Dragos CEO Robert Lee joins Maryland’s DataTribe as venture partner

Robert Lee, co-founder and CEO of Dragos, has joined DataTribe, the global cyber foundry in Fulton that invests in and co-builds cybersecurity and data science companies, as a venture partner.

Lee, who secured seed funding from DataTribe, comes full circle to help today’s swath of cyber entrepreneurs focused on protecting national and economic security. He will remain as the Dragos full-time CEO.

As a venture partner, Lee will help company founders navigate the challenges and opportunities he faced when building a venture-backed technology company outside of Silicon Valley and rebuffed investors who required him to move to the West Coast. DataTribe was the only firm that understood the value of staying on the East Coast in the greater Washington, Maryland and Virginia region’s cyber, government and national security talent pool.

Coming out of the U.S. Air Force Cyber Warfare Operations and the National Security Agency, Lee identified and analyzed threats to industrial infrastructure. His front-line government experience highlighted the need for commercial and scalable industrial cybersecurity solutions. Lee leveraged DataTribe’s unique cyber foundry model – that provides access to capital and marketing, product management, sales, engineering, legal, and finance expertise – to found Dragos.

DataTribe companies also get exclusive access to a curated network of strategic partners and advisors. The firm invests in over-the-horizon cybersecurity solutions to defeat the most aggressive, creative, and persistent offensive cybercriminals.

DataTribe has provided seed investments for some of the cyber industry’s fastest-growing companies, including BlackCloak, Dragos, SixMap, Enveil and Strider.