Ross Haleliuk

LimaCharlie

LimaCharlie enables organizations to detect & respond to threats, automate processes, reduce the number of vendors, and future-proof their security operations.

We do it by giving security teams full control over how they manage their security infrastructure. Get full visibility into your coverage, build what you want, control your data, get the security capabilities you need, for however long you need them, and pay only for what you use.

Head of Product

Cyber for Builders (Amazon Best Seller)

'Cyber for Builders: The Essential Guide to Building a Cybersecurity Startup'  is the most comprehensive resource about building the future of cybersecurity available on the market. Within hours of the official launch, the book instantly became the Amazon best seller in several categories.

Get your copy: https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Builders-Essential-Building-Cybersecurity/dp/173823410X/

Most cybersecurity books talk about how to do security. This book is different as it is intended first and foremost for builders - startup founders, security analysts, security engineers, marketing and sales teams, product managers, VCs, angel investors, software developers, investor relations and analyst relations professionals, and others who are building the future of cybersecurity.

Featuring forewords by Caleb Sima and Jeremiah Grossman, and contributions by 50+ cybersecurity entrepreneurs, operators, thought leaders, and investors, "Cyber for Builders" is the most comprehensive guide for security entrepreneurs. 

While almost anyone who is interested in better understanding of the mechanics that shape the security space and the nuances of building a cybersecurity company can learn something new by reading this book, I hope that it will be especially useful to those tinkering with new ideas and considering building a security company, early-stage founders, employees of cybersecurity startups, and investors.

Author

Venture in Security

Imagine if security practitioners got to decide what products and tools should exist on the market. We built the Venture in Security Angel Syndicate so that we can stop imagining and see it for ourselves.

Venture in Security Angel Syndicate is a practitioner-focused cybersecurity angel syndicate. As cybersecurity is becoming more technical, traditional investors are struggling to evaluate ideas and solutions of the future, often funding tools that make big promises but don’t solve real problems. On the other hand, while security practitioners spend incredible amount of time staying on top of new innovations, they still have little impact on what gets funded. We are changing this.

We believe that security engineers, SOC architects, detection engineers, penetration testers, threat researchers and other hands-on security professionals are best positioned to shape the future of cybersecurity. We help them do it.

Angel Syndicate Co-Lead

Writing an active blog and a newsletter about the business and investment sides of cybersecurity. Covering topics like venture capital, go-to-market strategies, business models, and product-led growth in cybersecurity.

Named as one of the best sources for investors and entrepreneurs to learn about the business of security by Return on Security. Recognized by the European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2023. 

https://ventureinsecurity.net

Author | Blogger

Building Cyber Collective initiative ended June 3rd, 2023. Over 200 people (50+ startups, 130+ advisors and investors) took a part in the Building Cyber Cohort. 

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Helping cybersecurity startup founders and investors build the future of security. 

Building Cyber is both a curated online community and a roster of advisors cybersecurity startups can reach out to. It’s double opt-in, meaning startups can browse people on the list of advisors, and if they choose to reach out - the advisor will get an email asking them to confirm if they are interested. Only if both the startup and the advisor are in, the connection is made. In the same way, advisors can browse startups that match their area of interest & reach out.

For advisors, industry leaders, and senior professionals, we want to make it easy to get involved with cybersecurity companies that fit their areas of interest.

For cybersecurity startups, we want to make it easy to access the advice they need, when they need it, and for however long they need it.

Organizer - Building Cyber Collective

Balance Theory

Balance Theory provides the knowledge sharing and collaboration platform purpose-built for cybersecurity.

Early advisor (Seed) on product, go-to-market strategy, and user insights. 

Stage: $3M Seed Led by DataTribe

Member of the Board of Advisors

Nullify

Nullify augments your AppSec team with AI agents capable of carrying out multiple levels of product security work autonomously.

Angel Investor

Forbes Technology Council

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community comprised of leading CIOs, CTOs and technology executives.

Members are selected based on their depth and diversity of experience, then invited to enjoy an array of benefits including a private forum for discussion and collaboration, the opportunity to share insights on Forbes.com, exclusive product and service partnerships and concierge-level support.

Official Member

Security Tinkerers

Member of The Security Tinkerers, a non-profit organization championing the advancement of cybersecurity. I am proud to be part of a community of world-class CISOs, CTOs, cybersecurity CEOs, and industry leaders. Our collective mission, encapsulated in our byline "Advancing cybersecurity through trust," focuses on fostering growth and innovation in the cybersecurity field. Through collaborative efforts, we aim to nurture a safer digital environment by sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise.Member of The Security Tinkerers, a non-profit organization championing the advancement of cybersecurity. I am proud to be part of a community of world-class CISOs, CTOs, cybersecurity CEOs, and industry leaders. Our collective mission, encapsulated in our byline "Advancing cybersecurity through trust," focuses on fostering growth and innovation in the cybersecurity field. Through collaborative efforts, we aim to nurture a safer digital environment by sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise.

