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How to survive Cybersecurity? Speed. The same goes for hiring.
A brilliant idea, airtight tech, and market demand mean nothing without the right team at the right time. But how does a start-up move from scrappy beginnings to an industry force without tripping over its own growth?
Seed stage: The Chaos Phase
Team Size: 2–20
Hiring Priorities: Founding Engineers, Security Architects, and first GTM hires(often a tech-savvy sales lead).
At this stage, it’s all hands on deck. Job titles mean little (your CTO is also your customer support, and the Engineer writing your AI-driven threat detection might also be debugging the company website).
Biggest hiring challenge:
Convincing Security talent to join a company with no brand recognition, uncertain funding, and a salary made up of "trust us, the equity will be worth it.”
Solution:
- Leverage the mission. Cybersecurity professionals thrive on solving real problems. Make yours compelling.
- Sell the problem you’re solving, not just the company.
Series A/B: The Growth Engine
Team Size: 20–150
Hiring Priorities: First VP of Engineering, Product leaders, Compliance specialists, and more structured GTM teams.
You’ve landed funding, maybe even some high-profile customers. Now? It’s about proving you can execute (at scale).
Biggest hiring challenge:
Striking the balance between keeping the ‘hacker mindset’ that made you nimble and introducing processes that prevent chaos.
Solution:
- Start hiring for Managers before things break, not after.
- Invest in security talent with regulatory expertise - this is when compliance(SOC 2, ISO 27001) starts mattering to enterprise buyers.
- Build a hiring engine (relying on network hires alone won’t cut it anymore).
Series C ‘and beyond’: The Enterprise Shift
Team Size: 150+
Hiring Priorities: Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), compliance and legal teams, enterprise sales leaders, customer success teams.
Now you’re playing in the big leagues. Customers expect stability. Your biggest threat isn’t only cyberattacks . . it’s your ability to scale without losing agility.
Biggest hiring challenge:
Hiring senior leaders who can operate in a high-growth environment without trying to turn your start-up into a corporate dinosaur.
Solution:
- Be ruthless about hiring leaders who still build. If a candidate talks more about process than execution, they might not be a fit.
- Prioritise culture preservation (scaling doesn’t mean diluting what made your team great in the first place).
- Keep the start-up energy alive, but recognise when you need structure. The right leaders will know how to balance both.
The best Cybersecurity start-ups don’t ‘only’ build great tech.
They build teams that can outpace threats and the competition.
