Cyber Mentor Fund is a Mentorship Fund focused on cybersecurity

that has built the most non-traditional, insightful, and tenacious product

for cybersecurity founders to fulfill their transformative missions.

By Entrepreneurs. For Entrepreneurs.

Mission & Values

Remaining humble, disciplined, and true to the entrepreneurial spirit, we see success as a team sport. We work hard together, fighting shoulder to shoulder, with everyone in our community. We understand the journey is part of the reward and expect the same disciplined drive from our portfolio companies to our Limited Partners and beyond. CMF leverages a focused community-centered approach and works with the most impactful leaders and VCs in cybersecurity, building a unique coalition around each portfolio company that drives the most direct line to growth.

Created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, CMF backs the most robust and innovative security solutions aimed to make enterprises and governments more secure online. When our companies win, everyone wins.

What We Do

CMF IS THE LEADING CYBERSECURITY MENTORSHIP FUND

A Mentorship Fund functions as a community-centered program that surrounds early-stage companies with hands-on mentoring. By providing the entrepreneurs and their startup with a coalition of active entrepreneurs and operational luminaries, Mentorship Funds are better positioned to bring differentiated mentorship tailored to each company’s individual needs. Successful Mentorship Funds work together with entrepreneurs to properly scale their businesses and provide access to the industry knowledge they need to flourish.

To succeed as a Mentorship Fund, CMF dedicates money, aggressive effort, and our community of visionaries to mentor the next-generation of cybersecurity leaders.

MENTOR

CMF works fast to help our portfolio grow. We mentor before and after funding, mapping entrepreneurs to methods, processes, and industry experts that will provide the biggest impact from day one.

CONNECT

CMF knows the synergy of community yields the largest impact. We leverage our global network of 50+ advisors, limited partners, friendly early adopting practitioners, and industry luminaries to support, educate, and promote the portfolio.

DISRUPT

CMF invests to fill the gaps within cybersecurity by betting on entrepreneurs who have a drive towards disruption and operate as continuous learners. By supporting these special entrepreneurs and their emerging novel technologies, we are pushing the limits of cybersecurity solutions. 

Hear first hand from who we’ve helped

Shashi Prakash

Co-Founder + CTO, Bolster

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“The CMF team helped us land a large enterprise deal, introduced us to one of our key board of advisors, and also introduced us to our VP of product. When it came time to raise a series A… [they] introduced us to our leading investors. We almost had a daily cadence during closing of the deal.”

David Melnick

Founder + CEO, WebLife

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“Proofpoint was my acquirer, but that would have never happened if twelve months before the acquisition, Tim hadn’t made a personal introduction.”

David Ratner

CEO, Hyas

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“Tim has given me some great advice, some great coaching and mentorship, and that’s not only benefited me, but it has had a huge impact across the company as well.”

Ellison Anne Williams

Founder + CEO, Enveil

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“Tim and I have met every Sunday for many years, talking about the ins and outs of the problems and the issues being faced in a small but growing company, and that’s been completely invaluable to me.”

Nate Kharrl

Co-Founder + CEO, SpecTrust

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“From our first meeting, we could tell that they were different. They knew who we were, they understood what we were building, who it was for, why they would love it. As soon as they saw our vision and our hustle, they dived in to help with everything else.”

Rakesh Nair

Co-Founder + CEO, Kognos

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“[CMF] understands the space very well and can guide us both from the product side and the messaging side…as a first time CEO, it’s great to have CMF at your side for the vast operational experience to help you, and to mentor you as you grow the company.”

Sai Venkataraman

Co-Founder + CEO, SecurityAdvisor

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“[CMF was] incredibly helpful with our Series A. They helped connect us with a number of potential investors. They helped us through the process and eventually, our round was oversubscribed.”

Xing Xin

Co-Founder + CEO, Paladin Cyber

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“CMF provided us with decisive mentoring when we needed it most… Tim and Joe got us through a tough time leading to a successful financing… They frequently engaged with the board, were first to commit to participate in the funding, and even helped us with key contracts.”

