“Race to the Top.” “Accelerate.” “Peak Performance.” “Momentum.” “Fast Track.” These are all names of real sales conferences, kick-offs or annual partner conferences I’ve been to in my long channel sales career in tech.
That Magic (Monte Carlo) Moment
“Race to the Top.” “Accelerate.” “Peak Performance.” “Momentum.” “Fast Track.” These are all names of real sales conferences, kick-offs or annual partner conferences I’ve been to in my long channel sales career in tech. In sales and channels these racing cliches are a natural way to describe the work we do. We love to use them as rallying cries to inspire our sales teams and channel partners to speed into the next fiscal period, all revved up and ready to go for the gold — oh no, I’m actually doing it right now.
So it was no surprise to me that when I started talking to the executive team and investors at Area 1 Security, the cloud email security company I just joined as Chief Revenue Officer, several of them mentioned that the company was having a “Monte Carlo Moment.” I nodded in affirmation (on my Zoom interview call) and took it in stride. Another racing analogy or cliché applied to selling technology solutions. Only this time, it’s no cliché. It’s very, very real.
For those who don’t know, the Monte Carlo moment my colleagues are referring to is that moment in a race, when a crowd of cars enter a turn together, all jockeying for position, and one car boldly commands the inside of the curve, puts the pedal to the metal, and accelerates out of the curve, leading the race. A perfect analogy for the current state of the email security market, the mega trends that are driving rapid change, and the position of one company, Area 1 Security, to lead the race. Let’s break it down.
The Race
The proliferation of cloud led to the emergence of cloud-native email applications. The likes of Microsoft and Google are on their way to owning over 70% of the email application market by 2021 (Gartner) and show no signs of stopping. In addition, these cloud-native email apps deliver about 80% of the email security functionality of traditional secure email gateways (SEGs). This mega-trend sets up a tremendous opportunity for securing that email in a more contemporary, effective way.
The Curve
Traditional Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) were not designed to handle the performance and scale of the cloud and they can’t keep pace with the types of advanced email threats — Business Email Compromise (BEC) phishing attacks that plague enterprises of all sizes. In fact, 95% of all cyber attacks are initiated through phishing. The reality is that in order to truly protect cloud email, you must deploy cloud email security that is designed to anticipate and stop phishing attacks and BECs.
Taking the Lead
Cloud email security moves to the front of the pack. And Area 1 Security leads the pack with the industry’s only cloud email solution that is maniacally focused on stopping phish preemptively, accountably (with our pay-per-phish pricing) and comprehensively. We identify phishing attacks an average of 24 days before they launch. Imagine the value this delivers to the customer! It’s why we are fortunate enough to count so many industry-leading enterprises among our customers. And it’s why we are so excited to bring this opportunity to the Channel with a channel-centric, partnering-optimized go-to-market model.
I couldn’t be more excited and proud to join the Area 1 Security team. I’m thrilled to share this opportunity with the Channel and together create that magic, Monte Carlo moment.
Steve Pataky, Area 1 Security’s chief revenue officer, is a sales and partnering professional with over 30 years of experience and industry reputation for architecting and executing global go-to-market strategies for cybersecurity and networking technologies. To learn more about Area 1 Security partnership opportunities, visit https://www.area1security.com/become-a-partner/.