Michael Crandell, CEO
Michael Crandell is the chief executive officer at Bitwarden driving overall company strategy and growth. Before Bitwarden, Michael was the CEO and co-founder of RightScale where he led the vision and direction for the company as a cloud management platform during the first decade of cloud computing. He grew the company to 250 employees and a successful exit to Flexera in 2018. Prior to RightScale, Michael served as chief executive officer at several Internet software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies and as vice president of software and executive vice president at eFax.com, where he was part of the executive team that took the company public. Michael received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and completed graduate studies at Harvard University. He began his career as a software engineer, self-taught, coding in assembly language.
Areas of Expertise
Open source security software
Phishing scams
Password and secrets management
Developer secrets
Passwordless technology
Making security a priority at work
The book of Bitwarden: How the best free password manager is fending off tech giants
“We realized from the start that thinking of business or consumer was a false dichotomy,” Crandell says. “It makes no sense to protect yourself at home, but not at work, or vice versa, and business users expect ease-of-use and all of that. So really we realized it’s a virtuous circle between the business and consumer user.”
The password identity crisis: Evolving authentication methods in 2024 and beyond
At the same time, challenges such as integration with legacy systems and user education must be addressed, cautioned Michael Crandell, CEO of password management platform Bitwarden. “A balanced approach prioritizing both security and user experience will be key in advancing these security measures,” he said.
Why you should always change your logins after a data breach
Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell commented on the fact that the survey displayed a desire from businesses for technologies that “reflect passwordless workflows”, saying that this “shouldn’t come as a surprise”. “While strong and unique passwords are highly effective at safeguarding data, weak or re-used passwords that are not managed by an end-to-end encrypted password manager present serious vulnerabilities,” he added.
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“It’s actually more difficult to run a hybrid model than it is to be all in-person or all remote,” he told me over video call, arguing remote collaboration is better for flow. “It takes you 15 minutes to get your thoughts assembled and you’re working on something, and somebody knocks and says, ‘Hey, how about a burger for lunch?’ And you’re ripped out of that state and now you need another 15 minutes.”