Menlo Welcomes New Cybersecurity and AI Infra Partner Rama Sekhar
We are thrilled to announce Menlo Ventures’ newest partner, Rama Sekhar!
Rama joins us at the perfect time; Menlo believes that the new AI and cybersecurity stacks represent the biggest investment opportunities of the decade, and Rama will help us double down on both. He adds to a deep bench in those areas that includes Tim Tully, Joff Redfern, Venky Ganesan, and myself, and we welcome the additional energy and expertise he brings. Rama is an experienced investor and will hit the ground running. He stands out with his technical depth, investment track record, and deep relationships with entrepreneurs.
We’ve respected Rama for a long time, having crossed paths with him in the market frequently. I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with him on the Harness board, where I was impressed with his process of getting to know the company and building a relationship with the team prior to investing. He has high integrity, is super likable, and picks spots where he can help the most. The references on him from founders and VCs he’s partnered with were next-level, and the incredibly positive outreach from his network who already knew the news has been off the charts.
Rama didn’t just stumble into venture capital and then study up on technology; he cut his teeth as a systems engineer at Cisco where he was elevated to a coveted product manager role overseeing the full lifecycle of a billion-dollar product. After an MBA at Wharton, where he was moonlighting at Comcast Ventures, he started his now 15-year career in VC, most recently as a partner at Norwest Venture Partners.
While Rama is a multi-stage investor, at Menlo he will focus on early-growth opportunities—or what we call Inflection investments between $3M and $10M of ARR. It’s a huge swath of the market, and AI/cyber companies can often reach this stage very quickly. Building on Menlo’s investments in pioneering AI companies like Aisera, Anthropic, Cleanlab, and Pinecone, Rama is specifically interested in meeting founders building infrastructure, security, and observability for the new AI stack. He is passionate about democratizing software development, making AI easier to build and deploy, and securing the infrastructure and applications of tomorrow.
It’s difficult to find an investor with such deep experience in the exact sector in which you’re looking, who is such a strong cultural fit. That is a rare trifecta, and we’re thrilled to have found it in Rama. Welcome aboard, Rama! We’re all excited to collaborate with you on the best chapter of your venture career at such an amazing time to invest in areas you know well and love. Entrepreneurs, trust me—speak to people who have worked with Rama. You will want to work with him and, at a minimum, have a fine glass of wine with him, which he knows well, too!
