Init Intelligence Atlas

Quincy Castro

3 min read

Quincy Castro

Cybersecurity executive — CISO at Chainguard (appointed Jul 2025) and an active angel investor / advisor in the security ecosystem.

Snapshot

  • Now: Chief Information Security Officer, Chainguard (Jul 2025–present) — leads security strategy across IT, infosec, and product security.
  • Archetype (for init): Strategic / Operator — CISO buyer-angel (already an active investor/advisor).
  • Warm path: Ryan Carlson — ex-President/GTM at Chainguard, the same company where Castro is CISO. (Carlson left Chainguard ~Feb 2026, so no longer a same-company colleague, but remains the connector.)

Why an init.inc angel target

  • CISO buyer-angel: sits in the exact buyer seat init sells into (security/IT back-office); a CISO angel both validates and helps open enterprise security-review doors.
  • Already an active investor/advisor: self-identifies as “Investor | Advisor” and holds venture-advisor roles (YL Ventures) plus startup advisory (KindWorks.AI) — so an angel check + advisory is in his normal pattern, not a cold ask. (Also associated with SVCI – Silicon Valley CISO Investments, a CISO angel syndicate, per his own profile.^[single-source — SVCI’s public roster does not list him])
  • Advisor footprint: also holds advisor / venture-advisor roles (e.g. KindWorks.AI, YL Ventures) — comfortable adding value beyond capital.
  • Warm intro available via Ryan Carlson (former Chainguard President), keeping this a warm, not cold, recruitment for the open strategic-angel allocation.

Conflict screen

  • Clean. No init competitor (Serval, Console, Atomicwork, Ravenna, STLabs, Edra, Treeline, Risotto, Siit, Echelon, ClearFeed, Modern, Rezolve.ai, Unthread, Wrangle, Querypal, Moveworks, Aisera, Fixify, Leena AI; market-analogs Avoca, Viktor) appears in his disclosed angel/advisor activity.
  • His CISO roles at Chainguard / Redis / Wabtec / GE Transportation are career history in security (software-supply-chain and enterprise infosec), not an angel-investment conflict — none is an init competitor.

Background

  • Chainguard (Jul 2025–present): CISO — announced via Chainguard press release alongside CFO Eyal Bar’s appointment.
  • Redis (~4 years prior to Chainguard): CISO of the open-source software company.
  • Wabtec Corporation (NYSE: WAB): CISO of the Fortune 500 rail/transport manufacturer.
  • GE Transportation (NYSE: GE): CISO; held various roles at General Electric and in the US government (offensive/defensive cyber, incl. NSA).^[single-source]
  • Investing/advisory: self-described “CISO | Investor | Advisor”; venture advisor at YL Ventures; advisor at KindWorks.AI; associated with SVCI – Silicon Valley CISO Investments (CISO angel syndicate) per his own profile.^[single-source — not on SVCI’s public roster]
  • Education: B.A. Economics, University of Washington; MBA, University of Chicago (Booth).^[single-source]

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