The thesis
Attackers are now capitalized like startups and organized like enterprises. The result is a category that does not soften in a downturn and does not saturate: as software eats a domain, security follows it, and the defensive surface grows faster than the thing it protects.
Attackers are capitalized like startups and organized like enterprises. Defense is no longer a cost center — it is the load-bearing wall of the digital economy.
01
Demand
Security is the rare budget line that survives every cut. Boards treat a breach as an existential and personal liability, and regulation keeps converting best practice into obligation. Demand is structural, not discretionary.
02
Surface
Cloud, AI, identity sprawl, and machine-to-machine traffic each open a new front faster than the last is closed. Every platform shift is a fresh security market before it is anything else.
03
Trust
Enterprises don't buy features — they buy the confidence to move faster without getting breached. The companies that own that trust become infrastructure, and infrastructure compounds.
04
Distribution
Security is sold to a skeptical, technical buyer through a small, tight community. A fund embedded in that community shortens the path from first call to signed enterprise contract.
The long view
Every computing platform shift creates a security wave behind it, on a lag. The wave is always underestimated while it's forming. This is the record.
1988
The Morris Worm — the internet's first real security incident. A new industry starts forming behind it.
1996
Firewalls and network segmentation define security for a decade. The edge is the thing you defend.
2010
Workloads leave the data center faster than anyone can secure them. A boundary-less surface opens.
2016
We started recording here — investing in the founders defending the surface as it opened.
2020
Remote work and SaaS sprawl dissolve the network edge. Credentials become the thing attackers target first.
2023
AI systems are handed autonomy and credentials of their own — a new, fast-growing population with no governance model yet.
2026
The pattern is repeating, on a shorter cycle than the one before it.
How we work
The people we invest in defend systems adversaries are actively trying to break — so the people investing in them shouldn't become a second attack surface. We'd rather be known by the companies we invest in than by the noise we make about ourselves.
The next line of defense
We lead early, hold conviction, and stay through the rounds that matter.
For Founders