# Nathan Sportsman

> Nathan Sportsman is the founder and CEO of Praetorian, an Austin-based offensive cybersecurity firm he started in 2010 and bootstrapped for a decade before taking a Series A led by McKinsey in 2020. Beyond running the company, he hosts and produces 'Where Warlocks Stay Up Late,' a long-form interview series documenting the hackers who built the field. He is a contributing author to 'Hacking Exposed,' a U.S. patent holder, and a former adjunct professor at UT Austin.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Praetorian
- **Organizations:** Praetorian, Where Warlocks Stay Up Late, University of Texas at Austin (former adjunct), Sun Microsystems (former), Symantec (former), McAfee (former)
- **From:** Corpus Christi, Texas, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, Electrical & Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Richard King High School (Corpus Christi, TX)
- **Known for:** Founded and scaled Praetorian to roughly 150 employees and ~$42M annual revenue, Multiple Inc. 5000 appearances; Cybersecurity 500; CIO Top 20; Austin Fastest 50, Contributing author to the 'Hacking Exposed' book series

## Career timeline

- **pre-2010** — Technical roles at Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and McAfee
- **2010** — Founded Praetorian in Austin, Texas
- **2020** — Praetorian closed a $10M Series A led by McKinsey after a decade of bootstrapping
- **2023** — Following Kevin Mitnick's death, began planning 'Where Warlocks Stay Up Late'
- **2024** — Launched 'Where Warlocks Stay Up Late' interview series

## Achievements

- Founded and scaled Praetorian to roughly 150 employees and ~$42M annual revenue
- Multiple Inc. 5000 appearances; Cybersecurity 500; CIO Top 20; Austin Fastest 50
- Contributing author to the 'Hacking Exposed' book series
- U.S. patent holder
- Served as adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin
- Bootstrapped Praetorian for a decade before raising outside capital

## Latest updates

- **2024-06** — Launched 'Where Warlocks Stay Up Late' interview series
- **2025-06** — Filmed 'man on the street' interviews at industry events for the WWSUL project

## Links

- Website: https://www.praetorian.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathansportsman/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/praetorianlabs
- YouTube: https://wherewarlocksstayuplate.com/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/praetorianlabs

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nathan-sportsman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-09