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August 3-8, 2024
Mandalay Bay / Las Vegas

Innovators & Investors Summit at Black Hat USA

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV

Oceanside BC, Level 2

View our detailed schedule

Overview

You're invited to apply to attend the Innovators & Investors Summit at Black Hat USA 2024.

The Black Hat Innovators & Investors Summit brings together leading entrepreneurs, investors, CISOs, and forward-thinking industry front-liners to focus on the latest market trends including M&A, startup valuations, and technology innovation designed to address the cyber startups' most important challenges. Innovation, and accelerating trailblazing startups through investment, is the best way to outpace cyber-criminals and counteract today's ever evolving threat landscape. This full-day summit offers attendees the opportunity to gain market insights, exchange ideas, and develop new relationships for scaling businesses and creating deal flow.

Offered the day before the main Black Hat USA Briefings sessions, the Innovators & Investors Summit is the place to be for those in the cyber community who are looking for innovative approaches and groundbreaking ideas to startup investment. The summit will conclude with the Startup Spotlight Competition, where four startup finalists will pitch their product/service to win it all - live before summit attendees. Register today to have an opportunity to secure your seat. Note, attendance for this summit is based on a pre-approval process to help foster the most dynamic and engaging interactions possible.

Price
$1,199 Registration
Apply to attend

Agenda

View our detailed schedule
9:00 - 9:10 AM Opening Remarks
9:10 - 9:50 AM Fireside Chat with Asheem Chandna

Moderator

  • Caleb Sima - Chair, CSA AI Security Initiative

    Chair

    CSA AI Security Initiative

    Caleb Sima serves as the Chair of CSA AI Security Initiative. Prior Caleb served as Chief Security Officer at Robinhood where he focused on keeping customers safe. Prior to Robinhood he was Security CTO at Databricks, a leading data analytics and machine learning company where he built the security team from the ground up. Previously, he was a Managing VP at CapitalOne, where he spearheaded many of their security initiatives. Prior to CapitalOne, Caleb was CEO of Armorize which was acquired by Proofpoint. He also founded SPI Dynamics and BlueBox security, which were acquired by HP and Lookout. He is attributed as one of the pioneers of application security and holds multiple patents in the space and is also the author of Web Hacking Exposed. He serves as an advisor, investor, and board member for security companies.

Panelist

  • Asheem Chandna - Partner, Greylock Partner

    Partner

    Greylock Partner

    Asheem Chandna is a Partner at Greylock, where he is focused on helping entrepreneurs initiate and build enterprise companies from zero to beyond IPO. He has an extensive track record in cybersecurity, including four cyber IPOs. Palo Alto Networks (the largest independent cybersecurity company) started in Greylock offices in 2005. Asheem served on the Palo Alto board from initiation till the end of 2022. Current cyber investments include Abnormal Security, Axiamatic, Bedrock Security, Censys, Dazz, Kodem, Obsidian, Rubrik (RBRK), Seven AI and Wiz. Past cyber investments include Awake (ANET), CipherTrust (INTC), Imperva (IMPV), PortAuthority (WBSN), Securent (CSCO), Skyhigh (McAfee), Sourcefire (CSCO), Sumo Logic (SUMO), and Zenprise (CTXS). Asheem joined Greylock in 2003 from Check Point Software (CHKP), where he was vice-president of business development and product management. He has been included in the Forbes Midas List multiple times. Follow on Twitter @chandna or at https:/linkedin.com/in/chandna.
9:50 - 10:30 AM

Endgame Strategies: How to Get Your Startup Acquired or Go Public

Navigating the complex landscape of scaling a start-up to a successful exit is a critical challenge for entrepreneurs. This session delves into the endgame strategies that can lead your start-up towards either a successful acquisition or a strong Initial Public Offering (IPO). We will explore the key elements, such as robust financial health, scalable business models, and strong market positioning, that entrepreneurs pursue to steer the company toward a meaningful outcome. Panelists will cover the following topics:

  • Preparing for Acquisition
  • IPO Readiness
  • Case Studies and Insights
  • Strategic Decision-Making

This session aims to equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and strategies needed to navigate their start-up’s endgame effectively. By understanding the intricacies of acquisitions and IPOs, founders can make informed decisions that align with their vision and maximize shareholder value.

