Ryan Carlson
President at Chainguard
Austin, Texas
Overview
Work Experience
President
2023 - Current
I help lead the Go to Market function at Chainguard - building a sales, marketing, and customer success team that brings our world class product and technology to every customer.
Chainguard provides low-to-zero CVE container images that provide a secure software foundation for building and running applications.
Raised $256,000,000.00 from Amplify Partners, MANTIS Venture Capital, Spark Capital, Redpoint, Lightspeed Venture Partners, IVP and Sequoia Capital.
Partner
2019
I’m an angel Investor that is empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs with advice and personal capital. Along with a seasoned group of C- and SVP-level executives, I typically invest in early-stage technology companies led by brilliant, passionate, and visionary founders. See some of the founders we have backed here: https://theoperatornetwork.com/portfolio/
The Operator Network is an angel investor syndicate of public company C- and SVP-level executives.
Advisor to CEO and to the VP of Marketing
2022 - 2024
Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Wiz
2022 - 2022
I helped build out marketing at Wiz until we found someone better to lead the team.
Wiz is a cybersecurity company developing a cloud security platform to help businesses secure their infrastructure.
Raised $2,000,000,000.00 from SoftBank Vision Fund.
EVP and head of OktaX
2021 - 2022
Helped create OktaX, which worked with founders inside Okta to build new startups for whatever is next.
Chief Marketing Officer
2016 - 2021
I led the marketing team at Okta through IPO and well beyond.
VP, Marketing
2015 - 2016
VP, Product Marketing
2011 - 2015
I built the product marketing team at Okta.
Okta is a management platform that secures critical resources from cloud to ground for workforce and customers.
Raised $1,229,250,000.00 from Junipero Capital and Employee Stock Option Fund.
Sr. Director, Product Management
2009 - 2011
Redwood Systems was a venture backed company transforming energy efficient commercial lighting. Joined at Series A, pre-revenue. Shipped first product, managed initial trial customers, won deals at Google, Facebook and other key facilities. Backed by Battery Ventures, USVP, and Index Ventures. Acquired by Commscope.
Redwood Systems provides LED lighting system architecture that enables customers to reduce energy costs.
Raised $42,250,000.00 from Index Ventures, Battery Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners.
CEO, co-founder
2008 - 2011
Boot-strapped online expert recommendation system for interior design. I started a tech company with my wife; the company did not make it but we did.
Director of Product Planning
2007 - 2008
Product planning / strategy for Virtex high end FPGA product line.
Director of Marketing
2003 - 2007
Led the strategic and product marketing team responsible for the high-speed serial I/O technology used on all Xilinx FPGAs.
Xilinx is a technology company that develops flexible and adaptive processing platforms.
Raised $862,000.00 from Matrix and Kleiner Perkins.
Sr. Product Line Manager
2000 - 2003
Fabless semiconductor company backed by Sequoia, Redpoint, and IVP (acquired by LSI Logic in 2003). I managed Marketing and Applications teams.
President
1999 - 2000
Started Mojam.com (via spin-off from parent company) and managed to get to profitability but not scale. Mojam.com acquired in 2007 (long after I was gone).
Product Marketing Manager
1996 - 1999
Lara designs, develops and markets silicon solutions using its patent-pending Associative Processing Technology.
Raised $63,800,000.00 from Piper Sandler, Robertson Stephens Partners, TeleSoft Partners, InveStar Capital, Needham & Company LLC, Raza Venture Fund, Battery Ventures, U.S. Bancorp, Dain Rauscher Wessels and InveStar Capital.