Init Intelligence Atlas

Ted Schlein

8 min read

Ted Schlein

Disambiguation: This is Theodore E. (“Ted”) Schlein, the cybersecurity VC (Kleiner Perkins + Ballistic Ventures; founding CEO of Fortify Software). NOT Rob Schlein (Sullivan & Cromwell real-estate lawyer), Carrie Schlein (NJ interior designer), or Teddy Schleifer (NYT money-in-politics reporter) — all distinct people surfaced under similar names.

Snapshot

  • Role: Founding General Partner & Chairman (also styled executive chairman) of Ballistic Ventures (cyber-only early-stage fund) AND concurrently a General Partner / Partner & Advisor at Kleiner Perkins (joined Oct 1996). He holds both roles at once — not “ex-KP.” ✅ (consistent with the KP page, which lists him as security-legacy partner.)
  • Focus: Cybersecurity above all — ~40 years in the field, “one of the most influential early investors in cybersecurity.” Enterprise software / infrastructure / security.
  • Location: Menlo Park / SF Bay Area.
  • The 1-liner: The dean of cyber VC — operator (Symantec, Fortify), founder, board-builder, and policy voice; a “Midas List” investor with 30+ exits.

Background

Career arc (verified):

  • Symantec (early) — one of Symantec’s early employees; spearheaded its antivirus effort, launching a commercial antivirus solution that “set a new industry standard.” VP, Enterprise Solutions before leaving for VC.
  • Kleiner Perkins — joined October 1996 as a partner; ~30 years focused on enterprise software, infrastructure, networking, and (above all) security. Former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). “Midas of investing.” Led KP’s involvement in Mandiant (→ FireEye/Google), ArcSight (IPO → HP), LifeLock (IPO), Internet Security Systems (→ IBM), Fortify (→ HP), Oakley Networks (→ Raytheon), Corio (→ IBM), Chegg (IPO), Beijing Venustech (IPO), and more. 30+ founders guided to exit.
  • Fortify Software — founding CEO (while a KP partner) of this pioneering application-security company; later acquired by HP. Reshaped how orgs find & fix software vulnerabilities. (Roger Thornton — now his Ballistic co-GP — was Fortify’s founder/CTO: a 20+ year partnership.)
  • Ballistic Ventures — co-founded 2021 (with Kevin Mandia, Barmak Meftah, Jake Seid, Roger Thornton); founding GP & Chairman. Ballistic = “the embodiment of Ted’s vision for how venture capital can play a crucial role in the fight for a free and secure digital future.”
  • Public-sector / policy: Provides counsel to the U.S. intelligence community; Board of Trustees, In-Q-Tel (CIA’s strategic investment arm); former member of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee; cited (older bios) as a member of an NSA advisory/board of trustees body. ^[ambiguous — exact NSA body title varies across bios]
  • Current public-company / board roles (per KP/Equilar, 2025): Apiiro, Bedrock, Chegg (CHGG), FullStory, Interos, Incorta, IronNet, Rebellion Defense, Reputation, Synack, Trusona, UJet — plus historical: Area 1 Security, Shape Security, AlienVault, Ionic Security, Carbon Black (observer), Endgame, 3VR, Inspirato, IronPlanet. ^[board list is large + time-varying; treat as illustrative]

Education: University of Pennsylvania — B.A./B.S. in economics (his alma mater; now a Penn Trustee + Penn Engineering Board of Overseers). ^[degree field = economics per Equilar; degree-type wording varies]

Investing

  • Thesis / focus: Cybersecurity, full stop. At Ballistic, every investment is cyber; recent skew is heavily AI-native security & AI-governance — securing AI usage/agents (WitnessAI), the AI dev lifecycle (Noma), AI red-teaming (Armadin), secure-by-design cloud (Native Security), and democratizing security for the long-tail/SMB (Zip).
  • Style: Leads early-stage cyber rounds; deep CISO/CIO relationship leverage; incubation-friendly. Reputation as the single best cyber VC to have on your cap table for go-to-market + exec hiring + scaling advice. (Founder testimonial: “If you are building a company in cybersecurity, there is no better venture capitalist than Ted Schlein… he truly delivers on every promise.“)
  • Track record: 30+ exits incl. ArcSight, Chegg, Fortify, IronNet, Jive, LifeLock, Segment, Mandiant. “Midas List” investor.
  • Check/stage: Ballistic entry checks ~10M (pre-seed→Series A) with large follow-on in flagships; KP checks span seed→growth via KP’s multistage vehicles. See Ballistic Ventures + Kleiner Perkins.

Public voice (capture — note: footprint is operator/policy-heavy, social-light)

⚠️ Footprint note: Ted is not a prolific public-content creator — no active Substack/blog found, and no usable X/Twitter presence surfaced (Exa x.com search returned nothing). His “voice” lives mostly in conference panels, founder testimonials, firm thesis posts, and press interviews. Captured below; flagged thin where thin.

