Verkada
Leadership History
2 leaders · 2016 to present
Filip Kaliszan is the CEO of Verkada, in the role since 2016.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filip Kaliszan | Co-founder & CEO | 2016 | Present | 10 |
| Hans Robertson | Co-Founder | 2016 | Present | 10 |
Verkada sells physical security systems that are managed from the cloud. Its six product lines are video security cameras, access control, environmental sensors, alarms, workplace (visitor management) and intercoms, all run through the Verkada Command application. Customers include schools, hospitals, manufacturers, retailers and local governments, and the company said in March 2026 that more than 100 of the Fortune 500 use its products. The company's record includes setbacks. A March 2021 breach of an internal support tool exposed live feeds from customer cameras, and in 2024 the FTC and the Justice Department resolved claims over its data security and marketing emails, including a $2.95 million CAN-SPAM civil penalty and a mandated information security program. Funding continued through 2025, and in 2026 the company reported more than 31,000 customers and signed an investment and technical partnership with NVIDIA. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California.
Verkada sells security hardware (cameras, door controllers, environmental sensors, alarm panels, intercoms and visitor management devices) together with per-device Command software licenses sold for multi-year terms. Customers buy directly or through channel partners. The license gives access to cloud management, software updates and AI features, so revenue combines one-time device sales with recurring software income. The company said in March 2026 that 78% of core customers use two or more of its product lines and that the average customer nearly doubles its initial spend within 12 months.
Co-founder & CEO
2016 – Present
10 years (current)
Co-founded Verkada in 2016 and expanded it from cameras to six product lines managed in Command; led the company through the 2021 breach and 2024 FTC/DOJ order; raised funding at $4.5 billion and $5.8 billion valuations in 2025; signed the NVIDIA investment and partnership in 2026.
Stanford computer science graduate and CourseRank co-founder who has led Verkada since its founding.
Co-Founder
2016 – Present
10 years (current)
Robertson aggressively applied the exact same highly lucrative hardware/software recurring revenue playbook he used at Meraki, transforming Verkada into an absolute enterprise sales juggernaut.
As Co-Founder (and former Co-Founder of Cisco Meraki), he provided the absolutely critical, deeply experienced enterprise sales strategy and massive venture capital credibility required to rapidly scale the startup.
Verkada competes with established camera and access control vendors such as Axis Communications, Motorola Solutions (Avigilon), Hanwha Vision and Hikvision, and with cloud rivals including Cisco Meraki. Its cameras and AI search features draw scrutiny from privacy advocates and regulators, particularly around facial and license plate recognition.
The March 2021 breach and the 2024 FTC/DOJ order mean its own security practices remain under continuing regulatory obligations, which matters for a company whose devices depend on its cloud.
Filip Kaliszan is the co-founder and CEO of Verkada, having led the enterprise physical security company since its inception in 2016 through its growth into a $5.8 billion market leader.
Born in Poland, Kaliszan earned both a bachelor's degree and master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, specializing in systems architecture and human-computer interaction.
While an undergraduate at Stanford, Kaliszan and his dormmates created CourseRank, a popular course evaluation system used by thousands of students, which was acquired by ed-tech company Chegg in 2010.
Partnering with Meraki co-founder Hans Robertson provided Kaliszan with deep operational insights into building hardware supply chains, engineering cloud software, and scaling enterprise B2B sales forces.
Kaliszan took immediate accountability, overhauling internal security architecture, eliminating legacy support tools, hiring top-tier cybersecurity veterans, and rebuilding enterprise customer trust.
Kaliszan is intensely product-focused, working closely with industrial designers and firmware engineers to ensure Verkada hardware has Apple-like build quality and Command software remains intuitive.
Recognizing that enterprise security buyers wanted to consolidate vendors, Kaliszan mandated building door controllers, environmental sensors, and intercoms in-house on the same Command cloud backbone.
Kaliszan has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal, recognized as one of the premier hardware-meets-software founders of his generation.
Kaliszan personally led discussions with NVIDIA leadership, pitching Verkada's 2 million edge devices as the ideal real-world testbed for NVIDIA's vision-language models and Physical AI agents.
Kaliszan recruited top executives including Chief Revenue Officer Eric Salava, Chief Financial Officer Keri Gohman, Chief Information Security Officer Anton Kliot, and General Counsel counsel.
Kaliszan instituted high-energy, performance-driven sales hubs across major metropolitan markets, empowering regional account executives to offer live hardware demos to facility leaders.
To lead Verkada through a successful public offering and build an enduring hundred-year technology institution that safeguards physical infrastructure worldwide.
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