Software Leaders: Darktrace’s Emily Orton on building a high-growth enterprise marketing engine

In our Software Leaders series, proven operators from the world’s top software companies share key learnings for teams early in their growth journey. This edition was based on a workshop that Emily Orton gave at the Expedition Founder & CEO Summit. Emily was Chief Marketing Officer at Darktrace, a leader in AI cybersecurity, from founding in 2013 through to 2022. As a founding member of Darktrace’s team, Emily played a pivotal role in guiding the company from its inception in Cambridge, UK, through to over $600 million in ARR and successful IPO in 2021 on the London Stock Exchange. Throughout her career, Emily has been widely recognized as a leader in her field, garnering recognition in the Top 100 Global B2B CMO 2023 Awards; Management Today’s ‘35 Women under 35 2020’; ‘Maserati 100 2018’; and Cofinitive’s ‘#OnetoWatch 2018’ lists of UK entrepreneurs. In this session, Emily offers an insider’s look into the marketing manoeuvres that helped transform Darktrace from a startup to a titan in the industry.

According to Emily, there are 6 key pillars of a robust enterprise marketing strategy:

• Embrace the power of storytelling – people are drawn to interesting origin stories that highlight a company’s unique identity
• Treat your market positioning as a strategic priority, and rigorously reinforce it across your customer-facing teams
• Invest time and effort in PR (public relations)
• Alignment between your sales team and marketing team is critical for long-term, durable growth
• US expansion – ensure your messaging is sufficiently tailored to an American audience
• Develop young talent early to build a high-performing team for the future

1. Embrace The Power of Storytelling

A key lesson from Emily’s tenure is the undeniable power of storytelling. Darktrace’s unique origin story was a key part of its identity. Founded by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge and former UK intelligence agents, Darktrace's marketing strategy began by explicitly framing this aspect: "Our founders weren’t just software engineers," she recalls. "They were mathematicians and former spies”.

Furthermore, the fact that the company was headquartered in Cambridge was important to highlight when telling our origins story. By anchoring the brand to Cambridge, Darktrace associated itself with the university town's reputation for scientific innovation. This strategy positioned the company as a leader in deep tech, setting them apart from competitors.

For Emily, the takeaway is clear: "Be proud of your origin story. Don't be too humble. Find what makes your company unique and own it."

2. Market Positioning as a Strategic Priority

While storytelling sets the foundation, Emily highlights that effective market positioning is vital for long-term success. Early on, Darktrace faced the challenge of being placed into existing cybersecurity categories that didn’t fit their novel approach. The company was classed in, and briefly adopted, the category of behavioural analysis. This was a term that didn’t capture the full value of their self-learning technology.

To redefine their category, Darktrace introduced their concept of an "immune system for enterprises," an analogy devised by its founder and investor Dr Mike Lynch, which helped convey their solution for detecting cyber threats within a company’s network. Her team then ensured that these key words and phrases were consistently being used in its sales pitches to customers. She emphasizes the need to start out strong and control a concise narrative, as the market will often dilute your message.

Emily's advice for other tech leaders: "If you don’t define yourself, the market—and your competitors—will do it for you. Use language that sets you apart and reinforce it rigorously across your teams."

3. PR and Building a Brand

From day one, Darktrace invested heavily in PR, aiming to shape public perception and build credibility in the market. "Your reputation is being formed from the moment you start operating," Emily notes. For early-stage companies, there are many needle-moving activities that don’t require a significant budget:

• Publish regularly: Even when the company didn’t have significant news to report, they kept momentum going by posting about industry events & awards or creating thought leadership pieces
• Find opportunities to put customers in the spotlight: Emily fondly remembers nominating a client for a prestigious CISO award, positioning them as an AI-driven innovator. “He won, and it was a great moment for both our customer and our company," she recalls.
• Get involved in industry awards and conferences: firstly, apply for every award. Secondly, be proactive in ringing up event organisers and suggest novel angles for their agenda – this could result in a speaking opportunity on panels, for example
• Embrace your local/regional press: the Cambridge press were enthusiastic about local tech success stories, reporting on Darktrace’s achievements when other news outlets may not have covered them

4. Sales and Marketing Alignment

For Emily, it was critical to ensure alignment and discipline between the sales and marketing teams. The marketing team was responsible for creating and qualifying leads. The sales team was responsible for following up on each lead within 48 hours of it coming in. Each team was held accountable to the other, a culture that Darktrace carefully cultivated from the start.

Emily argues that the marketing team should play a powerful role in enforcing the company’s positioning and making sure the sales team were on message. Training the sales team to adopt the right language was key to maintaining brand consistency as the sales force grew.

5. Expanding to the US

When Darktrace set its sights on the US market, Emily's marketing approach became laser-focused on tailoring an American-first image. "US customers will generally respond much better to US case studies, as opposed to European ones" Emily shares candidly. “As soon as you have US clients, do what you can to tell their stories” Every detail was specific to an American audience – including the spelling on all of Darktrace’s content.

When it came to expanding the team, exporting Darktrace’s culture to the US was a challenge. Emily notes that having senior leadership to spend time with the US teams was key in ensuring a good exchange and team spirit between offices.

6. Building a Flexible, High-Performing Team

One approach Darktrace took was in hiring graduates into the sales & marketing team – typically, they were clever, eager to learn and adaptable to a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Emily prioritised “people who could think outside the box". She credits this approach with enabling Darktrace to build a versatile, creative, high-performing team that could handle anything from running international events to developing marketing content.

Furthermore, Emily focused on nurturing and developing her team over the years into senior leadership material. She recalls often having someone shadow her and taking time to coach her junior team. Identifying potential early is crucial: while not every hire progresses to leadership, this strategy gave Darktrace a strong pipeline of future senior leaders.

Wrapping Up

Emily Orton’s journey at Darktrace offers valuable lessons for software leaders building robust enterprise marketing engines. Her approach and insights underscore the importance of strategic thinking, relentless execution, and investing in people. For today’s tech leaders, her advice rings true: “Be bold, be consistent, and never stop telling your story!”