Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Episode Summary:

Shahar Bahat is the CEO and co-founder of Pluto Security. With every employee now building things using tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, and n8n, security teams have no visibility into any of those layers. That is the problem Pluto is solving.

She sat down with Gianna to talk about what she saw at RSAC 2026, the shift from shadow AI to mandated AI, and how to build a security product when the tools your customers use change every four months.

About Shahar:

Shahar Bahat is the CEO and co-founder of Pluto Security, a company focused on securing the new ways employees build and create using AI tools. Before Pluto, she built experience across startups and enterprise security, and Pluto Security was part of the AWS-CrowdStrike-NVIDIA Cyber Accelerator program.

Links & Resources:

Shahar Bahat on LinkedIn

Pluto Security

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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.

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Episode Summary:

Most CMOs come up through marketing. Ash Parikh came up through engineering and sales, and he thinks that is exactly why he does the job differently.

He joins Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential as the CMO of Absolute Security to talk about what 25 years of carrying a bag, presenting to boards, and running marketing at some of the biggest names in cybersecurity taught him. He’s banned MQLs, replaced them with handraisers built on real intent signals, and has strong opinions on why most marketers are not ready for a buying process that is growing harder to see every year.

About Ash:

Ash Parikh is the Chief Marketing Officer at Absolute Security. He has held CMO roles at Trellix, Druva, and Informatica, where he was part of the company's IPO. He started his career in engineering and sales before moving into marketing, and has spent over 25 years building go-to-market engines across cybersecurity, data, and enterprise software.

Links & Resources:

Ash Parikh on LinkedIn

Absolute Security

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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:

JP Bourget sold a SOAR company, named his next one after cycling and blue teaming, got Fat Mike from NOFX to show up at his RSAC event, then took him to DEFCON, where he ended up in a DJ booth at Caesars Palace with Steve Aoki.

Somewhere in between all of that, he built Blue Cycle into one of roughly 130 security service providers recognized by Microsoft out of 400,000 partners worldwide.

He joins Gianna to talk about AI readiness, what happens when companies turn on Copilot before cleaning up years of data permission sprawl, and how he gamed the Microsoft partner ecosystem in under a year.

About JP:

JP Bourget is the CEO of Blue Cycle, a cybersecurity firm specializing in AI readiness, Microsoft security, security data pipelines, and API integrations. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Lytical Ventures and a mentor at Upstate Venture Connect. Before Blue Cycle, he co-founded Syncurity, an early SOAR company that was acquired by Swimlane.

Links & Resources:

JP Bourget on⁠ LinkedIn⁠

⁠Blue Cycle⁠

⁠Lytical Ventures⁠

⁠The Punk Rock Museum⁠

⁠Upstate Venture Connect⁠

⁠Cribl⁠

⁠Swimlane

Polaris

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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:

CyberGlobal is the world's first cybersecurity franchise, with Madalina Petrea heading up marketing there. What does it mean to run marketing at a cyber franchise? Supporting 27+ franchise owners across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia who sell cybersecurity services to small businesses in their local markets.

She joins Gianna to talk about what it takes to build that from the ground up. Her team handles everything for new franchisees in the first 90 days, including websites, LinkedIn profiles, content, and templates, so they can focus on learning the business. Her biggest challenge right now? Designing a system at 27 locations that still works at 200.

They also get into why paid ads worked in Dubai and Italy but not in Boston, and why SEO has become one of their most important growth channels, including showing up in AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

About Madalina:

Madalina Petrea is the Head of Marketing at CyberGlobal, the world's first cybersecurity franchise. She leads a centralized marketing team that functions as an internal agency for franchise owners across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Her background spans marketing for SaaS and software development companies, and she has been building CyberGlobal's marketing infrastructure from the ground up since mid-2024.

Links & Resources:

Madalina Petrea on LinkedIn

CyberGlobal

HubSpot

Jira

Screaming Frog

Semrush

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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:

Content syndication has earned a mixed reputation among cybersecurity marketers.

Too often, programs generate large volumes of leads but little measurable pipeline. Sales teams question lead quality, marketing teams question whether the right buyers are being reached, and both sides wonder whether the investment was worth it.

Steve Piper has been in cybersecurity marketing for over 30 years and has heard every version of "we tried content syndication and it didn't work." His response is always the same: you need to set clear expectations on what content syndication programs do internally, ask content syndication vendors the right questions and build protections into your contract, and build nurture programs for the leads created from content syndication.

On this episode, Steve sat down with Gianna to talk about what content syndication is, what a good program looks like, and what to get into your contract before signing to make sure that you have success!

New to CyberEdge? They have a summer promotion running through August 31st. First-time customers get 25% off their first campaign with a minimum of 300 leads, and every campaign gets 10% bonus leads. Visit cyberedgegroup.com to get started.

About Steve:

Steve Piper is the Founder and CEO of CyberEdge Group, the largest marketing and research

firm dedicated to serving cybersecurity marketing teams. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Security Buzz, a leading cybersecurity news website.

Steve is a CISSP-certified analyst, author, and speaker with more than 30 years of experience.

When he's not helping cybersecurity marketers drive growth, Steve enjoys playing poker and boating along the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale.

Links & Resources:


Steve Piper on LinkedIn


CyberEdge Group


Security Buzz


CyberEdge Pricing Guide

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!