Our thinking on mid-market adoption, enterprise expansion, and GTM evolution.
What is Axari?
“Axari is your first AI Security Employee. It plugs into your stack and actually does the work, from the morning brief to vendor reviews to vuln triage, so your team operates at the top of their judgment instead of drowning in toil.”
Why the work is the opportunity
$1on security tools:$8 to 10on people
Every tool creates work. Today that work is done by people and services. Axari is the AI workforce for that layer. We do not replace Wiz or CrowdStrike — we operate them.
One Institutional MemoryUnderstands People, Processes & ToolsLearns Your ContextGets Smarter Over Time
Entry Point (Wedge)
Start Here · BuyerCISO / Head of SecurityChampionGRC Lead or SecOps LeadUse Cases to Land
1Weekly Briefing
2Board Reporting
3Risk Register
4Audit Preparation
Expansion JourneyGradual progress
1
Assist
Information & insights
2
Automate Tasks
Point solutions
3
Automate Workflows
Multi-step processes
4
Own Function Execution
End-to-end outcomes
AI Security Employee
Autonomous & proactive
Why Mid-Market Wins
Same security burden
1/20th the staff
No Chief of Staff
No PMO
No Strategy Team
Budget flexibility
Faster decisions
Pricing (Indicative)
Per Twin$200 – $400per user / month
Teammate Platform$3K – $10Kper org / month
Typical Mid-Market Contract$25K – $100KARR
Axari begins as an AI Chief of Staff and expands into an AI Security Organization.
2
Enterprise Security Organization
How Axari Scales Up
5,000+ Employees | Security Team: 50 – 500+ People
Enterprise Reality
Not lack of people.
Not lack of tooling.
Too much:
People
Programs
Meetings
Processes
Approvals
Reporting
Coordination
CISO
– CISO Twin
Deputy CISO
Twin
GRC Director
Twin
SecOps Director
Twin
IAM Director
Twin
Cloud Security Director
Twins
Product Security Director
Twins
GRC Managers
Twins
SecOps Managers
Twins
Vuln Managers
Twins
IAM Managers
Twins
Cloud Managers
Twins
TPRM Managers
Twins
Architecture Managers
Twins
Analysts
Twin
Engineers
Twin
Threat Hunters
Twin
Architects
Twin
Program Managers
Twin
Incident Responders
Twin
Compliance Analysts
Twin
… and more
Axari Twin Network (Institutional Memory Layer)
CISO Twin
GRC Twin
SecOps Twin
Vuln Twin
IAM Twin
Cloud Twin
TPRM Twin
Risk Twin
PMO Twin
Arch Twin
Axari Enterprise Teammate (Orchestrates Across the Organization)
Cross-Team Coordination
Executive Reporting
Program Tracking
Risk Governance
Budget Planning
Strategic Planning
Vendor Management
Audit Orchestration
Expansion MotionAssist → Autonomy
1
Phase 1
Personal Productivity
2
Phase 2
Team Coordination
3
Phase 3
Cross-Functional Stitching
4
Phase 4
Workflow Abstraction
Business logic
5
Phase 5
Autonomous Security Operations
GTM Motion
Buyers
CISO · Deputy CISO
Champions
Program Office · GRC Director · SecOps Director
Initial Land (Wedge)
CISO Twin
Board Reporting
Program Tracking
Risk Governance
Expand Across Functions
Vulnerability Management
Incident Response
GRC & Compliance
TPRM / Vendor Risk
IAM & Access Reviews
Architecture Reviews
Cloud Security
And more…
Enterprise PricingIndicative
Twin Platform
Priced on value & scale, not seats
~50 Users
$150K – $300KARR
~100 Users
$300K – $600KARR
~250+ Users
$600K – $1M+ARR
Platform pricing based on value, scale & outcomes (not per-seat alone).
Mid-Market
We replace missing headcount.
Axari
Enterprise
We coordinate existing headcount.
3
How Axari Acquires Customers
Sales Motion & Time to Close
From first touch to closed won — repeatable, fast, low-friction
Outbound · Referrals · Advisors
Initial Discovery Call
Demo + Use Case Validation
Pilot / Trial
Security Review
Procurement
Closed Won
Stage Durations
StageDuration
Discovery1 week
Demo1 week
Pilot2 – 4 weeks
Procurement2 – 6 weeks
Close1 – 2 weeks
Time to Close
Mid-Market30 – 45 days
Enterprise45 – 90 days
Why Customers Buy
Mid-Market
Lack of security headcount
Audit pressure
Board reporting burden
Program management burden
Enterprise
Coordination complexity
Process fragmentation
Executive visibility
Cross-functional governance
Axari lands through reporting, planning, governance, and coordination workflows — then expands into workflow ownership.
