Chip Bell's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Unrivaled is just getting started 🩵 👑 💜 🏀 In our inaugural season, we reached more than 11.9 million total viewers, surpassed $1M in both ticket and merchandise sales, and signed 20+ corporate partners. Thank you to our founding fans, partners, and investors for making our vision a reality.

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Product Marketing at Seal Security!

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my fractional GTM business, ValarGTM, catering to startups and SMBs in Security for AI, AI for Security, Application Security, and DevSecOps. For those who know me well, you’ll appreciate that I just had to include a Lord of the Rings reference in the name! With a strong foundation in product marketing, AI security, and cybersecurity, I specialize in building essential GTM strategies and marketing programs to set businesses on the path to long-term success. Here’s how I can help your business thrive: ·       Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) & Persona Development ·       Product Positioning & Value-Driver Messaging ·       Product-Led Growth & Launch Strategies ·       Content & Campaign Strategies I’m currently looking to partner with new clients! If you or someone in your network could benefit from my services, then let’s connect—or feel free to share this post. Thank you for your support! #AIsecurity #AppSec #DevSecOps #Cybersecuritymarketing #AIsecuritymarketing

🧟 Fixing open source vulnerabilities shouldn't involve the dark arts, zombies, or forced upgrades. The only magic you need: Seal Security. We streamline vulnerability remediation in legacy code, patching even the toughest open source vulnerabilities, ensuring compatibility with your existing systems and securing your application dependencies without breaking changes or forced upgrades. #OpenSource #AppSec #CVE

⛰️ It's been a great first day of #OSSummit 2025! We’ll be here for the next two days, make sure to stop by booth B5 to to hear from Kyle Orduno and Chip Bell on how Seal Security helps fix open source vulnerabilities across every layer: from application dependencies to the operating system and container base images. Schedule a meeting at the link in our comments. 🔗 #opensource #appsec #applicationsecurity

🔎 Security scanners don't always agree, leaving open source vulnerabilities hidden and your containers exposed. At Seal Security, we go beyond alerts, diving deep into the code to uncover the truth. Explore our case study on CVE-2021-28170, where we: - Unraveled conflicting scanner results on the vulnerability in org.glassfish:javax.el. - Engineered a custom security patch by backporting fixes from the updated library. - Improved the accuracy of security databases, benefiting scanners like Snyk, OSV, Grype, and Trivy. Read the full story by Alon Ohana → https://lnkd.in/e7ajwcyK #OpenSource #AppSec #SCA #CVE

Open source vulnerabilities piling up? Finding vulnerabilities is easy, the real challenge is fixing them quickly, without disrupting your systems or delaying your roadmap. Seal Security delivers production ready patches, keeping your software secure and up-to-date across every layer: from application dependencies and operating systems to container base images. ✅ Slash security backlogs ✅ Meet compliance requirements, even on legacy systems ✅ Quickly patch existing code and seamlessly protect future development Learn more 🎬👉 https://lnkd.in/ekDkjzx3 #DevSecOps #DevOps #AppSec #CyberSecurity #Opensource

Why do marketing and sales clash? Spoiler: marketing might be the culprit—and I’ve been guilty of it too The Mistake As marketers, we often think like marketers. This mindset can lead us to create sales materials, messaging, and content that appeal to us, instead of addressing the champion persona’s needs and crafting materials in their language. In technical industries like AI Security and AppSec, this misstep is amplified. Champions, such as AppSec Directors, are not fans of traditional marketing. (Probably an understatement!) If there are SDRs, AEs, and SEs in these fields reading this, then I am sure that they are in agreement. The Impact When we write for ourselves rather than the audience, trust with sales falters, and possible deals will be lost in the earliest stages of the buyer's journey. Over-reliance on buzzwords, failing to showcase the product, and improperly talking about the product’s functionality are key pitfalls. Recommended Solution: Learning and training in the MEDDPICC framework has been a game-changer for me. I’ll explain what it stands for below. MEDDPICC has reshaped how I approach positioning, messaging, and sales enablement by helping me: *Understand the sales qualification process *Identify champions in the buying process *Align content with sales priorities and customer pain points If your sales org follows MEDDPICC, I highly recommend exploring training options—or checking out  https://lnkd.in/gHTs8EMg. Huge thanks to Bonnie Bisson and John Milne for supporting my journey into MEDDPICC! MEDDPICC M - Metrics E - Economic Buyer D - Decision Criteria D - Decision Process P - Paper Process I - Implicated Pain C - Champion C - Competition #MEDDPICC #MEDDICC #SecurityofAI