Matt Kadenbach

Co-Founder + CTO, Templarbit

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“CMF provided excellent access to security thought leaders in the space and made introductions to 10 pilot customers who are giving us the feedback needed to bring an impactful solution to the market.”

Paul Everton

Founder + CEO, MessageControl

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“Having Tim on our board provided valuable insights, mentorship, and advice. The strategic advice Cyber Mentor Fund gave us provided us alternative growth solutions, allowing us to grow faster.”

CMF Catapult Program

Our Catapult Program uniquely offers hands-on mentorship, strategic partnerships, and disciplined expertise, helping startups accelerate through the early-stage minefield of going to market. With the support of our network of industry luminaries and early adopting practitioners, the program is designed to catapult startups to the next stage of business development with a three phase approach: Ready, Aim, Launch.

READY

In phase 1, we help to identify an initial concepts of product market fit:

  • Identify the problem statements, proper product positioning, architecture, differentiations, as well as structure competitive analytics and market requirements
  • Build product validation strategies, gaining feedback from leading early adopters
  • Define early stage pricing and financial model

AIM

In phase 2, we apply an intensive go-to-market validation process:

  • Define proper sales strategies, sales channels, channel partners
  • Identify start-up’s key market segment and solidify a focused product marketing strategy
  • Introduce start-up to the proper ecosystem of partners and allies aligned to support, test, and validate product

LAUNCH

In phase 3, we drive the accelerated go-to-market efforts:

  • Leverage CMF community of industry experts and thought leaders to publicly validate product and market need
  • Publicize content creation and partnership engagements, building thought leadership credibility with relevant blogs, whitepapers, interviews, video testimonials
  • Participate in CMF virtual and public facing events at leading cybersecurity conferences and within CMF Misfit Panel discussions

Who We Are

Cyber Mentor Fund takes pride in the entrepreneurial experience because that is who we are. As Fellow Founders, we have gained industry knowledge through high-level experiences. Through founding cybersecurity companies and mentoring other startups, we have experienced and identified the inefficiency of bringing cybersecurity startups to market and built a unique growth roadmap to overcome those inefficiencies. This all leads to a disciplined, insightful, and hardcore investment and mentorship model.

Strong Investment History

CMF Fellow Founders’ collective investment:

  • 20+ cybersecurity companies
  • 40+ private companies

Successful Investment Exits

  • We have guided multiple cybersecurity companies to successful liquidity events.
  • CMF Fellow Founders know what sells, what will likely be an exit, and what will not. 

Prolific Seed Investors

CMF has invaluable knowledge into market dynamics and need-based learnings on what the next generation of cybersecurity solutions will address.  

CMF Network of Advisors

  • Cybersecurity Founders
  • Corporate Execs – CISOs, CIOs, CTOs
  • Industry Leaders
  • Cyber Investors
  • Tech Experts

Fellow Founder’s Deep Cyber Knowledge

  • Active investors, advisors, and executives in the industry.
  • We have a robust, constant inbound pipeline of cybersecurity startups. 

Team Members

Fellow Founder

Tim Eades

Fellow Founder

Fellow Founder

Joe Eandi

Fellow Founder

Venture Associate

Muriel Kay

Venture Associate

Junior Marketing Associate

Emma Peters

Junior Marketing Associate

Junior Venture Associate

Julia Pardee

Junior Venture Associate

Our Companies

CMF is proud to invest in game changing companies that are solving real and urgent problems that haven’t been addressed, leading to a critical impact on the security integrity of enterprises and governments.

Community

The synergy between CMF’s strong community of disciplined innovators and our deep industry expertise allows us to provide the largest impact to our portfolio and disrupt the future of cybersecurity.

Events

Bi-annual visits to AWS, Azure, VMWare and others, helps form a close relationship with leading infrastructure and cloud providers. CMF founders gain an inside understanding and supportive role within the ecosystem.

