News Summary

  • Cybersecurity platform provider Silent Push announced on Thursday the appointment of Kirk Appelman as Chief Revenue Officer. The company said it uses predictive intelligence to identify threat actors, sometimes years in advance, serving large enterprises and government clients.
  • Appelman brings 25 years of experience in technology sales and leadership. One of his top priorities is optimizing the company's newly launched partner program to drive sales—identifying three strategic partners in each sales region and building strong relationships.
  • "We can't be everywhere," said Appelman. "Some partners have vast networks that not only identify business opportunities but also help us communicate with large organizations. We want partners to be excited about working with Silent Push and see it as profitable. That's the only way it works."

In-Depth Analysis

Silent Push was founded in early 2020 to help organizations track, monitor, and respond to global threat activity. The company operates proprietary scanning and aggregation engines that record changes across millions of IP addresses, tracking the activities of known actors to identify their plans months or even years in advance, helping enterprise and government clients prevent attacks.

This proactive approach to cybersecurity influenced Appelman's decision to join the team.

"It's disruptive," said Appelman. "People lock their doors, install alarm systems, and cameras before an intruder or burglar breaks in. We can actually observe that burglar buying gloves, duct tape, and rope at a Walmart two states away, whatever they're preparing for. You could say we're in their den."

Despite the startup's global reach, its sales team is relatively small. Appelman hopes to expand the customer base through the partner community.

"Partners not only help identify business opportunities but also navigate internal processes within organizations," he said. "They handle procurement and onboarding, especially for large organizations and financial institutions where onboarding new vendors involves rigorous risk management processes."

This is not Appelman's first foray into cybersecurity; he is stepping into a role that Silent Push established three years ago. Before joining Silent Push, he served as Vice President of Sales at cybersecurity company Synack. Appelman began his career in network infrastructure sales before moving into cybersecurity. He describes himself as fundamentally a salesperson.

"I love being in front of customers," said Appelman. "My management style is to be hands-on, working alongside the team. Companies don't buy technology because it's cool or innovative; they buy it because they have a problem to solve, so one of my philosophies is to truly understand the problem or pain point the customer faces."

In the coming years, Appelman's vision for Silent Push includes launching an OEM program to provide data to other cybersecurity companies, and transitioning to a 100% channel-focused approach, building an ecosystem of value-added resellers, integrators, and managed service providers.