Chris Kirsch Email & Phone Number

At Cyber Marketing Clinic, we believe that consultants should be like exceptional doctors: accurately diagnose the problem, provide the right treatment, and always exhibit excellent bedside manners. At the Clinic, we help diagnose and fix your business pain points, give birth to your next product, and prescribe the right diet and exercise for your go-to-market motion. The Clinic's founder, Chris Kirsch, has helped fuel the growth of cybersecurity vendors for more than 25 years. His superpower is product marketing, with specializations in PLG motions and pricing & packaging. Most recently, he co-founded a VC-backed company and grew it from <$1m to $13m in less than three years in his role as a CEO. He also built the product marketing function in a Series F company while it's valuation grew from about $420m to $950m in 4 years and was acquired three times - twice by a public company and once by a private equity firm. Chris also helped a Series B company grow the ARR of their second product from $200K to $12m in four years, and then positioned a new product in a new category as the company executed a successful IPO. His experience is in B2B enterprise software vendors that have had both sales-led and PLG-led approaches. InfoSec is not just a job to Chris - it’s his passion as well. In 2017, he earned the Black Badge for winning the Social Engineering Capture the Flag competition at DEF CON, the world’s largest hacker conference. In Chris' mind, social engineering is the perfect fusion of InfoSec and marketing.

Natick, Ma, Us

Bridge12 was acquired by Bruker BioSpin in October 2024.Bridge12 Manufactures Terahertz Technology and Magnetic Resonance Instrumentation for DNP, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy.Advised the Magnetic Resonance Division on market research & sizing, messaging & positioning, pricing strategy, sales enablement & methodology, digital marketing, demand generation, thought leadership via open source projects, buyer personas & buying process, and reference programs.

Austin, Texas, Us

Austin, Texas, Us

• Secured a Series A funding of $15.5 million from Decibel Partners and individual investors including Nir Polak, Jon Oberheide, Andrew Peterson, Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon, and Oliver Friedrichs• Rebranded the company from Rumble to runZero using an in-house team• Broadened the product's scope from a network scanner to a CAASM product featuring third-party integrations and passive monitoring• Conducted several pricing adjustments that increased the average selling price (ASP) and redirected the sales focus towards strategic deals• Developed an operational framework that supported up to 90 new paying customers quarterly• Achieved a customer NPS of 82 and secured the #1 spot for CAASM on Gartner Peer Insights• Enhanced the existing PLG strategy with automation-assisted inbound techniques complemented by outbound methods• Assembled the executive team and established company culture• Expanded the customer base to over 500, the community to 18,000+ users, and grew ARR 14.4x over three years

Austin, Texas, Us

runZero delivers the fastest, most complete security visibility possible, providing organizations the ultimate foundation for successfully managing risk and exposure. • Joined as the third employee and CRO co-founder to assist CEO HD Moore with GTM strategy and execution• Promoted to CEO after eight months due to a track record of increasing sales fivefold in the first year and establishing a sales and marketing team

Frankfurt Am Main, Frankfurt Am Main - Area, De

Signals was acquired by Bruker BioSpin in December 2023.LOGS is a scientific data management system (SDMS) for the digitalization of research and scientific workflows in laboratories found in both academia and industry. • Advised the senior leadership team on go-to-market, including messaging & positioning, pricing, digital marketing, demand generation, and sales methodology & processes, and reference programs • Coached technical CEO on commercial strategy • Supported M&A strategy

Burlington, Massachusetts, Us

Veracode is a leader in securing web, mobile and third-party applications for the world’s largest global enterprises.During my tenure, Veracode was acquired by CA Technologies for $614m in 2017 and by Thoma Bravo for $950m in 2018 (following Broadcom’s acquisition of CA Technology).• Established the product marketing function, defining product positioning and platform strategy• Developed materials and delivered training for the Force Management Command of the Message sales methodology• Helped shift the company’s GTM as the buying center shifted from security to development teams• Partnered with corporate marketing to develop GTM strategy and campaigns • Directed strategic pricing adjustments in response to the shift from monolithic applications to microservices as well as portfolio pricing • Conducted competitive analysis in a dynamic environment with about 40 platform and point-solution competitors• Managed the win/loss analysis program, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data• Formulated commercial strategies for acquisitions, including SourceClear and Hunter2

