‍

I can't believe that nearly four years have passed since work began as an expert witness on large data breaches, which in turn led to the idea for the algorithms that are now called Breach Clarity. In early 2016 Breach Clarity was known as just 'The Data Breach Score',, and thankfully our partner Eva Velasquez (CEO ITRC) was candid enough to say 'nice idea, but that name needs work, Jim'. Where would we be without honest feedback from friends? So much has happened since then, and in 2019 we:

• Won first place in the One World Identity / Identity World Startup pitch contest
• Received Series A funding from Castlewood properties
• Added Al Pascual as COO and co-founder (Al formerly headed up Javelin's production and opps)
• Outsourced development on our 'Premium' consumer-facing product, to be offered through retail FIs
• Continued significant research and development of our underlying algorithm
• Began prototyping of 'Professional', our offering for FI's fraud mitigation experts
• Set up offices in Walnut Creek, ready for new team members to start on January 2

2020 promises to be a very dynamic year, and because our startup truly doesn't replace anything (today's fraud analytics systems rely solely on fraud data, rather than moving upstream to predict risk and prescribe actions based on the antecedent data compromise), and therefore we have fewer competitive examples or best practices to learn from. We have no shortage of interested clients and partners, yet ultimately our success will be determined by how adroitly we listen, learn, focus, and (often) pivot. Few startups bring anything truly new and unique to market, yet when they do success is determined  to by differentiation (which generally means 'making something relatively undifferentiated appear to be significantly different), but rather by discovering what the market and landscape has to teach you about success. We do know that certain things are in store though, including:

• Announcement of a rock star, multi-faceted advisory board
• The launch of our Premium (consumer facing, thru FIs) and Professional products, the first one very soon...
• Strong improvements to www.breachclarity.com, to support visibility for our financial institution first-deployers
• Awareness campaigns that accompany major new breaches, to cut the time lag between large data compromise and effective consumer protection response.

Got ideas for us? We're all ears and hope you will reach out.

Have a happy holidays, everyone.