Mårten Mickos

Angel Investor; former CEO of HackerOne, Eucalyptus, MySQL

Reviewed Updated Jun 14, 2026

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Location Seattle, Washington
Check Size Angel (undisclosed)
Last Verified Investment Tangled (Seed) — Mar 2, 2026
Social LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed pre-seed
Sector Focus
developer-tools open-source infrastructure cybersecurity enterprise-software

Background

Mårten Mickos was born November 6, 1962, in Espoo, Finland, and holds an M.Sc. in Technical Physics from the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) 1. He is a Finnish-American executive based in the Seattle area 1.

Mickos served as CEO of MySQL AB from 2001 to 2008, growing the company from a small open-source startup to one of the largest open-source companies in the world. Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL for approximately $1 billion in February 2008, after which Mickos became Senior Vice President of Sun’s database group 1. He subsequently held Entrepreneur-in-Residence roles at Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures (2009–2010) 1.

From 2010 to 2014, Mickos was CEO of cloud computing software company Eucalyptus Systems, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in September 2014; he then served as SVP and GM of HP’s Cloud Business Unit until October 2015 1. In late 2015 he became CEO of bug-bounty platform HackerOne, a role he held until transitioning to a strategic advisor position in May 2024 1. He was Honorary Consul of Finland in San Francisco from 2019 to 2024 and is an Executive in Residence at Aalto University (2025–) launching its Founders School entrepreneurship program 1.

Mickos has been an active angel investor since at least 2010 23. He also runs a co-investment page on Wefunder under the handle martenmickos 4.

Stated Thesis

Mickos publicly frames his angel investing around supporting entrepreneurs in open-source, infrastructure, and software businesses he can help build. On his Wefunder co-investor page, his stated approach centers on “believing in someone, proving it with my investment, and then helping them reach their dream” 4.

When announcing his investment in supply-chain collaboration startup Jakamo in 2015, he framed his rationale as: “Companies need an online platform that connects suppliers and buyers on a team-to-team level. They need an instant access to vital business information, and to be able to take action quickly.” 5

Inferred Thesis

Based on a limited but consistent set of verified angel checks (sample size ~5 confirmed deals across 2010–2026), Mickos’s behavior shows a strong tilt toward:

  • Open-source and developer infrastructure, mirroring his MySQL/Eucalyptus/HackerOne operating background. Verified investments include Tangled (federated, open-source GitHub alternative, 2026) 67, Erply (Estonian POS/retail software, 2010) 2, and Unleash (open-source feature flagging, 2021) 3.
  • Nordic and Baltic founders, even after relocating to the U.S. Confirmed Nordic/Baltic checks include Tangled (Finland) 6, Erply (Estonia) 2, Jakamo (Finland) 5, Aiforia / Fimmic (Finland) 8, and Unleash (Norway) 3.
  • Enterprise / B2B software rather than consumer. All five verified angel investments above are B2B software businesses 23568.
  • Co-investing alongside notable operators, especially in open-source. In Tangled’s 2026 seed he invested alongside Thomas Dohmke (former CEO of GitHub) and Avery Pennarun (CEO of Tailscale) 6.

Stage: verified rounds are seed / early-stage. Sample size is too small to compute reliable percentages — qualitative description used instead. Mickos is not a co-founder, GP, or LP of byFounders despite frequent association with the Nordic ecosystem; byFounders’s team page lists neither his name nor his role 9, and his connection to byFounders is as an angel co-investor on at least one of their portfolio deals (Tangled) 6.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
Erply 2010 Series A (angel participant) 2
Jakamo 2015 Seed (angel + advisor) 5
Fimmic / Aiforia 2015 Growth round (€1.5M with Tekes) 8
Unleash 2021 Early-stage 3
Tangled 2026-03-02 Seed (€3.8M; byFounders led) 67

Pitchbook aggregator profiles list additional investments under Mickos’s name (including Local Motors and ArcticStartup) but without contemporaneous primary-source confirmations they are not included here 310.

In Their Own Words

“Companies need an online platform that connects suppliers and buyers on a team-to-team level. They need an instant access to vital business information, and to be able to take action quickly.”

— Mårten Mickos, on his Jakamo investment, August 21, 2015 5

What Founders Say

“Mårten brings in the knowledge and experience our company needs right now. He knows the global enterprise software markets and that helps us develop our service even more customer oriented.”

— Anssi Uitto, CEO and Co-Founder of Jakamo, August 21, 2015 5

No other independently sourced founder testimonials were found within the scope of this research pass.

Connections

  • Former CEO, MySQL AB (2001–2008) — led the company through Sun Microsystems’ ~$1B acquisition in 2008 1.
  • Former CEO, Eucalyptus Systems (2010–2014) — acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2014; subsequently SVP/GM, HP Cloud Business Unit 1.
  • Former CEO, HackerOne (2015–2024); transitioned to strategic advisor in May 2024 1.
  • Former Board Member, Nokia Corporation (2012–2015) 1.
  • Former Board Member: RightScale, Mozilla Messaging, Node.js Foundation, Electrosonic 1.
  • Executive in Residence, Aalto University (2025–), launching Founders School 1.
  • Honorary Consul of Finland in San Francisco (2019–2024) 1.
  • Co-investor (Tangled seed, 2026): Thomas Dohmke (former GitHub CEO), Avery Pennarun (Tailscale CEO), byFounders (lead), Bain Capital Crypto, Antler, Sami Honkonen 6.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Mårten Mickos,” accessed June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A5rten_Mickos↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Science|Business, “Estonian start-up Erply raises $2M from US and European VCs,” accessed June 2026. https://sciencebusiness.net/news/68309/Estonian-start-up-Erply-raises-$2M-from-US-and-European-VCs↩↩↩↩↩

  3. PitchBook investor profile, “Marten Mickos,” accessed June 2026. https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/126162-37↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Wefunder, “Coinvest with Marten Mickos,” accessed June 2026. https://wefunder.com/martenmickos↩↩

  5. Jakamo, “Mårten Mickos Joins Jakamo as an Investor and Advisor,” August 21, 2015, accessed June 2026. https://jakamo.net/marten-mickos-joins-jakamo-as-an-investor-and-advisor/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. The Next Web, “Europe’s Tangled raises €3.8M from byFounders and GitHub’s ex-CEO,” March 2, 2026, accessed June 2026. https://thenextweb.com/news/europes-tangled-raises-e3-8m-from-byfounders-and-githubs-ex-ceo↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. EU-Startups, “Finland’s Tangled raises €3.8 million, backed by GitHub’s former CEO, to build a European alternative to the US platform,” March 2026, accessed June 2026. https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/03/finlands-tangled-raises-e3-8-million-backed-by-githubs-former-ceo-to-build-a-european-alternative-to-the-us-based-platform/↩↩

  8. MarketScreener, “Fimmic Oy announced that it has received funding,” October 18, 2015, accessed June 2026. https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/AIFORIA-TECHNOLOGIES-OYJ-130004024/news/Fimmic-Oy-announced-that-it-has-received-funding-38221188/↩↩↩

  9. byFounders, “Team,” accessed June 2026. https://www.byfounders.vc/team↩

  10. PitchBook investor profile (alternate), “Mårten Mickos,” accessed June 2026. https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/154947-07↩