Take charge, define the undefined with Analysts

One of the most common things founders tell me is:

“Our product does not fit into Gartner or Forrester’s existing market categories.” we are building something unique, which is most likely true.

Your company may be solving a problem:

• Customers have only recently started recognizing
• The customers don't have a defined budget for it yet
• You may be building for a niche use-case for a specific industry, a unique regulatory challenge, or a market segment that is still evolving
• In some cases, your platform may sit across multiple markets, making it difficult to compare with defined markets

That is not necessarily a business problem in a short run because you are closing deals, you are experiencing organic growth.

In fact, many category-defining companies looked difficult to classify in their early years- case in point, CrowdStrike back in 2014/15 and Cribl from 2021/2022. There was no EDR market, it was an AV market.

8 out of 10 founders wouldn’t invest their time and efforts by thinking there is no defined market created for my product and the rest 2 founders will work towards defining the market with the analysts.

Thats where the real differentiator lies and these 2 founders then go on to lead the market in the near future.

The smartest founders understand something important very early: Analyst relations is not just about getting included in a report. It is about influencing how the industry understands a problem.

That mindset changes everything. So if you are one of those founders who are building something unique and something undefined, here are my recommendations to them

Who should do the talking with analysts?

When its a new and undefined market, nobody but the founder(s) should interface with the analsyts. The founders have identified the gap, researched on data points and working on a solution. No one else would be able to convince the analysts but the founders in this case.

What you should be talking about with analysts?

Analysts hear feature pitches all day. What stands out is a founder who can clearly explain:

• What is not working in the current platforms
• Why are the existing providers not focusing on solving this problem- it is critical because what if it is such a small market, low ticket item that existing vendors don’t want to solve the problem. Case in point, Data pipeline market such as Cribl, none of the SIEM vendors tried to solve that problem even though it appears as a no brainer.
• Why it is, if not today, will become a Must Have for the customers
• Whether it's an efficiency play, transformational play or cost optimization play
• What's the future of this market and product, whether this will become a stand alone market or will converge into an existing market.

The best analyst conversations are the ones where you make them think and enable them to start researching in a new direction.

“The worst line you could say as a founder- we don’t have any competition- This is almost never true. It can be true that the product you built doesnt exist in the market but there will be a defined product category which is fighting for the same budget as you”

When IPad was launched, it was market defining but it would compete with the laptop market because it appeals to customers' laptop budget.

Which analysts should you be speaking with?

In the absence of a defined market, identifying analysts will be a challenge but not a blocker. In cyber, your product can be solving a problem at:

• Email, data, endpoint, cloud, identity or one of these layers
• On attack surface reduction, prevention or detection side of attack
• Managed Services or Product way of implementation

Identify the analysts who are closest to the problem you are solving. Case in point, for data pipeline- I would recommend speaking with SIEM analysts, EDR analysts (because EDR telemetry is voluminous) and SOC analysts.

How should you be talking to them: Bring evidence, not hype

“We are disruptive” is not a strategy. Analysts build conviction through measurable patterns:

• Customer adoption trends
• Operational savings
• Risk reduction
• Faster implementation timelines
• Budget movement from legacy vendors

The strongest founders do not just say the market is changing. They prove it.

And no, “trust me bro, AI changes everything” is still not a recognized analyst relations framework. :)

“Suggest Customer Reference Calls to the analysts, proof lies in the pudding. Unfortunately, customer reference calls is the least utilized channel by the technology vendors for analyst relationship.”

Understand that category creation takes time

Category creation is usually slow before it suddenly looks obvious to everyone.

We have already seen this happen with companies like CrowdStrike, Zscaler, and Cribl. At one point, many of these companies were also educating analysts and enterprise buyers on why traditional approaches were no longer enough.

Today, they are category leaders.

A lot of founders wait for analyst firms to validate a category before investing in analyst relations.

I work with founders on analyst engagement, positioning, and category narratives, and this is often where long-term market leverage gets created early.

If you are building something the market is struggling to classify today, hit me, I am always open to new challenges.