Founders Everywhere: Kieran Donovan
Kieran Donovan is the co-founder & CEO of k-ID, a startup transforming how kids & teens access age-appropriate game experiences by making it easy for developers to comply with global regulations.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators
In today's digital age, kids and teens are spending more time than ever online and ensuring their safety and well-being has become paramount. k-ID provides developers with an architecture that simplifies their compliance with global laws, so they can focus on crafting exceptional experiences for kids and teens. k-ID goes far beyond the complex challenges of online identity verification, they also empower kids through tailored experiences that align with legal and cultural norms across different age groups and markets. As concerns over online safety continue to escalate, k-ID offers parents reassurance and kids and teens a safer digital playground.
Co-founder and CEO Kieran Donovan was an attorney for over a decade specializing in privacy and technology law. Throughout his career, he worked in various global hubs, including Sydney, London, and Hong Kong, advising clients on navigating complex compliance issues in the digital realm. Kieran’s other co-founders also have extensive expertise in the field. Chief Legal Officer Timothy Ma spent more than a decade helping shape data privacy policies at Tencent and Jeff Wu, Chief Safety Officer, has almost two decades of experience in Trust and Safety, Government Outreach and Investigations at Meta and Google during their respective hyper-growth stages. Finally, Chief Growth Officer Julian Corbett is a tech and gaming industry veteran who has helped lead the APAC branches of major gaming companies, including Take Two Publishing and Voodoo. Kieran, Jeff, Timothy, and Julian cohabited the same world and same problem, but from different perspectives, so it was kindred spirits coming together to solve the issue holistically. They’re passionate about building k-ID to solve the world’s most complex challenges across privacy, trust, and safety for kids and teens.
What’s k-ID’s North Star?
Our goal is to improve the online experience for kids, teens, parents, and publishers by addressing the challenges kids and teens face when they go online today. k-ID is transforming the way kids and teens access age-appropriate game experiences and helps developers comply with complex global regulations with a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive suite of tools that make online game platforms safer, better, faster, and more empowering for young players. While our technology is applicable across various industries, we're focusing initially on the gaming sector due to its wide user base and potential for significant impact.
What sets k-ID apart?
In the realm of online safety and privacy for kids and teens, the typical focus revolves around identifying them and verifying parental consent. However, what's often overlooked is what comes next: tailoring the online experience to align with legal and cultural standards for different age groups and markets, which is really the most important part of the puzzle. This crucial aspect ensures that the digital environment is suitable and engaging for kids and teens of varying ages and backgrounds. There's a notable absence of technology-driven solutions tailored to this aspect of safety online, which is what k-ID is addressing.
Tell us about some recent milestones that k-ID crushed.
We’re coming out of stealth and I think we closed one of the most meaningful raises in the current macroeconomic environment, securing $5.4 million from pre-seed and seed rounds. It’s indicative that we’re building something that’s different and quite unique.
Our product is available now, and is free for kids and parents. For developers, it’s designed so that whether you’re an indie publisher or a big global publisher, you get access to exactly the same technology. We want to make sure that we can democratize access to meaningful compliance, trust and safety in the kids and teen space. You can learn more and sign-up for a demo on our website, k-ID.com.
It’s important to highlight our early traction, as we will be announcing a number of partnerships with major publishers that account for a huge number of monthly active users today in gaming. It’s super exciting because you work backwards from that impact, which is going to affect a lot of people in the right way.
Any advice for other founders?
Back yourself. One of the things that is very antithetical to an attorney is taking risks. And not just risks in the sense of making that leap from private practice to a startup. But all of the decision making that happens along the way, where you’re building a product, and having confidence that maybe what you're building right now isn't necessarily going to be what ends up in the hands of customers, but it's a stepping stone to get there. Unlike in legal practice where you’re expected to get it 100% right, 100% of the time, when you’re building a startup you can’t do that. That's not the way that startups work. Adapting to this is really important and embracing this mindset shift has been a valuable learning experience for me.
What have been some of your greatest personal and professional achievements?
Professionally, I take pride in my legal career, having worked at some really fantastic firms and with amazing colleagues and clients. The recognition I've been humbled to receive in the market for creativity and innovation is incredibly rewarding. Personally, being a parent to my two young boys is my greatest source of fulfillment. Knowing that my work each day contributes to making their world a better place is exactly how I want to start each morning.
Fun fact: My detour at the beginning of my career was in screenwriting, but ultimately I returned to law for its blend of creativity and structure.
Listen to Kieran Donovan and Chris Bergman on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Safe k-IDs, Happy Parents: Listen now on Apple and Spotify and check out all our past episodes here!
Watch the founder interview with Nathan Kondamuri on YouTube.