The Startup Circle

These companies are part of the first class of the PDEC Startup Circle. They are developing the tools and systems for personal control over personal data. Architecting user-managed systems to track and manage a new asset class with value in the billions: personal data. Privacy protections are just the tip of the iceberg; the industry of managing these assets wisely is in the process of creating new economic opportunities and is a magnet for talent and capital.

Members of the PDEC Startup Circle:

. Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts
Your data defines you. Own it.
“We’re a happy band of developers, designers and entrepreneurs dedicated to the idea that the more control you have over your own data the more compelling your online experience will be, and the more privacy you will enjoy. Although the data wallet app is new and yet to launch, it stands on a technology platform that has evolved over several years by building solutions for PayPal, Google, Mydex, IBM, Equifax, Acxiom, BBB.org, and others.” .
Paul Trevithick, CEO. Blog post:

. Montreal, QC, Canada
“Buyosphere is a tool to help you take control of your shopping history: organize it, share it and track how you influence others. Our aim is to turn around consumer culture so that customers have more control over their own data. We have a pretty good inkling that this data will become more and more valuable as time goes on. Ever see Minority Report? You know that scene where Tom Cruise’s character is walking through the passageways and being bombarded with ads? That is what is happening today with every transaction we make on our credit cards and anywhere we leave a trail of our information (aka Internet). Sure, some of the results of this will be positive (better recommendations), but imagine if we could turn some of this around? I think we could set our own parameters and have our future look a bit less invasive.” .
Tara Hunt, Jerome Paradis, Cassandra Girard, co-founders. .  .

. San Francisco, California
Get more out of your connections.
“Connect.Me is a San Francisco based company creating a personal layer for the social web. Build your reputation and gain access to respected people and communities across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Vouch for people you respect and get vouched for your skills or passions. At Connect.Me, we believe that privacy, control, and reputation are the big challenges and opportunities for the social web. We published the as the first personal trust framework that gives individuals control over the personal data they share on the Internet or social networks.”
Joe Johnston, CEO and co-founder.
Media contact: Drummond Reed on , skype. +. Blog post: for quotes from Johnston, Reed.

. Wien, Austria
egoArchive is your own personal archive. It’s a simple, smart, and powerful way to remember everything you’ve seen on your online travels. In addition to indexing all the content you’ve visited, egoArchive will take a screenshot of every page, allowing you to not only find content, but view it exactly the way it looked on the day you visited the page.

. Bulverde, Texas
A New Dawn for Federated Identity
“The Gluu Identity Appliance turns a public or private cloud instance into an organizational identity provider (IDP). The primary reason an organization would want to have an IDP is for single sign-on to several websites. Gluu leverages the Shibboleth SAML platform, which was developed by universities and is deployed at hundreds of institutions. The Identity Appliance greatly reduces the complexity of deploying and managing an IDP infrastructure.”
Michael Schwartz, CEO and Founder. +. ..

. Lehi, Utah
Kynetx offers the first platform for connecting personal data stores with services and websites in a contextually aware and secure way. Pioneering the Live Web, Kynetx provides developers with a way to loosely-couple multiple systems and build applications that respond to who we are, what we are doing and what we are interested in. The Live Web promises to make everything around us more responsive to our unique interests and activities, whether on the web, on your mobile device and beyond. Phil Windley, CTO. email:  twitter: kynetx website:  / 

. Larbert, Stirlingshire, UK
Your data, your way
“Mydex’s mission is to help individuals realise the value of their personal data. We do this by providing individuals with Personal Data Stores and related services. Personal Data Stores help individuals gather, store, manage, use and share the information they need to manage their lives better. They provide individuals with tools to control what information they share with which people and organisations, when they choose.”
William Heath, Chairman. .

. New Zealand
myINFOSAFE is a PC software application that helps you organize & protect your personal information.
Ross Hughson, CEO and founder, Personal Information Management Ltd.

. Copenhagen, Denmark.
Peercraft is a commercial agent acting on behalf of and managed by its private users. Peercraft will help consumers discover relevant vendors and support their negotiations and transactions with vendors through value adding information processing, reputation building, and accountability.
Henrik Biering, CEO. .

. Bethesda, Maryland.
A social interaction design and analyst firm specializing in personal data reuse and vendor relationship management.
Thomas Vander Wal, Principal. . skype. +. .

