Positioning Security as a Buyer-Centric Differentiator: Lessons from Sotero’s Data-in-Use Encryption Breakthrough

In the SaaS and tech world, innovation alone doesn’t win markets. The products that break through are the ones that are positioned so buyers understand, believe in, and act on the value.

Sotero’s patented “data-in-use” encryption — the ability to keep data encrypted even while it’s being processed — is a massive technical leap in cybersecurity. But in a market saturated with security vendors, technology was only half the battle.

The other half? Positioning the innovation so buyers could see it not as a “cool feature,” but as a mission-critical solution worth investing in immediately.

Lesson 1: Anchor Positioning in the Buyer’s Most Ignored Pain Point

For years, encryption focused on “data at rest” and “data in motion.” Buyers were told they were safe — until they learned that data is unencrypted while in use, which is when most business operations happen.

Sotero’s wedge wasn’t “better encryption.” It was framing the gap as a critical blind spot in existing security strategies — one attackers already exploit.

Positioning takeaway: In complex tech markets, buyers don’t rally around features; they rally around urgent, costly problems they didn’t know they had.

Lesson 2: Make the Innovation Easy to Say “Yes” To

Complex tech can die in the sales cycle if it looks like a heavy lift. Sotero avoided this by positioning itself as middleware, not a rip-and-replace platform:

• Installs like a database driver (ODBC/JDBC) — no application rewrites.

• Works across structured, unstructured, and cloud data.

• Plays nicely with the tools buyers already have.

That positioning — “You can secure everything without rebuilding anything” — turned technical complexity into a buying advantage.

Lesson 3: Borrow Credibility Until You Have Your Own

Sotero partnered with major technology players to instantly increase trust in the market. For a security company with zero brand awareness, this positioning move was critical:

• It reframed them from “new and unproven” to “endorsed and integrated.”

• Buyers perceived less risk, which accelerated early adoption.

Lesson 4: Evolve the Story as the Market Shifts

Sotero started with relational databases. As ransomware and cloud adoption exploded, they repositioned as a data security fabric — a universal layer to secure any data, anywhere.

This kept their story aligned with the buyer’s evolving fears and priorities, rather than locking into a static feature pitch.

Positioning takeaway: In tech, markets shift faster than products. If your positioning can’t evolve, your relevance erodes.

Lesson 5: Match Founder Vision with Market Readiness

Purandar Das believed in his innovation from day one. But for the market to believe, Sotero had to:

• Educate buyers on the problem (data-in-use risk).

• Validate the approach through lighthouse customers.

• Simplify the buying decision with clear risk-reduction ROI.

The result: a story that resonated with CISOs and security buyers across industries.

Key Takeaways for SaaS & Tech Founders

1. Lead with the problem gap your buyer can’t afford to ignore.

2. Lower the adoption friction — complexity kills deals.

3. Borrow trust from bigger players early on.

4. Continuously evolve your positioning to track with market shifts.

5. Educate before you sell — especially with category-defining tech.

Why this matters for your SaaS or tech company: Positioning is the bridge between innovation and revenue. The market is full of brilliant solutions that never scale — not because the tech failed, but because the buyer never saw why they had to buy it now.