Member

TechCrunch

Writing about venture capital, startups, cybersecurity and product-led growth

Contributing Writer

Cyber Club London (CCL) is a community comprised of cybersecurity leaders and experts, with exposure to early-stage (Seed/ Series A) start-ups and innovation, access to private investment opportunities, leveraging domain expertise and connections to assess and contribute to the success of early stage cybersecurity ventures.

Member / Investor

Startup Wise Guys

Startup Wise Guys is one of the most active early stage investors in the broader Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and Nordics, has been voted Top VC fund in CEE.

Startup Wise Guys is a mentorship-driven accelerator program for early-stage B2B SaaS, Cybersecurity, and Fintech startups, providing seed capital, office space and most importantly – world-class mentors.

Limited Partner / Investor

Experienced operator & builder shaping the future of cybersecurity. 

📙 Book about building the future of cybersecurity 👉🏻 cyberforbuilders.com
📬 Blog & newsletter 👉🏻 ventureinsecurity.net
🚀 Angel syndicate for security practitioners  👉🏻 visangels.com

"Write something worth reading or do something worth writing." —  Benjamin Franklin

“Life is too short to do mediocre work, and it is definitely too short to build shitty things.” — Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder of Slack.

Director of Product

Despite what some ambulance chasers would like to suggest when we look at the summary of some of the largest breaches, we rarely hear that a company got breached because it was missing some tool. In most cases, they already have the tools; it’s the fact that these tools are under-utilized, under-deployed, or misconfigured, that is one of the leading causes of security incidents. 

This makes me conclude that when security vendors over-optimize for fighting advanced adversaries but fail to think about the real day-to-day needs of security teams, the ease of deployment, the ease of configuration, and the ease of the ongoing maintenance, they are making it more likely that their customers will get breached. 

#cybersecurity

Time and time again, I see cybersecurity startups repeat the same mistake: attempting to sell to their prospect the same way they sell to their investors. Security founders must understand the difference between how these two groups make their buying decisions: 

1. Only ~10% of what the investor is buying already exists; 90% (or more) is yet to be built. VCs are buying a vision of where the company could (and hopefully - will) be, assuming everything goes well. Selling to investors is about excitement, getting their eyes light up, and imagining what is possible tomorrow. 

2. Over ~90% of what the enterprise customer is buying must exist today; 10% (or less) can be a future vision. Buyers know that startups are inherently risky and unstable, and a year or two later the company may be gone. By agreeing to buy from the startup, the enterprise is already taking a risk. CISOs want to know what problems the product will solve for them today. Every single founder has an inspiring vision that goes miles beyond what the product is in the present, yet the customer isn’t looking to buy that vision - its goal is to solve the problems it deals with today. Selling to enterprises is about enablement, support, response times, contract price, product capabilities, and the ability to replace parts of the current (or legacy) stack, and other pragmatic matters. 

#cybersecurity #infosec

As cybersecurity is evolving, it's starting to look more and more like software engineering. From everything-as-code to continuous monitoring, integration with CI/CD pipelines, API-first approach, security of the future will have no choice but to fully embrace an engineering mindset. 

#cybersecurity

ventureinsecurity.net • 3 min read

The rise of security engineering and how it is changing the cybersecurity of tomorrow

I don't think everyone should have an opinion on everything all the time. Being able to say "I don't have an opinion" or "I don't think I am the right person to be talking about X" is a sign of maturity I wish we would see more often.

1,800 copies of Cyber for Builders have been shipped as of today. Thanks friends! 

I'd argue that Slack has achieved more to help combat email-based attacks against businesses than many email security companies combined. It's a great example that sometimes the best way to secure something is to reduce reliance on the thing that is insecure, or if possible, to stop using it altogether.

#cybersecurity


I am actually quite excited to see what startups will come out of stealth during RSA. I know that at least some are tackling pretty hard and important problems. Surely there will be plenty of those that don't, but I am more of a "glass half full" kind of guy 😉 #cybersecurity

We need to evolve security from being a bouncer to being a bodyguard. I don't remember when was the first time I heard this analogy (I most certainly didn't come up with it), but I think it describes the reality perfectly well.

Bouncers are there to arbitrarily, based on their own logic and instincts, decide who can come in and who can't. They are the department of "no".

Bodyguards, on the other hand, walk with people, shielding them from danger and protecting them from everything that can cause harm (including their own actions). Good bodyguards do their work in a way that makes one doubt they are actually working. They are focused on the outcome - the safety and security of their clients.

#cybersecurity

There is a big difference between cybersecurity inventors and cybersecurity founders. Let me explain.

Security is one of the most interesting fields of technology to work within, and many people in the industry contribute innovative ideas. To a large degree, the industry has evolved to where it is today thanks to cybersecurity inventors - technical individuals who come up with new ideas, new ways to do security, new ways to safeguard data and devices, etc. Some of these contributions are built as open-source projects, others are the outcomes of research projects or even personal pursuits. A percentage of these get patented, but the majority are contributed for others to freely use and build upon. Some inventions (certainly not all) become the foundation of startups.

