Spotlight

"Ever tried keeping tabs on which AI tools in your organization are pulling what data—and who gave them permission?"

Quick Pitch: Barndoor is the enterprise AI access platform that gives organizations control over their AI systems through a central access layer that enforces permissions, ensures audit trails, and simplifies compliance.

The Problem

• Outpaced Governance: Companies are rolling out AI tools faster than they can keep them secure, compliant, and under control.

• Fragmented Access: Teams manage access manually across apps, leading to policy gaps and inconsistent controls.

• Legacy IAM Limits: Traditional identity and access management (IAM) tools weren’t built for non-human agents or dynamic AI workflows.

• Compliance Risk: Gaps in oversight expose enterprises to regulatory and audit failures.

• Operational Drag: Teams waste time switching tools, requesting access, and trying to track how AI is being used across disconnected systems.

Snapshot

• Industry: AI Infrastructure / Enterprise Security

• Headquarters: New York

• Year Founded: 2024

• Traction: Early design partners in place. GTM in 2025

Founder Profiles

• Oren Michels, CEO: API enterprise veteran who previously founded Mashery (acquired by Intel for $180M). MIT graduate with electrical engineering background.

• Tim Stacey, Co-Founder, Technology Lead: UW-Madison PhD graduate with 15+ years in data science, previously Application Lead at EY managing generative AI projects.

Funding

• Last Round: Raised ($15M Seed)

• Lead Investor: Crosslink Capital

• Other Investors: Preface Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, Moment Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Precursor Ventures, High Tech Ventures

Revenue Engine

• Subscription Model: Annual enterprise pricing benchmarked against identity providers like Okta, applied to non-human AI agents and services.

• Integration Fees: Additional charges for connections to proprietary systems.

• Land-and-Expand Strategy: Targets IT, security, and compliance teams, with plans to expand across business units.

What Users Love

• Set real-time rules for which AI tools get access to what

• Automates permissions to reduce risk

• Clear logs show what data was accessed, by which AI, and when

Playing Field

• Legacy IAM Solutions: Okta, Microsoft Entra, and Ping were built for people, not AI.

• AI Security Tools: Protect AI and Aporia cover parts of AI security like model monitoring, but don’t manage access or enforce governance policies.

• Point Solutions: Tools that solve one-off problems, but don’t work together as a full system.

Why It Matters

AI adoption is surging, but most access tools were built for people, not machines. That creates serious risks: unauthorized access, poor visibility, and compliance failures. Enterprises need new systems that understand how AI uses data and can enforce the right controls.

What Sets Them Apart

• AI-Native Design: Built for dynamic data and model permissions, unlike legacy IAM.

• Granular Control: Fine-tuned access at the data, model, and feature level.

• Modular Deployment: Enterprises can adopt functionality incrementally without replacing existing infrastructure.

• Real-Time Enforcement: Ensures compliance and auditability across AI workflows.

• Strong Team & Backing: Seasoned founders and top-tier investors with deep enterprise and AI expertise.

Analysis

Bulls Case 📈 

• Targeting a critical need as enterprises scale AI adoption across regulated industries.

• Strong founding team with prior exit experience and enterprise expertise.

• Significant investor backing from top-tier firms.

• Clear ROI for IT, security, and compliance teams.

• Positioned to define an emerging category in enterprise AI infrastructure.

Bears Case 📉 

• Early-stage product with design partners but no proven customers yet.

• Competing against established identity players adapting their solutions for AI.

• Enterprise sales cycles can be lengthy, requiring significant capital.

• Needs to scale product and GTM teams quickly to support enterprise growth.

Verdict

AI governance is becoming a foundational layer of enterprise infrastructure. Barndoor is early, but aiming squarely at this gap. The opportunity is real, especially in regulated sectors—but execution will hinge on buyer education, integration ease, and whether AI-specific access control stays in a standalone category or gets absorbed into broader platforms. If they get it right, they could define how enterprises govern AI at scale.

The Startup Pulse

• Artisan raised a $25M Series A led by Glade Brook Capital to scale its AI agents that automate repetitive business tasks.

• Goodfire received a $1M investment from Anthropic to advance AI model transparency—part of Anthropic’s broader $50M initiative to fund safety-focused AI startups.

• Palo Alto Networks acquired Protect AI for over $500M to strengthen its security offerings with AI model protection and a purpose-built secure browser.

Startup Jobs

15 Series B startups on a breakout trajectory. They all have $5M+ in run-rate revenue & 100% year-over-year growth. All are HIRING:

1. 11x – AI digital workers automation (San Francisco, CA)
   Hiring: Engineering, AI Research, Product, GTM

2. AiFi – Computer vision for retail spaces (US remote / Poland / China)
   Hiring: Computer Vision, Software Engineering, Business Development

3. Airbyte – Open-source data integration platform (US remote / Global remote)
   Hiring: Engineering, Developer Relations, Solutions Architecture, Product

4. Anrok – Sales tax compliance for SaaS (San Francisco, NYC / US remote)
   Hiring: Sales, Engineering, Legal/Compliance, Customer Success

5. Armada – Edge computing with satellite connectivity (San Francisco, Bellevue)
   Hiring: Hardware Engineering, Software, AI/ML, Operations

6. Baseten – MLOps for model deployment (San Francisco / NYC / Remote)
   Hiring: Backend Engineering, Developer Experience, Marketing

7. ClickHouse – OLAP analytics database (Fully remote – US, Europe, Canada, APAC)
   Hiring: Engineering, DevOps, Product Management, Sales, Support

8. CloudTrucks – Trucking and logistics platform (San Francisco, Dallas)
   Hiring: Data Analytics, Engineering, Product, Finance

9. Cognition – AI code assistant (San Francisco Bay Area)
   Hiring: Software Engineering (AI/Infra), Product, DevRel

10. Cursor – AI-powered coding tool (Global remote)
    Hiring: Software Engineering, Design, Infrastructure

11. Deepgram – Voice AI/speech-to-text platform (US remote / San Francisco)
    Hiring: Research, Engineering, GTM, Marketing

12. Dusty Robotics – Construction robotics automation (Mountain View, CA / Remote)
    Hiring: Robotics Engineering, Field Ops, Product Design

13. Encord – AI data annotation & ML ops (London / SF / Remote)
    Hiring: ML Engineering, Customer Success, GTM, Data Ops

14. fal – Generative media APIs (Remote – Global)
    Hiring: ML Infrastructure, Frontend, Partnerships

15. Fireworks AI – Generative AI model serving (Redwood City, CA / Remote)
    Hiring: ML Infra, Developer Experience, Sales, Solutions Engineering

Written by Ashher

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