Conviction Before Code – The Most Important First Step for Technical Founders

As technical founders, we love to build. We see problems everywhere in cybersecurity—broken workflows, blind spots, inefficiencies—and our instinct is to write code.

But not every interesting problem is a business-worthy problem. And if you’re starting a company, that difference matters more than anything else.

Cybersecurity teams face dozens of real problems, but only a few ever get real budget, time, and attention. Pick the wrong one, and you might spend months building something that’s technically elegant… and commercially irrelevant.

The First Step of a 10-Year Journey

Startups are long games. If you're serious, you’re committing to a 10-year arc. And the first step—choosing the problem—is what sets your direction.

If you pick a problem that sounds interesting but doesn’t make it to the top 3 of your buyer’s priority list, you're starting with a silent handicap. Your idea might be clever, but it won’t survive the competition for mindshare and budget.

You’ve Been in the Trenches—That’s Your Superpower

The good news? You already know this world. You’ve lived it. You’ve felt the friction. You’ve hacked together the workarounds. That lived experience gives you a deep and powerful insight—one most generalist founders simply don’t have.

But here’s the key: Don’t underestimate this knowledge. But don’t overestimate it either. It’s the spark for your idea—but you still need to shape it with real market data. Your lived experience is the launchpad. Your buyer conversations are the refinement.

When you combine both? That’s where magic happens.

The Antidote: Conviction (from your market)

Before you write a single line of production code, you need real conviction—not just your belief, but your buyer’s urgency.

Here’s how to get it:

1. Talk to 40 potential buyers. Yes, forty. Not five. Not ten. Forty. Talk to CISOs, directors, engineers—anyone with influence or budget. Ask: "Is this problem urgent enough that you'd pay for a solution today, if it existed?" If the answer is yes, they’ll lean in. If it’s no—or “maybe later”—you’ve just saved months of wasted effort.

2. Use real buyer quotes in your fundraising pitch. I don’t care about your ARR projection at pre-seed. It’s fiction. What I do care about:

"We’ve been trying to solve this for a year. If you build it, I want early access." "We’re allocating budget next quarter. Let us know when you're in pilot." Those quotes tell me there's a business forming—not just a project.

3. Analyze who’s leaning in. Are the loudest yeses coming from large enterprises? Cloud-native teams? Financial services CISOs? Track the data. Segment the signal. That’s your early go-to-market wedge—and possibly your first ICP.

Why Code Can Wait (just a little)

It’s tempting to code. It feels like progress. But building before validating is just speeding toward the wrong destination.

The better move? Conviction before code. Because if you’re wrong on the problem, everything you build will fall flat.

If you're a technical founder thinking about starting something—don’t start with code. Start with the market. Your insight is your advantage. Your buyer is your compass.

Thinking about starting your own security company? I’ve been through the journey—from CISO to founder—and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned.

If you're exploring an idea, wrestling with market validation, or just want a gut check on your early thinking, reach out. I’ll gladly make time for thoughtful security builders.

DM me or drop a comment—I’d love to help.