Case studies · Cole Finch
Bob Genchi, CIO/CISO at Scale Venture Partners, shares how switching to Expel replaced quarterly slide readouts and vendor lock-in with a trusted, single-threaded security partnership—giving a lean team real coverage and the freedom to choose their own tools.
Customer video transcript
A candid conversation with Bob Genchi, CIO/CISO at Scale Venture Partners, about ditching vendor lock-in and finding an MDR that actually feels like a team member.
Company: Scale Venture Partners (~100 employees and contractors, Bay Area, CA)
Interviewee: Bob Genchi, CIO/CISO at Scale Venture Partners
My name is Bob Genchi. I am at a venture capital firm, Scale Venture Partners, located here in the Bay Area in California. We are just under 100 folks that work at the firm, both FTEs and contractors. And my scope is for everything internal, making sure that not only do our computers work, but the devices are secure, and the activities that our employees are undertaking are also secure.
The challenge with Scale Venture Partners’ previous MDR vendor
We were having these quarterly check-ins where we were just literally looking at the sheet of paper of everything that happened last quarter, and they were just reading off the slide. And so there wasn’t really any value for what we were paying for and for what I was really looking for and needed, which is help when it comes to being able to look at all of those things and be able to escalate when it’s necessary to say, “Hey, there’s potentially this issue. This is how we got the alert, and we think that this could be really a potential problem. Please give us some input and let us know.” We didn’t have that. There was just a lot of noise.
Now, it’s completely different. The difference is this feels a lot more like it’s an actual team member, and it’s single-threaded through the lead analyst on our account. So I can reach out to that person anytime I want about anything. They’re available on Slack, and it’s a real interaction with real knowledge on our account, with real knowledge of our environment, with visibility to our stuff, with what feels like a real investment in keeping us safe.
Why Scale Venture Partners chose Expel over locked-in MDR vendors
The other vendors had vendor lock. So if we were going to onboard with this other vendor, we would need to use this antivirus or next-gen endpoint protection tool. It was very specific to what we could use, but with Expel, we could choose. They are as trusted as we are, and they have to be because of what they do. And it was probably more like the A1 factor for making the switch to go to them. It’s the A1 factors why we renew with them and continue to use them. They have to be trusted because they’re literally at the gate. It is interactive. It is a real partnership versus buyer-vendor. Again, a small team, really responsible for all phases in the function, architecture, projects, and operations. And it frees us up to do things ancillary as well as additive.
The other vendors in the space that are coming up or still around still have vendor lock. If you want to have choice on best of breed at individual layers of your security model that you would then ingest into your SOC, if you want control over that, Expel is best.
Key takeaways
- No vendor lock-in: full freedom to choose best-of-breed tools at every layer of the security stack
- From noise to signal: quarterly slide readouts replaced with proactive, real-time escalation
- Real partnership: Expel functions as an extension of a lean internal team, not a buyer-vendor relationship
- Renewed confidence: trust in Expel is the reason Scale Venture Partners continues to renew
Ready to replace vendor lock-in and quarterly check-ins with a security partner that’s actually invested in your environment? Learn more about Expel’s managed detection and response services and discover how we help lean teams get real coverage without the constraints.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability. For more cybersecurity insights and managed detection and response resources, visit expel.com and follow us on social media.
For more testimonials from Expel customers, visit expel.com/customers or see our customer video playlist on YouTube.