Boston, Massachusetts, Us

• Marketed UserInsight offering pivotal to the valuation of the company in the S-1 filing and grew number of new customers by more than 6x during the first 12 months on the product. Grew new bookings 80% YoY in 2015. • Participated in analysis of lead-to-deal conversion and improved conversion rate by 3x QoQ, resulting in better sales & marketing processes and expanded UserInsight overlay sales model • Created content and participated in briefings to influence industry analysts to form and influence the new Gartner category of User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)• Collaborated with Microsoft to co-launch their security API for Office 365, resulting in Rapid7 conducting a product demo on stage with Microsoft at the RSA Conference • Organized Rapid7’s first incident response talk track at the UNITED conference, involving customer and industry experts, getting excellent audience feedback • Led a cross-functional volunteer project as a stretch goal to start the Rapid7 Higher Education Program and on-boarded about 100 universities in the first year • Received 2nd Rapid7 Vanguard Award for demonstrating all core company values (Continuous Learning, Teamwork, Disciplined Risk-Taking, Individual Excellence, Meaningful Customer Partnerships)

Boston, Massachusetts, Us

• Grew annual Metasploit new business about 50x over four years since 2010 • Conducted a survey into the Metasploit open source community with 2,277 respondents, providing valuable insights for marketing and product strategy• Drove the process to get Metasploit Pro on Kali Linux (used by 77% of target group) and co-launched the Kali Linux platform with the Offensive Security team • Led the Clockwork Orange project to analyze the customer journey at Rapid7 to identify gaps and prepare for new product introductions • Ran the speaker program for the 2nd UNITED conference, with internal and external speakers • Received 1st Rapid7 Vanguard Award for demonstrating all core company values

Boston, Massachusetts, Us

• Launched Metasploit Pro Edition to existing Metasploit product line • Drove lead generation engine through freemium model, optimizing conversions • Differentiated commercial offerings from open source and engaged the community• Drove inbound marketing content, including SEO effort that drove more than 227,000 organic visits to a single page and video about penetration testing • Analyzed market and competitors and formulated long-term product strategy • Recruited 200 attendees for UNITED, Rapid7’s first user conference • Received Rapid7 Edison Award for Innovation

Austin, Texas, Us

Thales e-Security, which acquired nCipher in 2008, is a leader in information and communication security solutions. The Thales Group employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with revenues of €12.7 billion.• Provided leadership relative to new product introductions, market acceptability of products and pricing for hardware security module product line generating 40% of the business line's revenue.• Developed customer-focused, competitively differentiated brand positioning that forms the foundation of all online and offline marketing efforts.• Researched and analyzed the external environment to understand market dynamics, trends, size, segmentation, applicable and emerging technologies, and the competitive landscape.• Enabled sales and channel through lead generation assets, integrated go-to-market programs, campaigns for growing market segments, trainings, and collateral.

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

Data security platform used by 95% of the Fortune® 100. Acquired by Symantec in 2010.• Scaled global customer reference program from 5 to over 50 references• Authored white papers and industry articles • Established localization process for German and Japanese• Repositioned file transfer encryption solution • Managed awards, including Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award Marketing Manager, Glück & Kanja Technology AG, 2001 – 2005 (4 years)Enterprise security software. Acquired by PGP Corporation in 2005.• Led marketing team managing lead generation, web, events, and public relations• Re-launched corporate and product brands • Public speaker to both business and technology audiencesMarketing Manager and Product Manager, Biodata Application Security AG, 2000 – 2001 (1 year)Public company offering telco encryption, firewalls, VPN, and public key infrastructure. Filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Bought out and re-launched Glück & Kanja unit. • Re-branded all products and incorporated two recent acquisitions • Created sales briefs for all products with competitive data • Designed concept and architecture of a new key management product Product Manager, Glück & Kanja Software AG, 1997 – 2000 (3 years)Endpoint encryption products. Acquired by Biodata in 2000. • Launched 20+ successful product releases • Managed roadmap• Developed technical support ticketing system

Part-time freelancer. Sign is a creative agency for clients including DaimlerChrysler, Burson-Marsteller and Novartis. • Designed print media using Adobe Photoshop, Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator. • Created production-ready data from design roughs to be output on film. • Coordinated with customers and printers to ensure a successful project from start to finish.

Kommunikationswirt (Executive Mba), Marketing Communications

Ba With Honors, Politics With International Studies

International Baccalaureate, Economics, English, Mathematics

International School, Mittlere Reife