Start with Why: Why We Are Building Thinkpol

Simon Sinek famously said, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

So here’s our why…

This isn’t just about building another security tool. It’s about fundamentally changing how organizations think about AI adoption—from a risk to be minimized to an opportunity to be maximized safely.

Thinkpol enables Company and Industry Alignment

AI researchers use the word Alignment to mean the process of encoding human values and goals into AI models to make them helpful, safe and reliable. Consequently, the major AI vendors (mostly) do a excellent job of adding broad guardrails to prevent overt questions about terrorism, crime, hacking and similar activities.

While they can ensure that their LLMs are aligned with society level objectives, there are currently few effective ways to ensure that LLM are aligned with a given company or industry.

Thinkpol enables Visibility

I work with a lot of companies in a lot of different industries. Some are small, some are large, some are in heavily regulated industries, some are completely unregulated. All of them are encouraging their employees to harness the power of Generative AI. And all of them are incredibly nervous about the risks that AI presents.

With ChatGPT or Claude

In the same way that Shadow IT can lead to issues around risk and compliance (employees uploading sensitive data to organisations that are not well equipped to deal with that responsibility), AI conversations are typically opaque: it’s incredibly hard to know what questions your employees are asking of their AI companions

With Custom AI Applications

It’s trivial to add Generative AI capabilities to an existing application, and/or build new applications. But how do you know whether your users are using your wonderful new chatbot for nefarious ends. Of course, you can log all the questions and responses, but now you still need to process those, and generate alerts for potential incidents.

The problem isn’t AI. The problem wasn’t even employees using AI. The problem was that organizations had no way to:

1. See when conversations crossed dangerous lines
2. Understand patterns of risky behavior
3. Intervene before damage occurred
4. Learn from near-misses
5. Improve their AI governance continuously

Thinkpol deals with Grey areas

There is nothing more annoying than “Computer says No”. We’re on the edge of innovation and preventing employees from achieving their goals is more likely to lead to employees figuring out new and exciting ways to circumvent our controls.

Consequently, Thinkpol don’t impose super-hard guard rails (“API Error: XXX is unable to respond to this request, which appears to violate our Usage Policy”). Instead we recognise that this is a grey area and it’s better to allow the agent to continue while simultaneously raising an incident that a human being can use to triage the incident.

Our Fundamental Beliefs

1. AI Is Not Optional

We believe that AI adoption isn’t a choice anymore—it’s an imperative. Organizations that don’t embrace AI won’t just fall behind; they’ll cease to exist. The question isn’t whether to adopt AI, but how to do it safely.

2. Security Enables Innovation

Traditional security says “no.” We believe security should say “yes, and here’s how.” When people feel safe, they experiment more boldly. When organizations have visibility, they can move faster. Security isn’t innovation’s enemy—it’s its enabler.

3. Humans Make Mistakes, Systems Prevent Disasters

We don’t believe in blaming employees for AI misuse. We believe in building systems that make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. Every employee wants to do good work. Our job is to help them do it safely.

4. Transparency Builds Trust

We believe that monitoring shouldn’t be secretive or punitive. When employees understand that AI monitoring protects them too—from false accusations, from unintended mistakes, from career-ending errors—they embrace it.

5. The Future Is Human + AI

We don’t see a future where AI replaces humans or humans reject AI. We see a future where humans and AI work together seamlessly, each amplifying the other’s strengths. Our role is to make that collaboration safe and productive.

What Makes Thinkpol Different

We Started with the Human Problem

Most AI security companies started with the technology. They built sophisticated tools and then looked for problems to solve. We started with the human reality: people are using AI, they’re going to keep using it, and they need help doing it safely.

We Designed for the 99%

We didn’t build Thinkpol for the 1% of malicious actors trying to steal data. We built it for the 99% of well-meaning employees who just want to do their jobs better. Our system assumes good intent while protecting against bad outcomes.

We Made Monitoring Invisible

The best security is security you don’t notice. Thinkpol works silently in the background, only surfacing when truly necessary. Employees can focus on their work, not on compliance checkboxes.

We Choose Education Over Enforcement

When Thinkpol detects a risky conversation, our first response isn’t to block or blame. It’s to educate. We help employees understand why certain interactions are risky and how to achieve their goals safely.

We Built for the Real World

Thinkpol wasn’t designed in a lab or theorized in a boardroom. It was built from real incidents, real breaches, and real conversations with hundreds of CISOs, CIOs, and employees. Every feature addresses a real problem we’ve seen in the wild.

The Principles That Guide Every Decision

1. Privacy by Design

We collect the minimum data necessary. We never train on customer data. We delete what we don’t need. Privacy isn’t an afterthought—it’s architected into everything.

2. Human-Centric Technology

Technology should adapt to humans, not the other way around. Every feature we build starts with the question: “How will this feel to the person using it?”

3. Radical Transparency

We’re transparent about what we monitor, how we monitor it, and what we do with the data. No black boxes. No mysterious algorithms. No hidden agendas.

4. Continuous Evolution

AI evolves daily. Threats evolve hourly. We evolve constantly. What worked yesterday might not work tomorrow, so we never stop improving.

5. Measured Impact

We measure our success not by the number of incidents caught, but by the amount of innovation enabled. The best security metric is how much faster our customers can move.

The Metrics That Matter

We don’t measure success by:

• How many conversations we block
• How many employees we catch
• How many policies we enforce

We measure success by:

• How much innovation we enable
• How many disasters we prevent
• How much confidence we create
• How much faster our customers grow

Our Promise to You

To Enterprises

We promise to be your trusted partner in AI adoption. We’ll never fearmonger. We’ll never oversell. We’ll tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Your success is our success.

To Employees

We promise to protect you from honest mistakes while enabling you to do your best work. We’re not here to spy on you—we’re here to support you. When AI conversations go wrong, we’ll help make them right.

To the Industry

We promise to lead with integrity, share our knowledge openly, and push the entire industry forward. A rising tide lifts all boats, and we’re committed to raising the tide of AI safety for everyone.

The Invitation

This is bigger than Thinkpol. This is about defining how humanity works with AI for the next century. We’re not just building a product—we’re building a movement.

A movement that says:

• Yes to innovation AND security
• Yes to productivity AND privacy
• Yes to AI AND human dignity
• Yes to progress AND protection

If you believe what we believe… If you see the future we see… If you want to be part of the solution…

Join us.

Because the organizations that figure out how to safely harness AI won’t just survive—they’ll define the future. And we’re here to help them do exactly that.

Conclusion: It Starts With Why, But It Succeeds With You

Simon Sinek was right: Start with Why. But knowing why isn’t enough. Success requires people who share that why, who believe in the mission, who are willing to do the hard work of turning vision into reality.

That’s why we built Thinkpol. Not because AI monitoring is easy, but because it’s necessary. Not because we have all the answers, but because we’re committed to finding them. Not because we’re perfect, but because we’re persistent.

We believe that every organization deserves to thrive in the age of AI.

And we won’t stop until they can.

Ready to Join the Movement?

If this resonates with you—if you believe in a future where AI empowers rather than endangers—we invite you to join us. Whether as a customer, partner, employee, or advocate, there’s a place for you in this mission.

Start your journey with Thinkpol

Because the future of work depends on getting AI security right. And getting it right starts with understanding why it matters.