Steel Patriot Partners opens a client conversation with the business, then the engineering, then the compliance, and the order is not accidental. Jason Ford and Michael Parisi trace where that sequence came from, what it changes about the advice a client actually receives, and how an organization can find out where it really stands.
Steel Patriot Partners lists its priorities in an order much of the cybersecurity industry reverses. Business owners first, engineers second, security and compliance people third. Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, says the sequence is deliberate and shapes how the firm opens a client conversation.
The order tracks the path the founders took. Jason Ford, Co-Founder and CEO, started in the late 1990s as a government contractor at the FBI, met FISMA and SAS 70 early, and built a platform for the Treasury that sold savings bonds online before PCI was a standard. He started his first company in 2004, took it through FedRAMP in 2013, and was acquired in 2017 holding 35 to 36 authorizations to operate across multiple agencies.
What changes when an advisor is free to answer directly? Parisi spent about 15 years in the Big Four across PwC and Deloitte before joining Steel Patriot Partners. Auditors hold independence, which means watching a decision head the wrong way without steering it. In an advisory seat, he says, telling an organization that its preferred direction falls apart as a business decision becomes part of the work.
How does a company find out where it actually stands? Ford says compliance is one outcome among many, sitting alongside operational maturity, better visibility, and integrating AI into DevSecOps. The common gap is not knowing where you sit on your own maturity journey. That finding cuts both ways, and some organizations learn they are further along than they assumed.
Buying more tools rarely closes the gap. Ford argues the work is holistic and that each organization is unique, so what fits one may fit another poorly. AI does not settle it either, since a model fed your own assumptions will hand them back.
The name follows the same logic. Steel is Pittsburgh, Patriot is Boston, and Partners is the operating model, since Steel Patriot Partners advises, deploys and operates environments alongside the client. Parisi closes by asking anyone weighing a path to verify it as a business decision rather than as an information security purchase or a price comparison.
This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight
GUESTS
Jason Ford, Co-Founder and CEO, Steel Patriot Partners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-ford-5ab206/
Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, Steel Patriot Partners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/
RESOURCES
Steel Patriot Partners: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/
Find Your Path, the qualifier that helps you locate your starting point: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/find-your-path
ROI Workshop: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/roi-workshop
ITSPmagazine event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas
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KEYWORDS
jason ford, michael parisi, steel patriot partners, marco ciappelli, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, cybersecurity compliance, grc, fedramp, fisma, cmmc, maturity assessment, cybersecurity advisory, business risk, compliance strategy, security consulting, ai in devsecops, trusted advisor