We back cyber founders before the market agrees there’s a market — because we’ve built, sold, and acquired these companies ourselves.
The people who see it first should be the ones who get to build it. We put money, judgment, and seventeen years of cyber exits behind that sentence.
You’re raising a pre-seed or seed round. Our first check is $2M to $6M. Occasionally we write our first check at Series A. We usually lead, but we don’t need to. We reserve for follow-on rounds.
Four of us helped build ISS, where X-Force started — the research team IBM still runs. One spent a decade buying security companies for IBM. That’s what gives us permission to invest before product-market fit.
acquired by
General Partner
Co-founder of ISS · Lead director, NYSE/ICE
Tom co-founded ISS and helped define the cybersecurity industry. He’s since started and sold JouleX to Cisco, advised the White House on security, and serves as lead independent director of Intercontinental Exchange, the company behind the New York Stock Exchange — and he’s still the one founders want in the room.
General Partner
Co-founder of Endgame · ISS X-Force
Dan has been deep in cybersecurity since the 90s — first as a vulnerability researcher on ISS’s legendary X-Force team, then as co-founder of Endgame, sold to Elastic. He’s been a builder, CTO, COO, and operator through every phase of a company’s life, and now helps the next gen navigate their own.
General Partner
Ex-GM, IBM Security · 12 cyber acquisitions
Kevin started as an engineer at ISS and ended up running IBM’s $1.5B security software portfolio. He was on the founding team of IBM Security and shaped its acquisitions from Q1 Labs through IBM’s $6.4B HashiCorp deal. Founders come to him for the buyer, consolidation, and what incumbents do next.
Managing Partner
2× CEO · 1 IPO · 16 boards
Said built and sold two companies — including the first real word processor for Windows and Synchrologic, early to mobile data sync and acquired by Nokia. A product-first operator with eight patents, two IPOs, and millions of users behind him, he now backs founders who love building as much as he does.
Investor Relations
Co-founder of ISS · CEO of VistaScape
Glenn co-founded ISS and helped scale it from startup to $225M+ in revenue. As CEO of VistaScape, he led the company to a successful exit to Siemens. He’s been building, scaling, and backing enterprise software for decades — especially where security meets GTM.
Vice President
CEO of GuardedNet · SVP Sales, ISS
Tom’s led go-to-market at companies from seed to $190M+, including as CEO of GuardedNet and SVP of Sales at ISS during its rocket growth. He’s built and led high-performance sales orgs across cyber and enterprise software — always focused on execution over ego.
“The advice I’ve gotten from TechOperators over the years has been invaluable.”
Josh Lefkowitz
Flashpoint · acquired by Audax, 2021
“TechOperators has guided me through two startups, and I wouldn’t hesitate to partner with them again.”
Oliver Friedrichs
Phantom · acquired by Splunk, 2018
“TechOperators is more than an investor — they push us to think bigger, move faster, and operate smarter.”
Chris Pierson
BlackCloak · CEO
“I benefit from TechOperators’ highly collaborative culture and deep bench of expertise every day.”
John Nellen
Todyl · CEO
Seven security chiefs who run programs at the companies your product has to land in. They pressure-test what we’re seeing — and what you bring through the door.
Twenty years running security for the NYSE and ICE.
Built the cyber program at ICE, then ran technology for the NYSE.
First CISO at Reddit, then Chief Security Officer at Slack.
Wrote the Cyber Defense Matrix. Co-founded Knostic.
Ran security at Bakkt and BlockFi. Palantir before that.
CTO and CISO at Wafra, securing the firm and its portfolio.
Startup CISO — has built security programs from zero, repeatedly.
Every firm here has invested in a company we back. We can make the introductions.
Kleiner Perkins
Bessemer Venture Partners
Insight Partners
Blackstone
CRV
Bain Capital Ventures
Meritech Capital
Greycroft
Intel Capital
Cisco Investments
Google Ventures
Georgian
Ballistic Ventures
Paladin Capital Group
DataTribe
ClearSky
Gula Tech Adventures
Skinos VenturesShlomo Kramer
Secure Octane
Blu Venture Investors
Koch Disruptive Technologies
Mithril
Shasta Ventures
JMI Equity
Altos Ventures
Flybridge
Columbia Capital
Base10
Anthos Capital
Baird Capital
Cota Capital
White RabbitAI can build your product. This is everything it can’t.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a company, building one in stealth, or raising a round: send Kevin or Dan what you see on LinkedIn, in your words.
