How Absolute Security CMO Ash Parikh Thinks About Marketing, Pipeline, and Working with the Board

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K. Welcome to the Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing podcast, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts, and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer.

**Gianna Whitver** (0:24)
Hello, listener. Today, we have a very special segment episode. That's right. We are playing our CyberCMO Confidential segment, where we interview some of the best marketing leaders in cybersecurity and dive really, really deep into what they're thinking, how they do things, and the hard decisions they've had to make. Enjoy and send us a note, leave us a five-star review, or give us some feedback. Podcasts at cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com.
Enjoy the episode.

**Charles Gold** (1:00)
Welcome to CMO Confidential. The only podcast that gets to the bottom of the burning question, what the f*** are CMOs actually thinking?

**Gianna Whitver** (1:09)
In each unfiltered episode, we interview a top cybersecurity marketing leader to drill into the issues that drive budgets, priorities, projects, and occasionally the desire to quit.

**Charles Gold** (1:20)
Listen to laugh, learn from the top, and commiserate. This is CMO Confidential.

**Gianna Whitver** (1:29)
Hello and welcome to another super special segment of the Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing podcast. Yes, it is CyberCMO Confidential, where we interview the best CMOs in the cybersecurity industry. I'm your host, Gianna Whitver, here with my amazing co-host.

**Charles Gold** (1:47)
Charles Gold.

**Gianna Whitver** (1:48)
And today we have a fabulous guest. We have Ash Parikh. He is the Chief Marketing Officer of Absolute Security. Ash, thank you so much for being on.

**Ash Parikh** (1:59)
Hi, Gianna, Charles. Thank you for having me. It's absolutely a pleasure.

**Charles Gold** (2:03)
Thank you for being here. You know, Gianna, Ash actually has more than one title.

**Gianna Whitver** (2:08)
Really? What's the other one?

**Charles Gold** (2:10)
Well, he's CMO of Absolute Security, but he told me he's also an accidental CMO. So we got to figure out what that's all about.

**Ash Parikh** (2:18)
Well, I think...

**Charles Gold** (2:19)
So tell us, Ash.

**Ash Parikh** (2:19)
Great place to start, Charles. I mean, I would still always call myself an accidental CMO. And I just say that fondly, looking back into the last 25 years, because, look, I was a techie.
I used to carry a bag.

**Charles Gold** (2:34)
A recovering techie.

**Ash Parikh** (2:35)
I was a techie. I have an engineering background, a master's in business administration. And my very first job out of college was basically doing demos, doing technical demos. So I actually held a bag. So I was in sales, I was doing technical demos.
So in a way, when I look back, it's almost like I truly internalized both the customer's pain and the salesperson's pain. That's extremely important. I think I am where I am today. Based on those experiences, it's taught me that your quarter, even though you're a hero last quarter, the clock resets every single quarter.

**Charles Gold** (3:12)
Yesterday I was a hero, today I'm a zero, that kind of thing.

**Ash Parikh** (3:14)
That's right. That's exactly right. And the customer, right, they're constantly in this little conundrum of, does a salesperson truly understand me or is just trying to offer some product? And that's what's helped me be a little bit more empathetic, sensitive to both these key constructs that I work with, both the customer and the salesperson, and has helped me along the way a lot. So my foray into marketing was almost grudgingly, okay, what is marketing?
It's more about the reputation. It's a great point you bring up because it was a reputation that marketing always had. Okay, you're from the ad world, a lot of fluff, and I'm not a fluffy guy because I truly act as though I'm buying my own product. So if you're not going to tell me in a matter of about five minutes, what you do, like it's an elevator pitch, and what you do for me, what kind of problem you solve for me, I'm going to be on my merry way.

**Gianna Whitver** (4:09)
So Ash, you carried the bag, you have that salesperson SCE experience. What were some of the challenges that you wanted to solve for that side of the business, for your own internal salespeople when you begrudgingly graduated to being an accidental CMO? What were some things you thought about?

**Ash Parikh** (4:26)
Look, not just for the salesperson, it's also for the business in general. At Absolute and at my other companies as well, where I've been a CMO, I've been fortunate to be reporting into the CEO directly, and be beholden back to the board, and answerable to the board for many things that are business-like.