globally

  • Use domestic-market learning loops, then export with improved maturity
  • Hire commercial operators with proven US/international GTM networks for scaling

Presenters / sources

  • Presenter in studio: Dilek Dayınlarlı
  • Other individuals mentioned (context):
    • Gökçe (host/introducer)
    • Volkan (founder of Pusu)
    • Andreas (former CMO, hired by Kuku/Becken)
  • Companies referenced: Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Zaler, Salesforce, LIFE, Gartner, RSA
  • Portfolio/examples referenced: Pusu / Pikus, Kondukto, Becken (Kuku), plus “Beats” (Israeli-Canadian company mentioned)

Original video