The Ultimate Start-up Culture Hack

For Yoav Nathaniel, culture is the core of the company. Having both the right talent, combined with the correct culture, can help get a business out of any fix.

In a recent episode of Tech Salescraft, James Hounslow sat down with Yoav, Co-Founder and CEO of Silk Security, diving into his transformation from a technical background into the cybersecurity space, ultimately leading to him transitioning into a CEO.

 

An Early Adopter

Yoav’s career path ultimately took him into the future, as he ultimately chose to become a  cybersecurity practitioner for Goldman Sachs, an experience which he credits in helping teach him the tens of thousands of problems customers experience in cybersecurity.

For Yoav, working at at Goldman Sachs was invaluable experience working for a tech powerhouse working at what felt like 10 years in the future. Yoav gained experience of complex use cases, tackling issues which are now commonplace in businesses today.

 

A Problem to Solve

Yoav had previous experience also working at start-ups, which had given him experience of building the first, second or third versions of a product. He was conscious of the need to build out various services: in one case, a start-up lacked customer support, for example, a vital part of a successful services provider.

One day, a customer refused to renew a product, as they didn’t understand how to use it. Yoav realised that there were various lessons to learn about the importance of culture in start-ups. Why had this customer had such a negative customer experience that they felt the need to cancel altogether? What was wrong with the culture in the place where he worked?

 

Culture and Start-ups

When co-founding Silk Security, Yoav wanted it to be inclusive and respectful as a culture. Transparency was also important, keeping customers informed about important events in cybersecurity. The collapse of SVB is a case study for him, as it saw many customers understandably wondering about the impact of it on their own financial situations.

Yoav recalls spending a weekend ensuring that the impact of SVB was well-communicated, fostering that culture of trust and transparency. As a rule, Silk Security picks sales engineers with experience of being chased by or being part of security teams chasing after people. It’s a pain point that is at the core of any effective cybersecurity vendor or business.

 

Collaboration and Open Communications 

Yoav believes Silk Security has a healthy culture of innovation and creativity through innovation weeks, held every six months, allowing new ideas to come to the fore. While many aspects of a business can be broken and fixed, Yoav recalls a quote about how culture, when broken, can’t actually be fixed.

As a result, the team you build from the start is key. Pick the wrong people for your sales team, and over time, the business can’t function. Choose the correct candidates consistently, and the business is able to thrive.

Want to hear more about James and Yoav’s discussion?

Watch the full episode of Tech Salescraft on YouTube, or across all major podcast streaming platforms.