Cloud Doug Merritt Named Chair Of Go-To-Market Advisory Board For Cyberstarts Tony Bradley Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover all things tech and the impact tech has on everyday life. New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 31, 2022, 11:04pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Cyberstarts hired former Splunk CEO Doug Merritt to head its new Sunpeak advisory board—offering . . . [+] go-to-market guidance and insight for the venture firm's portfolio companies. getty Cyberstarts has made some pretty big waves in a relatively short period of time. Launched in 2018, the venture capital firm has quickly gone from zero to a valuation of $20 billion thanks to investments in companies like Transmit Security , Noname , Fireblocks , and Wiz . The firm intends to continue making an even bigger splash with the launch of its new Go-to-Market advisory board, Sunpeak . Cyberstarts There are lots of venture capital and investment firms out there pouring money into the cybersecurity industry. Cyberstarts has a unique strategy for deciding where to invest, though. I had a chance to chat with Gili Raanan , Founder of Cyberstarts, and Lior Simon , General Partner at Cyberstarts, about their philosophy and Sunpeak. Gili told me that most of the money raised to initially launch Cyberstarts came from successful cybersecurity executives. He also noted that Cyberstarts employs a unique philosophy—choosing to invest in people rather than ideas. “We believe that ideas are overrated and people have been underrated. So, many of our investments are in terrific people with okay ideas that we work to make better over time. ” Sunpeak Lior shared that Cyberstarts companies manage to achieve product-market fit very quickly—faster than average. The next step is to figure out how to get the product to market. That is where Sunpeak comes in. What do you think? One Community, Many Voices. Be the first to comment comments posted on Forbes. Add your voice now. Join the Conversation Sunpeak is an advisory board that will provide Cyberstarts’ portfolio companies with hands-on guidance for their go-to-market strategies. Cyberstarts hired Doug Merritt , former CEO of Splunk, to spearhead the initiative. A press release announcing Merritt states, “Doug Merritt joins Cyberstarts as Chair of Sunpeak, the firm’s new GTM advisory board to help portfolio companies scale up their business. In this role, Merritt will work with Cyberstarts to recruit some of the nation’s top GTM experts composed of CEOs, CROs, CMOs and VPs of Sales to design a measurable, KPI-driven approach to advising, nurturing and scaling early stage portfolio companies. ” I spoke with Doug about his new role. He told me that even companies with killer products eventually need enterprise sales and a reliable go-to-market framework. He explained, “We are trying to make sure that at the $5 million, $10 million, or $20 million ARR range that we can both have the playbooks and the processes and the tools to help these awesome entrepreneurs, but also the mentor network—to just spend time with great engineers and help educate them on what it takes to enter America, or another new country, to be successful in replicating vertical market scale outs, in building world class inside seals rep functionality, and making sure you’re picking the right technologies, and you’ve got the right consulting firms or internal people to implement them properly. ” Cyberstarts already has an impressive track record for such a young firm. Between its unique philosophy for choosing investments, and the guidance and insight from Doug Merritt and the industry experts that join the mission with the Sunpeak advisory board, it’s likely that Cyberstarts will maintain—or even accelerate—that momentum. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website . Tony Bradley Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.