Meet Mark Sasson, Founder of Pinpoint

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

As I started on the path of building a cybersecurity practice at my previous firm in 2014, I noted that many of my competitors branded themselves as IT recruiters or recruitment generalists. This lack of focus resulted in frustration by cybersecurity professionals because headhunters exhibited little knowledge about the industry they were serving.

My aim was to offer an alternative, a recruitment service that provided subject matter expertise for the clients it served. From 2014 through 2018 I immersed myself into a crash course of the vendor side of the cybersecurity industry with a goal of being THE cybersecurity recruitment expert.

In 2019 I acquired that cybersecurity practice and turned it into Pinpoint Search Group. The mission was – and continues to be – to raise the bar in the field of cybersecurity vendor recruitment.

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

Pinpoint’s evolution was inspired by the widely recognised notion that data is the most valuable commodity on earth. You can’t be a subject matter expert if you’re not collecting and analysing data in real time.

Instead of being reactive and identifying candidates based on the needs of a single search, we started tracking investments into cybersecurity vendors and mapped the talent within those organisations. This allowed us to categorise talent by location, function, and cybersecurity segment to name a few.

Beyond the benefit to Pinpoint operationally, funding and acquisition data allows us to provide a more consultative service. The data has the potential to influence our clients’ talent acquisition decision making. It can also serve as a guide for professionals as they research their next move. So, we decided to publish monthly, quarterly, and annual reports. No gates, no fees, no catch.

What can we hope to see from you in the future?

Pinpoint will continue to strive for excellence in our goal of brokering successful matches between cybersecurity vendors and the industry’s professionals. That said, to be that valued added resource, filling a search or two isn’t enough. Pinpoint will be a consultative partner to the professionals that make up the cybersecurity industry through continued open dissemination of industry information.

Employers will benefit from insight into the scope of the talent pool in any given geography within the US. Real-time data around compensation packages will inform hiring managers on whether their budgets are going to be competitive, and professionals can inquire into whether they’re being fairly compensated. Our charts depicting funding and M&A trends will become more sophisticated and yield more relevant data.

Ultimately, Pinpoint is going to continue raising the bar for cybersecurity recruiters.