I work on the selling side of cybersecurity.

Sales, marketing and growth across Europe: POCs, public tenders, distributors, integrators and MSSPs. This site is where I write down what held up and what didn't.

Dawid Winiarski

the short version

Before cybersecurity I spent close to ten years in B2B sales and marketing, e-commerce growth and startups. I ran two of them as CEO and raised venture and R&D money for both. Then I moved into security and stayed, because it is one of the few markets where a claim gets tested by an attacker sooner or later.

Today I work on how security products actually reach customers in Europe: technical selling, where a POC or a tender decides the deal, and the channel, where a distributor and an integrator decide whether your product gets offered at all.

pipeline for security vendors in Europe

One subject: how cybersecurity vendors build pipeline in Europe through the two motions generic B2B playbooks get wrong, technical selling and partners. Funnels are the mechanism of both. Pricing, regulation and market data are the context.

The belief I argue against is that the US volume playbook travels well. MQL targets, cold outbound at scale and gated whitepapers meet Europe's languages, laws and long buying committees, and mostly lose. What works here is what I call trust transfer: technical proof the buyer has seen for themselves, plus someone they already trust who vouches for it. A peer, an integrator, a distributor.

I write from one seat that covers sales, marketing and growth. Writing from a single function tends to optimise its own part: more leads, better demos, more partners. The expensive failures happen between the parts, where marketing hands over to sales, sales to presales and presales to the channel. Most of these guides sit there.

how I work

  1. 01From the work. Every piece starts from something that came up in a deal, a POC, a tender or a partner conversation. Names and terms stay out, the problem and the method stay in.
  2. 02One problem per piece. Each guide takes one problem, gives the reasoning and ends with one thing you can do this week. If it doesn't leave you with a step, it isn't finished.
  3. 03Under test, said out loud. When I am trying something and don't know yet whether it works, it is marked as under test. An open question is more useful to you than a tidy result I can't back.
  4. 04AI drafts, I decide. I use AI for research and first drafts. I check every claim against its source, decide what gets published and put my name on it. No customer or partner data goes into a public AI model.
  5. 05Corrected, with a date. Guides get updated when the facts change. Pages about regulation say when they were last checked.

who it's for

  • Heads of sales, presales and channel at security vendorsUseful when POCs run past their end date, deals slip into "no decision", or a partner programme has signed partners and no deals.
  • Founders and CEOs of security vendorsUseful when you need a repeatable way to sell before you scale the team, or you are choosing a first distributor in a new country.
  • Marketing and growth leads at vendorsUseful when campaigns produce leads that sales and partners don't use, or buyers arrive with a shortlist you weren't on.
  • Distributors, integrators and MSSPsUseful when you are deciding which vendors to back and want to see the arithmetic from the vendor's side.

every number is one of three things

  1. 01a number with its source, named in the sentence, with the year, and linked at the end of the piece.
  2. 02an observation from practice, labelled as mine, never dressed up as a statistic.
  3. 03a hypothetical, clearly marked, with inputs you replace with your own.

When I look for evidence and do not find it, I write that I looked and did not find it. When I get something wrong, the correction goes into the piece, visibly, with a date.

where I've worked

  1. 2024 to now

    Revenue Operations Leader, previously Business Development Manager · Securivy

    Cybersecurity sales to enterprise buyers in Poland, mostly in financial services and critical infrastructure, much of it shaped by NIS2 and DORA. I lead sales of Syteca and Admin By Request in Poland and build partnerships with the consultancies and integrators around them.

  2. 2020 to 2023

    CEO · HUGO

    Built an R&D startup in dog wellness technology to a USD 5 million valuation, with a team of more than 25 across product, marketing and operations. Funded by the SpeedUp Seedstone fund and Poland's National Centre for Research and Development.

  3. 2019 to 2021

    Business Development Manager · Europejska Technologiczna Grupa Kapitałowa

    Growth for the group's digital and e-commerce brands: product marketing, performance campaigns, customer service. Secured EU R&D grants of more than PLN 20 million.

  4. 2019 to 2020

    CEO · Delicious Bugs

    Started an edible-insect company while working with a venture fund. Raised EUR 100,000 in R&D funding, led a team of 17 researchers and associates, and brought 15 products to a patent-pending production process.

  5. 2015 to 2019

    Senior B2B Marketing and Sales Specialist · TOREKO

    Marketing and sales for a family-owned recycling company: content, SEO, cold email and calling, and the first CRM.

Full history on LinkedIn.

certificates

  • AI Sales, SellWise and Brave, 2026
  • Machina B2B Lead Generation, SellWise, 2025
  • Value Proposition Design, Strategyzer, 2021
  • Business Model Design, Strategyzer, 2021
  • Design Thinking, IDEO U, 2021
  • Designing Sales Process, CYRAN Inc., 2021
  • Google Ads, Tigers, 2021
  • Facebook Ads, Tigers, 2021

who I work with

I work full time at Securivy, a cybersecurity company in Poland, where I lead sales of Syteca and Admin By Request. That means I have commercial relationships with those vendors and with the integrators and resellers that sell their products. I don't recommend their products on this site, I don't name the partners or clients I work with, and when a piece touches a market where I have a direct interest, I say so at the top.

Outside the day job I take a few paid engagements with security vendors each quarter, described on work with me. When a piece touches a topic I sell work on, it says so.

This site and the newsletter are mine. Nobody pays for a mention.

what I don't publish

  • names of clients or partners I work with
  • contracting authorities or procedure numbers from tenders I describe
  • terms from distribution or partner agreements
  • recommendations for products I sell
  • sponsored posts or paid placements

where to start

guideyour biggest competitor in security deals is "no decision"newsletterSecurity Revenue: one issue a week from the workfree toolpipeline readiness scorecard →