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Mike Graninger’s journey to lead Sands Capital’s early-stage venture strategy and its most recent focus on global resilience began with a desire to fix an outdated and unworkable system for global security.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mike Graninger made a decision that would shape the rest of his career. He had been on a conventional path, with a quantitative background, consulting experience, and investment banking. The events of 9/11 changed his worldview. He wanted his work to be mission driven and tied to outcomes that mattered beyond financial returns.
That decision led him to In-Q-Tel, an independent nonprofit strategic investor that partners with U.S. national security agencies to identify and invest in technologies relevant to their missions, where he spent roughly 15 years investing in venture-backed companies and helping bring new technology into complex, high-stakes environments. The lesson he carried forward was not only about threats. It was about systems and ensuring they were resilient enough to support enterprise and defense needs.
In the early 2000s, resilience failures often looked like fragmentation and incompatibility. Agencies that needed to coordinate did not share information effectively. Communications systems did not interoperate. Data collection expanded faster than the infrastructure needed to interpret and act on it.
Today, the threat environment is more dangerous, but the underlying challenge is familiar. Cyber intrusions target governments, enterprises, and critical infrastructure. They target supply chains that are highly exposed spanning across software and cloud platforms. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how work gets done, and it is also changing attacker capability. As these threats evolve, it becomes clear the systems that support modern life are only as resilient as the technology that underpins them.
Going Private
When Graninger left In-Q-Tel after 15 years, he was not stepping away from that problem. He was moving closer to where it was evolving. The infrastructure shaping intelligence, logistics, finance, healthcare, and industrial operations has increasingly been built in the private sector. As resilience has become a digital question, it has also become a market question.
At Sands Capital, Graninger saw an opportunity to apply the same systems lens in a broader arena. He and the rest of the Global Venture team work to specifically meet that need. Most recently, they turned their focus to finding emerging technologies at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. They are looking for early-stage businesses building transformational technology that strengthens global resilience and whose innovation is critical to the public and private sectors. Ultimately, it is built around the team’s belief that institutions cannot operate effectively in a volatile world without strong AI capabilities and strong cyber defense. Those capabilities are becoming foundational rather than optional.
The overall strategy focuses on early-stage companies, often from seed through Series B, because that is where the meaningful architectural decisions are made. It is where true success and opportunities can be created. During moments of technological reset, early choices matter disproportionately. In Graninger’s view, the current cycle represents one of those moments.
Rebuilding the Stack
AI is not simply an upgrade to existing software. It is reshaping the technology stack itself. Chips, data centers, and advanced models receive much of the attention, but the real test comes later, when intelligence moves into daily workflows. Decisions begin to automate. Systems interact with one another at machine speed. Value shows up in operations rather than infrastructure.
That is where resilience becomes tangible.
Graninger often speaks about applied AI as the point where infrastructure investments turn into measurable productivity and operational change. In government settings, that can mean improving intelligence analysis or logistics planning. In enterprises, it can mean transforming how supply chains are managed, how financial crime is detected, or how complex administrative systems function.
Healthcare offers one example. Administrative complexity can strain a system’s ability to deliver care efficiently. Applied AI that reduces paperwork burdens or improves accuracy strengthens the system’s ability to function under pressure.
Robotics offers another example. The story is less about hardware and more about software that coordinates fleets, integrates physical tasks into digital systems, and makes deployments repeatable. Intelligence becomes the connective layer between physical work and digital control.
Intelligence and Trust
Every gain in intelligence introduces new vulnerabilities.
As AI automates work, it can also automate cyber offense. Attackers move faster. Barriers to entry decline. Synthetic identities and convincing digital artifacts make fraud more difficult to detect. Systems increasingly interact without human intervention. Defense must operate at the same speed as the systems it protects.
In this environment, cybersecurity cannot be an afterthought. It must be embedded into workflows, permissions, and orchestration logic from the start. AI expands capability. Security preserves trust. The two evolve together.
Graninger believes early-stage companies are often best positioned to meet these challenges. Established platforms must protect existing revenue streams and maintain backward compatibility. Younger companies can design from first principles. They can embed governance, observability, and access control into the core product rather than layering them on later.
They can also move quickly. AI lowers the cost of experimentation and shortens iteration cycles. In markets shaped by evolving threats and shifting compliance expectations, speed matters. Early teams can partner closely with customers, refine products rapidly, and expand from narrow mission-critical workflows outward.
The opportunity is inherently global. Data flows across borders. Supply chains span continents. Threat actors operate without regard for jurisdiction. Many ambitious young companies serve multiple allied markets from inception. Resilience cannot be confined to one geography.
Why It Matters
For institutional investors, we believe the implications are increasingly clear. Resilience is becoming a prerequisite for growth rather than a defensive add on. Organizations cannot adopt AI at scale without securing it. They cannot digitize operations without protecting them. Companies that enable both adoption and defense may become deeply embedded in the systems institutions rely on every day.
Graninger’s career arc follows a consistent thread. He has spent more than two decades studying where systems fail and backing technologies designed to help them endure. The setting may have shifted from government to global markets, but the questions remain the same. How will institutions adapt to these new challenges and what opportunities does this create?
Resilience is no longer confined to national security. It is an operating requirement of the global economy. Global resilience reflects that reality and a belief that enduring companies should be built at the intersection of intelligence and trust.
Disclosures:
The Venture Capital and Private Growth Equity investment strategies are managed by Sands Capital Alternatives, LLC and are only available through private placement to qualified investors.
The views expressed are the opinion of Sands Capital and are not intended as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendations or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The views expressed were current as of the date indicated and are subject to change.
This material may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to uncertainty and contingencies outside of Sands Capital’s control. Readers should not place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements. There is no guarantee that Sands Capital will meet its stated goals. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
All investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal. Recent tariff announcements may add to this risk, creating additional economic uncertainty and potentially affecting the value of certain investments. Tariffs can impact various sectors differently, leading to changes in market dynamics and investment performance. The Global Venture strategy is concentrated in a limited number of emerging technology companies. Some of the risks impacting the strategy include cybersecurity risk, cryptocurrency risk, risks associated with investing in India and China and special risks, such as products or services not proving commercially successful or quickly becoming obsolete.
Sands Capital refers to the combination of Sands Capital Management, LLC, Sands Capital Alternatives, LLC, and Sands Capital Horizons, LLC. All three firms are registered investment advisers with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The three registered investment advisers share certain personnel, office space, and other resources.
This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer, invitation, or recommendation to buy, sell, subscribe for, or issue any securities. The material is based on information that we consider correct, and any estimates, opinions, conclusions, or recommendations contained in this communication are reasonably held or made at the time of compilation. However, no warranty is made as to the accuracy or reliability of any estimates, opinions, conclusions, or recommendations. It should not be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice and may not be reproduced or distributed to any person.
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