Tell us the story of how and why you started your company.
It is a sign of the times that meeting and doing business with strangers online is growing in popularity, but deciding whom to trust is risky and it is time consuming to research. Our founders experienced this risk first-hand when he was thinking about renting a sublet. He became suspicious that he was being pulled into a scam. After sharing his story with friends and colleagues, he realized that many people shared similar experiences when dealing within vertical marketplaces that define the sharing economy. In our research, we discovered that trust is the largest barrier to growth in this new economy. Our three co-founders of Token of Trust® quickly learned from users and owners of marketplaces that existing solutions were not adequate and aimed to create a better way to prevent fraud, loss and stress when interacting with others online.
What’s your most recent success or milestone hit?
Token of Trust® has signed service agreements with two pilot customers in April of 2016. One customer is a lending company which intends to use Token of Trust® Identity Verification. The other is an online marketplace, a better version of Craigslist, that wants safety to be an integral part of their product experience.
Where do you see your startup in 1 year?
We project having 250,000 end users and six customers at this time next year.