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Arlo Gilbert
Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer · Osano
Data privacy Serial founder
Gilbert believes the companies that treat privacy as a basic right will become the next wave of trusted brands, and he built Osano to make that kind of compliance simple enough for any business to do.
“I firmly believe that privacy is a basic human right for all people,” Arlo Gilbert said when his book The Privacy Insider came out in 2024. An Austin, Texas native who has built software companies for more than 25 years, he co-founded Osano, a privacy platform for cookie consent, subject rights requests, data mapping, and vendor risk.
Twenty-Five Years of Startups
Before Osano, Gilbert built software companies in telecom, payments, procurement, and compliance, according to Osano's announcement of his book. Osano's leadership page adds search to that list and describes him as a founder with more than 25 years of startup experience.
A Hearing in Congress
Osano's company page says Gilbert and Scott Hertel founded the company in October 2018, months after they watched members of the U.S. Congress question technology leaders about online data privacy. If lawmakers were confused about how data is stored and shared, the two reasoned, businesses must be too.
Gilbert ran Osano as CEO through a $25 million Series B led by Baird Capital in 2023, telling TechCrunch the money would help the company become “the leading data privacy platform.”
A New Role and a Book
In July 2025 Gilbert handed the CEO role to Bobby Jaffari, a former Freshworks executive, and became Osano's first chief innovation officer. He wrote that he was not leaving the company, calling Osano “my baby.” He also hosts The Privacy Insider Podcast, which launched with his book in April 2024.
