He arrested a hacker, then spent 18 months clearing his own name. Now he’s a cybersecurity VC.

Stephen Ward, a former Secret Service agent and Home Depot CISO, is raising a second fund of roughly $250 million for Brightmind Partners, a cybersecurity fund he co-founded in New York, after a successful debut fund and a stint in the Coast Guard and Secret Service. He's betting on himself as the sole general partner after two colleagues left the firm in April. Ward's unemotional approach to exits, which he attributes to his upbringing and unusual career path, suggests that he thinks companies should be sold before they reach their peak value. He cites the example of SGNL, an identity security startup that Brightmind invested in and which was later acquired by CrowdStrike for $740 million. Ward's background and approach have contributed to his firm's success in a crowded field of early-stage cybersecurity startups.