National security diligence for technology deals.
Before you commit capital to a company, a deal, or a technology, I look at it the way CFIUS, ITAR, and FOCI reviewers will, and tell you plainly what I see.
ben@holdpointadvisory.com →What I do
Diligence where technology, security, and investment meet.
That covers cybersecurity, defense and emerging technology, cross-border PE/VC capital flows, and energy and critical infrastructure. Anywhere a deal’s technology carries security risk the numbers don’t show.
In practice, that means looking at a company, a deal, or a technology the way a government reviewer eventually will (CFIUS, ITAR, FOCI), before that review happens. Then telling you plainly what I see: where the exposure is, how serious it is, and what it would take to deal with it.
When it matters
Most of the risk in a technology deal shows up at a commitment that’s hard to reverse: an anchor customer, a strategic or foreign investor, a move into government or overseas markets, an acquisition, a regulatory path.
I work for whoever is about to make that commitment: an investor before the check, an acquirer before the deal, a board before the vote. The goal is a clear enough picture to act while acting is still cheap.
Background
I spent five years on the government’s side of these deals. At the Justice Department’s National Security Division, I built and led the Risk Advisory Unit, which assessed technical risk in transactions and network deals reviewed under CFIUS, Team Telecom, and the federal supply-chain and data-security programs. Before that: cybersecurity policy at DHS, defense analysis at RAND, and four years at Oracle on government technology strategy. Trained in engineering and public policy at Stanford and Harvard Kennedy School. Today I serve as a cyber officer in the Air Force Reserve.
The future is easier to face once someone has looked at it closely. That’s the job.