SeedBlink Blog

Vince Gaydarzhiev, the founder of Alcatraz AI, is a hardware engineer born in the city of Ruse, Bulgaria. At the age of 16 he moved to the US and his long-term interest in computer engineering led him through multiple engineering degrees. Vince has earned advanced engineering degrees from Stanford and the University of Southern California and has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida.

In 2016, Vince founded Alcatraz AI with the goal to bring technology to provide more secure access control without the added friction or high personnel cost. Alcatraz’s facial authentication technology and intelligent tailgating detection enable enterprises to innovate and future-proof their security strategy.

Hi Vince, you are the founder and CEO of Alcatraz today, but we are curious about your background. What experiences led you to become a tech startup entrepreneur?

I have always wanted to make something that people use and love. Something of importance, of value. My hardware engineering background, as well as being at Apple, allowed me to think big – how can I make a product that becomes part of someone’s life, without being intrusive, always there, just working, like magic? I quickly realized that tech companies like Apple are leading the way to create amazing technology for consumers, but in enterprise, it’s not always that way. So with Alcatraz, I decided to change that in physical security.

Your track record is impressive. What made you switch from working with innovative market leaders to building your own startup?

The security industry was ripe for disruption and based on my experience, I could offer a lot of value with a product that would solve significant challenges in most Fortune1000 organizations. So I decided to do exactly that.

Is it how you’ve imagined? What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned since you are Alcatraz’s founder?

It always takes double the time, triple the money and quadruple the effort. Especially for a product with many layers like ours – machine learning, computer vision, cloud/on-prem infrastructure, integrations, hardware. Then sales and marketing teams that are inline with the industry with heavy experience while certifying the product to be able to be deployed anywhere – most regions of the world, as the companies we sell to have many campuses.

What problem does Alcatraz solve and how would you say it eases your customers' pain points? Have you already started generating traction around it?

Alcatraz significantly increases physical security in corporations without the expense of friction. Think of it as a security guard per door, for a fraction of the cost, running face control 24/7 while checking for tailgating, and always integrating all the knowledge with the existing video and access control platforms already deployed. We have as customers many of the largest banks in the US, as well as telecoms, nuclear facilities and government entities, where security is very important.

What qualities do you think are mandatory in the Security sector to thrive?

Trust and very high value through innovation. There needs to be an established trust between the customer and the company offering their products. Startups intrinsically create risk for the customer, as their early products may not be fully tested, not yet end-to-end established, and the company most likely depends on investments to survive before it’s cash flow positive. So the products the company offers need to create a significant value through innovation in order for the customer to start trusting it and actually deploying it at scale.

What is happening in the industry you are active in? What are the most important trends?

The industry is transforming from being slow to adopt new technology to one that embraces innovation through early pilots, working with startups to tailor their products specifically to the exact requirements needed. Artificial intelligence through machine learning and computer vision, edge-based hardware, and cloud – this is what the industry is shifting towards.

What is your biggest challenge in scaling?

Large enterprise companies have long sales cycles that are not very defined in their nature, as there are many stakeholders in the play. Before conversion and standardization of our technology into a company, it may take weeks or many months until we are able to start deploying at scale. On the other side, once the customer is converted, expansion into new areas and buildings in the same organization is much easier, as all the privacy, security and networking infrastructure details have been solved.

Where do you see Alcatraz in 3-5 years?

Alcatraz will be the leader in biometric authentication in enterprise. With new tech coming out and prices dropping, I would like to see our products become deployed not only in high-security use cases but everywhere there is a need for physical access control in enterprise.

What makes Alcatraz so special? Why should investors choose you?

The only reason why facial authentication as a biometric access control solution has not taken over the world yet, is because so far it has been inconsistent and inaccurate when matching. Apple spent billions to make it secure enough for the consumers on the phone, and Alcatraz spent the last 5 years to create a very robust technology to essentially increase the accuracy from the best facial recognition algorithms by about 1000 times. This allows us to scale with any deployment and is paving the way to make facial authentication pervasive as it is the most secure and fastest way to gain access. The magic is when a person doesn’t interact with any technology, as it just works.

Register for the Pitch & Q&A with the founder on Wednesday, August 31st, here.

🗓️ Alcatraz’s Series A opportunity will be available with priority for selected investors and the SeedBlink Club members (get early access) on September 1st, followed by a public launch on September 6. Join our community of investors here.