James F. Murphy · Fractional Business Development for AI-agent security & identity companies
Pipeline, partnerships, and doors opened. On retainer.
Fractional leadership for technology and AI companies. Fractional since 2011. One month or ongoing.
I'm a business development executive with twenty-plus years and a $50M exit behind me. I embed with technology, AI, and infrastructure companies for 10–20 hours a week — 1099 or corp-to-corp — and do the thing I've always done: find the buyer, build the relationship, close the deal.
My focus now: AI-agent security and identity startups that have raised and need their first senior seller. I already publish the market intelligence their buyers read — the Global AI Watch — so I start with the market mapped.
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The ledger
Numbers first. Everything here happened in-market, with real quotas and real contracts.
Four ways to engage
Every engagement runs through Lucas Taylor Consulting Group — no recruiting fees, no benefits overhead, no ramp.
Fractional BD Lead
Retainer · 10–20 hrs/week
I own outbound, pipeline, and deal cycles inside your team — your CRM, your targets, my rolodex. Month-to-month after a 90-day initial term. Sandler- and Carnegie-trained.
Doors & Partnerships
Commission / success fee
Warm introductions from twenty years of executive relationships across finance, government, retail, healthcare, and infrastructure. I've sold to Macy's, JPMC, Mack-Cali, and state municipalities.
Agent-Security GTM Sprint
From $12,500 · fixed fee · 30 days
Built for AI-agent security and identity startups: a named list of the CISOs and buyers who should be talking to you, messaging tested against what they're reading this quarter, and first qualified meetings booked — handed to your team as a working pipeline, not a slide deck. Many retainers start here.
See how the Sprint works →Agentic AI Governance Advisory
Retainer · fractional
For companies shipping AI agents faster than they can govern them: who each agent is, what it can touch, and who answers for it. Delivered with Signal Fire Aim.
signalfireaim.io →The Agent-Security GTM Sprint
30 days. Fixed fee from $12,500. Built for AI-agent security and identity startups that have raised and need real pipeline in front of CISOs — before, or instead of, a full-time sales hire.
Week 1
Map the market
Your best-fit buyer and buying committee, and a named list of target accounts and the security leaders inside them, ranked by fit and timing.
Week 2
Sharpen the message
Positioning tested against what CISOs are reading this quarter, the objections you'll hear and how to answer them, and a one-page leave-behind.
Week 3
Open doors
Outreach to the target list under your name or mine, plus warm introductions from twenty years of enterprise relationships where I have them.
Week 4
Hand off pipeline
First qualified meetings booked and run alongside you, every opportunity logged in your CRM with notes, and a 90-day plan for what comes next.
A good fit if you
- sell AI-agent security, agent identity, non-human identity or MCP security
- have raised a seed to Series B round
- have product in pilots or early production and no senior seller yet
- want to reach banks, insurers, government or infrastructure buyers
What happens after
- You keep everything: the list, the messaging and the pipeline
- Continue as a Fractional BD Lead retainer, 10–20 hours a week, month to month after 90 days
- Or hand it to your first sales hire with the market already mapped
Built to flex
A senior executive hire is a long commitment that is hard to resize. A retainer is not. Start small, scale when the work needs it, and shrink back after.
Global AI Watch
What I am tracking now, published weekly with Signal Fire Aim.
Every week I scan how governments and frontier AI labs are moving on safety, governance and cost, in every major jurisdiction worldwide. It is the same reading I use when advising clients on what AI rules and customer expectations are coming next.
Read the Global AI WatchAbout James
Founder, sales leader, and individual contributor — I've held all three seats. I've built channel programs with Microsoft, Cisco, ShoreTel, and Avaya, run compliance-driven deals under HIPAA and SOX, and represented business to the United Nations as a PVBLIC Foundation ambassador. I serve on the board of Veterans Without Orders and co-developed an interactive exhibit at the 9/11 Museum in New York.
I publish Signal Fire Aim — GTM intelligence on identity governance and AI security for CISOs and CIOs — and the weekly Agentic At Large brief on Substack. I'm not employed or paid by any vendor I write about; if a company I cover becomes a client, I disclose it.
Speaking & podcasts
Available for conference sessions, chapter meetings, and podcasts on AI-agent governance and selling security in the agentic era.
Who's accountable when the agent acts?
Agents now take actions humans used to approve. What identity, authorization, and audit have to look like when the actor isn't a person — and what boards will ask first.
Ten jurisdictions, one control plane
A tour of the Global AI Watch: how the EU, US, China, the Gulf and others are governing frontier AI, and why companies will need per-region policy enforced in one place.
Selling security before the incident
Twenty years of enterprise deals, applied to agent security: how startups get a CISO meeting, and why the buyer who saw it coming signs first.
LTG ventures
Operating brands under the Lucas Taylor umbrella.
Signal Fire Aim
GTM intelligence for the agentic era — identity governance, AI security, and enterprise sales, published under the Agentic At Large brand.
Latest signal Read →
signalfireaim.io →Rutledge Atelier
Concierge design through traditional and innovative practice.
rutledgeatelier.com →Engagements start in two weeks and flex from one month to ongoing
Need a dealmaker three days a week?
Building in AI-agent security or identity? Tell me what you sell and who should be buying it. If I can help, you'll know inside one call.
Jmurphy@lucastaylorgroup.com