What is the story of Footprint?

It sounds stupidly cliched, but from the time I was at Haverford, I wanted to use technology to make the world a better place. I started a non-profit, High School HeroesX in Form III with the idea that technology could be used to solve massive social issues.

After I graduated, a few scandals rocked the tech giants of our time, leading to the first big questioning by consumers of internet platforms. Facebook became the poster child of this with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the rise of misinformation. What I thought was interesting about the ensuing legislation—laws such as GDPR and CCPA—was that they were all meant to silo our data and restrict the portability of it, which contradicted my (perhaps naively optimistic) belief that technology and data was still our best chance at solving the problems facing us today. For example, Google is probably the best predictor of who will get Parkinson’s disease—wouldn’t it be amazing if we could know that information securely with our healthcare providers?

I became obsessed with the idea of putting people in control of their data—I studied it for the rest of school and then spent some time working in venture capital. I was then lucky to meet an amazing co-founder, raise a seed round led by Index, and spend the last year building out our product and team. 

What consumer needs does Footprint address?

Footprint is like Apple Pay for identity—it lets you move around the internet with less friction and more control. If we want to create a digital account that interacts with anything spanning money or health, we often have to fill out a form with our personal information. This makes it less likely we will go through with it, and then introduces a new vector for our data to be accessed or identity stolen if there is a data breach.

I don’t want consumers to have to choose between usability and privacy on the internet. We should not be afraid of using tools due to fear of misappropriation of our data. Footprint aims to be the passport to give people this peace of mind. We change the paradigm from signing up for multiple accounts and giving your information away to multiple destinations, to signing up for multiple accounts and granting them all access to the singular data set you own within Footprint. Behind the scenes, we use a lot of fancy cryptography—things like AWS Nitro Enclaves. But for consumers, creating accounts becomes as easy as typing in their email and doing Face ID.  

Did you have a favorite class at Haverford that left a lasting impression on you, or that offered a significant life lesson that you still carry?

This would have to be Lao Shi’s Chinese class during my freshman year. There were no textbooks or even exams—we had to write a story every week and come and read it. I never came close to learning as much in any other class. It may sound counter-intuitive given the objective in most classes, but I think Lao Shi showed us that life isn’t a graded exam that you can fake your way through. The successful acquisition of knowledge and other skills is binary: at the end of the day, you’ll only set yourself up for failure if you don’t actually master what you’re trying to learn. We can only cheat ourselves. And if we put in the work, we should only look to do ourselves proud. 

Looking far ahead in your career, what legacy do you hope to leave?

I wrote an investor update about empathy. In starting a company, I think it’s easy to view those who enter our professional lives as ways to get toward our goal. That the ends justify the means. I disagree with this line of thought. I hope that those who interact with me are better for it—employees, investors, customers. 

My mission with Footprint is the same as when I wrote the first business plan from my college dorm room in February 2020: put people in control of their data. Women should not need to face possible trade-offs from using period tracking apps and having to worry about the Texas DA subpoena power. The elderly should not be concerned Google could sell their real-time health to insurance companies. I don’t want to scare people. In fact, I hope to do the opposite. Show that if we can actually trust a third party with our data, we can enter into an age of greater longevity, wealth, and opportunity.