# Tristan Kalos

> Tristan Kalos is the New York-based co-founder and CEO of Escape, founded with Antoine Carossio in 2020. A former software developer, UC Berkeley researcher and machine learning engineer at source{d}, he turned the experience of a client database breach into a company focused on API and application security. He writes technical guides, contributes to developer education and speaks at security conferences. Escape joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch and announced an $18 million Series A in March 2026.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Escape
- **Organizations:** Escape, source{d}, University of California, Berkeley, DaTA ENSTA
- **Education:** Engineering diploma; applied mathematics and artificial intelligence, ENSTA Paris, X-HEC Entrepreneurs master’s program, HEC Paris and École Polytechnique, Postgraduate entrepreneurship track, University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Winter 2023 accelerator batch (not an academic degree), Y Combinator
- **Known for:** Co-founded Escape in 2020 with Antoine Carossio., Escape received the Jean-Louis Gerondeau - Safran prize in November 2020, with a €20,000 award., Participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch with Escape.

## Career timeline

- **2015-2017** — Founding member and vice-president of ENSTA’s DaTA computing club; helped develop student services and teach computing.
- **2016** — Volunteer web developer for a Université Paris-Saclay student music festival.
- **2017** — Research placement at UC Berkeley.
- **2019** — Machine learning engineer at source{d}; graduated from ENSTA Paris.
- **2020** — Co-founded Escape with Antoine Carossio; Escape won a Jean-Louis Gerondeau - Safran prize and tested its prototype with first customer ENSTA Paris.
- **2021** — Published developer-focused DevSecOps security tutorials.
- **2022** — Introduced Graphman, Escape’s free, open-source GraphQL-to-Postman utility.
- **2023** — Escape participated in Y Combinator W23; Kalos introduced Goctopus and spoke at Platform Summit and GraphQLConf.
- **2024** — Announced Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition with co-founder Antoine Carossio.
- **2026** — Escape announced an $18 million Series A in March; Kalos continued writing on security testing, including an October compliance guide.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Escape in 2020 with Antoine Carossio.
- Escape received the Jean-Louis Gerondeau - Safran prize in November 2020, with a €20,000 award.
- Participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch with Escape.
- Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition with Antoine Carossio, announced publicly in April 2024.
- Led Escape as CEO when it announced an $18 million Series A led by Balderton in March 2026.
- Presented GraphQL security research at Platform Summit 2023 and appeared at GraphQLConf 2023.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Published “Compliance penetration testing requirements, by framework” on October 15.
- **2026-03** — Escape announced an $18 million Series A led by Balderton with Uncorrelated Ventures, IRIS and Y Combinator participating, alongside a new brand identity.

## Links

- Website: https://escape.tech/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tkalos/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/TristanKalos
- GitHub: https://github.com/glimow

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tristan-kalos
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22