Speaking
Speaking
I give one talk, in different shapes. It is about why the safe choice is the expensive one.
Next
Resist Comfort: How to Block Your Caveman Urge to Be Boring and Do the Best Work of Your Life
Opening keynote, CyberMarketingCon 2026. Monday, November 16, 8:45am CT, Austin. The companion field guide goes live from the stage, free and ungated, at nathanwburke.com/resist.
The biggest stage I have been handed, at four hours notice
Our CEO was supposed to pitch the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox in 2019. His flight was cancelled. I gave the pitch instead, and Axonius was named Most Innovative Startup. Three minutes, ten finalists, a room of several thousand people, and no rehearsal.
On stage
Five minutes from the CyberMarketingCon keynote, on storytelling, big swings, and what failure is for.
What I talk about
Topic
Resist Comfort
Why every company in a category ends up looking the same, why that is a rational choice rather than a lazy one, and what it costs. Built on a structural audit of the category, not opinion. This is the CyberMarketingCon 2026 keynote.
Topic
Better is subjective. Different is measurable.
The case for defensible risk. How to argue for the unsafe option using evidence rather than taste, and how to measure whether anyone remembered the work.
Topic
What AI actually changes about marketing work
Not the tool demo. What happens to a marketing function when the repetitive work goes, what humans are left holding, and what I have actually built and run.
Topic
Building a category from zero
Two companies through hypergrowth, one from stealth to $100M ARR and a $3B valuation, one to the largest Series A in cybersecurity history. What travels and what does not.
Previously
Nov 16, 2026 · CyberMarketingCon · Austin
Resist Comfort: How to Block Your Caveman Urge to Be Boring and Do the Best Work of Your Life
Opening keynote, 8:45am CT. Seven hundred cybersecurity GTM leaders. The companion field guide goes live from the stage.
Mar 18, 2026 · SANS Institute · Webcast
Don’t Trust AI, Verify It: A Practical Discussion About AI in the SOC
With Chris Cochran.
2022 · CyberMarketingCon · Keynote
In Case of Emergency, Ask Nate
Keynote at the Cybersecurity Marketing Society conference, on storytelling and taking big swings. Clips above.
Apr 13, 2023 · Axonius Federal Forum · Washington, DC
Securing SaaS Applications
Session moderator at Federal Forum: Adapt, Ronald Reagan Building.
Jan 22, 2020 · ISSA International · Web conference
The Asset Management Resurgence
Thought Leadership Series panel with Bryan Bethelmy, CISO at Mancon.
Booking
What you get, and what I will not do
A talk built for your audience, not a deck I carry around. Original research where the argument needs it. I will name my own mistakes on stage and I will not name competitors.
No vendor pitch. If you want a product demo with a keynote wrapper, I am the wrong speaker and I will tell you so on the first call.