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Sometimes, the Market Needs to Catch-up with The Big Idea
Profile on CONNECTpreneur Success Story: Denise Tayloe, CEO of PRIVO
By Mike Smith, CEO, MSBD, Inc.
Mike is an investor in PRIVO, member of CONNECTpreneur and serves as a government and investor relations counselor. He is the CEO of Michael Smith Business Development, Inc. (mike@msbdinc.com)
Denise Tayloe is a pioneer in children’s online privacy protection, age verification of minors, and identity and consent management. Her company, Privacy Vaults Online (or PRIVO) has attracted major clients for both its compliance program and PRIVO’s SaaS technology platform.
Recent client engagements include: Adobe, Spinmaster, Mattel Mega Bloks, Singular Labs, Chuck E. Cheese, and Teledoc Health to name a few. PRIVO started after the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted, offering a market opportunity to help entertainment companies and social media platforms comply with rules of engagement for minors. Major toy companies, social media sites, amusement parks and restaurants use PRIVO.
Denise is a graduate of the regional Mindshare program and has been a stalwart supporter of CONNECTpreneur events for years. She recently presented at the CONNECTpreneur Baltimore Forum and late last year was a featured presenter at the CONNECTpreneur Big Idea rocket pitch at the Refractions Center Valo theater in McLean. The PRIVO CEO told the audience that enforcement of kids’ online privacy is now at the forefront.
Tien Wong, CEO of Opus8, noted that, “Denise really nailed it with our audience in McLean and again in Baltimore. Her time has truly come in terms of market readiness for a SaaS program to verify minor’s identity.” Wong said it was gratifying to see Tayloe follow the advice of her prep team to keep a complex subject like privacy protection and age verification fairly simple.
The advice paid off. The very next day after the McLean Big Idea pitch, Denise was contacted by software innovators in identity orchestration who recently had a powerful exit to PING Identity, a software company providing digital identity solutions. These investor were interested in PRIVO and also believe the market has finally arrived.
PRIVO had been shopping a convertible debt instrument offering a 20 percent discount on the share price of the $20 million valuation company. These high net worth angels took a big piece of the action. More than that, because of their industry knowledge, Tayloe believed her ideas were validated with “Smart Money.”
Since the early first quarter CONNECTpreneur events, PRIVO has had traction with two other institutional investor funds and is closing the note, rolling into a Series A round. The action is happening because of PRIVO’s market persistence in this space and the fact that identity management, privacy protection overall and true FTC enforcement is finally coming together.
“Our time has really come,” said Tayloe, noting that the growing number of regulations that protect children bring increased risks and liability for companies and their executives.
For instance, more COPPA enforcement is expected this year and newer bills being introduced like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and the onset of individual states introducing legislation trying to better protect children online with age verification requirements. The “tsunami” of legislation coming will have a huge impact on social media and gaming platforms.
“Protecting kids online is not child’s play that’s for sure,” said Tayloe. “I hope that I will be able to provide our local CONNECTpreneur community the confidence to join Team PRIVO.”
For more information, please see: www.privo.com
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