Washington, D.C.
Personal is a web and mobile platform that enables individuals to own, control access to and benefit from their data by organizing and managing their information within our private data vault. We believe that people, not companies, should own their data and decide how it’s used.
Shane Green, Co-Founder and CEO. Media contact: Karen Sippel, , +. .

. Vienna, Virginia
Privacy, Permission & Trust
“Privo is the trusted third party provider of age verification for minors and parent permission management solutions, enabling our customers to provide a safe online environment for minors.”
Denise Tayloe, CEO. Media: Carol Altarescu, +1-914–523–9578, .

. Wien, Austria.
Open-Source Sofware for Identity & Personal Data Services
“ is an open-source project offering software for identity and personal data services on the Internet. The core of this project is an XDI-based Personal Data Store – a semantic database for your personal data, which always remains under your control. Applications on top of this database include the Federated Social Web, the selective sharing of personal data with organizations, and much more.”
Markus Sabadello, CEO. , +43 .

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. Netherlands
Qiy is an independent and secure ‘utility’, which enables an individual to create an intelligent personal domain online, thereby giving individuals control, overview and insight into their data.
In collaboration with world-renowned technology partners Qiy develops -with a communal objective- an independent and secure platform. With this platform Qiy creates a ‘digital home’ for the online user.
Qiy users have the possibility to store their data in their Qiy domain as well as receive data from relevant organizations. In this way, individuals get a clear insight in their own situation because organizations present their data through the Qiy platform to the individuals. Organizations do not only give back the information they have to the individual, but also make available relevant applications. These applications enable individuals to get insight in their own situation.
Qiy is an answer to the ever-increasing amount of data on the Internet and prevents the wandering of personal information on the Internet. Qiy is an ideal translated into an independent initiative for everyone.
Qiy aspires to be socially relevant and considers corporate social responsibility (CSR) to be of great importance. This belief is expressed by a separate foundation that oversees the interpretation and implementation of CSR/charity projects resulting from the return of Qiy.

. Redwood City, California.
Take Control. Get Results.
Reputation.com is the global leader of online reputation management and privacy solutions. With customers in more than 100 countries, the company is working towards its mission to empower individuals and businesses with control of their information online.
Michael Fertik, CEO and Founder, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011.
: skype. +. .

. San Francisco
“Locker pulls together all of my personal data – my tweets, my photos, my contacts and all my social relationships. It holds things like my email, call logs, and purchase history. It does a bunch of complicated things for me, so that developers don’t have to. It puts me at the center of the web, and allows me to choose where, when and with whom I share copies of my data.”
Jason Cavnar, CEO.

. Antwerp, Belgium
As an innovation company, Synergetics initiated multiple larger European, as well as Dutch and Flemish research projects (Prolix, TAS³, TenCompetence, Codrive, Kennisnet ePortfolio & IBBT projects). Their results are consistently built into the Synergetics Employability Process Platform, which supports employability related business processes such as learning (LCMS/LMS), knowledge production, & competence development, certification of acquired competences, and competency, matching and HR-process integration. Synergetics invented the concept of employabilityPortfolio as the (virtual) placeholder for all related Human Factor data and, as the HR-XML Competency chair, Synergetics is currently managing the development of a new global standard for competency profiles. Synergetics is partnering with the world’s leading technology vendors such as GiuntiLabs (LCMS-based content production facility, mobile learning), Xerceo (enterprise integration of learning and knowledge management), Intalio (BPMS/SOA) and integrates open software components where possible: Liferay, Alfresco, Fedora, Intalio, etc…
Luk Vervenne, CEO.

. Santa Barbara, California
Complex Searches Made Simple
“SwitchBook helps manage user-driven searches across multiple search providers and websites, creating a powerful new way to explicitly express search intent anywhere on the Internet.”
, CEO. . +

. London, UK.
You at the centre of your online buying
The Customer’s Voice helps individuals better manage their supply relationships, and in doing so provides organisations with the reasons and means to engage with VRM-enabled individuals, to the benefit of both parties. Our service will launch as an application on the Mydex platform in late 2011.
Iain Henderson, CEO. email. . .

We currently have two classes of new startups that join the circle each January and June. To Learn more about joining the Startup Circle please contact Executive Director Kaliya Hamlin – .

You can download a One Pager about the Startup Circle and our Executive Summary: