By Elle Zoma, Director Cyber GTM, Stanton House 

Working with cybersecurity and AI startups across North America gives me a close-up view of how high-growth companies compete for go-to-market talent. I partner with founders and GTM leaders to build commercial teams across sales, sales engineering, marketing and customer success, often at the point where an organisation is trying to turn early traction into repeatable growth.  

Over the course of the third season of my podcast Cyber Go-To-Market Girl Talk, I've been speaking with HR, Talent and People Leaders building GTM teams at some of the most innovative Cybersecurity and AI startups. They've been providing insight into how they position their company as a company of choice in a world full of innovation and AI noise. The types of roles they're recruiting for and where. The types of candidates most likely to thrive in their business, and tips for navigating life in a startup, drawn from their own unique experiences. 

Season three is truly giving us the lowdown from companies like Onyx Security, Push Security, Huskeys, Cyberhaven and Semperis, to name a few, with several more in the lineup. 

The cybersecurity and AI startup market remains highly competitive, but the bar has risen. Capital is available, although investors increasingly expect businesses to demonstrate genuine differentiation and tangible commercial impact. That makes hiring the right GTM talent incredibly important, but attracting those people is not simply a matter of offering the highest salary. 

The companies that stand out are much better at answering a more fundamental question: why should a talented person choose to build their career here? 

1. They give people something meaningful to believe in 

One of the clearest themes I hear when speaking with candidates is the importance of understanding what they are actually joining. 

In a startup, particularly in cybersecurity, people are being asked to take a degree of risk. The company may be relatively unknown. The product might be entering a crowded category. Processes are unlikely to be perfect and the job someone accepts today may look quite different twelve months from now. 

That makes the story behind the business incredibly important. 

Throughout my conversations on Cyber Go-To-Market Girl Talk, purpose came through repeatedly. The women I interviewed did not describe their careers purely in terms of compensation, job titles or promotions. They talked about solving meaningful problems, finding organisations they believed in, working with people they respected and having an impact. 

For a cybersecurity or AI startup, that means candidates need to understand more than what the product does. They need to understand why the problem matters, why the company is positioned to solve it and what role they will personally play in its growth. 

This is particularly important in cybersecurity because differentiation is becoming harder. Stanton House's 2026 market analysis found that investors and buyers increasingly rewarded cybersecurity businesses able to demonstrate tangible impact, while businesses without clear differentiation faced a tougher environment.  

The same principle applies to talent. If your pitch to a prospective salesperson sounds broadly identical to every other security vendor's pitch, why should they choose you? 

Practical takeaway: Before going to market, make sure everyone involved in hiring can explain the company's mission, market opportunity, product differentiation and growth story consistently. Candidates should leave a conversation understanding not only the job, but why joining the company could be an important career decision. 

One company that comes to mind is Onyx Security. Having recently raised their Series B very shortly after their Series A, Onyx Security is solving a real problem being discussed at board level with securing AI. The way in which they create excitement for candidates entering an interview process is a prime example of how to demonstrate why they are a company of choice when thinking about your next career move. They have a solution to a very real problem; they have strong investor conviction and funding history but more importantly they create a wonderful candidate experience. Seamless whilst maintaining momentum- all important when keeping engagement with the best talent. 

2. They are honest about what startup life actually requires 

The best startups do not try to make themselves sound like large, established businesses. 

That matters because the people who thrive in an early-stage organisation are not necessarily the same people who thrive in a mature enterprise. 

Startup GTM roles can require people to operate without the infrastructure they may have been accustomed to elsewhere. A salesperson might have fewer inbound leads, less brand recognition and less sales enablement support. A marketing leader may need to move between strategy and execution. Leaders may find themselves building processes while simultaneously trying to hit aggressive growth targets. 

The strongest hiring conversations acknowledge this. 

There is sometimes a temptation to sell candidates an idealised version of the opportunity because companies are understandably keen to secure them. In my experience, transparency is much more effective. The objective is not to persuade every strong candidate to join. It is to find the strong candidates who genuinely want what your environment offers. 

That requires hiring leaders to be candid about where the company is today, what has not yet been built and what the successful candidate will need to create themselves. 

It also means being realistic about the characteristics that matter. Adaptability, resilience and comfort with ambiguity can be just as important as having worked for a recognised cybersecurity brand. 

Practical takeaway: Be explicit about the realities of the role during the recruitment process. Explain what resources exist, what does not exist yet, what needs to be built and how success will be measured. The right candidates are often attracted by that challenge rather than deterred by it. 

