For many cybersecurity founders, the journey starts with doing everything themselves: product development, fundraising, hiring, and of course… selling. Especially in the early stages, there’s no one better to pitch the company’s mission, solve problems creatively, and build trust with early customers than the person who started it all.
But there comes a time when a founder needs to let go of direct selling. The question is, when?
Let’s break it down.
The Founder-Led Sales Era
Founder-led sales is often a superpower in cybersecurity. Buyers are skeptical. They want to know the tech is real, that it solves their very real problem, and that there’s someone credible behind it.
Founders bring passion, deep technical knowledge, and authenticity. This is especially valuable in a crowded and hype-heavy industry like cybersecurity.
In the early days, this works because it has to. The founder is often the only one who can articulate the vision clearly, adapt the messaging to each customer, and navigate complex stakeholder groups in an enterprise.
But this isn’t sustainable forever. So, when do you make the call to step back?
The Signs You Should Step Back
1. Sales Bottlenecks Appear
If deals are sitting in your inbox because you’re too busy with fundraising or product work, your company is losing momentum. Founder time becomes the limiting factor.
2. Your Product Has Repeatable Wins
If you’ve closed multiple customers with a similar use case, pain point, and buying journey, you’re ready to codify that into a process and pass it to a sales hire.
3. You’re Hiring GTM Leaders
Bringing on a VP of Sales or CRO? Don’t tie their hands. Let them lead. Founders should be available to support strategic accounts, but not own the pipeline.
4. You’re Raising a Growth Round
Investors expect a scalable go-to-market engine. If the business still relies on the founder to close every deal, that’s a risk. Handing off sales shows maturity and scalability.
What to Hand Off (And What to Keep)
Stepping back doesn’t mean disappearing.
Here’s how smart founders transition out of sales:
Hand off: Day-to-day pipeline management, outreach, follow-ups, forecasting, and closing.
Stay involved in: Key strategic deals, evangelism, customer feedback loops, and investor-facing revenue narratives.
Founders should shift focus from selling to customers to selling the company – to recruits, investors, and the broader market.
A Warning: Don’t Step Back Too Soon
Plenty of cybersecurity companies have stumbled by hiring salespeople too early, before they’ve nailed the messaging or figured out the real pain point they solve.
Sales hires can’t fix a product that doesn’t fit or messaging that doesn’t land.
The founder’s job is to validate, codify, and enable. Only then is it time to scale.
In cybersecurity, trust is currency. Founders are often the trust bridge in early-stage deals, but they shouldn’t be the bottleneck forever.
The real art is knowing when to move from closing deals to building the machine that closes deals.
That’s when real growth begins.
Ready to hire your first sales leader or expand your GTM team?
Aspiron Search specialises in helping cybersecurity companies find and hire top-tier GTM talent – from first sales hires to full leadership build-outs.