Join us to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies that can pave the way for your start-up’s successful exit.

Moderator

  • Chenxi Wang - Managing General Partner, Rain Capital

    Managing General Partner

    Rain Capital

    Chenxi Wang is an experienced technology executive with deep cybersecurity expertise. Board of Director for MDU Resources, a Fortune 500 company, serving on Audit and ESG Committee. Founder and General Partner of Rain Capital, a Cyber-focused venture fund. Chenxi has held senior tech strategy roles in large companies (Intel Security). She has led Go-to-market operations and product strategy in booming Silicon Valley startups (Twistlock, Ciphercloud). Chenxi is also an advocate for diversity & inclusion, and founder of the Forte Group, a 5013(C) organization to advance women's careers in Cyber. Previously Chenxi was a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Panelists

  • Andrew Peterson - Ex CEO, Signal Sciences

    Ex CEO

    Signal Sciences

    An acclaimed and recognized founder, board member, advisor and investor in Information Security. As CEO and co-founder of Signal Sciences, Andrew Peterson led the company in the creation of their industry-defining technology platform to protect websites, mobile apps, and APIs ultimately leading to the $825M sale to Fastly in under 8 years. Prior to Signal Sciences, Andrew has built leading edge, highly performing product and sales teams across five continents for 20 years with such companies as Etsy, Google, and the Clinton Foundation. He also authored a book with O’Reilly publishing called "[Cracking Security Misconceptions] (https://www.oreilly.com/content/cracking-security-misconceptions/)" to encourage non-security professionals to participate in organizational security. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Science, Technology, and Society. Andrew and his family live in Seattle, Washington.

  • Bipul Sinha - Chairman, Co-Founder & CEO, Rubrik

    Chairman, Co-Founder & CEO

    Rubrik

    Bipul Sinha is an entrepreneur, engineer and venture capitalist. He is the CEO, Chairman and Co-founder of Rubrik, Inc. and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Previously, Bipul was a Partner at Lightspeed where he focused on software, mobile, and Internet sectors. His investments included Nutanix, Pulse News, Bromium, and PernixData. Before Lightspeed, Bipul worked at Blumberg Capital, where he was the founding investor/board member of Nutanix and Hootsuite. Bipul also held engineering positions at Oracle Corporation, American Megatrends and IBM. Bipul received his Bachelor in Technology in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur where he was bestowed with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Bipul completed his MBA in Finance from The Wharton School where he was a Palmer Scholar. Bipul holds several patents in distributed computing.
10:30 - 10:55 AM Networking Session #1
10:55 - 11:15 AM Networking Break
11:15 - 11:55 AM

Building Trust with CISOs: Key Insights for Startups

CISOs are critical for ensuring companies can improve — and prove — their security. For start-ups and scale-ups, the relationship with CISOs can make or break a deal or partnership, and it all starts from building trust on day 1. CISOs are in the business of instilling confidence while being confronted by more challenges than ever – from the expansion of attack surfaces to shrinking teams and budgets. All while Gen AI continues to redefine trust and what it means to be trustworthy.

In this session, you’ll hear from a panel of experts from Vanta, Reddit, and Google Deepmind on tangible takeaways for start-ups building trust with CISOs including:

  • What CISOs consider to be today’s biggest security operational challenges
  • The ROI insights that matter most for CISOs when evaluating startups
  • The obstacles and opportunities for start-ups to build trust with CISOs in an AI world

Moderator

  • Christina Cacioppo - CEO, Vanta

    CEO

    Vanta

    Christina Cacioppo is the CEO and co-founder of Vanta, a leading security and compliance Trust Management platform backed by Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures, Y Combinator and Crowdstrike Ventures. Over 7,000 companies, including Atlassian, Omni Hotels, Quora and ZoomInfo rely on Vanta to build, maintain and demonstrate their trust—all in a way that's real-time and transparent. Prior to founding Vanta, Christina led product management for Dropbox Paper and was a member of the investment team for Union Square Ventures. Christina received her B.A. in Economics and M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Panelists

