Professional Overview
Jake Moshenko is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AuthZed, a company specializing in cloud-native, fine-grained permissions management solutions. He has accumulated over 15 years of experience in the cloud-native software ecosystem, focusing on building scalable authorization infrastructure. Prior to AuthZed, Jake held significant engineering and leadership roles at major technology firms, including Amazon (Software Development Engineer, 2009–2010), Google (Software Engineer, 2010–2012), and CoreOS (Site Lead, NYC, 2014–2018), the latter of which was acquired by Red Hat where he served as Senior Manager of Service Delivery (2018–2020).
Jake is recognized for founding Quay.io, the first private Docker registry, which was acquired by CoreOS in 2014. His strong background in enterprise software infrastructure and cloud-native technologies gives him deep insight into the challenges of scalable authorization systems.
Education
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), Computer Engineering
- University of Michigan
Company Overview: AuthZed
Founded in August 2020, AuthZed is commercializing SpiceDB, an open source, Google Zanzibar-inspired, fine-grained permissions database designed for modern scalable authorization needs. The platform targets high-throughput authorization challenges, boasting support for up to 1,000,000 requests per second with a focus on performance, scalability, and security.
AuthZed’s core philosophy, as articulated under Jake's leadership, is that every request must be authorized without compromising user experience. The company supports zero-trust architecture as a fundamental security principle.
AuthZed’s product offerings include:
- Managed services (AuthZed Dedicated, AuthZed Cloud - in preview)
- Self-hosted options
- Comprehensive support and enterprise-grade SpiceDB
AuthZed also maintains SOC2 certification and compliance with GDPR and CCPA, emphasizing encryption at rest, private isolated deployments, fine-grained API key management, and audit logging.
Recent Company Milestones and Initiatives
- Raised $12 million in Series A funding in June 2024 led by General Catalyst and other prominent investors (including Work-Bench, Y Combinator, Amplify Partners, and several technology industry veterans such as Spencer Kimball, Zachary Smith, Jeff Yoshimura, and others). This capital injection is aimed at accelerating product development and commercial expansion.
- Introduced industry-first features such as expiring relationships for time-bound permissions, enhancing the granularity and security of authorization management.
- Expanded support for evolving AI authorization use cases, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic AI systems in mid-2025, positioning AuthZed strongly within AI infrastructure by enforcing access control in emerging intelligent applications.
- AuthZed is also well known for active community engagement, hosting events such as its 5-year anniversary “Authorization Infrastructure” event and maintaining an open-source presence with SpiceDB repositories.
Technical Thought Leadership and Public Engagement
Jake has actively contributed thought leadership content emphasizing:
- The significance of Google Zanzibar’s authorization model as a superior approach for fine-grained permissions.
- AuthZed’s technical achievements such as validating 1 million QPS authorization performance with CockroachDB integration.
- Insights on modern authorization reducing costs and increasing revenue for enterprises.
- The strategic value of modern authorization in zero-trust architectures and enterprise security postures.
Jake’s public profile includes interviews and media appearances, such as participation in VC and founder panels at NYSE, podcasts discussing the future of permissions management, and technical deep dives via AuthZed’s blog and engineering content.
Professional Network and Investors
AuthZed’s investor and advisor network includes leaders from prominent enterprise software and infrastructure companies, reinforcing Jake’s connection with industry influencers:
- Jon Lehr (Co-Founder, Work-Bench)
- Spencer Kimball (CEO, Cockroach Labs)
- Zachary Smith (Global Head of Edge Infrastructure, Equinix)
- Jeff Yoshimura (CMO, Snyk & Elastic)
- Alex Polvi (CEO, CoreOS)
This prestigious backing supports AuthZed’s competitive positioning in the authorization market.
Location
Jake Moshenko is based in New York, NY.
Jake Moshenko’s technical expertise, proven entrepreneurial track record (notably founding and exiting Quay), and current leadership at AuthZed position him and his company at the forefront of cloud-native authorization infrastructure. The recent $12 million Series A funding coupled with innovative product developments especially around AI authorization situates AuthZed as a key player in solving scalable, secure authorization challenges critical to next-generation applications.
