vCISO Platform Provider Cynomi Hires SentinelOne Vet as CRO

Cynomi, the vCISO platform provider for MSPs and MSSPs, has hired Ken Marks, previously with SentinelOne, as its first chief revenue officer (CRO).

Marks will lead Cynomi’s global sales strategy and drive revenue growth to support the company’s growth. He’ll play a key role in expanding the reach of the company’s vCISO platform that allows service providers to deliver what Cynomi says is scalable, CISO-level cybersecurity services to SMEs.

In addition, Marks will drive the vCISO platform provider’s go-to-market (GTM) execution and strengthen Cynomi’s presence in key markets.

Before joining Cynomi, Marks was vice president of global channels at SentinelOne. There, he played a pivotal role in driving the company’s GTM strategy, culminating in the largest cybersecurity IPO in history.

In addition to SentinelOne, Marks has held senior channel leadership roles at Splunk, Silver Peak, Palo Alto Networks and Juniper Networks. He began his career at IBM, where he held various leadership roles in building and scaling sales strategies.

“Ken brings to Cynomi a wealth of experience and a strategic vision that is exactly what we need to accelerate our growth and expand our vCISO market footprint,” said David Primor, Cynomi’s co-founder and CEO. “His expertise will be invaluable as we continue to empower MSPs and MSSPs with innovative tools that deliver CISO-level security to organizations of all sizes.”

Related:Cynomi Academy to Provide Tools for vCISO Training

New CRO's Plans for vCISO Platform Provider

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Marks talks about his goals as Cynomi's CRO.

Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this role with Cynomi?

Ken Marks: I've been in some pretty high-profile cyber companies over the years, and frankly I've sold a ton of cybersecurity products and platforms to customers. I found over the years that when I'd ask the customer , "Hey, what's your security program, what's your operations plan, what are you going to do with all this equipment, and how are you going to optimize it and operationalize it," you'd be surprised how many companies − small, medium and large − just didn't have a plan. And they just thought, "Hey, if I buy all this stuff, I'm protected." For the largest companies that were able to have a CISO on board or in their company, they're able to build those programs and build those operational plans.

But what about the thousands and thousands, and tens of thousands of SMEs out there that just can't afford to have their own CISO? What drew me to Cynomi was what an opportunity to provide MSPs and MSSPs a platform and a toolkit to be able to start a vCISO practice and open up new revenue opportunities for them. Or if they already have a vCISO practice, and are probably running it through spreadsheets and very manual efforts, what if we can help them become more productive so they can add more customers, manage more customers and really differentiate themselves in the market? And that's what Cynomi was. So the more I ... pulled the string, the more great things came out that I had seen in the industry over the years, and that's what brought me here.

Related:Pax8, Cynomi Partner to Provide Virtual CISO to MSPs

CF: How will your previous experience with SentinelOne, Splunk, Palo Alto Networks and more come into play in this new role?

KM: At the end of the day, we're not confused on our go-to-market (GTM). We only sell to partners so that they can build practices and services to the end users. So all of my relationships that I've had over the years and built over the years with partners and MSPs, and MSSPs, those will continue. And I'll continue to have those conversations and let them know why I think it would be a great opportunity for them. The relationships I have from all those places will be something that will be very important. Of the lessons I learned, one is not to have a confused GTM because I've been at some companies that sold direct, indirect and changed their mind a few times. There is no confusion here; this is purpose-built for MSPs and MSSPs.

Channel Futures TV catches up with Cynomi's Tim Coach at the 2024 MSP Summit in Atlanta.

Second is how important the enablement is for the partners. You can't just say, "Hey, you signed a contract, so why aren't you selling?" Enablement by role of the partners, sales teams, pre-sales teams and post-sales teams, those are things I learned over the years that become so important to your execution plan. That'll probably be one of my major focus areas in the next 30 days.

CF: When you take a new leadership role, are you known for taking any specific actions, like initiating new strategies?

KM: I think so. Every company is a little bit different, but I do a lot of learning and a lot of listening in the early days. In fact, I've been doing calls for the last month before I started with partners, with employees and with the leadership team, and formulating where I believe we are.

One thing that's very important to me is making sure that we've outlined our measurements of success. So what does "good" look like? And then that everybody understands their role in how we're going to track success so that way there's no confusion as we go forward. [Also], I'm definitely known for the business planning side of things. D we have business plans and mutual plans with our largest partners? Do we have plans with our MSSP marketplace providers and aggregators? Then we implement business plans that we can measure along the way to make sure that we're executing efficiently.

CF: What’s your take on Cynomi’s current channel strategy and partner program? Are changes needed?

KM: Yes, there'll be some changes. There are always tweaks along the way. The tenants of enablement are very important today, just like when I joined the other companies with very little enablement available.

We did just launch a significant vCISO Academy − which is phenomenal − and open to everyone who wants to look at building a practice or enhancing their practice. That's one thing that I'll make sure that I build into with our team into the program, more enablement. And then, of course, just tightening up the value proposition. What's in it for the partner? What are the ancillary services they can provide? How they can make sure that they differentiate themselves against their own competitors by going with Cynomi, and really, the value proposition.

So as it relates to the program itself, I'm still digging into all the details on the benefits and the requirements. Fine-tuning and making sure the value proposition for the partners is very significant, and then the enablement behind it so they can become as good − if not better than us − in the field will be two pieces that I will work on.

CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?

KM: Listening and learning from our existing partners. Listening and learning from our team because they've done a great job already. But on top of the to-do list are the two things I mentioned, firming up the value proposition, making sure that it's a win-win for us — the partner and the end user. And then it's really rolling out a robust set of enablement materials − self-paced, web-based and no charge − so that we can get the partners ramped up and productive as quickly as possible. Those are the top two things on my list. And of course, going to see as many partners as I can as quickly as I can, which is why I'm in Orlando for IT Nation Connect this week. (Channel Futures will be there too. Watch for our coverage of the event all week long.)

CF: What role do partners play in Cynomi’s growth and expansion?

KM: It's all about the partner. If you look at our GTM, we don't sell directly to the customer. So our tool is really there for the MSPs and MSSPs to build out their own vCISO practices that they're taking to the customers. They are our growth engine, and now our responsibility at home is to make it worth their while and to enable them so that they can be successful when they choose to partner with us.

CF: What are the biggest challenges facing MSPs and MSSPs, and how will you address those?

KM: Let's take the MSPs for a minute. It's a complicated cybersecurity world. Understanding the different technologies, breaking through the clutter when so many people's platforms and products sound so similar, is one of the issues for them [and a way that] we can really help them help their customers. That's what we're going to be about, how they can provide a service that adds true value to the end-user customer so that they can be that consultant and that true advisor to the customer. They have so much to learn and so many things out there. I want to provide them with this tool so it can provide automated risk assessments, compliance assessments and create remediation plans that they can then go take out and execute on. At the end of the day, I want to help them break through the clutter.

CF: With you as CRO, what can Cynomi’s partners expect from the company through the remainder of 2024, into 2025?

KM: What they can expect from us is a rock-solid product that does what we say it does. They can also expect us to continue to provide enhancements and new feature sets based on their feedback on what they're seeing in the market. They should also feel confident that I'm not going to change the model, so I'm not going to come in and have a confused GTM strategy. And I think they should also expect a very fair and equitable opportunity to make money and to provide their own services. Then they should certainly expect enablement capabilities to be successful.