  • John “Four” Flynn - Vice President Security, Google Deepmind

    Vice President Security

    Google Deepmind

    Four is a deeply experienced Security leader with more than two decades working in the field. As an early member of Google’s Security team, Four contributed to the detection of and response to the historic “Operation Aurora'' event. Four was also a cofounder of the project now known as BeyondCorp, an instrumental part of the “Zero Trust” movement in the security community. Four held leadership roles at Facebook and at Uber as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Four was also CISO at Amazon where he was responsible for security of Amazon's worldwide retail business. Currently he is the VP of Security for Google Deepmind where he is working to solve some of the fundamental challenges in Security and Privacy in the AI field. Along the way he has been a startup advisor, holding roles at both GV and Section32.

  • Fredrick Lee - CISO, Reddit

    CISO

    Reddit

    Fredrick Lee “Flee” has over 20 years of experience leading global information security and privacy efforts at major financial services companies and technology startups, including as Chief Security Officer at Square and most recently as Chief Security Officer and Head of IT at Gusto. Flee is currently CISO at Reddit. He oversees our Privacy and Security teams responsible for identifying and mitigating risks and challenges around information security, privacy, and compliance.

    Flee is a proud Southerner, raised in Mississippi, and holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Oklahoma. In his spare time, Flee enjoys rock climbing, snowboarding, mountain biking, road cycling, and powerlifting, and is a passionate Redditor, lurking in r/MMA, r/Awwducational, r/selfhosted, and r/netsec.
11:55 AM - 1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 - 1:40 PM Finding the Perfect Fit: How to Identify and Attract the Right Investors

Moderator

  • Leigh Honeywell - CEO, Tall Poppy

    CEO

    Tall Poppy

    Leigh Honeywell is the founder and CEO of Tall Poppy, where she helps companies protect their employees from online harassment. She was previously a Technology Fellow at the ACLU and worked at major tech companies including Slack and Microsoft. She's a venture partner with Pioneer Fund, the YC alumni VC fund, and an occasional angel investor. Outside startupland, she is an avid skiier, gardener, and affordable housing activist.
1:40 - 2:20 PM

Growth vs. Scale: The Critical Phase Transition

In this panel moderated session, we will discuss the key differences in sales personas, metrics, structure of a sales team, and interaction with marketing that are required at a company in a growth stage versus scaling. We will also discuss the key signs to look for that indicate growth versus scaling (hint: it's not all about revenue!). Specific topics include CMO versus CRO, early growth stage sales persona, and how do you know when it's time to add in layers of sales roles.

Moderator

  • Brooke Motta - CEO & Co-founder, RAD Security

    CEO & Co-founder

    RAD Security

    Brooke Motta is CEO and co-founder of RAD Security. Brooke is a dynamic leader in the cybersecurity industry who has scaled companies from seed to IPO. Brooke recognized the exponential growth in cloud native adoption as an opportunity to provide real-time security products as enterprise teams look to scale. Her decades of skilled leadership include executive positions at Sonatype, Wallarm, Bugcrowd, and Rapid7.

Panelists

  • Manoj Apte - Ex Chief Strategy Officer, Zscaler

    Ex Chief Strategy Officer

    Zscaler

    Manoj Apte was part of the founding team of Zscaler and responsible for defining Products and Strategy. Over the 13+ years at Zscaler, Manoj was also responsible for Analyst Relations, Sales Enablement, Product Marketing, Sales Engineering and Architecture and Compliance/CISO functions. In the early years Manoj also ran engineering/ops and marketing. Zscaler is on a multi-decade journey providing a unified platform that enables enterprises to leverage cloud, mobility and AI securely and seamlessly. Zscaler has been a leader in the SWG Gartner MQ over 9 years and in the final year 2020, it was the _only_ leader. Zscaler is also recognized as the most mature SASE platform. Prior to Zscaler, Manoj was a product manager at Juniper where he launched their 10Gbps IPS and also led engineering teams involved in platform drivers, monitoring, lawful interception and firewalls. Manoj has contributed to Cloud Security Alliance since its initial Charter. He has a Ph.D. in Computational Engineering (Machine Learning) from Mississippi State University and a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Technology from IIT Bombay.

