Latest / Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth / Partnerships That Scale: How Valence Security Empowers Resellers

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Partnerships That Scale: How Valence Security Empowers Resellers · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and welcome to another special edition of the Cybersecurity Go to Market podcast being recorded at the 2025 RSA conference in San Francisco.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the Marriott Atrium on Mezzanine Floor.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole bunch of meetings going on around us.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And now what we're doing is we're talking to Jake Alasco, the VP of Global Partnerships at Valence Security.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jake, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew, thanks so much for having me on.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you're the second person we've talked to someone from Valence.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Two years ago, when Valence was in the one of the finalists of the RSA Innovation Sandbox, Yoni, your CEO and co-founder, uh, talked to me for about half an hour about what you were going on uh in those days.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of clean, you know, you've been there now just over a year.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: What's changed in the last year or two since we tied into Yoni?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Just a lot of product advancement.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, the addition to myself and channels and and how we're going about uh in our go-to-market structure, but I think the way that we've gone on the product side and just the level of uh depth that we've gone into on our SaaS platform is really gotten strong.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: We've added uh discovery functionality, we've added ITDR, we've added a whole lot of uh capability.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: So the platform that was uh in the sandbox two years ago is definitely not the same platform it is today.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I seem to remember Yoni being pretty adamant two years ago that remediation was the key, not just visibility.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: How are you progressing in remediation?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's so fun.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Even the organizations that say, hey, we'll never auto-remediate our third call in saying, hey, can we press the easy button, please?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so yeah, it's uh it's definitely a great part of the platform.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I uh being in security for a while, you know, auto-blocking will send shivers up the spine of many, I would imagine, right?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, it's easy though when you have a million shared files that nobody's accessed in a couple of years to say, hey, we should probably revoke access and and just trim down the amount of technical debt that we have out there.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're the head of partnerships.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about the types of organizations that you partner with.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think to me, you know, it really uh as you're building channels from scratch, especially in an A-round organization, I really do genuinely kind of look towards revenue first, right?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: So partnering with uh the resale side, getting that built out in a smaller fashion, uh, is is really crucial to my programs initially.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: So resale is your primary go-to-market on the partnership side, is that right?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, look, there's always gonna be important technical relationships and alliances that have to get built out and manage services, but I kind of look at it in a way of we want to move quicker and resale is that is that speed, is that force multiplier that's gonna move the needle.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: What makes an ideal resale partner for valence?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think first and foremost, somebody that's gonna lean into emergent technology.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I think uh there's a lot of great partners that are out there, and depending on the size of your business, uh, they each might have a different impact to kind of how do you go to market.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think for us it makes sense to keep a smaller program, but ultimately build out some quality in those relationships and and make sure we're driving joint business together and trust as we're moving forward.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Is it traditional cybersecurity partners though?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, for sure.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're very focused on security bars at the moment.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you're looking for big, small, regional.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's the sweet spot?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, it's really kind of built down to, you know, a very small grouping, one to two nationals, and a couple of uh regionals per region, right?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: We want to make sure we've got the nice blend to cover off on all sizes of customers.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but at the same time, you know, you again, you want to have that sweet spot of being able to send some opportunities over the fence to build out those relationships.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Justin White is the main uh salesperson, sales leader at a boutique security var in Denver called Dersek.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: If Justin and Dersek wanted to do business with Valence and jump into your program, how is Justin going to make money?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: How is he gonna go to market with you?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's he looking for to make this work?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the nice news is like, Justin, come on down.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, we want to work with folks, especially if they're reaching out and understanding that SaaS is an important coverage area.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we're not limiting it to saying, hey, you know, we don't want to work with you.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: We certainly do.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think what we're being is a little bit more reactive to those organizations that want to come forward and say, hey, this is important for us.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the good news is we've structured it away that Justin's gonna earn high margins, he's gonna be able to have access to services, he's gonna have access to uh an NFR platform, and he's gonna have access to our sellers who are all 100% channel.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about margin.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's how do you make money?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get specific.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, uh without giving away the whole program, uh, we are very high on uh partner registered opportunities.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's no tiered structure, so everybody's coming in at the same level.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we do keep our partners whole year over year, and I think that's incredibly important.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then we have a very uh we have a very healthy margin for opportunities that we bring over to our partners.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And for a for a deal reg then, uh, how does that enhance the margin?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is it double it?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Does it give them a uh triples?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, deal reg is we we want it to be very healthy.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think look, as you're coming in and building out some of these programs and you're early in market, you can't be early in market, have minimal opportunities, and have small margins, right?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the way that we kind of structure it is to say, hey, we're gonna help feed you, we're gonna give you healthy margins, and we're gonna go really work hand in hand together.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And is it come neutral to your reps so that there's no conflict there, or do you have to do that?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think that's another area where you know we've been lucky enough, and I've been lucky enough certainly to have founders that really see the vision of what we're building out and they're truly supportive of the structure.