How (and How Not) to Pitch a Cybersecurity VC

2025-06-22

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Ten Eleven Ventures CTO and Operating Partner Scott Lundgren shares practical advice for early-stage cybersecurity founders. He explains why founder-market fit matters more than product polish, how teams should think about TAM in fragmented markets, and the signals he looks for in technical pitches. He also breaks down how Ten Eleven’s network helps with diligence and customer development — and why “cool tech” often misses the mark. Plus: his take on the AI hype cycle, and why building credibility starts with listeni...

Ten Eleven Ventures CTO and Operating Partner Scott Lundgren shares practical advice for early-stage cybersecurity founders.

He explains why founder-market fit matters more than product polish, how teams should think about TAM in fragmented markets, and the signals he looks for in technical pitches.

He also breaks down how Ten Eleven’s network helps with diligence and customer development — and why “cool tech” often misses the mark. Plus: his take on the AI hype cycle, and why building credibility starts with listening, not pitching.

RUNTIME 38:06 EPISODE BREAKDOWN

(3:37) How founding an ISP as a teenager led Scott to a career in tech.

(6:06) Why he decided to join Ten Eleven Ventures as CTO/operating partner.

(9:53) Scott breaks down the essential elements of a cybersecurity pitch.

(14:31) Inexperienced founders, “as a general rule, have no idea about the TAM.”

(17:21) On AI hype: “ I'd like to see some more rigor with how we feel like we can start to quantify some of the benefits.”

(20:20) Having a global network of security professionals is “ a really great resource for us as a firm, but also for our founders.”

(21:51) Lessons learned from being on Carbon Black’s founding team.

(23:59) “ You need both of these things that are intertwined: the luck, and the the hard work.”

(26:08) Do customer discovery face-to-face, not over Zoom. “It isn't always productive, but there's no substitute for it.”

(30:57) Developing and promoting a startup mindset outside of Silicon Valley.

(35:30) “ If you build really cool tech to solve a pretty simple problem, then that probably was over-engineered.”