  • Dave Gerry - CEO, BugCrowd

    CEO

    BugCrowd

    Dave Gerry is a cybersecurity thought leader with a wealth of experience in application security (AppSec). In his most recent role as Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Global Operations (COO) at WhiteHat Security, Dave spearheaded global revenue growth, managed service delivery, and orchestrated customer-facing operations. His impactful tenure at WhiteHat began in 2017 and helped to steer the company through a successful acquisition by NTT in 2019 and, more recently, its acquisition by Synopsys in 2022.

    With nearly a decade entrenched in the AppSec market, Dave has occupied leadership roles in renowned cybersecurity firms such as Veracode, Sumo Logic, and The Herjavec Group, in addition to his impactful contributions at WhiteHat Security. His leadership has been consistently acknowledged in both the cybersecurity and business communities, earning him prestigious accolades such as the CyberScoop 50 Awards, Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, and Cyber Defense Magazine's Global InfoSec Awards.

    Dave's academic credentials include an MBA from Suffolk University and a BA from Merrimack College.

  • Carlos Neto - Cybersecurity Investor, Bright Pixel Capital

    Cybersecurity Investor

    Bright Pixel Capital

    Carlos Neto is a cybersecurity investor with a deep passion for innovation and helping startup founders take their businesses to the next level. He is a former startup co-founder who has been investing in B2B early-stage startups and scaleups worldwide for over a decade, usually working side by side with executive teams to support them with scaling and growth. Outside of work, Carlos is an avid communicator who loves to network, meet new people, and read more books than his shelves can currently hold.

  • Kymberlee Price - Founder & CEO, Zatik Security

    Founder & CEO

    Zatik Security

    Kymberlee Price is a dynamic engineering leader known for developing high-performing teams responsible for the security and integrity of software products, services, and infrastructure. A recognized expert in the information security industry, she has over 20 years’ experience in product and application security, incident response and investigations, coordinated vulnerability disclosure and bug bounties, Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL), Open Source Security strategy, and Security Community, Culture and Gamification models.

    Ms. Price speaks regularly at conferences around the world and is currently on the content review boards for Black Hat USA and LocoMocoSec.
2:20 - 2:45 PM Networking Session #2
2:45 - 3:05 PM Networking Break
3:05 - 3:45 PM

Smart Investment: How to be the Investor Startups Choose

In the highly competitive cybersecurity startup market, attracting the right investors can be crucial for startups looking to breakout. But it’s just as crucial for investors to stand out and connect with the best founders. This panel delves into strategies that potential investors can employ to become the preferred choice for innovative startups. The discussion will cover the importance of aligning with the startup's vision, running an effective diligence process, offering more than just capital—such as mentorship and industry connections—and understanding the unique needs of different business models. Additionally, the panel will explore the significance of building a reputation for reliability and adding value beyond financial input. Participants will gain insights from seasoned investors and successful entrepreneurs on cultivating a compelling investment persona that resonates with founders, ultimately leading to mutually beneficial partnerships.

Moderator

  • Sid Trivedi - Partner, Foundation Capital

    Partner

    Foundation Capital

    Sid Trivedi is a Partner at Foundation Capital where he leads early-stage investments in cybersecurity and IT. His investments include Stacklet, Permiso, AirMDR, PrimeSec, DevZero, Neurelo, Levo, Phenom, Attivo Networks (acq. SentinelOne), CloudKnox (acq. Microsoft), Respond Software (acq. Mandiant), and MistNet (acq. LogRhythm). Prior to Foundation, Sid was an investor at Omidyar Technology Ventures and Symphony Technology Group. He is also a co-founder of CyberSeed, a community of over 600 cybersecurity founders, and co-founder and co-host of the Inside the Network podcast, which shares how category-defining cybersecurity startups are built. Outside of work, Sid serves on the advisory boards of Entrepreneurship at Cornell, the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, and Cornell Venture Capital. Sid graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Cornell University.