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, they've made it very easy for us to work with the team and work with the reps.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's the thing of beauty, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't get that all the time.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was gonna ask.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, that's uh that's a usually uh a massive question mark from finders like, holy, you mean I got to pay people double the partner gets paid, my reps get paid.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is everyone getting paid in this deal?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how did you navigate that conversation to help them see the real value here?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think just some of the relationships we built early and getting them involved was really crucial to like helping drive the internal success.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, quite honestly, they they jumped on board pretty quick.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, they think they were able to see that, hey, there's a lot of value here.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: We understand what the partner community is capable of bringing us into.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go expand on that and make sure that we're supporting it all the way through.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's one thing that uh partners have given you feedback on that says, look, this is a friction point, this is something you're lacking that you've either fixed or are looking to fix this year?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: We had a great partner uh that, you know, we're starting to build out some really interesting ITDR services and instant response uh in their instant response practice.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I immediately brought in our uh uh Yoni's counterpart and co-founder Shlome.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh the two things that they had asked for was hey, we want to see um we want to see some additional depth in Microsoft, uh, in your ability to cover there, and we want to see multi-tenancy in the platform.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: And man, I love my founders.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like uh Shlomi called me, that was like on a Friday.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Shlomie called me the next Friday and said, Hey, remember that multi-tenancy thing we talked about?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah, and he goes, I built it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: I said, It's been a week.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: What do you mean you built it?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it was done.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: He had just built it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I think they're taking the critical feedback from the partners and they're then implementing it into some of the product.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: And even on the Microsoft front, the next week we had an immediate customer request for the exact same thing.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it was already built out.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: So our partners were able to kind of help us guide some of the product structure.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: What was the use case that drove the need for multi-tenancy then?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think that through from the partner side.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: So as we build those services aspects and they go out into their partner environment or into their customer environments, we really they want to be able to say, okay, we've got separation in those additional environments so that we can go out and test and make sure that those uh those SAS and critical findings aren't kind of overlapping or anybody else can see them.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, multi-tenancy as we start to build out our MSS practice is going to be really crucial uh to get down into, you know, get down market a little bit more.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now when you think about the the sellers, the reps at the partners, that's where the magic happens or doesn't happen, right?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um what are you doing to I guess enable them to come up to speed, but also make sure they're fairly representing what you do and what you don't do?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, I I think, you know, it's always hard when it's early, and especially in a market that's kind of up and coming.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so one of the few things that say I always tell my reps, hey, first off, be cool, right?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like we want to make sure you're outbuilding relationships and you're not in a position where you're just calling up people asking for deals.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like we show up with purpose.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's one of the biggest things to me is making sure that we've got learning by opportunity.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think you can do all the enablement sessions in the world, and some of them stick, and they certainly bring up uh opportunity from time to time, but the best way of learning is by doing, right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so I like that hand in, you know, real life examples and real deals to be able to go out and actually kind of execute some of that learning.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So talking about uh real examples, real deals.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: What is like an average order size and therefore, you know, margin-wise, what's a rep going to make or yeah, look, it depends on the opportunity, but we certainly have you know opportunities today that are you know mid to high six figures.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: We have some of those smaller kind of mid-market deals that are gonna be, you know, sub 50k.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: But the reality is, you know, there's a pretty good opportunity to make, you know,$10,000,$25,000 in GP on a valence opportunity.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the relationship between the valence rep and the partner, how much work would are you expecting the partners to take on and how much are you expecting the the valence reps to run?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think it kind of depends on the deal, right?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, not every deal is built the same and not every opportunity is built the same.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: So and I think there's some partners that want to be more hands-on, and you know, that's that's always fine.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think when it's this early, it's typically very valence-led.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, as we start to get into, you know, more deals together.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think this is a challenging enough product that it can't be sold uh without a valence seller at some point.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we want to make sure that they, you know, know all the nuances as they go into it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I think, you know, it's upfront is pretty valence heavy today.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: It that'll that'll change as we go forward.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that right now there's no real expectation of the partner reps to be certified or something like that in valence, but maybe in the future it might?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't do a lot of certification programs.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I do, I'd rather have that on an engineering side.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's really important for them to dig deep into the solution and really understand, you know, how to operate the technology, how to demo it, how to dive a little deeper.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for the sellers, I think like my talk track versus what the my sales team's talk track is much different, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I wanna I wanna make it so that it's easy enough to understand and easy enough to replicate uh the conversation and gain some interest from a customer.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so we're usually going a little lighter on those combos.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then give us an idea about the valence sales team that the partner refle will be working with.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: How big is it?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Where are they located?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we have uh sellers all over the states that uh we have a smaller team, probably about six folks as we come in into January here.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the reality is like they're all insanely partner friendly, and we've got folks in each of the major geos.