Mike Wiacek

Founder and CTO @ Stairwell

About

I’ve dedicated my career to solving one of cybersecurity’s hardest problems: exposing and understanding threats hidden in your systems. Began my career as a Global Network Exploitation and Vulnerability Analyst at the Department of Defense (DoD). Led Google’s response to Operation Aurora, one of the earliest and most impactful state-sponsored cyberattacks on U.S. companies. Founded and led Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), pioneering global-scale tracking of nation-state actors and protecting millions of users. Initiated and led Google's acquisition of VirusTotal. Co-founded Chronicle within Alphabet, radically transforming threat detection with scalable data infrastructure. Today, as Founder and CEO of Stairwell, my mission is clear: security is fundamentally a data search problem. At Stairwell, we're empowering security teams with a search-driven approach that definitively reveals when and where malware has ever been on their systems. Backed by $70M+ in funding from leading investors including Sequoia and Accel, Stairwell equips the world’s top security teams to outpace their adversaries. My goal is straightforward: use data and technology to help the good guys stay ahead of the bad guys.

Country

United States

City

Santa Clara

Industry

Computer & Network Security

Skill

Cybersecurity, Creativity and Innovation, Information Security, Security, Computer Security, Network Security, Penetration Testing, Software Development, Vulnerability Assessment, Analysis, Security Audits, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Scalability, Distributed Systems, System Administration, Computer Science, Data Analysis, Network Engineering, Recruiting

Experience

Founder and CTO

Stairwell

2025-7 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos

Sunnyvale, California, United States

Chief Executive Officer

Stairwell

2019-11 - 2025-7 · 5 yrs 9 mos

Mountain View, California, United States

On a mission, to "Outsmart any attacker" If you care about culture, values, and teamwork, we're hiring. Gophers are extra welcome.

Co-Founder and Chief Security Officer

Google Cloud Security

2015-9 - 2019-11 · 4 yrs 3 mos

Mountain View, CA

Chronicle LLC is an Alphabet (other bet) company that focuses exclusively on enterprise cybersecurity challenges. Our flagship product is Backstory, a planet scale data analysis platform, that can search petabytes of security data in just milliseconds. I co-founded Chronicle with Shapor Naghibzadeh and Stephen Gillett, and together we have taken the company from an initial idea to product acceptance by companies of all sizes, from SMBs to Fortune 10 enterprises. Together, we have worked at all levels of the organization, from engineering, to go to market, to legal, to recruiting. Our mission is to Give Good the Advantage, and we're just getting started.

Principal Software Engineer

Google

2015-9 - 2019-10 · 4 yrs 2 mos

Mountain View, CA

My career at Google/Alphabet began in June 2006 and continued for over 13 years. While roles and direct company reporting structures have changed (i.e. Google -> X -> Chronicle -> Google), I've remained within the Alphabet family of companies and use this experience section to make that clear.

Manager Google Security Team - Threat Analysis Group

Google

2010-1 - 2015-9 · 5 yrs 9 mos

Mountain View, CA

In early 2010, I recognized the need for a Threat Intelligence capability to augment Google's already impressive security resources. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first Threat Intelligence team outside of government or a dedicated security company. We designed and built systems that defined the space of Threat Intelligence for Google and other companies. Within this role, I lead Google's acquisition of Zynamics and VirusTotal. I represented Google's security interests in forums as diverse as of our own executive leadership up to national policy makers including the White House.