Panelists

  • Kumar Saurabh - Co-founder & CEO, AirMDR

    Co-founder & CEO

    AirMDR

    Kumar Saurabh is the co-founder and CEO of AirMDR, whose goal is to deliver affordable and high-quality cybersecurity-managed detection and response. AirMDR is powered by AI Analysts and human analysts as opposed to traditional MDRs that are still primarily powered by human analysts.

    Before starting AirMDR, Kumar founded a couple of companies - LogicHub – a security automation company that was acquired by Devo, and Sumo Logic – a Cloud-based SIEM and Log Management platform. Before Sumo Logic, Kumar spent several years at ArcSight (first generation SIEM) running their analytics and security solutions teams.

    Kumar has a Masters in Computer Science from Columbia University, and a BS in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur.

  • Oliver Friedrichs - CEO & Co-founder, Pangea

    CEO & Co-founder

    Pangea

     

  • Snehal Antani - CEO & Co-founder, Horizon3.ai

    CEO & Co-founder

    Horizon3.ai

    Snehal Antani is CEO & co-founder of Horizon3.ai, a cyber security company that pioneered the use of AI to autonomously conduct penetration testing.

    Prior to Horizon3, Snehal served as the first Chief Technology Officer for Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). As a member of the Commander’s executive team, he led data analytics, cloud/edge computing, and cybersecurity initiatives

    Prior to serving within US Special Operations, Snehal was CTO & SVP at Splunk, held multiple CIO roles at GE Capital, and started his career as a Software Engineer at IBM.

    Snehal earned a Masters in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic University (RPI), a BS in Computer Science from Purdue University where he was their 2023 Distinguished Alumni, and holds 18 patents.
3:45 - 4:25 PM

Innovations Driving the Security Market: Trends to Track

In this panel moderated session, we will explore the current and future landscape of cybersecurity innovations and their impact on startups and venture capital. This panel of both investors and analysts will cover the hottest markets for investment, the role of major players like Microsoft and Google, industry consolidation, and more. This discussion aims to provide key insights into market trends and strategic considerations in the dynamic cybersecurity landscape.

Moderator

  • Mike Privette - Return on Security

    Return on Security

    Mike Privette brings nearly two decades of cybersecurity experience, having held various roles across the financial services, insurance, and GovTech sectors, including multiple stints as a CISO. His entrepreneurial journey includes founding and selling a vCISO consulting business, earning him recognition as a trusted industry advisor.

    Now, Mike leads a dual-focused venture: a vCISO consulting service and a newsletter media business, Return on Security. His main newsletter, Security, Funded, offers a comprehensive analysis of cybersecurity market trends, funding, M&A activities, and buyer sentiment. Mike plays a key role in influencing cybersecurity's evolving landscape at the intersection of cyber practitioners, startup founders, and VCs.

Panelists

  • Kaiti Delaney - Principal, Ten Eleven Ventures

    Principal

    Ten Eleven Ventures

    Kaiti Delaney is a Principal at Ten Eleven Ventures and is responsible for evaluating prospective new investments, tracking company KPIs/metrics, fund performance and sharing of best practices among the portfolio. Kaiti started her career at Liberty Media on their Corporate Development and Investor Relations team. She worked in Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets in their Communications, Media & Entertainment Group and prior to joining Ten Eleven in 2018, Kaiti worked in M&A and strategic finance at Level 3 Communications/CenturyLink.

  • Ross Haleliuk - Author, Venture in Security

    Author

    Venture in Security

    Ross Haleliuk a principal at Venture in Security, best selling author of 'Cyber for Builders: The Essential Guide to Building a Cybersecurity Startup' and a head of product at LimaCharlie. His areas of expertise include go-to-market and product strategy, strategic positioning, product-market fit expansion, growth, operations, and fundraising. In addition, Ross is a startup advisor, speaker, and angel investor. He often writes about cybersecurity industry trends, building security startups, investment, and growth on the world’s leading media platforms such as TechCrunch, Forbes, and VentureBeat, and in his blog Venture in Security.

