Playing It Safe Isn't Safe. Nate Burke on B2B Video

Nate Burke is the CMO of 7AI, a year-old company in the crowded AI cybersecurity market. His way to stand out is not a better case study. It is video that makes a conservative industry feel human.

Key Takeaways

• The AI SOC market went from zero to 58 vendors in about a year, with 734 AI security vendors at RSA.
• Nate's rule: playing it safe is the most dangerous thing a new brand can do.
• 7AI made a video series called Cooking with CISOs to humanize a cautious industry.
• Video beats the written case study because viewers believe a real customer, not a marketer.
• You do not have to justify video anymore. The cost to start is basically time.

This fits inside a bigger picture. If you want the foundation first, here's the full picture.

Why playing it safe is the riskiest move

In a market this new and this loud, doing the same thing as everyone else is the real danger. Nate is blunt about it.

"I don't think playing it safe is safe. In fact, I think it's about the most dangerous thing you can do." — Nate Burke

His logic is simple. The category did not exist two years ago. Now Gartner counts 58 vendors in AI SOC, and Nate counted 734 AI security vendors at RSA. When everyone sounds the same, the only way to keep attention is to earn it.

"The only way to keep attention is to make it attention worthy. Attention worthy means different." — Nate Burke

That also means being willing to kill an idea fast. If something flops, put a bullet in it and move on. If it works three times, you probably need a new idea anyway.

Why video beats the written case study

Nate hates the written case study. Anyone can write one, and now AI can write a thousand. A customer on video is different, because people believe them.

He told a story from a panel in Atlanta. Instead of pitching, he brought a real customer on stage with the theme "I was skeptical about AI in the SOC, this is what changed my mind." He asked two questions, then opened it to the room. After an uncomfortable silence, the first hand went up, and then everyone joined in.

The problem is the rest of the world was not in that room. Video is how you put that same moment in front of everyone else.

"It's the closest thing you can get to being in a room and like being at a dinner table and hearing someone talk about what's real and what isn't." — Nate Burke

Cooking with CISOs, and why it works

To make a cautious industry feel human, 7AI made a series called Cooking with CISOs. A team member and a customer cook their favorite meal with a host while they talk. One makes pepper steak, the other makes their dish, and the conversation flows.

It works for two reasons:

• It looks different, and different is what gets noticed in a crowded market.
• People relax. Within a minute of cooking and talking, they forget the camera is there.

That is the opposite of pointing a camera at someone for a stiff testimonial. The format does the work of making it feel real.

What the podcast is actually for

7AI runs a podcast called Do Human Work. It is not a product pitch. It looks at cybersecurity through the lens of AI, but it is really about people telling their stories.

They ask the same question every time: if I waved a magic wand and gave you back 25 percent of your time, what would you do? Everyone has an answer, and Nate never leads them to one.

The point is to disarm the fear that AI is coming for someone's job. Hearing a skeptic explain how AI freed their team to do more strategic work lands harder than any feature list.

Where video pays off at the bottom of the funnel

Video is not just a brand play. Nate says customer stories do real work at the bottom of the funnel, where buyers are deciding whether to trust the promise.

A customer who explains what they actually got, and how they justified the spend to their board, is the most valuable thing you can show a late-stage buyer. It is both the numbers and the human side: my people stay longer, they are happier, and they do more strategic work.

And the cost to start is almost nothing. Nate caught a new hire by the elevator with his camera, asked a few questions, and had a finished video 45 minutes later. As he puts it, you do not really have to justify video when you can just do it.

Still getting your head around this? Start with the foundation. It's the foundation the rest of this sits on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How crowded is the AI cybersecurity market?

Very. Nate says the AI SOC category had 58 vendors about a year after it formed, and he counted 734 AI security vendors at the RSA conference. That noise is exactly why he leans on standout video.

What is Cooking with CISOs?

It is a video series from 7AI where a team member and a customer cook a meal with a host while they talk. The casual format humanizes a cautious industry and makes people forget the camera is there.

Why does Nate prefer video over written case studies?

Because people believe a real customer on camera, but anyone (or any AI) can write a case study. Video is the closest thing to hearing someone tell you what is real at a dinner table.