4
Customer Scaling Model
Three Segments, One Engine
A self-serve base feeds mid-market velocity and seeds enterprise from day one
Segment A
Security Leaders / Small Teams
1 – 5 users
$5K – $25KACV
Entry
Self serve
Referral
Podcast
Community
Security Slack groups
Purpose
Generate usage
Generate product signals
Generate expansion opportunities
Segment B
Mid-Market
500 – 5,000 employees
$25K – $100KACV
Purpose
Primary GTM motion
Primary validation
Fastest closes
Segment C
Enterprise
5,000+ employees
$150K – $1M+ACV
Purpose
Future revenue engine
Strategic logos
Category validation
Revenue Projection
~$350K
Q1
10 Small Teams 5 Mid-Market 1 Enterprise design partner
~$900K
Q2
20 Small Teams 10 Mid-Market 3 Enterprise
~$2M
Q3
40 Small Teams 20 Mid-Market 5 Enterprise
~$4M
Q4
60 Small Teams 35 Mid-Market 8 Enterprise
$10M – $15M+
Year 2
100+ Small Teams 75 Mid-Market 20 Enterprise
The Ask
$6M to build the enterprise engine.
Weighted to the enterprise motion. GTM, deployment and trust are about 75% of the raise. Illustrative on a $5.5M midpoint, roughly 18 to 24 months of runway.
Enterprise GTM engine
Founding sales leader · forward-deployed / fractional CISO bench · design-partner program · advisory-led field events
Harness, memory & Program Graph · multi-tenant agent system
18%
$1.0M
Security, trust & compliance
SOC 2 Type II · pen testing · path to FedRAMP / finserv
12%
$0.65M
Runway & G&A
Operating buffer and core team support
7%
$0.4M
The AskWe have proven we can close founder-led: $265K ARR, 8 customers, $0 marketing. Now we need to build the machine. That is exactly why SYN is our top choice.
Appendix
Axari
More context for reference
The numbers behind the story — marketing, sales, pipeline, and a closed deal.
Rohit Parchuri (CISO) found Axari, then pulled in Matt Szymanski, Director of Information Security.
Champion
Rohit pushed it in. Matt and his team drove the expansion into personal and functional use.
Procurement
Full review: DPA, AI & Data Usage Statement, Security & Trust Deck. SOC 2 Type 1 in progress.
Time to close
20 days, first demo to signature.
Expansion trigger
Everyone saw personal value first (drudgery gone), then functional automation followed. 4 seats landed.
Who used it, and what it did
Rohit Parchuri · CISO
Board prep and the exec risk narrative drafted in minutes. He walked into his leadership review with finished work, not a to-do list.
Matt Szymanski · Director, InfoSec
His twin runs the team standup, chases owners, and preps vendor reviews. His mornings start with the work already done.
GRC analyst · Matt's team
Continuous compliance evidence and auto-filled questionnaires accelerated the SOC 2 Type 1 push.
Security engineer · Matt's team
Every new CVE scored against Yext's real infrastructure, with remediation tickets ready to assign.
What nothing else could do. Their tools showed Yext its risk. Axari did the work between the tools — the coordination, synthesis and follow-through no product had touched. That is why it spread from Rohit to the whole function in 20 days.
The Marketing Engine
Audience and pipeline built organically — Jan – Jun 2026
$0 Marketing Spend
Reach30K+security community reached · LinkedIn Learning · IANS faculty · keynotes · The AI Cybersecurity Handbook
Contacts Created — by real acquisition month, cumulative to 712
Monthly newCumulative total
625
Meetings logged
~100 every month, Jan – Jun
218
Opportunities created
122 open · $785K in late-stage
58
Inbound invite requests
36 contacts · 2 customers
Contacts placed by real acquisition month from the #axari-leads-general intake log (event leads loaded into HubSpot mid-June). ~99 non-channel June leads remain in June. Total = 712. Reach figures are owned-audience channels, not paid impressions. Source: HubSpot + Slack, as of Jun 19, 2026.
