The Right Channels: A Tech Startup Journey with Overe

In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, we reconnected with Paul Barnes, founder and CEO of Overe, to reflect on the last year of building the cybersecurity startup and the realities of scaling a business while staying focused on a very specific market problem.

What quickly becomes clear throughout the conversation is that growth is rarely just about adding more customers or expanding into new regions. It is often about resisting distraction, refining who your ideal customer actually is, and learning how to scale without losing clarity around the original vision.

Listen to the Podcast: Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Building Beyond Product-Market Fit

When Paul first appeared on the podcast in Season 1, much of the focus was on product-market fit and understanding how Overe’s platform aligned with the needs of managed service providers, or MSPs, within the Microsoft 365 security ecosystem.

Over the past year, the business has shifted from proving the concept to building the foundations for long-term revenue growth.

Overe focuses on helping organisations secure Microsoft 365 environments through continuous assurance and identity security, an area that has become increasingly important as businesses continue migrating infrastructure and operations into the cloud.

As the company gained visibility, new opportunities began emerging outside its original ICP, including enterprise organisations and larger international partners. While this growth created exciting possibilities, it also introduced a difficult challenge that many early-stage founders experience.

How do you pursue new revenue opportunities without becoming distracted from the core strategy? Paul explains that while it is tempting to say yes to every opportunity in the early stages, particularly when revenue matters so much, the business has had to become increasingly disciplined about where it spends time and energy.

The Reality of Selling Through Channel Partners

A major part of Overe’s growth strategy has centred around channel partnerships and distributors, particularly within the cybersecurity and MSP ecosystem.

On paper, the model made perfect sense. Overe secured relationships with distributors across regions including Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States, creating the potential for rapid international reach without building large internal sales teams.

In practice, however, the experience has been far more nuanced. Paul shares that while many distributors immediately recognised the strategic value of the platform at an executive level, actually driving adoption through reseller networks proved much harder, particularly because Overe represents a newer category of technology rather than a simple replacement product.

Unlike traditional security tools that can easily replace an existing vendor, Overe often requires customers to create additional budget and rethink existing workflows, which introduces friction into the sales process.

This led to an important realisation. Having distribution partners is not enough on its own. The real challenge lies in whether those partners are equipped and motivated to educate customers effectively.

As a result, the company has become far more selective about who it works with and how those partnerships are structured moving forward.

Refining the Customer Profile

Another major lesson over the past year has been around qualification. Overe initially adopted a product-led growth approach, allowing users to trial the platform easily and explore the product independently. While this created strong interest, it also attracted a large number of technical users who enjoyed testing tools but did not necessarily have purchasing authority or budget responsibility.

Paul explains that this created significant time pressure for a lean team, forcing the company to rethink how it qualified opportunities earlier in the process.

What became clear is that even within a defined ICP like MSPs, there are multiple layers of customer fit, and not every potential customer behaves the same way.

That refinement process has become central to how the business approaches growth today.

Building Lean Without Standing Still

Despite the challenges, the last year has also brought significant progress. Overe has continued developing new capabilities within the platform, including technology that dramatically reduces the manual work traditionally required to assess Microsoft security policies and identity configurations. Processes that once required days of consultancy work can now be completed in seconds.

The company has also maintained a lean team structure, using AI tools and fractional expertise to optimise operations rather than rapidly expanding headcount.

For Paul, this reflects a wider shift happening across startups, where founders are becoming more deliberate about hiring, operational efficiency, and building sustainable growth rather than scaling for appearance alone.

At the centre of the conversation is a recurring theme that many founders will recognise. Building a startup is often less about moving faster and more about learning where to focus, what to ignore, and how to stay disciplined while opportunities constantly compete for your attention.

Listen to the Podcast: Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Listen to the full episode with Paul Barnes from Overe on Tech Startup Stories, hosted by Natalie Binns, and follow for more conversations that focus on the true realities of building a startup.