The Head of People & Ops at Huskeys did a great job of distilling the key characteristics of a startup, why being agile is important and, perhaps even more importantly, why enjoying it matters. 

With shifting priorities and the need to wear multiple hats in a slightly more unstructured environment, a startup isn't necessarily for everyone. 

3. They understand that candidates are assessing the leadership team 

A candidate interview is never a one-way assessment. 

This becomes especially important when recruiting experienced GTM professionals into startups. Candidates are not simply evaluating the product and compensation package. They are making a judgement about the people they will be building alongside. 

They want to know whether the founders understand the market. They want confidence in the commercial strategy. They are assessing whether their future manager is someone they can learn from and whether the leadership team will support them when conditions become difficult. 

That means leadership visibility matters. 

People join leaders as much as they join companies. 

The conversations throughout Cyber Go-To-Market Girl Talk also reinforced the importance of relationships, mentorship and strong professional networks in successful careers. Employers should not underestimate how much candidates notice the quality of those relationships during recruitment. 

Practical takeaway: Give candidates meaningful access to the people they will work with. Founders and GTM leaders should be prepared to explain their strategy, leadership philosophy and expectations rather than leaving the recruitment team to do all the selling. 

4. They look beyond the obvious candidate profile 

Some of the most interesting career stories I hear are not linear. 

People move between functions, sectors and different types of organisations. They build skills in one environment that become incredibly valuable somewhere else. They find mentors, take calculated risks and sometimes move into cybersecurity without having planned a career in the sector from the outset. 

That should make hiring managers think carefully about how narrowly they define their ideal candidate. 

Of course, relevant market experience matters for many roles. A startup cannot ignore the importance of technical understanding, existing relationships or knowledge of how cybersecurity buyers operate. However, an overly rigid specification can exclude people with the underlying capabilities needed to succeed. 

One of our clients described this distinction particularly well in feedback about working with Stanton House. Rather than sending large volumes of resumes, they valued the effort taken to understand how the profile they needed differed from the industry norm.  

That is an important lesson for hiring teams too. 

Before insisting on ten years in a particular cybersecurity category, ask what that requirement is supposed to prove. Is it customer relationships? Technical credibility? Experience of an enterprise sales cycle? Understanding of channel? The ability to build from scratch? 

Once you define the capability behind the requirement, you may discover a broader and stronger talent pool. 

Practical takeaway: Separate genuine requirements from familiar credentials. Define the outcomes someone needs to deliver and the capabilities required to achieve them before deciding what their previous job title or employer must look like. 

5. They treat candidate experience as part of their growth strategy 

Finally, the best companies recognise that recruitment itself tells candidates something about how the business operates. 

Communication matters. Preparation matters. Knowing what you are looking for matters. 

In a competitive talent market, a disorganised process can undermine an otherwise compelling opportunity. If interviewers provide conflicting messages about the role, candidates wait too long for feedback or the company repeatedly changes what it wants, people naturally begin to question what working there would be like. 

Conversely, a thoughtful process creates confidence. 

This does not mean rushing an important hiring decision. It means knowing who needs to meet the candidate, what each conversation needs to establish and how decisions will be made. 

One of the most consistent themes in feedback from Stanton House customers is the value of understanding the brief properly rather than treating recruitment as a volume exercise. Clients have highlighted the importance of transparency, communication and understanding their overall objectives, not simply matching resumes to job descriptions.  

Startups should apply the same discipline internally. 

Practical takeaway: Map your recruitment process before approaching candidates. Agree the interview stages, decision-makers, assessment criteria and likely timeline. Then make sure everyone involved understands the story you want candidates to hear. 

Explore Cyber Go-To-Market Girl Talk 

Many of the themes explored in this article come from conversations I’ve had with female leaders working across the cybersecurity industry as part of my Go-To-Market Girl Talk podcast. We discuss their career journeys, the lessons they’ve learned along the way, leadership, building successful teams and what it really takes to succeed in the cybersecurity market. 

To explore the series and watch the latest episodes of Cyber Go-To-Market Girl Talk, click here. 

At Stanton House, we partner with cybersecurity and AI startups, scale-ups and investors across North America to build high-performing Go-To-Market teams across sales, sales engineering, marketing and customer success. If you're planning the next stage of your commercial growth, get in touch to discuss the talent and leadership capability you'll need to deliver it.