· INVITATION ONLY · THE VANGUARD CIRCLE
The conversation your peers aren't having anywhere else.
An intimate, city-by-city gathering for CISOs, CIOs, and CTOs who are done with vendor pitches, and ready for an honest reckoning with where security is actually going.
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Attendance is limited. Reserve your space.
A NOTE FROM THE HOST
Raju Chekuri
Founder & CEO · Netenrich
I have been in this industry long enough to watch it make the same expensive mistake on a five-year loop: buy the next platform, integrate it into the stack, build a team to run it, and wonder why we are still reacting instead of leading.
I am bringing together a small group of CISOs, CTOs, and CIOs who I believe are ready for a different conversation. Not a panel. Not a vendor briefing. A genuine peer discussion about what it actually takes to get ahead of this problem, and stay there.
We will have dinner, talk honestly, and leave with something we didn't have before.
The room is small by design. I hope you will join us.
WHAT THIS IS
Not a conference.
Not a vendor briefing.
A convening.
The Vanguard Circle is a city-by-city series of invitation-only evenings for 8–12 senior security and technology leaders. The format is deliberate: no slides, no sales decks, no sponsored breakout sessions. Just peer executives and a question worth sitting with.
Netenrich serves as host, provocateur, and thought partner — not presenter. We believe the most valuable thing we can offer the executives we want to work with isn't another product demo. It's a room where they can think out loud, challenge each other, and leave with something they didn't have before..
The Provocateur Session
An opening framing talk designed to unsettle comfortable assumptions, followed by 60 minutes of peer discussion that no panel has ever had.
The Roundtable
Small-group tracks creating productive tension: CISOs and CTOs exploring where security engineering ends, and confronting who actually owns cyber risk.
The Dinner
Long table. Assigned seating designed to mix industries and roles. Conversation cards that ask the questions executives rarely say out loud. This is where trust forms.
The Evening
An unhurried five hours.
Relationship capital builds in the margins, not on the clock. Every element of the evening is engineered to create the conditions for genuine candor.
4:00 PM
Arrival & Cocktail Hour
No badges. No lanyards. Private venue — a restaurant with a Michelin nod, a members club, or a rooftop with a view. Our host, Raju Chekuri, circulates and makes personal introductions. Let the room find itself.
5:00 PM
The Provocateur Session
Raju opens with a 15-minute framing talk: The Last CISO Standing: Why the Job Either Transforms or Disappears. Not a product pitch — a challenge. Followed by 45 minutes of peer discussion designed to surface what executives are thinking but rarely say.
6:15 PM
The Roundtable
Two tracks depending on room composition. Track A with CTOs: Where does security engineering end and platform engineering begin? Track B with CIOs: Who actually owns cyber risk? Optional external voice serves as spark, not presenter.
7:00 PM
Dinner
Long table. Assigned seating that deliberately mixes companies and roles. Conversation cards at each place setting — three real questions, not icebreakers. This is where the evening's intellectual work lands in relationship.
9:00 PM
Nightcap & Closing
The informal close, where deals and relationships actually form. The evening ends on your terms.
THE QUESTIONS
We bring the questions nobody else dares to ask.
Each dinner place setting includes three printed cards. Not icebreakers. Questions designed to create the vulnerability that makes a room of executives actually useful to each other.
"What is the one thing on your attack surface that keeps you up at night that you have not told your board?"
"If your entire security program disappeared tomorrow and you had to rebuild from scratch - what would you actually keep?"
"What would it look like if your function became the most strategic team in the company - not just a cost center?"
WHO BELONGS IN THE ROOM
Curated, not broadcasted.
Each gathering holds 8–12 executives. Selection is deliberate. The room only works if everyone in it has something to contribute - and something to learn.
CISO
The primary audience. VP, SVP, or CISO at companies with 1,000+ employees. Actively engaged with or evaluating security operations strategy. Decision-maker or strong influencer on platform investments.
CTO
Invited to create cross-functional tension and insight. CTOs who own platform or infrastructure decisions bring a different lens that energizes the CISO conversation.
CIO
Particularly valuable in sessions focused on digital resilience and the converged CXO mandate. Often the budget owner or co-decision-maker on security investments.
COMPANY PROFILE
Mid-market to enterprise - $500M to $10B in revenue. Technology-forward industries: financial services, healthcare, SaaS, manufacturing, critical infrastructure. No early-stage startups. No government.
THE SERIES
Five cities.
Five evenings.
Each dinner is intimate by design - 12 to 15 security leaders, one table, one conversation. Seats are limited and go to vetted guests. Find your city and reserve your seat.
5 CITIES · SPRING 2026
The room is small by design..
Each dinner seats a carefully vetted group of security leaders. If you believe you belong in this conversation — or want to nominate a peer — we would like to hear from you.