How does a CMO justify spending on video?

Nate says you barely have to. The cost to start is mostly time, and you can shoot and edit something quickly. He once turned an elevator hallway moment into a finished video in 45 minutes.

Does video help at the bottom of the funnel?

Yes. A customer explaining what they got and how they justified the spend to their board is, in Nate's words, about the most valuable thing you can show a late-stage buyer.

Full Interview Transcript

Dane: Hey everybody, my name is Dane Frederiksen, I'm a B2B expert and my company is Digital Accomplice, and I'm on a mission to help B2B marketers be more visible, trusted, and grow pipeline faster with video. And today I'm joined by Nate Burke from 7AI, who is the CMO and main video guy, apparently, with your podcast. You're out there in front. Welcome, Nate. Tell us what we need to know about you and what you're up to.

Nate: Yeah, thanks for having me. This is gonna be fun. So yeah, we're 7AI, launched the company February 5th of last year and have been growing like crazy. And we help organizations use AI agents in security operations. And so in a world where the bad guys have access to AI and everyone is trying to figure out how they can possibly respond fast enough to all the threats there are, and there's new stuff every day and it's exponentially increasing. We're helping them leverage AI to allow their people to what we say do human work, the things that require a human being, their creativity, their strategic thought, and get out of the I'm just responding to stuff every day. And so it's kind of interesting because when I'm thinking about AI and video and how we do things different that stand out, I'm always thinking about what we're doing as a company. And if I'm on the other end and I'm a defender, you know, what are the things I could do if I wasn't spending all my time just responding to stuff? And so to me, AI is an interesting conversation when you talk to marketers, but when it comes to cybersecurity, it's totally inevitable. And the scale and speed of the threat is becoming something that we just can't expect human beings to be fast enough and have enough of them to be able to respond.

Dane: Yeah, it's a mind-boggling problem. For me, I think about everything's happening so quickly and yet you need to not get frozen, you need to act. And so this idea of solving the problem in a sea of all these other cybersecurity options, it seems to me like that idea of humanness and standing out and what you're doing with the podcast, you guys are leaning into this showing up visibly. That seems like such an important thing of being able to respond in the first place is they gotta know you exist, right?

Nate: Yeah, they gotta know we exist. And I mean, we've only been at it a very short time. It feels like ten years ago it was us launching, but it's only really been a year and some change. And we'll add another hundred people this year. So we're just growing faster than any company I've been a part of. And you know, I've been a part of some big fast ones. Hello, Maggie. My daughter just said hi. Hello. And so to me it's like not only are we part of this emerging category that didn't exist two years ago. But now there's, if you ask Gartner, I think they say there's 58 vendors in AI SOC. And I just went to RSA, one of the biggest conferences. There were 734 vendors. Pretty much every one of them had something around AI and security operations. So it's becoming incredibly crowded and noisy fast. And to me, the way you deal with this is not just do the same thing as everyone else, is having a unique point of view and standing out and being for something. And to me, the single best thing you can do for that is really show. Showing the customer as the hero and highlighting the stories of those people rather than anything I can say. If I can get a customer to talk about it, it's just a totally different game because people will believe them. I can say anything. I'm a marketing guy.

Dane: Yeah. Well, this is again, like we're putting the two ideas of my video expertise and your expertise with cyber together, but the idea of having video be the thing that is showing the customer story as opposed to a text case study where anyone could have written it, could be AI slop, could be ghost written, all those sort of things. Why is video to you the thing that you're focused on as far as telling these stories?