The Sales Engine
Founder-led pipeline to signed revenue — as of Jun 2026
Founder-Led Sales
Pipeline170 CISOs & security leaders in motion · 70 active sales opportunities · enterprise anchors in flight
Pipeline → Signed — genuine sales only · founder-led, no dedicated hires
Active Pipeline
70 sales opportunities
Late-Stage
7 deals · DMBI & Contract Sent
Signed
8 customers · $390K TCV
$250K
Anchor: HiddenLayer
Malcolm Harkins · ex-Intel CISO · 2-yr
7 of 8
Signed by a CISO / CIO
the buyers are the security execs
3 accounts
Expanding in-place
Boyd · HiddenLayer · Yext → teams
Active pipeline = genuine sales opportunities only; fundraising, advisor/investor, design-partner and partnership records excluded (these had inflated the raw 122 open / $785K late-stage — $535K of that was [FUNDRAISE] investor records). Signed = 8 contracted customers ($170K ARR / $295K TCV); HiddenLayer sits in Contract Sent in HubSpot, counted as signed per the contract tracker — reconcile. Source: HubSpot, as of Jun 19, 2026.
The Sales Pipeline
Genuine sales only — CISOs & security leaders, with fundraising / advisor / partner records removed · as of Jun 2026
70 Opportunities
By StageContract Sent 1 · Decision-Maker Bought-In 6 · Presentation 4 · Qualified to Buy 4 · Appointment Scheduled 55
70 genuine sales opportunities after removing 22 fundraising, 13 advisor/investor, 11 design-partner and 3 partnership records from the raw 122. Source: HubSpot, as of Jun 19, 2026.
Why Mid-Market
Why we started with mid-market?
Friction
Land fast, learn fast
Fewer gatekeepers and lighter procurement. We get in on a corporate card and reach value in the first session. That speed lets us learn at a pace the enterprise would never allow.
Hardening
Battle-test the product
Mid-market is where we harden the workflows, the integrations and the agent's reliability against real environments. We earn the right to face an enterprise security review.
Trust
Build proof and a network
We build the references and the active CISOs here. That trust, and the network it creates, becomes our distribution into the enterprise.
Mid-market is the on-ramp, not the destination. We chose it to move fast, harden the product, and earn the trust that makes the enterprise graduation credible. Everything we learn here is what we carry up-market.
How We Graduate
Same problem. Different buyer, different motion.
Core value prop is identical
Eliminate drudgery and toil, and multiply the human. The pain does not change with company size.
The persona shifts
Mid-market entry is the CISO. In the enterprise we land one to three levels down with prod-sec, infra-sec, AppSec and GRC leaders, and they pull the CISO in.
The frame shifts
Mid-market: “scale your team.” Enterprise: “multiply yourself.” Every director runs their own security team.
The selling motion shifts
Mid-market is product-led off a warm intro. Enterprise adds design partners, security review and on-prem to clear procurement.
What each buyer weighs
How We Graduate
Not a copilot. Not SOAR. A Security Employee.
The competition is people, not software
$1on tools:$8 to 10on people to run them
We operate Wiz and CrowdStrike, we do not replace them. The real competition is MSSPs and staff augmentation.
SOAR
Automates workflows.
Copilots
Answer questions.
Axari
An employee that runs the governance loops your tools create.
The enterprise motion
01
Land
Twin lands with one leader (N-1/N-2), PLG-embedded.
02
Prove
One hard workflow end to end. Reviewable work, not a dashboard.
03
Expand
Prod-sec and infra-sec each run Axari. 1+1 becomes 3.
04
Institutionalize
CISO inherits one view. The land converts to a platform contract.
Milestones & Gates
Headline activities and the “must be true” condition that unlocks each month
Appendix
Month
Key milestones
Must be true (gate)
M1
Launch freemium · launch-day blog · recruit 5 Buddies · Report V1 + Getting-Started training · BSides Harrisburg
PLG freemium live · 5 CISO Buddies contracted
M2
Report V1 + training · Latio report · Toronto & NYC dinners · launch referrals program
2 enterprise AEs hired · freemium → paid 3–5%
M3
Report V2 · “Designing Your AI Workforce” · Atlanta dinner · Miessler sponsorship
PLG conversion 3–5% · Buddy upsell 80%+
M4
Report V3 · “Running Security with AI Agents” · Black Hat book signing
AEs at full quota · 12 active Buddies
M5
Report V4 · “Scaling the AI Office of the CISO” · St. Louis dinner
15 Buddies contracted · PLG self-sustaining
M6
Report V5 · “From Signals to Decisions” · optimize & close