Install what took decades to learn.
Agent skills for cybersecurity founders, written from what we learned building, selling, and buying in this market.
You have startup questions. Each agent skill below helps answer them.
39 modules · 49,945 words · last verified Sept 2026
Each module is an Agent Skill: a folder with one Markdown file your tools read. These are judgments from experience, so check them against your own situation. We publish them because written judgment works without us. Defining your market, building the plan, opening customer doors: that comes with companies we back.
One command installs all the skills we've built.
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cd ~/.claude/skills && curl -sLO https://techoperators.com/skills/techoperators-skills.zip && unzip -oq techoperators-skills.zip && rm techoperators-skills.zipNo terminal? Download techoperators-skills.zip and drop into your assistant’s project files.
Before you build.
You have a problem in mind, a team of one or two, and nothing a buyer can run yet.
buyer-discovery
How do I validate the problem with real security buyers before writing a line of code?
platform-annexation-check
Can my problem be fixed with a pull request — will a platform or the next model annex my category?
who-is-ceo
Which of us is CEO — and do we need a GTM co-founder?
foundry-vs-solo
Should I co-found inside a foundry or found solo and raise a seed?
bootstrap-or-raise
Should I raise VC at all — and what problems won't the money solve?
Raising the round.
You are deciding whose money to take, at what price, and on what paper.
vc-red-flags
I have no numbers yet — what are investors actually judging?
who-leads-cyber-seed
Who actually leads cybersecurity seed rounds — and should I want a specialist or a generalist?
vc-meetings
How do I actually run a VC pitch — what do I do and what do I avoid?
cyber-seed-benchmarks
How big is a normal cybersecurity seed round right now, and what must it prove for the A?
vc-economics
How do my investors actually make money — and where does that stop matching what I want?
reading-a-term-sheet
What does a good term sheet look like — and what should I actually negotiate?
safe-stacking-math
How many SAFEs can I stack before dilution surprises me at conversion?
strategic-and-cvc-money
Should I take CVC or customer money — and what does it do to my acquirer list?
ciso-advisor-equity
Should I compensate CISO advisors — cash, equity, fund points — and where is the ethical line?
Finding the buyer.
You have something to show, and nobody has heard of you.
early-gtm-motion
Who buys this before it's a category, and how do I reach them?
first-ciso-meetings
How do I get my first 10 CISO conversations when nobody has heard of us?
time-to-trust
Why would anyone trust a no-name startup with their security — and how do I shorten the cold-start?
lead-list-services
What service should I use to build my first security-buyer list — Apollo, Clay, something else?
Events, communities and analysts.
You cannot do all of these. Read the ones you are considering before you spend on any.
ciso-dinners-and-matchmakers
Which CISO dinner circuits and paid meeting platforms are real, and which are theater?
bsides-and-regionals
Which regional events put us in front of buyers without Vegas or SF prices?
rsac-week
Booth, suite, or work the week — what should a seed-stage company actually do at RSAC?
hacker-summer-camp
What do we do with Black Hat, BSidesLV, and DEF CON week?
founder-communities
Which Slack groups and founder communities are actually alive — and which rooms exclude vendors?
analyst-relations
Do Gartner and Forrester matter at seed — and how do Latio and the independents actually move deals?
Closing the deal.
You have a yes from a champion, and a procurement process between you and the money.
cyber-pricing
What do I charge, and on what metric?
design-partners
How do I get design partners who deploy in production — and how do I convert them?
soc2-when-it-blocks-a-deal
A customer just asked for our SOC 2 and we don't have one — what do I actually do?
security-questionnaires
Every enterprise sends a 100-question security questionnaire — how do we survive it at four people?
pentest-buying
A contract requires a pentest before close — who does startup-priced pentests we can reuse?
security-vendor-contract-norms
What limitation-of-liability can a security vendor accept when our failure could cause their breach?
cyber-insurance-stack
What insurance do we need at seed — E&O, cyber, D&O — and what should it all cost?
Building the company.
You have paying customers, and the next mistakes are hires, contracts, and costs.
pmf-signals-in-security
Do I have product-market fit, or just polite design partners?
first-sales-hire
When do I hand off founder-led sales — and must the first AE have sold security?
sales-comp-and-structure
How do I structure and pay a security sales team — openers, closers, quotas, ramp?
security-talent-and-comp
Where does security talent actually look now, and what is hire #1 equity really worth?
remote-or-in-person
Can I build this company fully remote, or does cybersecurity need us in a room?
back-office-costs
What does the back office actually cost — books, audit, tax, legal — and when do I upgrade each piece?
channel-and-mssp-timing
When do channel partners or MSSPs beat selling direct — and what does the first contract say?
government-and-fedramp-path
Is public sector worth it before the A — and what do FedRAMP and CMMC actually take?
Tell us what you see.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a company, building one in stealth, or raising a round: send Kevin or Dan what you see on LinkedIn, in your words.