He arrested a hacker, then spent 18 months clearing his own name. Now he’s a cybersecurity VC.

Every clip task capitalists constitute a check, they’re secretly moving numbers successful their heads astir antithetic exit scenarios. It’s their occupation arsenic fiduciaries. But astir each volition archer you (publicly, anyway) that each portfolio institution is headed for an IPO.

Stephen Ward, the co-founder of Brightmind Partners, a two-year-old cybersecurity money successful New York, says different outright. “You person to merchantability connected the mode up,” helium says.

Ward’s unvarnished pragmatism is 1 crushed helium stands out. Another is the size of his firm’s debut money precocious past year: a whopping $250 cardinal fund, which helium closed with co-founder Gur Talpaz. A 3rd crushed is his résumé, which includes a stint with the Coast Guard, 9 years successful the Secret Service, and CISO jobs astatine TIAA and Home Depot earlier helium ever thought astir investing.

One impervious constituent that suggests the operation is moving is SGNL, the individuality information startup CrowdStrike agreed successful January to bargain for $740 million, 11 months aft Brightmind led its Series A.

Now Ward is raising a 2nd fund, targeting astir the aforesaid size arsenic the archetypal one. This time, though, he’ll beryllium doing it without Talpaz, who near successful April on with different aboriginal colleague, leaving Ward arsenic the firm’s sole wide partner. He’s betting connected himself astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile early-stage cybersecurity startups are raising much wealth than later-stage rivals for the archetypal clip successful much than a decade.

His unemotional attack to exits traces backmost to an improbable career. Ward says helium grew up successful northwest New Jersey betwixt 2 farms, successful a household that couldn’t spend assemblage for his older brothers. After precocious school, helium joined the Coast Guard, inspired by a commercialized of a antheral jumping retired of a helicopter, though helium says helium hardly knew however to aquatics astatine the time. He spent 4 years successful hunt and rescue.

Afterward, helium studied transgression justness astatine Seton Hall successful New Jersey and thought half-heartedly astir instrumentality school. “I didn’t cognize what I wanted to do,” Ward told maine past week implicit Zoom, wearing a airy hooded sweatshirt and looking much similar a hoops manager than a task capitalist. “I was benignant of lost. I missed the subject and the camaraderie and each of that.”

After graduating successful 1998, helium says, helium mailed retired immoderate 300 résumés but nary 1 responded. A Seton Hall prof who was besides a chaplain to Secret Service personnel, arsenic good arsenic to members of the FBI and CIA, began introducing him around, and the Secret Service called first.

The Secret Service has 2 superior missions: protecting radical and investigating fiscal crimes. Ward gravitated to investigations, past to “cyber” aft the September 11 attacks successful 2001. That year, helium joined a erstwhile assemblage classmate, an American-born Syrian Muslim. Colleagues warned him the inheritance cheque would beryllium “miserable.” (They’re inactive happily married.)

What came adjacent took Ward’s beingness down an unexpected path. Stationed successful New York, helium arrested a hacker who’d pulled disconnected the largest recognition paper information theft of that era. Instead of charging him, however, Ward flipped him, turning him into an informant and moving him for astir 3 years. But the hacker kept hacking down Ward’s back, and aft helium was caught again, helium told the agency, arsenic a diversionary tactic, that Ward was successful connected it.

By that time, Ward had near for the backstage sector, and helium yet spent astir 18 months clearing his name. “It was hard to get retired of bed,” helium said of that period, describing the probe arsenic “almost similar a spouse cheating connected you,” fixed his emotion of the agency. The hacker yet received a 20-year sentence, and Audible bought the rights to the story, turning it into an eight-episode podcast called “Operation Firewall.”

Ward’s firm vocation has been a occurrence by astir measures, though helium describes it arsenic a bid of jumps helium truly wasn’t qualified to make. His archetypal private-sector occupation astatine J.P. Morgan, wherever helium was recruited successful 2007 to physique a cybersecurity unit, was the hardest modulation of his career, helium says. He felt similar “the dumbest idiosyncratic successful the room,” missed his Secret Service crew, and doubly thought astir going back, unaware helium was inactive nether investigation. He stuck it retired and present calls the concern slope the “best absorption school.”

Six years arsenic CISO astatine the fiscal services institution TIAA followed, and past 2 years astatine Home Depot starting successful 2019. But successful 2021, feeling burned out, helium discontinue without thing lined up for the archetypal clip since property 16.

That section didn’t past long. The founders of Wiz, whose information bundle Ward had utilized astatine Home Depot, enactment him connected a abbreviated database for a occupation astatine their company. Jeff Horing, a task capitalist astatine Insight Partners, which had co-led Wiz’s $100 cardinal Series A circular successful precocious 2020, interviewed Ward for the role, past offered him 1 astatine Insight instead.

It’s a good-news, bad-news story, fixed that Wiz was acquired past twelvemonth by Google for $32 billion. When I asked him astir it past week, Ward observed that the person who took the Wiz occupation “made life-changing money,” but said it doesn’t fuss him.

Regardless, helium spent conscionable 3 years astatine Insight, wherever helium says helium worked connected Wiz, Abnormal Security, and Elisity, which IonQ agreed successful October to bargain for up to $1.3 billion. Then, astatine property 49, helium thought astir striking retired connected his ain for the archetypal time.

He says radical told him it was a young man’s game. He near anyhow and began cold-emailing constricted partners. Ultimately, less than 20 LPs filled the fund, including Horing.

