Slavik Markovich, Founder of Demisto: Don't Fall in Love with Your Idea

Slavik Markovich is the Founder and CEO of Demisto, a security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2019 for $560 million. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Slavik about how his time in the Israeli army kickstarted his entrepreneurial journey and what mistakes he made as a first-time founder.

1. Basic (Entrepreneurial) Training in the Israeli Army [02:54 - 06:24] - During his time in the Israeli army (IDF), Slavik was introduced into a system with real needs, real customers and a real need for things to go operationally right or bad things could happen. Listen to how this experience prepared Slavik to successfully lead startups by teaching him the importance of listening to customers, making quick decisions, and managing with scarce resources.
2. What to Do, and Not to Do, When Finding Product Market Fit [11:12 - 12:32] - When Slavik co-founded Sentrigo, he thought finding an innovative technical solution to a challenging problem would lead to company success. Looking back, he realized how the lack of customer discovery hurt the company’s go-to market strategy development and created greater challenges. Listen to learn why listening to potential customers from the start can help decode the puzzle early on.
3. Don’t Forget To Train Your Salesforce For Success [24:25 - 28:25] - After Slavik raised his second round of funding, he scaled Demisto’s salesforce and waited for the deals to come in. When those sales did not materialize, Slavik learned tough lessons including why salespeople need training, what ramp time to expect and why not to hire a sales team. Listen to learn why a founder selling versus a salesperson selling leads to different outcomes.
4. Sometimes Money Isn’t Everything [35:03 - 36:49] - When Slavik was approached by Palo Alto Networks about a possible acquisition, he and his founding team had to consider more than just the numbers. Instead of zeroing in on the money, think about what the best decision is for your employees, customers and product. Listen to hear why Slavik thinks a founder’s personal situation can, and should, influence some of their most important decisions.

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