Gili Raanan is the Founder of Cyberstarts and one of the earliest investors behind Wiz, one of the most important cybersecurity companies of the modern era and now a $32B outcome. Before founding Cyberstarts, Gili spent nearly a decade at Sequoia and earlier built and sold 2 security companies to IBM and EMC. He also helped build the first real CAPTCHA implementation and the first web application firewall.
In this conversation, Gili breaks down the Wiz story from the beginning: why he backed the team early with a $6M seed investment, how the company changed direction, what made its product market fit so powerful, and why its go to market motion scaled so unusually fast. He explains what made the founding team exceptional, what he learned from watching Wiz scale from a $66M seed valuation, and why he believes the next great cybersecurity company could be even bigger.
Beyond Wiz, Gili shares the Cyberstarts framework for investing before product, team, or code exists, why he underwrites people over ideas, and how AI agents are changing the future of cybersecurity. Today Cyberstarts has raised $1.5B+ across 7 funds, backed 30 companies, and its portfolio represents over $61B in combined value (50% of the worldwide private cybersecurity companies market).
We cover:
• The early days of Wiz and how the company evolved from seed to a $32B outcome
• Why Wiz achieved such strong product market fit
• What made Assaf and the founding team special
• How Cyberstarts picks founders before there is product or code
• Why Gili believes AI could create the darkest decade in cybersecurity
• What the next generation of $50B–$100B cyber companies could look like
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Gili Raanan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giliraanan/
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