Nate: I think it's the closest thing you can get to being in a room and like being at a dinner table and hearing someone talk about what's real and what isn't. And so I'll give a couple examples. So this isn't a video example, but it'll come around, I promise, which is I just did a panel yesterday, I was in Atlanta with a customer at this event. And my thought was if I'm in the shoes of someone else, I'm skeptical immediately, right? If a vendor's just up there talking. They can say anything they want and everyone sounds the same. And I'm trying to reverse engineer that. So I brought one of our customers there. And the panel was, I was skeptical about AI and the SOC, this is what changed my mind. And I introduced the guy. I maybe asked him two questions and then just said, anybody got any questions? And I waited and I paused for this uncomfortable silence with no one raising their hand. I'm like, somebody's gonna do it, somebody's gonna do it. And then the first hand raises. After that, I didn't ask another question because everyone started doing that. Now that was for the people in the room in Atlanta. You have the rest of the world isn't in the room in Atlanta. And so how do you replicate that same idea of I want to listen to someone that was in my shoes, didn't believe it, ran through it, is willing to offer me like this was real. You know what, this didn't work and the way they fixed it, having that candor, I think the only way you can do that outside of being in the room is with video. And not only that, I really hate the written case study. I just, you need to have them sure. But we always look to do something different. And so one of the things we did is it's called Cooking with CISOs. And so we had one of our people and a customer and they got together with a host on video and they made their favorite meal. And it was just like a casual conversation as one person's making pepper steak and the other person is making this. And so to me anything that stands out, that is just different from I'm gonna do my case study because I got a 20% discount and I gotta do it and I'll just say anything you want. Anything that shows the real human moment of that is something people just connect with. And finding a way to replicate real, finding a way to replicate that in a way that comes off as natural, as honest, that is the thing that we're all trying to shoot for. That's the holy grail. That's the if I can't get them all in a room.

Dane: Uh-huh.

Nate: This is the best stand in we have.

Dane: Yeah. This is fascinating to me that a conservative cybersecurity sector kind of company, like that's a very not fun loving kind of industry. Like this is skeptical, very cautious, and cooking steaks, like how did you get to the point where you thought that that was gonna be okay or brand safe? I can see a lot of people shooting that idea down, be like, what? We're a cybersecurity company. We're not cooking steaks and doing that. Like, what was your thought process behind making sure that was okay?

Nate: Yeah. So I'm a little bit unique in that I'm very split down the center. Half of me is like technical, logical, right? The other half of me is more like creative and brand. And so to me, that part of your question is it's a math equation, right? Which is, you know, better is subjective, different you can measure. And to me, doing anything that is different, but also there's always these multiple angles to it, right? So one is it's gonna look different. But the other thing is people just aren't comfortable doing a case study when it's just a camera looking at them. But if you're doing something else and you're having a conversation and it's not about features and it's not about me shilling for your product and it's like a conversation, you immediately within a minute, you forget there's a camera there. You're there to do a thing and it's fun and it's different and you're laughing and you're telling stories and it's just something where I feel way more comfortable than me looking direct to a camera. So I think that's a big part of it. And the other thing is I just don't think playing it safe is safe. In fact, I think it's about the most dangerous thing you can do. And what I mean by that is this market didn't exist a year ago. And now there's 58 vendors and it's moving really, really fast. The worst possible thing I can do is not take a risk and not try to do something different. And the other thing is, if I do it three times and it succeeds, I probably gotta do something else the next time. So I think it's just a logical conclusion that the only way to keep attention is to make it attention worthy. Attention worthy means different. And doing the same thing over again or playing it safe means you already know what the ceiling is. And that's the best case scenario. So you constantly have to try and you also have to be able to say, that was a dumb idea. Let's put a bullet in it and move on to the next one. When the game is awareness and the game is standout, you gotta be able to take chances. There's no other way.

Dane: I love that. Yeah, this is great. So the stuff that you're doing on YouTube right now, I'm kind of curious, you know, obviously you're a new company, so you haven't been doing it that long. How is that going for you? Do you see that being important for people finding you? Is that the effort that you put into the podcast coming back to your bottom line? How are you measuring that? Just holistically, how do we look at YouTube for a cybersecurity company?