Founders, on the other hand, build businesses. Their startups *may* be built around new technological inventions, or they may innovate in a different way (a new angle for solving a problem, a new market, a new go-to-market strategy, etc.). At times, there is little or no innovation at all - but with fantastic execution, they are able to win over the competition.

Not every inventor becomes a founder, and not every brilliant inventor who becomes a founder makes for a good company builder. At the same time, many founders are not inventors. While founders and inventors who become founders are celebrated, inventors who don't build companies are rarely talked about.

#cybersecurity

Despite remote work, I strongly believe that Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv are still the best places to build a security company. 

#cybersecurity 

https://lnkd.in/gtdp-c6A


Medici Effect is real: Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv are still the best places to build a security company

Everyone is talking about platformization in security and WHAT it is. This Venture in Security post is focused on HOW - how they are built, how they can be successful, and how not to do it. Specifically, I am looking at what common playbooks for building security platforms are, what is hard about them, and how entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success: 

- Thinking big from day one: setting the foundations for building a platform
- Solving one problem really well and picking the wedge
- Product-market fit expansion and going beyond the initial use case
- Getting the platform to be incorporated as wide and as deep as possible in the customer’s workflows
- Building an ecosystem around the platform’s offerings

ventureinsecurity.net • 15 min read

Building platforms in cybersecurity: select playbooks for growing “best of suite” solutions

Super stoked to be speaking at Anshu Gupta's Cyber Entrepreneurship Summit! Building products is hard; building products in cybersecurity is even harder. I look forward to diving into the intricacies of identifying problems, launching security products, getting customer feedback, and rapidly iterating. 

Event link: https://lnkd.in/gRcmiB9Y

#cybersecurity #infosec 

4.9 stars with 53 reviews on Amazon. If this doesn't convince you to get your copy of "Cyber for Builders", nothing will 😉 📙  https://lnkd.in/g8uy9aG7

Every tech company is going to be expected to not only protect the data of its customers but to also help its customers not fall prey to attackers. Security cannot be an opt-in feature; it must become a fundamental property of the way we design software products. 

The bad news is that it will require some investment. 

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard. 

Here is an example of how Monzo Bank makes it easy for users to verify if the caller who claims to represent Monzo is legitimate. I am hoping that other organizations will follow this idea and maybe even standardize it, offering consumers an easy way to validate the authenticity of callers.

#cybersecurity

Historically, individuals didn’t need to care much about their data. While security practitioners like to make it feel like security is super critical, in reality most people never felt the consequences of security incidents on their lives. The worst that could happen is having their credit card compromised but even then, banks would reverse all credit card fraud and write it off as cost of doing business. 

I think in the coming years that’s going to change. 

The blurring lines between physical and digital worlds mean that effects of security incidents are starting to spill over into our physical world. Hospitals are shutting down because of ransomware. Lost electricity. Other kinds of failures that have the potential to impact everyone and everywhere are no longer somebody else’s fantasy. 

#cybersecurity

A contrarian take: we need more startups and venture capital in cybersecurity. That said, some things will need to change. 

#cybersecurity

ventureinsecurity.net • 1 min read

Why we need more startups and venture capital in cybersecurity, and what needs to change for the industry to mature

Every startup dreams about achieving rapid growth by word of mouth but very few can pull it off. Why is that? What distinguishes those who are successful in doing it from those who aren’t? The answer is simple: a startup's ability to get customers to love it. 

I've been a fan of Rami McCarthy's work for quite sometime, and I am excited that he was able to contribute his first piece to Venture in Security blog! In this article, Rami and I discuss customer love as a recipe for building winning cybersecurity startups.

#cybersecurity

ventureinsecurity.net • 12 min read

Customer love: a recipe for building winning cybersecurity startups

Individuals hate friction and are not used to paying for software. For these two reasons, B2C security solutions sold direct to individuals will continue to struggle. That said, something must be done to protect regular people and their data. 

In this issue of Venture in Security, I am looking at the reality of consumer-focused security, why people don’t pay attention to security, which types of B2C security products have seen adoption and which didn’t, and what the future of consumer-focused security looks like.

#cybersecurity #infosec #b2c

ventureinsecurity.net • 17 min read

The business of protecting individuals: realities of consumer-focused security, why we cannot expect that people will buy security tools, and what we need to do instead

Tools alone won't save us, but since we pay for tools, why aren't we at lest using them?

#cybersecurity

Without having ever acknowledged this openly, we are betting the future of security on the "trickle-down" cybersecurity strategy. Let me explain. 

The government doesn’t have effective ways to regulate the whole market but it has established a solid playbook for overseeing publicly traded corporations. By enforcing the rules that demand higher maturity of public companies, it expects that they will be incentivized to implement more stringent security and compliance requirements for their thousands of suppliers, thus “trickling down” security to other parts of the market the government has no resources to oversee. 

We have embraced the idea that if we do things right, the cybersecurity maturity will "trickle down" from the largest enterprises to the SMBs and other market participants.

#cybersecurity #infosec

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