Driven by natural curiosity and an allergy for mediocrity; I listen, learn, and lead with purpose.
About Me
Jon Schipp
The Ric Flair of Cybersecurity
Portfolio and reflections of a tech leader, husband, and waterman.
Hi, my name is Jon, and I love cybersecurity, building SaaS products, and exploring the ocean. I believe that mission, culture and leadership are everything. I lead authentically, and with urgency, candor, and a strong sense of purpose. I am both inquisitive and passionate by nature.
I was running Slackware Linux in the 8th grade which opened a whole new world of technology and prepared me to land one of my first tech jobs as a unix system admin. Before that, I played guitar in a metal band that toured the midwest from which I learned resourcefulness, basic aspects of marketing and sales, and how to excite a crowd. Then, while in college I worked in fast-food, and used security forums & IRC to meet, hitch rides with and crash on the floors of hackers and practitioners so that I can learn from them and afford attendance to security & IT conferences. From those valuable experiences I made friends, mentors, and gained support and confidence to develop my own security tools & research and have since presented my work at many conferences over the years.
Within 15 years, I have built on-premise and SaaS products, ran a boutique consulting company, been an acquiree, an acquirer, owned P&L for business units at a publicly trading co, managed & led organizations of over 100 people in product management, software engineering, user experience, and operations, led efforts in marketing (pricing / packaging, analyst relations, storyboarding, etc.), sales (positioning, enablement, etc.) and much more.. and now I am currently interested in providing my expertise and value to boards and venture capital.
I want to use this website as a way to share my learnings, grow my network of friends and colleagues, discover new opportunities, and hopefully build deeper connections by adding some personal touches (surf trip anyone?).
My Value
I would attribute most of my professional value from my personal qualities. I am not here for mediocrity, I am an agent of change, and we are never done.
Let's build something great together!
Product Formulation & Strategy Creates a deep understanding of customer needs, business drivers & market dynamics to test, develop and deliver new products & strategies aligned to them.
Planning & Execution Leadership Experienced in direct leadership of teams with 100+ employees as well as cross-functional teams across multiple business units & stakeholders that did not report into me too develop & execute upon business plans.
Talent Acquisition & Management Have scaled global teams efficiently in high-growth environments while simultaneously raising the talent bar and aligning with organizational culture. Experienced in hiring and leading contractors in environments where long-term cost is critical, or there is a need to dynamically scale labor.
Inorganic Growth (M&A, Partnerships) I work with founders regularly on the buy & partner spectrum. I've been on both sides of the table for acquisitions, being a key stakeholder of the deal team, leader of the due diligence process, and member of the M&A Committee at a public company.
Board Advisory & Startup Mentorship I am actively involved in mentoring diverse talent, startup founders, and also serve on advisory boards.
IT & Cybersecurity, Music, and Fitness Expertise Schooling and domain expertise in IT & cybersecurity. Have held practitioner and leadership roles in both technology segments but with an increased focus in cybersecurity in the last 7 years. Also, I have coaching and competitive experience in resistance training, as well as have played guitar in a touring band.
