April 4, 2023
BALTIMORE, MD — Squadra Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage cyber and national security companies, announced today that Adam Bixler has joined the team as a Principal and will lead the firm’s cybersecurity practice. In this role, he will lead the sourcing, diligence, and investment decisions in cybersecurity technology startups as well as actively support the post-investment operations strategy across the Squadra portfolio of companies.
Bixler’s career started in the United States Air Force, where he spent more than two decades on both active duty and reserves, as an operator, technologist, and cyber warfare expert. His efforts began in predecessor organizations to US Cyber Command, later supporting Air Force cyber mission growth.
Bixler spent the last decade on the front lines of some of the biggest success stories to come out of the cybersecurity ecosystem. He was co-founder and chief product officer of Morta Security which was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2014, and co-founder and COO of Efflux Systems which was acquired by Netscout in 2017. After exiting Efflux, he began investing in the local Maryland ecosystem, mentoring founders through the FounderTrac accelerator in Annapolis. He most recently served as the Global Head of Third Party Cyber Risk Products & Services at Maryland cybersecurity unicorn BlueVoyant, where he led product expansion and market growth acceleration.
These experiences have fueled Bixler’s commitment to supporting innovators across the greater cybersecurity community. Now at Squadra, Bixler is “moving to the other side of the table” and ready to invest his time in the next generation of innovative cyber technology leaders.
“There’s a recognition that we are behind the curve when it comes to securing national critical and economic infrastructure. Solving this problem is going to take a combination of the tooling, training, and innovation that we see coming out of entrepreneurs today. There’s work to be done, because we still haven’t won,” said Bixler. “I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside entrepreneurs to build up world-class companies while facing this challenge down. I’m thrilled to join a team that cares about what’s right for founders and carrying the mission forward.”
With experience incubating innovative ideas, building high-performing teams, directing product management, and delivering value to both investors and customers, Bixler is a critical addition to the Squadra team.
“Adam is a ‘founder’s investor.’ He could not be more aligned on our philosophy of being respectful, helpful, and backing founders who we truly admire,” said Squadra Managing Partner Guy Filippelli. “He’s been in every role in the mission — operator, founder, product leader, investor, and advisor — and knows how to take the raw innovation out of the government and turn it into something commercially viable, something that both the public and the private sector want. Those are the ideas and founders that Squadra is ready to back and we could not be more excited to have Adam leading us on this front.”
In addition to joining the team at Squadra’s Baltimore City headquarters, Bixler will lead the firm’s presence at the RSA Conference in San Francisco April 24–27, 2023.
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Press Contact :: Arianne Price <arianne@squadra.vc>
Squadra Ventures is a venture capital firm led by founder-operators that invests in early stage cyber and national security companies. Grounded in the belief that success is a combination of people, product, planning, the Squadra team provides transformational support to startup leaders in the complex dual-use technology ecosystem. By applying a growth-stage mindset at the seed stage and a commitment to building alongside entrepreneurs, Squadra empowers extraordinary teams to win and leave a lasting positive impact on the world.