Mike Wiacek, who previously formed Google’s Threat Research Division and co-founded Chronicle, Alphabet ‘s corporate security company, founded and led the new agency. As COO and general counsel, Jan Kang, former Chief Legal Officer at Chronicle, enters Stairwell. Stairwell shared very little information about its devices, but identified them as user-centered tools designed to help security teams “understand the core relationships between their external and internal data sources,” thus helping them battle cyber attacks proactively. Security teams today are exposed to siloed resources that are unable to detect environmental ties between their external and internal data sources to offer defence against generic risks at the baseline level only. “We began Stairwell so that security teams have a coherent view of what is good, what is evil, and why, so that they can actively protect themselves against the most advanced threats,” said Wiacek. Accel led the funding round, but Sequoia Funds, Gradient Ventures, and Allen & Company LLC, as well as other angel investors, also participated.