Signature lines / stances:

  • “There are only two types of companies in the world: those that have been breached and know it, and those that don’t.” — his most-quoted aphorism (VentureBeat, via thelettertwo). Pairs with: “There’s not a company around that if a bad guy wants to get in, they won’t… You have to change the method and make the breaches irrelevant.”
  • “Cybersecurity is national security. It’s all interlinked — and it requires great leadership.” — closing of his RSAC 2025 policy panel.
  • On software-vendor liability (RSAC 2025, moderating Gen. Nakasone + Chris Krebs): he pressed the question “Should software vendors be held liable for security flaws?” and on hyperscalers-as-utilities, “So should they be regulated?” — i.e., he leans toward accountability + transparency in the software/cloud stack.
  • Ballistic founding statement (his words): “I am very excited to announce the birth of Ballistic Ventures with some of the industry’s finest cyber security entrepreneurs as my partners… we intend to deliver to the world a unique approach to company building that should make us all safer.”
  • “Ballistic Ventures allows me to do what I love while working with some of the smartest people in VC and cybersecurity.”

Podcasts / video:

  • “Kevin Mandia and Ted Schlein, Ballistic Ventures: Fortt Knox News” — YouTube gBI9z1tZ6Lg (CNBC’s Fortt Knox, ~May 2022). Launch-of-Ballistic conversation; the $300M Fund I founding story. → queued for transcript (top long-form Ted appearance).
  • “Ted Schlein on the cybersecurity industry” — Safe Mode (CyberScoop), Aug 2024 (also a YouTube short 5-jQnr866YU); D.C.↔Silicon Valley relationship. (Short — not queued.)
  • RSAC 2025 panel — “The Future of Tech Policy: Balancing Innovation, Security, and Regulation,” moderated by Ted with Gen. Paul Nakasone (ret.) + Chris Krebs (recapped on Ballistic’s blog). Recurs as an RSAC speaker (2025, 2026).

Writing: No personal blog/Substack found. Thesis voice surfaces via Ballistic “Why we invested” posts (often authored by his partners). ^[single-source on the no-blog finding — absence of evidence]

Social: No active X/Twitter found ^[single-source]; LinkedIn in/ted-schlein-5630184b (Chairman & GP, Ballistic; GP, Kleiner Perkins).

Personal & interests (rapport)

  • Penn loyalist & philanthropist: Established the Schlein Center for Cybersecurity at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Engineering) in 2021 via a major gift — supports foundational research in cybersecurity, privacy, data science across engineering/policy/law/social sciences, and an MSE in Software Systems & Cybersecurity. His words: “We established the Schlein Center to bring together world-class faculty and practitioners to educate and enable the next generation of cyber talent.” He sits on Penn’s Board of Trustees and Penn Engineering’s Board of Overseers. → A genuine rapport hook: Penn pride + a personal mission to train the next cyber generation.
  • Mission-driven framing: Talks about cyber as “defending digital sovereignty,” a “moral responsibility,” and protecting “our way of life.” Patriotic / national-security-coded (In-Q-Tel, CISA, NSA advisory, Rebellion Defense board, “Western superiority in cyberspace” language across the firm).
  • Long-loyalty operator: 30 years at one firm (KP), a 20+ year working partnership with Roger Thornton (Fortify → Ballistic), and a co-founding bond with Kevin Mandia — values deep, durable relationships over transactional ones. A warm intro from a trusted mutual (i.e., Ross Corey) matters disproportionately to him. ^[inferred from career pattern]
  • Family-of-origin / where-from: Not reliably public beyond “Penn alum.” (No private/family details recorded — per scope.) COULDN’T-GET.

Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)

  • Status: ⚠️ DORMANT — future-reference contact, not an active raise target. Ted’s mandate at Ballistic is cyber-only, and at KP he is the security-legacy partner, not on init’s live KP thread (that’s Leigh Marie Braswell → Nadia Cochinwala). On fit alone, init.inc (AI-ITSM) is a stretch for Ted. The connection is a personal tie through Ross Corey. Ted’s firm funds AI-governance security (WitnessAI, Noma). His network reach spans the global CISO/CIO network, exec-hiring intros, and intelligence-community/policy credibility.
  • Conversation log (newest first):
    • 2026-05 (status: New) — Logged as a warm relationship contact via Ross Corey’s personal connection. Not yet engaged; no touchpoint made. (CRM seed.)
  • Mutual connections / warm path: Ross Corey → Ted Schlein (personal connection — the activation edge). Secondary context: Ted’s concurrent seat at Kleiner Perkins (a firm init is separately engaging via Leigh/Nadia — do not conflate).
  • Personal & rapport notes (Ted-specific): Hooks: Penn (his Center, his trusteeship, training next-gen cyber talent) and mission (national security, digital sovereignty). He rewards warm, trusted intros and operator credibility.
  • Live stage: in the CRM (DORMANT / New).

Cross-check vs existing wiki

  • Kleiner Perkins page: already lists Ted Schlein as a senior/security-legacy partner & advisor. ✅ Consistent — Ted is a current GP at both KP and Ballistic. No contradiction. Important nuance for the team: Ted ≠ init’s live KP relationship (Leigh Marie Braswell → Nadia Cochinwala run that thread; Ted is a separate, dormant door).
  • Competitor cap tables: No Ted/Ballistic exposure found on any init competitor (vault grep clean). ✅
  • Ross Corey stub: edge already recorded (“Ballistic Ventures / Kleiner Perkins / Ted Schlein — New”). ✅ Consistent.

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