Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Episode Summary: Christine Bartlett, SVP of Marketing at Hack The Box, tackles one of the trickiest challenges in marketing leadership: how to come in, make meaningful changes, and still preserve the magic that was there before you arrived. She gets into building a field marketing team, moving past last-touch attribution to create alignment amongst the business, and what it takes to get execs and the board on board. There’s also a good conversation around how Hack The Box balances a community model with enterprise, and why investing in early-career talent still pays off! About Christine: Christine Bartlett is the SVP of Marketing at Hack The Box, where she leads global marketing across both community and enterprise. She’s spent over a decade in cybersecurity marketing, with leadership roles at Cisco and SonicWall, focused on building teams and driving growth. Links & Resources: Hack the Box  Let's Defend CyberMarketingCon 2026  HubSpot  LinkedIn  Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: In this Cyber CMO Confidential episode, Netwrix CMO John Knightly joins Gianna and Charles to talk through the company’s recent rebrand and the thinking behind it. After years of growth through acquisitions, Netwrix needed a clearer story. John shares how the team repositioned the company around data security that starts with identity, simplified its messaging, and rolled the new brand out across a global organization. If you’re navigating brand evolution, product complexity, or internal buy-in, this episode offers a look at what it actually takes to pull off a cybersecurity rebrand. About John: John Knightly is the Chief Marketing Officer at Netwrix, where he leads the company’s global marketing organization. Before joining Netwrix, he held senior marketing leadership roles at Zscaler, BlueJeans by Verizon, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and HP, bringing more than 20 years of experience in enterprise technology and cybersecurity marketing. Links & Resources: John Knightly on LinkedIn Netwrix Subscribe & Review:  👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Charles Gold on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: Vanta CMO Scott Holden joins Gianna to talk about how the company is expanding beyond automated SOC 2 compliance and positioning Vanta as an Agentic Trust Platform. Scott shares his path from Salesforce to ThoughtSpot and Brex, why Vanta’s preventive security approach stood out, and how the team is evolving its messaging as it moves further into the enterprise. Tune in to hear how Vanta is thinking about category positioning, CISOs, and the strategy behind its new “Calm-pliance” campaign. About Scott: Scott Holden is the Chief Marketing Officer at Vanta, where he leads marketing as the company expands beyond automated compliance into a broader trust platform.  Before joining Vanta, he was CMO at Brex and spent more than eight years at ThoughtSpot in marketing leadership roles. Earlier in his career, Scott held several marketing roles at Salesforce. Links & Resources: Follow Scott Holden on LinkedIn Vanta Subscribe & Review:  👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: Chris Sienko spent six years hosting Cyber Work with Infosec, interviewing more than 300 cybersecurity professionals across every imaginable role. But the show wasn’t built for CISOs or executives. It was built for the people trying to get in. In this conversation, Chris shares why he focused on students and early-career professionals, even though most cybersecurity marketing targets buyers, and how that decision shaped everything from guest research to episode structure to long-term growth. If you’re building content inside a cybersecurity company and wondering who you’re actually serving, this episode will challenge you to think bigger than the buying committee. About Chris: Chris Sienko is a podcast producer and former host of Cyber Work with Infosec, where he interviewed more than 300 cybersecurity professionals from 2019 to 2025. Over six years, he helped grow the show into a central resource for aspiring cybersecurity practitioners. He previously served as Senior Acquisitions Manager for Infosec Resources, overseeing a large network of technical writers and contributing to the editorial direction of one of the industry’s most widely read cybersecurity education platforms. Links & Resources: Connect with Chris on LinkedIn Check out Infosec Subscribe & Review:  👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: In cybersecurity marketing, there’s constant pressure to keep pushing. More campaigns, more content, more pressure to show that something is working. You’re wearing multiple hats, adjusting on the fly, and trying to keep momentum. At a human level, that pace adds up. This conversation slows down to talk about the exhaustion behind it, the cost of always saying yes, and the shift that happens when you finally pause. Rodrigo Leme, Marketing Director at Right-Hand Cybersecurity, joins Gianna to talk about what it’s like to be the only marketer at a growing security company. He reflects on constantly reassessing what’s worth doing, learning the hard way that saying yes to everything doesn’t mean doing good work, and what it’s been like working remotely for years. Along the way, he shares what helped him stay grounded: routines, hobbies, and small shifts in his approach to work. It’s a reflection on what it takes to keep going without letting the job take over everything else in your life. About Rodrigo: Rodrigo Leme is the Marketing Director at Right-Hand Cybersecurity, where he leads the company’s marketing efforts, including content, campaigns, and go-to-market support. He has worked in marketing for more than 20 years and has spent the past several years in cybersecurity. Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Hosts: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Maria Velasquez on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Steve Piper, founder of CyberEdge Group and editor of Security Buzz, brings 30+ years in tech. He discusses AI-driven spear phishing and deepfake fraud. He explores generative AI powering analyst workflows and agentic AI for autonomous threat hunting. Marketing and buying expectations are shifting as AI reshapes tools, teams, and product positioning.

