TLDR: Oren Michels, the visionary behind the API management firm Mashery, has launched a new venture named Barndoor. This new company is built on the premise that AI agents are emerging as the next generation of APIs, serving as the crucial ‘control plane for agentic AI’ in the enterprise landscape. Barndoor aims to address the current shortcomings in managing and securing AI agents within organizations, much like Mashery did for APIs in the Web 2.0 era.
Oren Michels, the entrepreneur renowned for founding Mashery, an API management company acquired by Intel in 2013, has announced his latest endeavor: Barndoor. Michels posits that if Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) served as the connective tissue for websites and applications during the Web 2.0 era, then Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents are poised to fulfill a similar, yet more advanced, role in the burgeoning AI era. These AI agents, he suggests, will increasingly become the primary method for accessing and utilizing data from diverse sources across the internet.
Barndoor positions itself as ‘the control plane for agentic AI,’ aiming to provide enterprises with the necessary tools to manage and implement guardrails around AI agents. Michels draws a direct parallel to his previous success with Mashery, which helped companies gain control over their APIs. He emphasizes that while APIs will not disappear, AI agents are rapidly gaining prominence and are set to redefine how data interactions occur.
Michels highlighted the perceived inadequacy of existing Identity and Access Management (IAM) and traditional API management solutions in handling the complexities of agentic AI. He stated, ‘If those solutions were adequate, we would see a lot more penetration of agentic AI in the enterprise. And we don’t see it, because I don’t believe those solutions are adequate.’ This perspective underscores Barndoor’s mission to fill a critical gap in the enterprise AI ecosystem, enabling broader and more secure adoption of AI agents.
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He humorously noted the transformative potential by quipping, ‘If you take APIs and you take the ‘P’ out, it’s a whole lot more interesting,’ suggesting a shift from mere programmatic interfaces to more autonomous, intelligent entities. The company’s focus is on helping large organizations tame the burgeoning power of AI agents, ensuring they can be deployed effectively and securely within complex corporate environments. This development marks a significant step in the evolution of enterprise software, moving towards more intelligent and autonomous systems.
