Orion Hindawi

Hindawi began helping at BigFix, the security firm that was his father David Hindawi’s second company, while in high school and started working there in 1997; he later enrolled at UC BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a campus of the University of California system; the University of California was founded in 1868 through a merger of two institutions and moved to Berkeley, California, in 1873.Open the full entry but stopped attending classes as a sophomore because the work at BigFix was more engaging. At 22 he was put in charge of BigFix’s 15-person technology department. He recalled, “There's just no school that teaches this.”⁠[1][2]

In 2007 Hindawi co-founded Tanium with his father, David Hindawi. He holds multiple software patents in network communications and systems management, has led the development of enterprise-scale endpoint security and management platforms at BigFix and Tanium for about 18 years, and serves on Tanium’s board of directors.⁠[1][2]

On June 27, 2014, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: When Large Scale Gets Really Massive — Managing Today's Enterprise Networks” on its website, featuring Hindawi, then CTO and co-founder of Tanium, and a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky. The episode discussed how large enterprise networks with hundreds of thousands of nodes can take days to answer simple inventory and risk questions, introduced Tanium as a systems management and security tool designed to answer them in seconds, its origins and its “linear peer-to-peer communications” architecture, and how networks may grow to millions or billions of nodes with the Internet of Things. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[3][4]

On May 5, 2015, a16z published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Getting Security Right Isn't as Hard as You Think (But the Effort Never Ends)” on its website, in which Hindawi, then Tanium’s CTO, discussed getting security hygiene right both technically and culturally. The episode noted that security failures often stem from basic hygiene gaps rather than sophisticated attacks, and that in recent high-profile breaches someone inside had sensed a problem but lacked a way to escalate it. Hindawi said, “There's this misconception that we can't defend against these attacks.” It was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[5][6]

In September 2015 Tanium raised $120 million and then another $30 million at a $3.5 billion valuation. David Hindawi was then CEO and chairman and Orion Hindawi president and CTO, co-leading the company and making every major decision jointly. Speaking of his father, he said, “I know he'd give me everything he had, and I would do the same.”⁠[1]

On January 20, 2016, a16z published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: The Fundamentals of Security and the Story of Tanium's Growth” on its website, recorded at the a16z Capital Summit, in which Hindawi, Tanium co-founder, spoke with Ben HorowitzBen HorowitzBen Horowitz is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and business author who co-founded Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with Marc Andreessen in 2009. He previously led Loudcloud’s transition into Opsware and its 2007 sale to Hewlett-Packard. His writing and investing address startup management, organizational culture and the relationship between technology and cultural industries.Open the full entry, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz. The episode argued that most companies should focus on keeping their digital “doors and windows” locked rather than on sophisticated nation-state attacks, and discussed the state of enterprise security and how Tanium’s “block and tackle” approach shaped its technology and growth. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[7][8]

Tanium: Official website: https://www.tanium.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orionhindawi/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]