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So look for uh look for the local valence rep first or come to come to you first and then go from there.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'll take it either way, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: We want to have those conversations and we're we're really excited to just kind of get out there and and meet you know our partner sellers and and start to get some good opportunities brewing together.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So ease of doing business is always uh a big uh big factor in all this.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: What any specific examples where you you put things in place to take away friction or avoid friction?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I try to do my best job of avoiding friction at all times.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think you know, one of the things I've learned over the last almost you know 15, 20 years of doing this is be easy to work with, let folks trust you, build trust and relationships, and have opportunities.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I think one of the things that we've made it really easy to do is come in, register an opportunity, engage the team, start working a deal together.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's no major hurdles you have to jump through.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Even our partner paperwork is pretty simple.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: We want to go out and just do easy business and start, you know, start having two folks make some money uh by by selling our products.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: What's the usual turnaround on accepting a partner registration?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's quick.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: 24 hours.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for the partners we have, we've got really good depth in relationship.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's usually uh, hey, by the way, I just submitted a reg, or you get a text, and the next thing you know, it's like, yeah, it's approved.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, let's let's go have a conversation.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: I like that size of uh interaction.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So are you looking to expand the partner or are you looking to go deeper with the existing partners right now?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Reactively bringing in some some new partners.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So based on deals, is that yeah, and then going deeper in the relationships we have.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, I am full on for the US market.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: I am not in recruit.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think we're we'll recruit a little bit in Canada, recruit a little bit in other parts of the globe uh as we start to get to those regions.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: But the reality is I think you know, today we're reactive in bringing on some net new folks and then you know, open to some ideas on how we do things like managed services and alliances to go kind of build out those practices.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: You predominantly North America then?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Any plans for AMIA APAC coming soon?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's uh that's up to the big guys, right?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll uh I look forward to it and certainly a place where I've played a lot in the past, but uh, you know, we'll we'll probably slow play that for North America.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So a big topic right now, uh especially this week, is AI in general and security.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about AI and in the partner world.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Anything specific you're doing with uh AI to help enhance what you're doing inside your partner program with your reps, things like that that you're especially excited about?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Not today, but I should be thinking about it more.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it comes up so often.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: And outside of just using ChatGPT to help make my email sound more professional, I think we've we've probably got to do a little bit more to lean in there.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the product is using some AI functionality, and you know, again, maybe it's a good good time to bring Yoni back at some point for another uh revisit on the solution.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, from a selling standpoint, I I probably got to dig a little deeper there.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Jake, thanks so much for joining us.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and hope you have a good week and a good rest of the year.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Andrew, thanks for having me on and and really excited to uh to be here, and it's been a great RSA so far.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are back with visionary or smoking crack.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Introduce yourself.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Hyke Coulter.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the director of technical alliances at Threat Quotient.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Haig.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna throw out some bold predictions here about the future of sales and cybersecurity sales.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: You tell me, am I a deep thinking, insightful visionary, or did I inhale a little bit too deeply walking through the tender line this morning on the way to the conference?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to go?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: First one by 2030, 80% of cybersecurity purchases under 100K will happen without a human seller or a human buyer, just AI agents buying and selling.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is that visionary or is that smoking crack?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You have been behind somebody leaving a massive vapor trail of crack.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: That is not gonna happen.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me why.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I can understand a human being making a software purchase without engaging with the sales rep.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine an organization granting access to an AI agent to make purchasing decisions on the company's behalf.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I like that.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next one.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number two in five years' time, more CISOs will report to the CFO than report to the CIO or CEO, and sales will shift to be a finance first and security second discussion.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that visionary or is it smoking crack?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's pretty visionary.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I I can see that.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are real uh costs to protecting the infrastructure, and I can see how a uh information security officer would roll up to a CFO for those reasons.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Third one.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: In ten years' time, both the RSA conference and Black Cat will be dead, completely gone.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is that visionary or is that smoking correct?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: There will be change.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's somewhere between the two of them.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're already seeing the change where several organizations are opting not to have a presence on the show floor, but have a presence in the immediate vicinity to capitalize on the fact that everyone is collectively in in the same place, but something has to change.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there will be some change over the next 10 years for sure.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: All right, last one for you.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Recently, Google announced they were acquiring Wiz, and some people in the industry called the combo G Wiz.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So within 12 months, the OT security company that's called Insane Cyber will buy this other security company an OT called Sanctuary, and the combined company will be renamed to Insane Asylum.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is that visionary or is that smoking crack?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is a fantastic joke, but you're smoking crack.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Hike.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: My pleasure.