John Merrells — CTO at Mimic

About John Merrells

John Merrells is CTO at Mimic. Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States.

I help founders build category-defining technology companies. Over the past 35 years, I have served as a software engineer, systems architect, CTO, CPO, founder, advisor, mentor, and investor, helping transform breakthrough technologies into scalable products, high-performing engineering organizations, and enduring businesses. I have led product and engineering organizations across artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, digital identity, manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare, and financial technology. I specialize in defining product and technology strategy, architecting complex software platforms, building exceptional product development organizations, recruiting executive leaders, and coaching founders through periods of rapid growth and transformation. I also advise boards, investors, and executive teams on company strategy, technical due diligence, organizational design, fundraising, and executive leadership. Throughout my career, I have participated in sixteen successful exits with a combined transaction value exceeding $8.3 billion while also learning invaluable lessons from the companies that failed. Those experiences continue to shape how I build products, organizations, and leaders.

Skills

Product Strategy
Agents
Agentic Automation

Additional experience

Advisor
Mimic
August 2025 – March 2026

Education

PSYCHOLOGY, Pathwise Leadership Development
Psychology, Hoffman Institute

Current role

Title: CTO
Company: Mimic
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Started: April 2026

About Mimic

Mimic is an enterprise security company built on known-good enforcement at the kernel.Detection-based security asks whether an activity matches a known threat, which requires knowing the attack in advance. Mimic asks a different question: was this change authorized? A novel exploit with no signature, a signed binary performing unauthorized actions, an AI agent holding valid credentials, and a misconfigured administrative script all fail the same enforcement test if their changes fall outside the authorized baseline.Mimic profiles a system in its authorized operational state, then evaluates every change against that baseline at Ring 0, the layer every file write, registry change, driver load, and process action must pass through. Enforcement runs through a file system mini-filter driver on Windows and eBPF on Linux, with the enforcement logic itself running in a WebAssembly sandbox implemented in Rust.Four capabilities run on that foundation:Ransomware Defense. Blocks the unauthorized changes ransomware depends on, rather than recognizing the ransomware.AI Shield. Governs what AI agents can do. Enforces declared scope at the kernel regardless of credential validity.Virtual Patching. Covers the window between vulnerability disclosure and patch deployment, and covers end-of-life systems that will never receive another fix.Change Control. Evaluates the change itself, where identity and workflow tools govern only the request.Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Palo Alto, Mimic has raised $77M. The Series A was led by GV and Menlo Ventures, with Ballistic Ventures, Team8, Wing Ventures and Shield Capital participating. Kevin Mandia and Ted Schlein serve on the board.

Industry: Computer and Network Security
Company size: 51-200
Website: mimic.com

About John Merrells

Skills

Additional experience

Advisor

Education