Episode Summary: AI has changed how buyers do their research. By the time they land on your website, most of the education is already done. That is where many cybersecurity sites start to fall apart. Suyog Deshpande, Co-Founder and CEO of Webless.ai, joins us to break down what this shift means for website strategy. He explains why today’s visitors are often deeper in the buying journey, how cybersecurity buying committees complicate the experience, and why education-first sites do not always serve buyers who are ready to act. Gianna and Suyog also get into how on-site search behavior reveals real buyer intent and why more AI-generated content is not the answer. If your website still assumes buyers are at the top of the funnel, this episode is for you! About Suyog: Suyog Deshpande is the Co-Founder and CEO of Webless.ai, where he works on generative search and content discovery for B2B websites. Before starting Webless, he led product and technical marketing teams at Samsara, Salesforce, and Amplitude. His work sits at the intersection of marketing, product, and how buyers actually find and use information. Links & Resources: Follow Suyog on LinkedIn Check out the Webless.ai  Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Hosts: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Maria Velasquez on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: Community gets talked about a lot in cybersecurity; what’s less clear is what it’s supposed to actually look like. In this conversation, Avital Knoller, Head of Ecosystem, Community, and CXO Relationships at Orchid Security, walks through how she thinks about community when it’s tied directly to product and growth.  She breaks down the difference between practitioner-led product communities and broader communities of interest, and why that distinction matters so much in security. Drawing on her experience building communities across nonprofit, startup, and cybersecurity environments, Avital shares how investing in community can create super-users, surface real product feedback, and support go-to-market efforts without feeling salesy or forced. Tune in to hear about practical realities, platform choices, launch timing, engagement expectations, and how to think about ROI while keeping the focus on trust, peer learning, and long-term value. About Avital:Avital (Avi) Knoller is the Head of Ecosystem, Community, and CXO Relationships at Orchid Security, where she leads practitioner community programs and ecosystem engagement for the company’s identity security platform. Avital has experience building and running communities across nonprofit, startup, and cybersecurity environments, with a focus on practitioner engagement and product-focused communities inside security companies. Links & Resources: Avital (Avi) Knoller on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/avital-knoller/ Orchid Security - https://www.orchid.security/ Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Hosts: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Maria Velasquez on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: Dan Lowden has a pretty incredible track record—12 startups and eight exits to count—so when he talks about building a marketing engine from scratch, people listen. In this CMO Confidential segment, Dan joins Gianna and Charles to talk about his latest challenge at Blackbird.ai: defining the "Narrative Intelligence" category and helping companies fight disinformation. They get into the real-world grit of going from leading a 70-person team back to being a solo marketer. Dan shares his "punch above your weight" playbook, including why he hired a former CBS news reporter to lead content and how he landed NATO as a marquee customer. Listen to this episode if you are looking to make a small startup feel like an industry giant, build deep analyst credibility without a "pay-to-play" budget, or understand the next big CISO blind spot in narrative intelligence. About Dan:  Dan Lowden is the CMO at Blackbird.ai and a seasoned leader with over 30 years of experience building brands in the tech and cybersecurity spaces. A veteran of 12 startups and eight successful exits, Dan has led marketing for companies such as HUMAN (formerly White Ops), Digital Shadows, and Invincea. He is known for his "hands-on" approach to leadership, often joining as the first marketing hire to transform complex technology into a clear, compelling story. When he isn't defining new security categories like Narrative Intelligence, Dan is an author; he wrote and published the romance novel The Met Kiss during the pandemic. Follow Dan on LinkedIn. Links & Resources: Blackbird.ai: Learn more about narrative intelligence and disinformation security. The Raven Blog: Where Dan’s team publishes primary research on narrative attacks. The Met Kiss: Dan Lowden’s debut romance novel, written during the pandemic. Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Hosts: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Charles Gold on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!

Episode Summary: What happens when a "privacy freak" takes over customer advocacy? You get the DataGrail’s Data Privacy Awards Program, an industry staple that doubles as a masterclass in community building and product research. In this episode, Ian Phippen, Head of Content and Community Marketing at DataGrail, joins Gianna and Maria to pull back the curtain on running a high-impact awards program. Ian shares how they transformed a standard advocacy play into a mission-driven brand engine that attracts hundreds of nominations, of which only 40% are customers. Whether you're launching your first awards ceremony or looking for more human ways to connect with your technical audience, Ian’s insights offer a roadmap for marketing with integrity. About Ian:  Ian Phippen is the Head of Content and Community at DataGrail and the architect of the Data Privacy Hero Awards.  A 2025 Marquee Award winner for Best New-to-Cyber Talent, they moved from a background in education and e-commerce marketing at companies like Recharge and Provi to become a dedicated "privacy freak" in the cybersecurity space.  Ian specializes in building high-trust recognition programs that turn industry advocacy into deep market intelligence. Follow Ian on LinkedIn.  Links and Resources: DataGrail: The data privacy platform leading the shift toward "human-centric" privacy. 2025 Data Privacy Heroes: The official announcement and profiles of the most recent award winners. Sessionize: The event management tool mentioned for handling speaker and award calls. Recharge & Provi: Previous companies where Ian built their marketing and community foundation. Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Hosts: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Maria Velasquez on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you in the next episode!