  • Jon Sakoda - Partner, Decibel Ventures

    Partner

    Decibel Ventures

    Jon is the Founding Partner of Decibel, an early-stage VC firm that specializes in AI, autonomous software, and cybersecurity. Previously he was a General Partner at New Enterprise Associates. His investments include Censys, Cloudflare (NYSE: NET), Dropzone, Elastic (NYSE: ESTC), HackerOne, Prowler, Push Security, RunZero, Sublime, and SpecterOps. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Jon was an entrepreneur and co-founder of IMlogic, Inc., serving as its Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Products, through its acquisition by Symantec Corporation. He was previously with Goldman Sachs in their private equity group.
4:25 - 4:30 PM Closing Remarks
4:30 - 5:30 PM Cocktail Reception
4:45 - 6:00 PM Startup Spotlight Competition

Advisory Board

Coleen Coolidge

Coleen Coolidge

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CISO Advisor

SF Info Security

Coleen Coolidge is a recovering CISO who is currently helping small startups ~her favorite~ go from 0→1. This includes but is not limited to: helping with a security-product roadmap that CISOs want; helping founders through the pitfalls of also being executives, helping founders establish themselves in the Security Community, and sometimes pulling from her 19 years in the industry to help small Security teams get traction in an adversarial work environment.

Previously, Coleen was the CISO at Twilio, but was also the CISO at Segment in San Francisco. She built the org and practice from the ground up, and from Segment Security emerged an entire class of sought-after leaders, security engineers, GRC practitioners, and IT professionals.

Jeremiah Grossman

Jeremiah Grossman

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Founder

Grossman Ventures

Jeremiah Grossman brings 20+ years of experience in Computer Security and has become one of the most recognizable and world-renowned cybersecurity experts in the industry, coining several of the original hacking terms commonly used around the world today. Early in his career, Jeremiah was known as “The Hacker Yahoo” which led to his role as the company’s Information Security Officer. Jeremiah founded WhiteHat Security (now Synopsis) and served as Chief of Security Strategy for SentinelOne which was the highest-valued cybersecurity IPO in history. Most recently, Jeremiah was the founder & CEO of Bit Discovery, which was acquired by Tenable in 2022. He also serves as a company advisor and board member to several tech startups. In his spare time, Jeremiah does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is passionate about classic cars. He recently opened Toybox, a luxury car club in Boise, Idaho.

Robert Hansen

Robert Hansen

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Managing Director

Grossman Ventures

Robert "RSnake" Hansen was the co-founder and CTO of Bit Discovery which was acquired by Tenable. Previously he was the Vice President of Labs at WhiteHat Security. As founder and CEO of SecTheory, his security research and penetration testing work led him to finding numerous exploits and new exploit classes and lead him to explore web application security for many of the world’s largest organizations, including over 2,100 banks, credit card processors, flight control systems and supervisory control and data acquisitions (SCADA) systems. Robert started his career at eBay, Cable & Wireless Plc America/Exodus/Digital Island, ValueClick, and Silicon Alchemy. Robert is a frequent keynote speaker, a Managing Director of Grossman Ventures, host of the podcast “The RSnake Show" and the author of "AI's Best Friend."

Zane Lackey

Zane Lackey

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General Partner

Andreessen Horowitz

Zane Lackey is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he invests in modern Platform Engineering, DevTools, and cybersecurity companies. Previously he co-founded Signal Sciences (acquired for $825M in 2020) and authored Building a Modern Security Program (O’Reilly Media). Prior to co-founding Signal Sciences, Zane led a security team at the forefront of the DevOps/Cloud shift as CISO of Etsy.

Fernando Montenegro

Fernando Montenegro

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Senior Principal Analyst

Omdia

Fernando Montenegro is a Senior Principal Analyst on Omdia’s cybersecurity research team, based in Toronto, Canada. He focuses on the Infrastructure Security Intelligence Service, which provides vendors, service providers, and enterprise clients with insights and data on network security, content security, and more.

Fernando’s experience in enterprise security environments includes network security, security architecture, cloud security, endpoint security, content security, and antifraud. He has a deep interest in the economic aspects of cybersecurity and is a regular speaker at industry events.

