Daniel Marashlian knows that trust isn’t just a virtue—it’s infrastructure. As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Drata, he has built a platform that repositions security as a shared company value rather than a back-office burden. His engineering-led approach doesn’t just aim for speed or scale—it prioritizes precision, usability, and cultural alignment. From Drata’s earliest days, Marashlian embedded rigorous processes and SOC 2 certification before the product even launched. That early intentionality has shaped a company that turns traditionally tedious compliance tasks into intuitive, elegant experiences—earning Drata a reputation as a platform that makes security feel not just necessary, but empowering.
Born in the United States, Marashlian holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in education leadership from Northern Arizona University. With a career spanning nearly two decades, he has repeatedly co-founded and led engineering at high-impact startups. Before Drata, he was Co-Founder and CTO at Portfolium, an edtech platform acquired by Instructure. Earlier ventures include TweetPhoto/Plixi, which helped power Twitter’s photo-sharing ecosystem, and Pelotonics, a project management tool. At Drata, he leads engineering and product development with a user-obsessed lens, responsible for delivering the security-first features that serve the needs of modern startups and enterprise clients alike.
Marashlian believes that great software design shouldn’t be reserved for consumer apps. His past experiences taught him that today’s users—whether students, developers, or CXOs—expect intuitive, aesthetically pleasing tools, regardless of the category. Drata’s clean interface and thoughtful UX reflect that insight, making it easier for small and mid-sized businesses to embed security into their operations without friction. Marashlian’s broader goal is to shift the mindset around security—not as an afterthought, but as a foundational part of culture, strategy, and trust from the very beginning.