Why I Joined Straiker

After spending more than two decades helping cybersecurity companies scale from their earliest days through IPOs and acquisitions, I’ve learned that the most important decision I can make is where to place my energy next. It’s been 30 days since I joined Straiker to lead sales and serve our customers, and I’m even more excited about my decision!

During my process I met with many exceptional CEOs and VPs, including Ankur Shah, building exciting companies with purpose. But I knew I was looking for something specific: a company that combined great people, a meaningful mission, and truly differentiated technology to help customers.

Straiker checked every box

• A team of genuine human beings who care deeply about their customers and each other
• A relentless focus on delivering impactful outcomes, not just software
• Inflection point / Market timing. This is a now problem and only growing
• A mission that couldn’t be more relevant: solving the complex, fast-emerging problem of AI security
• Visionary leadership from founders Ankur Shah and Sreenath Kurupati
•  Top-tier investors, including VC partners like Lightspeed and Bain Capital, and advisors who are ALL IN on our mission
• Game-changing technology that’s redefining how enterprises secure agentic AI applications

The rise of AI security

Every major technology shift in cybersecurity has created both opportunities and new attack surfaces. From early on in my career I enjoyed helping customers and solving problems as a hands-on technical person. There were some interesting technological evolutions such as the rise of the Internet which led me to Internet Security and firewalls hence my move to  NetScreen. When insider threats rose, Varonis led the way. When you saw the large nation state attacks and little understating post mortem -  Tanium answered the bell. When endpoint detection and response was redefined, SentinelOne innovated and  made history with the largest cybersecurity IPO to date. As software development took a front seat and  application security went from a tactical to a strategic play, Apiiro helped secure the development lifecycle.

It was an honor being around amazing companies and serving customers. Most recently, all of my customers were inquiring about AI Security

Today, we’re at the dawn of a new era: AI chatbots, AI-native applications and autonomous agents are moving from experiments to business-critical systems. That creates an entirely new attack surface… one that legacy AppSec tools were never built to protect.

Straiker is building the solution from the ground up for this frontier. With products like:

• Ascend AI — autonomous red teaming to continuously uncover where agentic applications can fail
  
• Defend AI — runtime guardrails that enforce policies and protect applications at machine speed

This dual offense + defense model is unlike anything I’ve seen in the market. It’s a vision built for where enterprises are headed, not just where they’ve been.

Why Straiker, why now

When customers were asking me about AI security, they wanted help and guidance. Why? The business is moving faster with AI and CIO’s and CISO’s, who are typically enabling the business, are now trying to do this in a controlled and secure manner

Every vendor is pouncing on this opportunity, in a good way, but the market is very confusing. This year at  RSA and Blackhat all you heard was every vendor talk about AI, and rightfully so. But merely slapping a .AI to your company name or evolving your tech (which you should be always doing anyway) to leverage AI doesn't always qualify you as an AI security company. To truly Secure and Defend AI you need AI - You need to Fight fire with Fire. 

Customers are in fact getting fatigued by all the AI marketing in the security industry right now and they need clear direction and for the vendors to be advisors and partners with them on their AI journey. 

From hearing the initial thesis, to seeing the product in action I was captivated and leaned in even more. What impressed me most was Straiker’s combination of world-class technology and human-centered culture. The team has the credibility, humility, and passion to build something enduring. And the mission, to bring trust and security to agentic AI, is one of the most important problems of our time.

For me, the choice was clear. Straiker represents the kind of once-in-a-generation opportunity I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of before. Only this time, the stakes are even higher and the impact to the business can be catastrophic if not handled properly.

30 days in: early reflections

One month into this role, a few things have stood out immediately:

• The caliber of the team — Straiker is filled with people who combine deep technical expertise with humility and curiosity. It’s rare to find that balance at a fast-moving startup
  
• The urgency from customers — in nearly every conversation, enterprises are wrestling with how to secure AI copilots, chatbots, and multi-agent systems. The pain is real, and the market is moving faster than many anticipated‍
• The technology in action — seeing how Ascend AI and Defend AI work together in a closed-loop system -- has reinforced just how differentiated Straiker’s approach is. This isn’t theory; it’s technology customers can deploy today.
  

Thirty days may not sound like much, but it’s been enough to confirm that I made the right choice. This is validated by our current customers and prospects driving POC’s to solve real problems. Our partners are excited too!! They are all being asked by their customers for help! Straiker isn’t just building a product; it’s defining the playbook for how enterprises will secure AI.

Looking ahead

The rise of AI is inevitable. With Straiker, we have the chance to make it secure.

If you’re a CISO, security leader, or AI builder thinking about how to protect agentic AI applications, I’d love to connect and share what we’re learning. And if you’re a sales professional passionate about joining a team building the next frontier of cybersecurity, let’s talk, we’re growing fast.