Before joining Omdia in 2021, Fernando was an industry analyst with 451 Research. He previously held a variety of operations, consulting, and sales engineering roles over his 25+ years in cybersecurity, always focusing on enterprise security at organizations including vArmour, RSA, Crossbeam, Hewlett Packard, and Nutec/Terra. Fernando holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and different industry certifications.

Lucas Nelson

Lucas Nelson

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Founding Partner

Lytical Ventures

Lucas Nelson is a founding Partner at Lytical Ventures focusing on early-stage companies in the corporate intelligence space: cybersecurity, data analytics, and AI. He brings over a decade of investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience to his role.

Lucas co-authored The Art of Software Security Testing and chaired DefCon for 10 years. He has been a member of the NY tech community since 1999. He was an adjunct professor at NYU teaching the class “Entrepreneurship for Hackers” and is a Kauffman Fellow.

Jon Oberheide

Jon Oberheide

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Entrepreneur

Jon Oberheide is a board member, advisor, and investor, focused on working with cybersecurity and enterprise SaaS companies. Previously, Jon was the co-founder and CTO of Duo Security, with a mission to democratize security by making it easy and effective. Over 12 years, Duo scaled from zero to over 30,000 customers, $500M ARR, a 70+ NPS, and 1000 FTEs. Along that journey, Duo was acquired by Cisco for $2.4B. Prior to founding Duo, Jon was a security researcher and completed his BS, MS, and PhD at the University of Michigan in cybersecurity.

Ty Sbano

Ty Sbano

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Chief Information Security Officer

Vercel

Ty Sbano is an Information Security executive with over 18 years of experience heavily focused on empowering end users, securely. Ty currently serves as Vercel’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

Ty’s career was focused on developing application and product security programs for Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, LendingClub, and Target. Key areas of knowledge include developing security champions, threat modeling, secure code training, static code analysis, component analysis, dynamic analysis, penetration testing and red teaming. Outside of being a CISO, Ty is an active angel investor as part of Silicon Valley CISO Investment Groups (SVCI) and actively advises security startups.

Ty’s security mentality has been concentrated on enabling engineering and product teams to securely move at the speed of the business to make it a competitive advantage. Ty graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Information Science & Technology and from Norwich University with a M.S. in Information Assurance. He currently holds a CISSP, CEH, CCSK and CPT.

Caleb Sima

Caleb Sima

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Chair

CSA AI Security Initiative

Caleb Sima serves as the Chair of CSA AI Security Initiative. Prior Caleb served as Chief Security Officer at Robinhood where he focused on keeping customers safe. Prior to Robinhood he was Security CTO at Databricks a leading data analytics and machine learning company where he built the security team from the ground up. Previously, he was a Managing VP at CapitalOne, where he spearheaded many of their security initiatives. Prior to CapitalOne, Caleb was CEO of Armorize which was acquired by Proofpoint. He also founded SPI Dynamics and BlueBox security, which were acquired by HP and Lookout. He is attributed as one of the pioneers of application security and holds multiple patents in the space and is also the author of Web Hacking Exposed. He serves as an advisor, investor, and board member for security companies.

Michael Sutton

Michael Sutton

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General Partner & Co-Founder

Runtime

Prior to founding Runtime, Michael Sutton founded StoneMill Ventures, a fund focused on seed stage cybersecurity investing. StoneMill Ventures has backed over 40 early-stage cyber companies. Before his focus on investing, Michael spent 20+ years as an operator in the cybersecurity industry. He served as the CISO at Zscaler, a company that pioneered the Security-as-a-Service space. As a member of the founding team, he spent a decade building Zscaler’s research team, driving the security model and evangelizing the vision. Prior to Zscaler, Michael helped build SPI Dynamics (acquired by HP) and iDEFENSE (acquired by VeriSign). He has been granted numerous cybersecurity patents and co-authored the book “Fuzzing: Brute Force Vulnerability Discovery.”

Outside of work Michael can be found traveling to hockey tournaments with his wife, to cheer on his three sons or relaxing at their farm on the Eastern Shore. He’s also a volunteer firefighter and board member at the Fairfax Volunteer Fire Department where he has served for 20+ years.

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