Nate: Yeah, I look at it two ways, but I'll go specifically on the podcast. So to me, the podcast was a way for us to get our point of view out into the world, not our product. And the other part is we do it with customers, with prospects, with partners, or whoever, right? But it really has to be around the story. And so it's kind of like we call our podcast Do Human Work, and it's looking at the world of cybersecurity through the lens of AI, but really it's about people telling their stories. And in a lot of cases, these are people saying, I'm not entirely comfortable with this idea of AI, but then I started learning more about it and started saying, if I can take this away from my people, now they can do the things they got into cybersecurity in the first place for. And we always ask the same couple of questions. One is if I were to wave a magic wand and give you back 25% of your time, what would you do? And everyone has an answer. And I don't lead them down any path whatsoever. It could be spend more time with my kids, or it could be something at work. It doesn't really matter. And to me, being able to get those stories out there and have people almost thinking out loud, rather than I've got all the answers, that is something that I think disarms people from the idea that I'm worried that you're just coming to take my job. And hearing from people that were skeptical but then saw a lot of value and now they can do better things. So to me, instead of using that as, hey, I care about views or I care about lead-gen, I think a lot of this is trying to understand someone that has taken that leap and what they've got out of it. But also, forget about our product, forget about any software. Like, what can the humans do now that's better? And you're gonna keep them longer, they're happier, they're not burning out. And I would rather get that idea and that grounding and anchoring of what we do and how we're different into the world rather than trying to get people going directly to a demo. And I think this is something that sure people find us through the podcast, but also it's one of those things where you do have to kind of take a leap.

Nate: To say, all right, this thing is ready. It's not gonna break on me, but also it's not something where I'm saying, I'm gonna buy this thing and get rid of all my people. So there's a lot of nuance to it and I think it's a good format for nuance.

Dane: Mm-hmm. So yeah, it sounds like this is more of a brand play and like what makes you different and stand out. So you gotta have the visibility and the trust to even be part of this decision set for getting chosen as a vendor. I'm kind of curious, are there places like at the bottom of funnel that video has been helpful for you as opposed to just making people get you and know what you're about? Is that a conversion tool?

Nate: Yeah, well for sure. Especially when it's someone that is a customer and is talking about this is what they got out of it, right? Because there's the promise the product makes, we will do this thing for you. But then there's also a trade off of did I get any return from it? Like we've all bought things in B2B where it sounded good, we bought the thing and then at the end of a year we're like, this didn't really do anything, we installed it and then it just didn't do what I thought it was gonna do. And so hearing someone actually say that, I think, is probably the best thing you can do at the bottom of the funnel. Of great, you did this, how do you measure that it was valuable? Well, they're valuable when you go back to your board and say, justify that spend, like what do you tell them? And so when they're able to say that and articulate that value, beyond just the I got 2X, 3X, 10X, who cares X, right? It's also the and now my people are staying longer, they're happier, and they're doing more strategic things. So I think it's the quantitative and the qualitative. So anything around, I took the leap, I trusted them, this is what I got out of it, and this is how I justified it and why I'm gonna renew. Like that at the bottom is, I think, about the most valuable thing you do.

Dane: Right. So as a CMO who has to justify your video type activities to your C suite and maybe the board or whoever, what do you think other CMOs would need to know to be able to justify doing stuff like you've been doing with the podcasts and case studies?

Nate: Honestly, I don't think you really have to justify it. In a world where you can just get started and try things out, the cost of getting started and trying it is nothing. It's time. It's being able to just edit something quickly and get it out there. So we just had someone join last week, and he's running our partnerships. And so I just stood outside the elevator with my camera and I caught him coming in. And I said, we're gonna do a video the minute you change your link, then we're gonna put it together. And so asked him a couple of questions, shot a couple of things. 45 minutes later, I had the final product and sent it to him. That's what it takes now, right? And I know a lot of us wanna make it beautiful and perfect and polished and whatever, but that to me is something where don't bother with that first until you get to a point where you're saying, I'm committed to this and it's gonna work. And to me, what do you need to do to justify that? It's pretty easy, right? Try it. And to me, it's one of those cases where you get into a rhythm and it becomes something repeatable and it becomes something that you start seeing the value and you start seeing the numbers and you start having people reaching out saying, I want to do a video with you, which is crazy to me, but it's true. And so it's not difficult to justify when you can just do it.

Dane: There you go. Get started. It doesn't matter where you're at. Nate, thank you so much for sharing your insights today. It's been great hearing from you.

Nate: Yeah, this is fun.