In the early stages of building a business, even experienced leaders don’t know if they will succeed. Many start with strong ideas, yet 90% of startups fail. Pushing through requires hard work, persistence, and a big leap of faith.

When I co-founded my cybersecurity company seventeen years ago, I stepped away from an established career and straight into the unknown. Since taking that leap of faith, I’ve learned that success depends far less on the idea itself, and far more on how well you understand your market, build relationships, and surround yourself with the right people.

If you’re building or scaling a cybersecurity business, or any business for that matter, these are the four lessons I believe matter most, and how you should apply them:

1. Start With the Customer, Not the Product

If you take one thing from this, make it this: never start with what you want to build, start with what your customer actually needs. 

Early on in my career, I made it a mission to spend as much time speaking directly with CISOs and practitioners with whom I had become acquainted. Those conversations weren’t sales pitches; they were to understand the real problems each of these individuals were facing. And it was these conversations that ended up influencing and shaping our product. These conversations were key in making sure we were never building in isolation, and it turned our customers into our collaborators.

All founders should be doing the same. If you have industry experience, use your network to have honest, open conversations. If you don’t, immerse yourself by reading industry journals, listening to podcasts, and building that understanding from the outside in. Either way, you shouldn’t be pitching anything until you truly understand the wants and needs of your customer.

And as you continue to grow, these conversations don’t stop. You need to stay close to your customers, whether that be at events, in meetings, or in other capacities. In cybersecurity, especially, where people frequently move between organizations, relationships compound over time. Someone you build trust with today could open doors years later. Treat your customers as long-term partners, not transactions. If they feel like a revenue stream, you’ll lose them. If they feel understood, they’ll stay and they’ll advocate for you.

2. Leadership and Expertise Take Time

In the beginning you are not going to have all the answers, and that is OK. Assuming you do is a mistake. Building and leading a business is not a straight line. It’s messy, unpredictable, and constantly evolving – albeit this is what makes it such an exciting challenge. Therefore, what matters is your ability to solve problems as they come, not just execute a plan.

While positioning and sales matter for long term growth, what defines a leader and your business is how you approach challenges. If you focus on finding solutions for what is keeping your customers up at night, and not just pushing a product, you can become their trusted partner rather than just another supplier looking for dollar signs.

This goes for internal processes, as well. If you want a high-quality team, you need to be present and accessible to them. People should feel they can come to you, challenge ideas, and rely on your support. You shouldn’t be leading from a distance but be connected to your employees. Alongside this, respect for both your customers and your team needs to guide every decision. When that’s in place, relationships last far beyond individual deals or current roles.

3. Hire for the Long Term, Not Just Today

Who you hire will shape everything from execution to culture and growth.  When first starting out, your network will likely be your biggest source of talent. That’s an advantage you should lean into. 

When you’re moving quickly or working within tight budgets, contractors can help fill immediate skill gaps and give you a way to assess fit before committing. But don’t rely on that long term. As you scale, you need people who are invested in the business’s mission, its products and are aligned with where it’s going. This is where many founders can get it wrong – they hire for skills alone. Skills solve immediate problems, but culture and adaptability determine long-term success.

So how do you build that long-term team? It starts at the first interview. When you’re speaking with a prospect, go deeper than their resume. When I was first interviewing candidates, I used to ask them to tell me about a strong past working relationship and then would delve deeper: “what would that person say about you?” The answer to this question tells you a lot about the candidate’s self-awareness, their collaboration style, and hints at their real-world behavior far more than standard questions ever will.

And hopefully the day will come that your business will grow and hiring will become an HR or hiring manager’s responsibility. It is at that time that you need to trust your leaders to carry your culture forward. Give them autonomy, but make sure every decision is grounded in shared values.

4. Retain Talent Through Relevance and Culture

Hiring great people is only half the challenge. Keeping them is where it gets harder, and to do that you need to stay relevant and build a strong business purpose. This means continuing to evolve your product, your messaging, and how you respond to the market. People want to work on meaningful problems. If the work stays interesting and impactful, they stay engaged.

Culture is what keeps employees long term, and that needs to start early on. You should define your company’s values and actively work to build an environment where people feel included and supported. Cybersecurity remains male-dominated, with women only making up 22% of the workforce and 7% of senior roles. As a leader, you set the tone and ensure everyone feels they can belong, succeed, and advocate for themselves without retribution. 

Transparency and communication are also critical. If leadership is open and accessible, information flows much better as silos break down, allowing teams to move faster. You should always encourage flexibility and avoid rigid, bureaucratic thinking.

Long-Term Success Starts With People

If you want to build a business that lasts, focus on two things above all else: your customers and your people. Customers will stay with you if you continue to understand and solve their problems. Employees will stay if they find meaning in the work and feel part of a strong culture. Get both right, and support them with a strong product, and you give yourself the best possible chance to build a business that is both resilient and thriving.