Ted Schlein

Ted Schlein is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, and executive chairman and founding partner at Ballistic Ventures. He has spent…

Ted Schlein

Partner and Advisor

Ted Schlein is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, and executive chairman and founding partner at Ballistic Ventures. He has spent the last 35 years helping create transformative companies.

A Midas of investing and the former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), Ted has funded, supported, and guided more than 30 founders to successful company exits including ArcSight, Chegg, Fortify Software, IronNet Cybersecurity, Jive, LifeLock and Segment. He currently serves on the boards of Apiiro, Area 1 Security, Bedrock, Chegg (CHGG), FullStory, Interos, Incorta, IronNet, Rebellion Defense, Reputation, Synack, Trusona and UJet.

Ted is regularly called on to advise government leaders as they navigate society’s digital infrastructure. He is an active member of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, National Security Institute Advisory Board, and also the Council on Foreign Relations, Independent Task Force on Cybersecurity.

As a company leader, Ted was the founding CEO of Fortify Software, which was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard. During his time at Symantec, Ted led the company’s earliest antivirus effort, which included a move into the software utilities market with the launch of a commercial antivirus solution that became the industry gold standard.

Ted serves on the Board of Trustees, as well as the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Engineering School at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. Ted holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Awards and Honors
— NSA Advisory Board
— CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee
— Homeland Security Advisory Council, National Security Institute Advisory Board
— Council on Foreign Relations
— Independent Task Force on Cybersecurity
— Board of Trustees at InQTel
— Board of Trustees of University of Pennsylvania
— Dean of Advisors of Engineering School at University of Pennsylvania
— National Venture Capital Association (NVCA)
— Western Association of Venture Capitalists

Companies Backed
A new approach to application security
Since 2020
Unbreakable foundation for formally secured computing
Since 2020
Digital experience intelligence (DXI) platform
Since 2015
Open data delivery platform
Since 2018
Supply chain resilience & risk management
Since 2020
The modern mission stack
Since 2019
The online reputation management platform
Since 2010
Premier security testing platform
Since 2014
Passwordless authentication
Since 2015
Reimagined contact center solutions
Since 2018
Physical security & secure identification
Alumni (Acquired by Identiv)
Device identification technology
Alumni (Acquired by Experian)
Democratizing threat detection and response
Alumni (Acquired by AT&T)
Security & compliance management
Alumni (Acquired by Hewlett-Packard)
Zero Trust protection
Alumni (Acquired by Cloudflare)
Cloud-native endpoint protection
Alumni (CBLK)
A smarter way to student
Alumni (CHGG)
Single-purpose container operating system technology
Alumni (Acquired by Red Hat)
Software management services
Alumni (Acquired by IBM)
Business intelligence platform
Alumni (Acquired by Salesforce)
Endpoint security
Alumni (Acquired by Elastic)
Automated static code analysis
Alumni (Acquired by Hewlett-Packard)
Luxury vacations made easy
Alumni (ISPO)
Security software & managed security services
Alumni (Acquired by IBM)
Establishing trust, one transaction at a time
Alumni (Acquired by Twilio)
Collective defense platform
Alumni (IRNT)
Marketplace for heavy equipment & durable assets
Alumni (Acquired by Ritchie Bros)
Cloud-native autonomous security operations center software
Alumni (Acquired by Sumo Logic)
Enterprise collaboration solutions
Alumni (Acquired by Aurea Software)
Enterprise management solutions
Alumni (Acquired by Deem)
Identity theft prevention software
Alumni (Acquired by Symantec)
Incident response & remediation
Alumni (Acquired by FireEye)
Cybersecurity and data leakage prevention systems
Alumni (Acquired by Raytheon Co.)
Security Orchestration, Automation & Response
Alumni (Acquired by Splunk)
Relationship intelligence platform
Alumni (Acquired by Salesforce)
Customer data platform
Alumni (Acquired by Twilio)
Online fraud & abuse prevention
Alumni (Acquired by F5)