Ward started Brightmind successful 2024 with Talpaz, a CrowdStrike firm improvement enforcement whose deals overlapped with Ward’s during his clip astatine Insight. Tayler Sipperly, different CrowdStrike firm improvement alum, was the firm’s 3rd employee.

The concern ended this past spring. Asked what happened, Ward, utilizing cautiously worded legalese, cited “differences successful opinions regarding operations and the aboriginal of Brightmind.” In August, Talpaz and Sipperly co-founded a new task firm with Elia Zaitsev, CrowdStrike’s planetary CTO for the past 3 years. Called Cognition, it’s present reportedly targeting a $170 cardinal archetypal money to backmost cybersecurity startups.

Sipperly says that helium and Talpaz “continue to enactment the existing Brightmind portfolio companies arsenic good arsenic its constricted partners” and that they “remain connected the committee of a fig of the Brightmind portfolio companies.”

Brightmind’s archetypal money has made 14 investments to date, with 1 exit: that SNGL sale.

Some investors asked wherefore Brightmind didn’t thrust retired that stake adjacent longer. But Ward says he’s seen capable crossed his vocation that helium feels assured successful informing founders erstwhile they’re “going to contention past the turn.”

In cybersecurity, helium says, the champion income travel betwixt a startup’s 3rd and seventh years. Indeed, helium says his squad tracks each information acquisition and what buyers are gathering versus buying. If Palo Alto Networks is apt to bargain something, helium says, CrowdStrike volition acquisition “FOMO, past Zscaler is going to look implicit and go, ‘What did they conscionable do? I should astir apt bash the aforesaid thing.’”

Understanding however the pieces acceptable unneurotic is the trick, Ward explained, offering immoderate hypotheticals. If CrowdStrike is gathering a product, helium said, it’s improbable to bargain a portfolio institution that makes thing similar. Palo Alto Networks mightiness emotion a company, but not if buying it would unit its customers to power distant from thing it bought 5 years ago.

“It’s precise casual to go, ‘Good match,’ ‘terrible match,’” helium said. “And that’s truly what we walk a ton of clip figuring out.”

He has timing connected his side, astatine least. Early-stage cybersecurity startups are outraising their later-stage rivals for the archetypal clip successful much than a decade, according to PitchBook, which counts $4.7 cardinal worthy of seed-through-Series B deals done September.

That full is already up of the entirety of 2025, adjacent though the fig of deals fell to 248 from 358 past year. Seed rounds successful peculiar are ballooning, per PitchBook. The mean cybersecurity effect circular jumped to $8.4 cardinal successful the archetypal 9 months of this year, from $5.54 cardinal a twelvemonth earlier.

Ward questions however overmuch of that wealth is truly going to AI security. By PitchBook’s count, 278 deals successful the archetypal fractional of 2026 were bucketed arsenic such, but his team’s manual reappraisal recovered lone 30 existent ones. He doesn’t deliberation Anthropic oregon OpenAI volition “take implicit the information world,” but alternatively volition bash “just enough.”

For real-time protection, which helium presumption “zero second,” helium favors cyber-specific models that tally locally connected a customer’s ain systems, similar that of Empirical Security. He besides looks for startups that could trounce established companies that helium considers vulnerable, name-checking 27-year-old Qualys and 24-year-old Tenable.

Ward says Brightmind’s 2nd money won’t beryllium wholly cybersecurity, focusing astir 20% connected AI infrastructure deals. He expects a meaningful fig of teams to travel from Israel, too. (Roughly 40% of the debut fund’s startups are based successful Tel Aviv.)

Asked astir the founders he’s astir comfy backing, the effect is immediate: second-time founders who instrumentality together.

Brightmind is comprised of 5 radical close now: COO Iva Messy, besides a Seton Hall graduate, came from task firms Felicis and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) connected the proposal of Ward’s cousin, Carl Eschenbach, a erstwhile Workday CEO who is now backmost astatine Sequoia. Sven Wollschlaeger, a Midwesterner whom Ward calls 1 of the hardest-working radical he’s known, spent 3 years alongside Ward astatine Insight and is simply a main astatine Brightmind.

CTO Jamie Mneimneh, whom Ward archetypal hired astatine Home Depot arsenic a distinguished engineer, is the astir method idiosyncratic of the team. He built the unreality computing situation connected AWS wherever the steadfast tests startups’ products. Mneimneh besides built the AI agents that present root astir of Brightmind’s woody flow, which is however the steadfast avoids hiring a seat of analysts and keeps absorption fees down, says Ward.

Taylor Cleveland, Ward’s main of unit astatine Home Depot, joined the steadfast a fewer months ago.

For each the vocation changes, Ward says the existent unit driving him hasn’t changed. He grew up without wealth and inactive worries it could hap again, saying he’s being paid to nutrient a “3x nett fund,” and he’s “not going to observe until we get that.”

Said Ward: “I don’t cognize what’s incorrect with me. I person a level of being precise naive to like, not being qualified to bash something. I’ve conscionable ever looked astatine radical and been like, ‘Okay, you cognize much than maine today, but tomorrow, it’s going to beryllium a small less, and the time aft that, it’s going to beryllium less, and eventually, I’m going to drawback you and surpass you, and I’m going to cognize much than you.’ That’s however competitory I am.”

Update: Comments from Sipperly were added aft publication.