Matt Kraning

Matt Kraning is a Partner at Menlo Ventures focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and national defense. He previously co-founded Expanse, an attack surface management company acquired by Palo Alto Networks for over $800 million. At Palo Alto Networks, he served as CTO of a billion-dollar product group and led company-wide generative AI development. He holds a Ph. D. from Stanford University.

Originally from a physics background, Matt transitioned to electrical engineering for his graduate studies at Stanford. He is driven by a passion for understanding powerful, complex systems and grounding them in real-world applications that deliver tangible value. Colleagues have described him as intelligent, resourceful, and possessing deep technical knowledge.

Unique fact: While working for DARPA, he was deployed to Afghanistan as the Lead Data Scientist.