Cybersecurity marketing has a translation problem. Brilliant technology still has to survive a buyer’s first question: why should I care?

James Alliband has spent more than a decade working on exactly that challenge. Most recently as Head of Marketing at the 2024 Security Trailblazers winner supply chain security company Risk Ledger, his career has taken him from sales engineering into product marketing, strategy and marketing leadership, with experience at Check Point, Carbon Black, VMware and Tessian along the way.

That combination is useful. James understands what is happening under the bonnet, but has also spent much of his career working out how to explain sophisticated enterprise technology to the people expected to buy it.

And for startup and scale-up marketers, that is also where a good awards entry starts.

From technical expertise to a market story

James did not begin his career by writing marketing plans. His route into cybersecurity included support consultancy,  and sales engineering before he moved more deeply into product marketing. At VMware Carbon Black, he ultimately managed a global team of product marketers responsible for building Carbon Blacks overall positioning in the wider VMware portfolio, while also working as a security strategist.

He later held a  Director of Product Marketing role at Tessian before joining Risk Ledger, where he led marketing for a company trying to change how organisations think about third-party and supply chain cyber risk. Risk Ledger itself is scaling quickly, raising £24 million in Series B funding in July 2026 to support further product development and US expansion. Later this month, James launches Frame the Market, a specialist product marketing consultancy.  

That creates a familiar task for anyone marketing an emerging enterprise technology company. The product can be technically strong, the category can be important and customers can be seeing genuine results, but somebody still has to turn all of that into a compelling, understandable story.

James has spoken publicly about the value of storytelling over jargon in cybersecurity marketing, and about the challenge of helping buyers understand a problem before the product conversation even begins.

Sounds rather like writing an awards entry.

Independent recognition is different

There is another reason James feels like an appropriate person to make the case for entering awards this year.

He has been named to the HotTopics Future B2B CMO 100 for 2026, which recognises emerging B2B marketing leaders and is based on peer nominations followed by independent judging. James described that combination of support from peers and assessment by people outside his immediate circle as what makes the recognition feel special.

Companies can publish their own customer stories. They can announce product launches, write white papers, commission research and tell the market that their technology is innovative.

An independently judged award says somebody else has looked at the evidence.

For a startup or scale-up still establishing itself in an enterprise market, that can become useful proof for sales teams, prospective customers, investors, partners, analysts and journalists.

“Good product marketing does one job: make it obvious why the technology matters, who it’s for, and what changes because it exists. Strip away the jargon and you’re left with the evidence, which is exactly what a strong awards entry forces you to do. If you’re building something genuinely different, having an independent expert judge that story is a useful proof point in the wider go-to-market.”

James Alliband

An awards entry is product marketing in miniature

There is another benefit that gets less attention.

Writing a good award entry is a surprisingly effective test of your marketing.

Can you explain the problem without spending three paragraphs describing the market? Can you show what is genuinely different about the product? Is there customer evidence behind the claims? Can you quantify the impact? And can somebody who has never sat through your sales deck understand why the technology deserves attention?

Those are useful questions even before a judge sees the submission.

Tech Trailblazers judges are not looking for the greatest concentration of adjectives per paragraph. They are looking for evidence of technological and commercial innovation, with entries assessed by an international judging panel drawn from the enterprise technology community.

For marketers, that means resisting the temptation to submit the standard corporate boilerplate.

“Leading”, “revolutionary” and “game-changing” are easy to type. Customer results are harder to argue with.

Twenty ways to recognise a trailblazer

The 2026 Tech Trailblazers programme spans both established enterprise technology markets and some of the sectors now moving rapidly towards commercial adoption.

The technology categories cover AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Cloud, Containers, Developer, Financial Technology, Internet of Things, Networking, Quantum, Robotics, Security, Storage, Sustainable Tech and Telecoms. The programme also includes Diversity Trailblazers, Female CxO Trailblazers, Investment Trailblazers and Male CxO Trailblazers, plus the Firestarter Trailblazers category for eligible very early-stage companies.

A company can enter more than one category where there is a genuine fit. But that does not mean copying and pasting the same story several times.

A Security entry should make the security impact unmistakable. An AI entry needs to show what the AI contributes. A Sustainable Tech entry needs evidence of the environmental or efficiency outcome.

Category fit is part of the story.

Who can enter the 2026 Tech Trailblazers Awards?

The main Tech Trailblazers Awards are open globally to privately held enterprise technology startups and scale-ups that are under ten years old and either privately funded or VC-backed at Series C or earlier.

The Firestarter bursary is aimed at non-VC-backed startups up to three years old, helping very young companies participate without the standard entry fee becoming a barrier. The Investment Trailblazers Award has broader eligibility for organisations developing innovative approaches to funding the enterprise technology startup and scale-up ecosystem.

And the programme is global. You do not need a Silicon Valley zipcode, a London headquarters or a huge marketing department.

You need a strong story and the evidence to support it.

Make the evidence work harder

For marketing teams, an awards submission should not be a document that disappears into a folder as soon as the Submit button has been pressed.

The work involved in assembling it can feed directly into product messaging, customer proof points, sales enablement, investor material, analyst conversations, PR pitches and website copy.

If the judges then shortlist or recognise the company, the marketing value extends further.

That is the useful way to think about awards. The trophy is welcome. The credibility attached to independent scrutiny is the more interesting asset.

James’s own career has been built around helping cybersecurity businesses turn technical capability into something a market can understand. His recent recognition by an independent marketing judging panel is a timely example of why outside validation can carry a different sort of weight.

For the next generation of enterprise technology companies, the opportunity is now.

Put the deadline in the diary

Entries for the 2026 Tech Trailblazers Awards close at 23:59 Pacific Time on Sept 30, 2026. The programme is open to eligible startups and scale-ups worldwide across its full range of enterprise technology categories.

If your product team has built something worth talking about, make sure your marketing team gives the judges a reason to talk about it too.

Start your 2026 Tech Trailblazers Awards entry today, or contact innovate@techtrailblazers.com for help choosing the right category.

https://awards.techtrailblazers.com