Building MACAW

The Thesis

Every computing era
scaled on trust.

Kerberos → mTLS → MACAW

@Dana Street Roasting Co.

“I don't need another AI security tool. I need to walk into the boardroom and prove our AI won't get us sued or me fired.”— CIO/CISO, F1000 @ RSA 2025

Our Story

When Anthropic released MCP, it was déjà vu — the same trust boundary problem from my PhD — just a new era.

At HPE and Splunk, I saw hundreds of customers prepare for AI to transform their businesses, with tools, processes, guardrails. The pattern is always the same: it's not the technology that stalls projects. It's operational details — safety, security, governance. Teams try to DIY, stretch IAM to cover new agentic use cases, or add more tools to their arsenal. Neither scales, and all ignore the core problem.

So we went back to first principles — we imagined something deterministic, easy to use, and pervasive. My PhD thesis introduced authenticated system calls — cryptographic proof at every trust boundary. We've extended this to the AI stack: not just invocations, but context, prompts, and deterministic controls that work before harm happens.

AI is the future, but right now, it's dangerously unproven. Prompt injections, tool misuse, runaway agents — headlines don't lie. Previous infrastructure had decades to evolve. Today, we don't. So, with MACAW, what worked before still works. Your policies still apply. Your tools still function. We're not replacing your stack — we're making it safe, with you in control.

Trying something that actually works should be a no-brainer. That's why we offer a generous free tier for POC and R&D. For enterprises that need support and services — we have you covered too.

Come give it a try. I'd love to hear what you think.

— Mohan Rajagopalan

Founder

mohan@macawsecurity.com·LinkedIn

Come Join Us — Founders Wanted

Founding Engineers

Build the cryptographic trust layer — zero-trust infrastructure, multi-tenant platforms, SDK/APIs, intelligent UX. You live in code, think in systems, and care deeply about developer experience.

Founding Product Manager / Customer Success

Help define a category. Transform complex cryptographic and zero-trust concepts into invisible, intuitive experiences. You bridge developer needs with enterprise requirements — equally comfortable talking to engineers shipping agents and security teams evaluating risk.

Interns

Learn by doing — build real things alongside the team. Creative problem solvers who love hard work and constant learning.

apply@macawsecurity.com

Skip the cover letter. Tell us something interesting about yourself.

Channeling our Shackleton

FOUNDERS WANTED

For uncertain journey, startup wages, long hours of intense focus, constant ambiguity, success not guaranteed.

Ownership, impact, and category creation in case of success.

MACAW Security — San Francisco

Backed By

Vinay Rao — ex-Anthropic (Trust & Safety), Google

Mahesh Chukkapalli — ex-COO HackerOne, ex-SVP Palo Alto Networks