CyberShark Pitch Competition Names Finalists from First Round of 2026 Event Series

While on site at the 2026 RSA Conference, a panel of eight CISO judges evaluated pitches from five emerging cybersecurity companies looking to prove the value of their solutions – Congratulations to finalists Ent and Helmet Security

BALTIMORE, MD, April 8, 2026 – Hosted by LaunchTech Communications, a CyberRisk Alliance resource specializing in PR and AR services for the cybersecurity industry, the CyberShark Pitch Competition today announced the first two finalists to advance in the 2026 program.

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The CyberShark Pitch Competition provides emerging cybersecurity companies with an opportunity to pitch their product and receive feedback from Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). During the in-person event held the week of RSA Conference, a panel of CISO judges from a variety of industries determined which presentation conveyed the most distinct value proposition.

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“The power of the cybersecurity community was on display during this latest round of CyberShark pitches. A huge thanks to our CISO judging panel for contributing not only their time and expertise, but also enthusiastically and thoughtfully engaging with these early-stage innovators,” said Taylor Hadley, SVP Client Relations at LaunchTech Communications. “With investment in cybersecurity startups hitting its highest level in three years in 2025, opportunities for these companies to get real-time feedback on their product-market fit from CISOs are priceless.”

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2026 CyberShark Pitch Competition “Round 1” Finalists:

• Ent – An AI-native security platform built around one idea: understanding intent. Ent runs at the edge, sees what users see and do, and intervenes before damage occurs.
• Helmet Security – A unified platform built for agentic connectivity, helping enterprises discover, secure, and govern agentic AI and its supporting infrastructure.

This program is designed to be a win-win; cybersecurity vendors gain invaluable feedback to inform their go to market strategy and exposure to potential word of mouth referrals, and the CyberRisk Alliance CISO community gains insight into breakthrough solutions and serve to potentially influence how these companies ultimately meet market needs.

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Throughout the event’s judging process, the CISO panel emphasized several key elements of a strong pitch: clearly articulating differentiated value in a crowded market, demonstrating how the solution works in practice, and addressing the “build vs. buy” question. Judges also highlighted the importance of demonstrating real-world use cases, ease of deployment, and immediate operational impact. Solutions that show clear paths to enforcement, scalability, and integration across modern and legacy environments – while reducing complexity – are most likely to succeed in the opinion of the judges.

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“Presenting to a room full of CISOs is no easy task, but this round of CyberShark participants brought energy and strong company stories to tell. In response, the judging panel brought the heat and left no question un-asked to help them uncover stand-out solutions,” said Wayne Schepens, Chief Cyber Market Analyst at CyberRisk Alliance. “We created this program to offer the market a meaningful way to validate their solutions while engaging directly with key industry decision-makers, and we look forward to phase two of this year’s competition and the chance to showcase a winning company.”

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A second opportunity to pitch CISO judges in person will take place during the week of Black Hat USA 2026, where two more finalists will advance in the CyberShark Pitch Competition. Those finalists, and the finalists from RSAC, will go head-to-head in the final round of the competition taking place virtually as part of a live broadcast in the fall of 2026. All 2,000+ members of CyberRisk Collaborative will be invited to participate as judges in the final round.

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To be considered for a pitch slot on site at Black Hat USA, email cybershark@cyberriskalliance.com.

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For more information about LaunchTech Communications, visit golaunchtech.com.

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About CyberRisk Alliance

CyberRisk Alliance provides business intelligence that helps the cybersecurity ecosystem connect, share knowledge, accelerate careers, and make smarter and faster decisions. Through its trusted information brands, network of experts, and more than 250 annual events, CRA delivers actionable insights and serves as a powerful extension of cybersecurity marketing teams. Its brands include SC World, the Official Cybersecurity Summits, Identiverse, InfoSec World, CyberRisk Collaborative, Security Weekly, ChannelPro, ChannelE2E, MSSP Alert, ExecWeb, LaunchTech Communications, and CyberRisk TV.  Learn more at www.cyberriskalliance.com.

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