If there is no critical event, then you don’t have the right ICP. Having a problem alone is not enough to drive action. There has to be urgency to solve it now. Buying decisions may appear rational, but they are often driven by emotion. For your champion, the decision is rarely just logical. There is something at stake. It’s driven by a critical event that: • puts their job security at risk • or creates an opportunity to advance their career That’s what creates real urgency. And it’s how you know you’ve identified the right ICP and champion. If there is no critical event: Deals stall. Cycles extend. Prospects go dark. This is where many teams get it wrong. They continue to sell logically when the decision is being driven by emotion. The best teams understand both. They align the business case to the urgency of the situation and anchor the conversation in what is at stake for the champion. Because that’s what drives action. And when your product directly addresses that critical event, you increase the likelihood of retention and expansion.

Do you have a strong pipeline but still struggle to build sustainable revenue? Marketing is generating leads. Sales is closing deals. Win rates look healthy. But churn is high. Customer success is under pressure because what was promised during acquisition isn’t translating into real impact. So the question becomes: Are your marketing and sales teams aligned with customer success on who your ideal customer actually is? This is one of the biggest limitations of the funnel. The funnel stops at closed-won. But your business earns revenue over the lifetime of your customers. As you move toward and beyond the $10M ARR mark, revenue from retention and expansion will eventually surpass acquisition. That’s why you need to move beyond the funnel and think in terms of the bowtie. The bowtie connects customer acquisition with the customer lifecycle. This creates a feedback loop that reveals important truths: • Will your current ICP be a long-term customer? • Are you selling value without delivering impact? • Are you aligned on the outcomes that matter after the sale? When acquisition and the customer lifecycle are connected, your company won’t just close deals. You will build sustainable revenue.

“Build a product that solves a problem.” That’s the most common advice given to startups. But solving a problem isn’t enough to build a company. What matters is understanding who inside an organization is responsible for solving it. That means knowing: • Does the organization need to solve this problem now? • Who is experiencing the problem most directly? • Who has the influence to drive the initiative to find a solution? • How does the problem impact the company’s goals and metrics? In today’s market where capital is tighter and competition is increasing, companies cannot rely on discovering this later. The companies that succeed don’t just build products around problems. They build products for the people inside organizations who feel the pain most acutely and are responsible for solving it now. Without this level of clarity, go-to-market fit becomes difficult, making it harder to position the product, build a healthy pipeline, win deals, and retain customers.

Check out my latest blog on how Seal Security helps organizations meet DORA’s requirements

This was an outstanding and insightful presentation by the team at Astrix Security on OWASP’s Non-Human Identities Top 10! #snowfroc

I am excited to attend #SnowFroc next week and the 'Attacking AI' session with Jason Haddix. If you will be there, then let me know!

Understanding your buyer is only the first step. The next question is how that buyer actually evaluates solutions. That’s where go-to-market fit comes in. GTM fit determines how marketing and sales work together to acquire customers. This is especially important when selling to technical buyers. Technical champions rarely want to start with a sales call. They want to see the product early so they can understand the perceived value and the potential impact on their organization. This usually requires: • a product-led experience • strong technical documentation • interactive demos Your GTM motion should match how your champion evaluates technology. Some products support low-touch adoption, where buyers can test or use the product on their own. Others require a hybrid motion, where product exploration is combined with guided conversations. And some complex problems require high-touch engagement across marketing and sales. So, the real question is this: What level of engagement does your champion actually need to solve their problem? When the motion aligns with the buyer and their problem, your pipeline becomes far more predictable. And just as importantly, the motion sets expectations for how your customers will experience the impact of the solution after the sale.