hack/secure Unites 25 of the Top Entrepreneurs in Cyber to Help Form and Fund 100 U.S.- Based CyberSecurity Companies Over the Next Three Years

We're excited to announce our hack/secure syndicate. Check out the article from Fortune and press release below.

First Investment Kolide Raises $1.6M and Assembles Top FireEye and Facebook Technologists to Found Stealth Cybersecurity Start-Up

BOSTON – June 27, 2016 – Today, serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Chris Lynch along with partner Cort Johnson unveiled hack/secure, an invite only investment syndicate to help U.S. citizens build cybersecurity companies to ensure the United States leads the global effort in protecting the free world. At launch, hack/secure includes a syndicate of 25 of the industry’s pre-eminent and proven entrepreneurs investing in the next generation of cybersecurity entrepreneurs. The organization already has local presences in Austin, Boston, DC and New York.

hack/secure was founded and is run by Chris Lynch and Cort Johnson. The 25 entrepreneurs and angel investors forming the syndicate serve as hack/secure leads. Using the power of the AngelList platform, when a lead finds a company they want to invest in, hack/secure backs that lead’s investment with up to $250,000 of additional investment capital.

“The world runs on software. It powers everything from the banks that govern our financial system, the computers that fly our airplanes and drive our cars, to the power plants that generate our energy,” said Lynch. “WWIII is already underway, and it’s a cyber war. We believe it will be won with hands on the keyboard, not boots on the ground. The cybersecurity industry is just as important to protecting the free world as the manufacturing industry was to supporting the Allied forces victory in WWII. hack/secure is our effort to ensuring America leads the protection of our way of life and that of the free world.”

hack/secure in action: Kolide

hack/secure’s first investment is Boston-based cybersecurity startup Kolide, a promising new venture formed by top technologists from Mandiant, FireEye and Facebook. Kolide has raised $1.6 million led by Dustin Willis Webber, CTO and co-founder of Critical Stack. Dustin has built a legendary reputation in the infosec community for his numerous key open source contributions, founding multiple successful security startups, and for the sheer speed at which he delivers innovative products. His investment is backed by hack/secure, Liam Randall, CEO of Critical Stack, and other security experts from its syndicate.

Kolide is led by co-founder and CEO Jason Meller, formerly Chief Security Strategist at FireEye. The founding team also includes Mike Arpaia and Zach Wasserman from Facebook’s elite security team, where the two built and open sourced osquery, which is used to ensure the security of hundreds of thousands of Facebook’s endpoints.

“Jason approached me with an incredible idea to leverage open source technology at the endpoint to solve some big challenges in a way I had never seen before,” said Webber. “As someone who has built their entire career contributing to and relying on open-source technology, I understood the benefits to that approach instantly. What you have here are the raw elements to break the endpoint market wide-open and I knew that if we could bring in additional open source innovators like Mike and Zach, we’d have something super special here to invest in through hack/secure. “

Kolide’s mission is to take on the nascent end-point security and dev-operations space by building an enterprise-grade experience and tooling around Facebook’s popular osquery project.

"Wide proliferation of network encryption has effectively neutered some of the best detection tools security experts have relied on for decades,” said Kolide CEO Jason Meller. “Visibility at each individual machine is the only remaining effective way for organizations who care about cyber attacks to regain that lost sight. Unfortunately, most the endpoint technologies out there are proprietary, and you are effectively trusting the vendor that you aren't introducing more holes. An open source solution like Facebook’s osquery, which can be scrutinized and improved by every expert in the field, is the solution. A ton of organizations are already making a major investment in osquery because of its current capabilities. When they see the value we add with Kolide, their bet on the technology will be paid off 100 fold.”

About hack/secure

hack/secure is an investment syndicate of 25, and growing, of the top minds in the cyber security industry. The organization’s board of directors act as managing directors of their region across the U.S., and initially include:

  • Washington D.C.: Liam Randall - Founder and CEO of Critical Stack

  • Boston: Dustin Webber - Founder and CTO of Critical Stack, Founder of Threat Stack

  • Boston: Jen Andre - Founder and CEO of Komand, Founder of Threat Stack

  • Austin: H.D. Moore - Founder of Metasploit (acquired by Rapid7), Principal at Special Circumstances

  • NYC: Dan Guido – CEO and Founder of Trail of Bits

Members of the hack/secure syndicate include:

  • Bob Brennan – CEO of Veracode

  • Corey Thomas – CEO of Rapid7

  • Mike Viscuso – CTO of Carbon Black

  • Art Coviello – Former CEO of RSA

  • Tim Belcher – Former CTO of NetWitness

  • Sam King – CSO of Veracode

  • Patrick Morley – CEO of Carbon Black

  • Dustin Webber – CTO of Critical Stack

  • H.D. Moore – Founder of Metasploit

  • Dan Guido – Founder and CEO of Trail of Bits

  • Jen Andre – CEO of Komand

  • Liam Randall – CEO of Critical Stack

  • Brian Ahern – CEO of Threat Stack

  • Adam Fuchs- Founder of Sqrrl

  • John Langton – Founder of Visitrend (Acquired by Carbon Black)