The Story of Openpath: Building the Future of Cloud-Native Access Control

The Story of Openpath: Building the Future of Cloud-Native Access Control

The access control industry wasn’t supposed to change. For decades, the same players sold the same on-premise systems with the same frustrating user experiences. Buildings were locked into proprietary hardware, managed through clunky interfaces that required physical presence to update. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Scott Dorey, Co-Founder of Openpath, shared how his team decided to rebuild the entire category from scratch.

The Decision to Build Different

Scott and his co-founders didn’t start with incremental improvements. They started with a fundamental question: what would access control look like if you built it today, from the ground up, with modern technology? The answer shaped everything that followed.

“We wanted to build something that was inherently cloud native from day one,” Scott explains. “Everything was designed to be in the cloud, API first, mobile first.” This wasn’t about taking existing products and adding cloud features. It was about reimagining the entire architecture around what cloud infrastructure and mobile technology could enable.

The team made deliberate technology choices that would define their competitive advantage. “We built it on AWS. We built a iOS and Android app from day one,” Scott says. While competitors struggled with legacy systems built for on-premise deployment, Openpath was designing for a cloud-first world where users expected to manage everything from their phones.

Finding the First Believers

Every category-defining company needs early adopters who understand why the old way is broken. Openpath found theirs in the tech hubs where innovation was valued over incumbency. “We started off very much in the tech world, very much in San Francisco, New York, you know, the tech hubs,” Scott recalls.

These early customers didn’t need convincing about why cloud-native mattered. They were already living in a world of SaaS applications and mobile-first experiences. The pitch wasn’t about changing their worldview—it was about bringing their buildings into the same modern era as their software stack.

The geographic focus gave Openpath a concentrated market where word-of-mouth actually worked. Success in one tech company opened doors to others. The product became a signal of forward-thinking building management, which resonated with the kinds of companies that wanted to project innovation.

Designing for Expansion

From the beginning, Openpath built viral expansion into their product model. Scott describes how this played out: “We can get into one building and then spread out virally throughout that organization to other buildings.” This wasn’t luck—it was intentional product design.

Because the system was cloud-based and didn’t require massive on-premise infrastructure, expanding to additional locations was straightforward. A satisfied customer could easily advocate for rolling out Openpath to other properties. The technology enabled a land-and-expand motion that traditional access control systems couldn’t match.

This expansion pattern changed the economics of customer acquisition. Instead of selling to each building individually, Openpath could land in one location and let the product’s performance do the selling internally. Lower acquisition costs and higher lifetime value became built-in advantages.

The Pandemic Test

Then COVID-19 hit. Buildings emptied overnight. Access control for office buildings became suddenly irrelevant. Scott describes the impact candidly: “Obviously during COVID, it wasn’t ideal for us. We were definitely impacted. People were not renewing, they were going out of business, they were not in their offices.”

For many companies, this would have been fatal. But Openpath’s cloud-native architecture and mobile-first design—originally built for convenience—suddenly became critical safety features. Healthcare facilities desperately needed touchless access to reduce transmission risk. Hospitals needed to manage access remotely as facilities changed configuration rapidly.

The team pivoted aggressively into healthcare and other essential facilities. The same product features, reframed for a different use case, opened an entirely new market. What could have been an existential crisis became a demonstration of product-market fit in an unexpected vertical.

The Path Upmarket

As Openpath matured, they faced the classic startup challenge: moving from early adopters to mainstream enterprise customers. “In the last couple of years, we’ve moved much more up market. We’re going after the big buildings, big customers, enterprise, Fortune 500, 1000 type customers,” Scott shares.

This transition required more than just bigger sales teams. Enterprise customers demanded different capabilities—enhanced security features, compliance certifications, dedicated support infrastructure. The product had to evolve to meet these requirements while maintaining the simplicity that made it successful with earlier customers.

The sales motion changed too. Enterprise deals had longer cycles, more stakeholders, and different buying criteria. What worked for selling to innovative tech companies didn’t work for Fortune 500 procurement teams. Openpath had to build new muscles around enterprise sales while maintaining their core product philosophy.

Scaling Through Partners

As the customer base grew, Openpath recognized they couldn’t handle every installation and support interaction directly. The solution was building a partner ecosystem. “We work a lot with systems integrators and security dealers to install and service our systems at our customers,” Scott explains.

This channel strategy wasn’t just about scale—it was about leveraging expertise and relationships that partners already had. Systems integrators knew local building codes, had relationships with facility managers, and understood regional market dynamics. Rather than competing with this knowledge, Openpath positioned their product as the premium solution these partners could offer.

Building an effective channel required making the product partner-friendly from the architecture up. Cloud deployment meant partners didn’t need extensive training on complex on-premise systems. API integrations meant partners could connect Openpath with other building systems. The technology choices that enabled direct sales also enabled channel success.

Expanding the Addressable Market

With the core platform established and go-to-market motions refined, Openpath began systematic vertical expansion. “We definitely started narrow and now we’re expanding into various verticals,” Scott notes. Each new vertical brought unique requirements and use cases, but the fundamental value proposition remained consistent.

Healthcare taught them about compliance and safety requirements. Enterprise customers taught them about scale and integration needs. Each vertical expansion built on lessons from previous markets, creating a compounding knowledge advantage.

Building for What’s Next

Looking forward, Scott sees Openpath’s role expanding beyond access control into broader building intelligence and management. The cloud-native platform that started as a better way to unlock doors has become infrastructure for how buildings operate in a connected world.

The API-first architecture that seemed like a technical decision in the early days now positions Openpath as a hub for building systems. Access control data flows to other platforms. Integrations with workplace management systems create comprehensive views of space utilization. The product is evolving from a point solution to platform infrastructure.

Scott’s vision extends beyond replacing legacy systems to fundamentally changing how buildings function. As buildings become smarter and more connected, access control becomes the identity layer that ties everything together. Who’s in the building, where they’re going, what resources they’re using—all of this starts with access.

The future Openpath is building isn’t just about better door locks. It’s about creating the foundational identity and access infrastructure for intelligent buildings. That vision, built on the cloud-native architecture they chose from day one, positions them to define the category for decades to come.

From a small team challenging industry giants to a platform reshaping building infrastructure, Openpath’s story demonstrates how architectural choices, market timing, and persistent execution can transform legacy industries. The buildings of the future will run on systems designed for the cloud, managed from mobile devices, and integrated with everything else. Openpath is building that future, one door at a time.