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Some years after a shakeup atventure uppercase stock Kleiner Perkins , one of its star B2B investor , Ted Schlein , sort of left to begin his own firm . Two years ago , he launchedBallistic Ventures with an inaugural $ 300 million monetary fund , a laser focussing on cybersecurity , an interesting business simulation and a who’s - who of co - father as general mate .
Now Ballistic has already closed a second store , even giving than the first .
“ We rig out to raise a second $ 300 million fund and hold back at $ 360 million , ” Schlein state TechCrunch .
The last few month involved many call with prospective modified partners ( LPs ) who asked them about everything ranging from their ground to “ if you were a Caterpillar , what variety of big cat would it be ? ” But they hit their goal surprisingly fast given the current VC bear market place . Ballisticformally record its plans for a second fund just four month ago , in November , TechCrunch was first to report .
Hands-on with their startups
In an age when some VCs say that being “ founder - friendly ” means keeping their VC claw out of operations , Ballistic has the glacial opposite philosophy .
For instance , Founders Fund partner and Anduril co - founder Trae Stephens told the gang at TechCrunch ’s Strictly VC LA effect in February : “ The more that a VC says , ‘ I ’m going to add value , ’ the more you should hear them say , ‘ I ’m going to annoy the ever - living crap out of you for the respite of the fourth dimension that I ’m on the roof table . ’ ”
The Ballistic crew scoff at the thinking . They always take display panel seats . They mouth to their father “ many times a hebdomad , ” Schlein says . Because all of them have endure cybersecurity concern — and they only invest in certificate — their secret sauce is their involvement couple with their massive internet of contacts , they say .
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“ I ’ve been at this for almost 30 years , and I almost always helped deliver the first 10 customers to every company that I have ever been on the circuit card of,”Schlein said .
oecumenical partner Jake Seid says that all of Ballistic ’s gang works with all of their portfolio society , routinely bringing in the first three to four million dollar of one-year recurring revenue or helping lease their first engineers .
Seid cut his teeth at Cisco and startups , but is comfortably know as an other Lightspeed partner and for his own StoneBridge Ventures firm . Ballistic general partners Roger Thornton and Barmak Meftah were drawing card of scourge - hunt down interchange AlienVault when AT&T adopt it . The Ballistic co - founding team also admit Kevin Mandia , the former chief executive officer of Mandiant , which sold to Google in 2022 .
Schlein only makes new investment from Ballistic ’s fund but remains a mate at Kleiner , overseeing his previous investment / board seats and keep back his “ carry ” — the pct of profits — if these startups do well .
Early success
Two age in , Ballistic ’s methods seem to be influence so far . Although they have n’t even amply deployed their first fund , they ’ve already had onesuccessful exit of portfolio troupe Talon Cyber Security , bought by Palo Alto Networks ina deal rate at at $ 625 million , TechCrunch report .
It ’s unacceptable to know how many more success they will have . But because Ballistic only invests in early startups where it can be the first institutional money on the cap table and takes a board butt , they have more ascendancy than other VCs have .
This help them , for representative , protect their investments from term from former investors that could pain them , such as “ extermination preference ” that would give another investor priority to the hard cash from an acquisition .
And Ballistic incubates startup ideas internally , detect masses to build and execute their ideas . There are two such startups in stealing from Fund 1 at the moment , the partners say .
Ballistic gestate to wrap up investing out of Fund 1 after , perhaps , two more startups , bringing its full Fund 1 portfolio to around 20 companies , and to begin investing out of the second fund in another two months , Seid said .