Infrastructure & Platform Days

Bi-annual visits to AWS, Azure, VMWare and others, helps form a close relationship with leading infrastructure and cloud providers. CMF founders gain an inside understanding and supportive role within the ecosystem.

CMF hosts industry executives, early adopters, and thought leaders alongside our portfolio for exclusive, high-end networking dinners. These intimate events provide an opportunity for our founders to grow as entrepreneurs, learn market needs, and showcase their domain expertise.

Global Executive Dinners

CMF hosts industry executives, early adopters, and thought leaders alongside our portfolio for exclusive, high-end networking dinners. These intimate events provide an opportunity for our founders to grow as entrepreneurs, learn market needs, and showcase their domain expertise.

CMF puts on high-profile events surrounding most cybersecurity conferences and conventions. We bring together industry visionaries, executives, and trusted customers to join in on panel conversations and networking lunches. In conjunction with a high-profile panel, the CMF portfolio is showcased through elevator pitches and product demos.

Cybersecurity Conventions & Showcase Opportunities

CMF puts on high-profile events surrounding most cybersecurity conferences and conventions. We bring together industry visionaries, executives, and trusted customers to join in on panel conversations and networking lunches. In conjunction with a high-profile panel, the CMF portfolio is showcased through elevator pitches and product demos.

We bring together the CMF community for high-value happy hours, fire-side chats, and other internal growth focused events. By creating an intimate setting, our founders can promote innovation as a company and get unique mentorship to the needs of the market and insights to their target buyers and users.

Founder + Market Leader Events

We bring together the CMF community for high-value happy hours, fire-side chats, and other internal growth focused events. By creating an intimate setting, our founders can promote innovation as a company and get unique mentorship to the needs of the market and insights to their target buyers and users.

By hosting misfit webinars and podcasts, we offer an opportunity to promote portfolio domain expertise towards extended marketplaces, both nationally and internationally. Our uniquely structured public facing misfit events build industry trust and thought leadership in our community, our founders, and their products.

Misfit Events

By hosting misfit webinars and podcasts, we offer an opportunity to promote portfolio domain expertise towards extended marketplaces, both nationally and internationally. Our uniquely structured public facing misfit events build industry trust and thought leadership in our community, our founders, and their products.

CMF Podcast

The CMF podcast discusses all things mentorship and cybersecurity. Featuring early-stage cybersecurity entrepreneurs from our portfolio, industry experts, and thought leaders from around the world. 

Spotify

12.03.20

Navigating Cybersecurity Start-Up Sales in the age of a Distributed Workforce

As per the misfit way, we’ll cut to the chase and highlight how security startups can best attack the changed budgets. Our panel of misfit leaders will tell you exactly what works: how to sell, who to sell to, and what corporate cyber leaders need right now.
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01.21.21

People, Processes, and Product: A Misfit Look at the Cybersecurity Trends of 2021

The panel of misfit thinkers will look into the mistakes of histories past and present, and will be brutally honest how to stay ahead of the curve and prepare for the people, process, and product trends that are expected to shape 2021.

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09.24.20

Cybersecurity Budgets in the Age of the Distributed Workforce

This panel of misfit thinkers and budget handlers will look at what in security spending and budget allocation has been broken, where organizations are still engaging with innovative technology, and how budget handlers get shit done, fast.

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02.25.20

CMF Presents: Early Adopter Meet Early Thinkers

A networking breakfast with a panel of high-powered security executives discussing the impact of early stage technology adoption. Offering insights to start-ups and security entrepreneurs looking to get involved with their first customers and executive offices and enterprises exploring early technology.

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06.03.20

Misfits + The State of Cybersecurity

Our panel of misfit CISOs and industry thought leaders will offer insights into their top of mind security concerns, why and where they will continue to adopt innovative, early technology, their pivoted priorities due to COVID impact, and will give advice to security entrepreneurs looking to get break into the market in this new environment. 

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