They failed every POC—then grew their cybersecurity platform to $100M ARR in 5 years. | Dean Sysman, co-founder of Axonius

They failed every POC—then grew their cybersecurity platform to $100M ARR in 5 years. | Dean Sysman, co-founder of Axonius

Author: Mistral.vc October 16, 2025 Duration: 48:37
Dean thought he'd have to bootstrap Axonius because no investor would fund a solution to a problem that had existed for 20 years. He was wrong—they've raised $500M. The breakthrough came when a Fortune 500 company was actively being hacked by Chinese state actors. Their first customer almost said no—they had 20 bugs during the POC. But Dean's team fixed each one within 48 hours while their competitors took quarters to respond. That speed changed everything. They went from zero to ...

Behind every great company is a moment where everything clicked-when a product finally met its market. A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders is dedicated entirely to unpacking that elusive, critical phase. Hosted by Mistral.vc, conversations here aren't about broad business advice; they focus intensely on the raw, formative stages from zero to one. You'll hear founders from companies like Reddit, Gusto, and Cohere recount the real decisions, stumbles, and insights that led to their breakthrough, offering a level of detail you can actually apply. This podcast operates on a simple belief: by examining enough of these specific journeys, patterns emerge that demystify product-market fit more effectively than any theoretical framework. It’s a resource built for founders who prefer learning through concrete examples and candid stories from those who’ve navigated the same path. Tune in for deep, practical dialogues with entrepreneurs and investors, all aimed at providing tangible lessons for your own venture.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
Podcast Episodes
Solo Episode: The Five Steps to Product Market Fit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:45
For the holiday break we are resurfacing some of our best episodes so far. Here is the best episode of season 2. Here are the key lessons from the past 60 episodes that we've released to date. Each of the 5 steps to Prod…