Welcome, Gutsy! $51 Million to Transform Security Governance by the Inventors of Cloud-Native Security

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We would like to share with you the official launch of Gutsy, YL Ventures’ renewed partnership with the entire Twistlock founding team in their latest mission to revolutionize cybersecurity governance. Raising a landmark $51 Million seed round led by YL Ventures and Mayfield Fund, along with the participation of a legion of cybersecurity titans, Ben Bernstein (CEO), Dima Stopel (VP R&D) and John Morello (CTO) are once again resolving a massively underserved problem space. On both a professional and personal level, I could not be more excited to collaborate with these old friends.

All of us at YL Ventures have been eagerly awaiting the Twistlock team’s next project since the company’s wildly successful $410 million acquisition by Palo Alto Networks in 2019. Working closely with them as seed and follow-on investors, we saw firsthand how the team both created and then captured the virtual container security market–which later evolved into cloud-native security. They have already proven their capabilities in tech innovation, business management, go-to-market, scaling from zero to tens of millions in ARR and selling to large enterprises. We are also intimately familiar with how well they handle customer relationships and their unmatched skill in motivating and rallying their workforce.

Fixing Governance

Gutsy’s founders are serial cybersecurity problem solvers who have always had their eyes firmly set on the biggest security market opportunities, no matter how technologically or operationally complicated. True to form, after ideating and validating over the past year in a process closely supported by YL Ventures Partner Michael Cortez, they’re ready to deliver with an extraordinarily simple approach to the pervasive issue of cybersecurity governance: process mining.

Cybersecurity stacks have reached unmanageable levels of bloat. For years, cybersecurity leaders have vocalized issues with poor visibility over highly siloed solutions, and enterprise security programs are plagued with process and product inefficiencies. Our own research revealed that CISOs are most likely to invest in GRC solutions in today’s downmarket conditions. Such solutions can shed critical light on the ROI of their programs, and the SEC’s decision on cybersecurity disclosures and debates about criminal liability have expedited concerns around cybersecurity transparency and reporting performance data to company boards.

With process mining, already proven in other fields of process management and now used for the first time in security, Gutsy is able to illuminate every tool, step and action required to achieve compliant cybersecurity postures. The Gutsy platform can track exactly where actions deviate from established best practices and corporate policies and help cybersecurity teams understand which security tools are underperforming. Using Gutsy’s data and reporting tools, cybersecurity leaders can both communicate and optimize their cybersecurity strategies with clarity and ease.

Reuniting with Champions

Ben, Dima and John are determined to build something even more ambitious than Twistlock. Through bi-weekly ideation sessions with our investment team, they quickly pinpointed the greenfield opportunity of security governance as the most fitting direction for their formidable vision. Over the course of 75+ validation calls with CISOs from our network, the founders and their idea were met with striking enthusiasm. In fact, the Gutsy team received over a dozen requests for design partnerships before their company had formally crystallized. This is an incredible testament to both their well-earned reputation as well as the imminent need for a functional governance solution. Mayfield’s early investment–and Midas-listed Navin Chaddha’s notable endorsement– only further bolsters our confidence in both the vision and the team.

Ben is well known for a lot of things. He is practically clairvoyant when it comes to anticipating the industry’s shifts and leading the charge to dominate it. Meanwhile, his supreme integrity and work ethic are complemented by a legendary sense of humor. Dima’s technical prowess is only matched by his excellence in building, organizing and leading engineering teams. And John, a former CISO with a wealth of customer perspective, possesses the rare ability to bridge the gap between technical expertise and customer-facing interactions as well as facilitate effective communication across all departments. Together with additional superstar executives Brian Lake, Pini Karuchi and Melissa Ryan, the Gutsy team is truly a force to be reckoned with.

The honor to work once again with such a sought-after team is not lost on us, and we are very humbled. It is never assured that close working relationships will lead to deep friendships, and friendship alone cannot guarantee future working relationships. As individuals and as a team, Ben, Dima and John had their pick of investors. We do not take their choice to rejoin the YL Ventures portfolio lightly, and are determined to prove ourselves worthy by providing Gutsy with whatever support we can.

If Twistlock’s story is anything to go by, I have no doubt that we are all in for another exceptional ride with this A-Team. We invite our friends to learn more about Gutsy at www.gutsy.com.