Alcatraz AI builds the Rock and Rock X - AI-powered facial authentication devices that replace badges, fobs and PINs at the door. The Cupertino-based company combines edge computer vision, 3D depth sensing, and privacy-by-design encryption to authenticate people without storing their faces in the cloud, and is used by Fortune 100 firms, hyperscale AI data centers, major U.S. airports, and NFL teams.
Coram AI is a Sunnyvale-based AI video security platform that transforms existing IP camera infrastructure into an intelligent security operation. Founded in 2022 by two PhD-holding ex-Lyft autonomous driving engineers, Coram replaces outdated, hardware-locked surveillance systems with a cloud-native platform featuring natural language video search, real-time AI threat detection, access control integration, and emergency management — all without requiring customers to rip out their existing cameras. The company serves industries from healthcare and education to manufacturing and warehousing, and in January 2025 raised a $13.8M Series A led by Battery Ventures.
Dean Drako is a serial entrepreneur and engineer who has founded more than six companies across cybersecurity, cloud video surveillance, physical access control, and electric vehicles. He invented the IT industry's first spam filter appliance at Barracuda Networks, took the company to a NYSE IPO, then turned his restless attention to cloud video security at Eagle Eye Networks and physical access control at Brivo. In December 2025 he merged both into the world's largest AI cloud-native physical security company, assuming the CEO chair at Brivo. He holds 53+ patents and has won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award twice - a feat as rare as his other hobby: co-founding an electric supercar company.
Mike Promotico is the President and CEO of ProTelesis Corporation, a San Diego-based managed IT services provider he has helped build into a West Coast powerhouse over 37+ years in telecommunications. Starting as a principal at INet Corp in 1987 and helping grow it into one of North America's largest Mitel resellers, Promotico has spent three decades bridging the gap between traditional telecom and modern IT - co-founding Technology Assurance Group, leading Standard Tel Networks, and ultimately guiding ProTelesis through eight strategic acquisitions including the 2025 cyber-physical convergence play with Amer-X Security. Under his leadership, ProTelesis manages over 100,000 endpoints for more than 10,000 customers across the U.S.
Ashesh Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Coram AI, a Sunnyvale-based startup turning ordinary IP security cameras into AI-powered intelligence endpoints. A Cornell PhD and IIT Delhi alumnus, Jain spent years at the frontier of autonomous vehicles - building perception systems at Zoox and leading Lyft's self-driving program as Head of Autonomy - before pivoting that expertise into reimagining physical security. His research work includes Brain4Cars (a car that predicts driver errors before they happen) and the award-winning Structural-RNN paper (CVPR 2016 Best Student Paper), which has over 1,600 citations. Coram AI raised a $13.8M Series A in January 2025 led by Battery Ventures, and its platform now monitors thousands of cameras across schools, hospitals, warehouses, and manufacturing sites across the U.S.
Samuel Joseph is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hakimo, a San Francisco-based AI security platform that uses computer vision and generative AI to autonomously monitor physical security infrastructure - cameras, badge readers, access control systems - in real time. A Stanford PhD and IIT Madras gold medalist (President's Medal for topping the entire graduating batch of 2016), Joseph built Hakimo to solve a deceptively simple problem: security teams drowning in false alarms. The company has raised $20.5M in total funding, including a $10.5M Series A in March 2025, and protects 400+ properties across self-storage, construction, automotive, higher education, and corporate sectors - saving customers roughly $125,000 per year compared to a human security guard.
Tina D'Agostin is the CEO of Alcatraz AI, a Cupertino-based company building AI-powered facial authentication for physical access control. With 25+ years in security technology spanning Johnson Controls, Niscayah (Stanley), and executive roles at the intersection of hardware and enterprise software, she leads a company that protects over five million employees at Fortune 500 firms, data centers, airports, and stadiums - positioning Alcatraz as 'the Face ID for physical spaces.' Under her leadership, the company raised a $50M Series B in April 2026, bringing total funding to over $100 million.