Founder Shares Lessons on Validating Future Pain in AI Security Startup

Gidi Cohen, founder of Bonfy, explains how his AI security startup navigated the early‑stage market where enterprise AI adoption was still nascent and security risks were emerging. Instead of validating a pain that customers already shouted about, Bonfy spent months in discovery conversations with CISOs, investors and security leaders to pressure‑test whether a future pain would become urgent, owned and valuable enough to support a real market. The founder stresses that the key to product‑market fit in an emerging category is to validate future pain, identify who would ultimately own the problem, and align budget, authority and accountability with that owner. Cold outbound, with thousands of messages split into pain‑focused, solution‑focused and founder‑led outreach, was used to test market language and gauge whether the proposed category resonated before building anything.

Bonfy’s roadmap was built by prioritizing use cases that customers cared about most and that were technically achievable today, avoiding the trap of building every idea that surfaced in conversations. The company looked for repeatable patterns—similar objections, buyer personas and reasons for buying—to signal that product‑market fit was emerging. Instead of chasing every new opportunity, Bonfy focused on durable capabilities that could adapt as AI security evolved. The lesson for founders in fast‑moving markets is that conviction must be tested against the market, not taken for granted.