Founders Everywhere: Zain Zaidi
Zain Zaidi is the co-founder and CEO of TransCrypts, a digital documentation platform that leverages blockchain technology to automate record management and verification processes.
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Employment and income verification are a part of life - whether applying for a loan, renting or buying a home, seeking benefits, or getting a job. In the current system, people rely on third-party companies to complete these verifications on their behalf, but this process doesn't always go smoothly, leading to delays and complications that can negatively impact applicants. Within companies, the HR department is responsible for conducting these verifications, but it can be tedious and time-consuming. Transcrypts is a tool for HR departments to automate employment and income verifications, allowing employees to self-serve these requests. This saves time and reduces liability for HR teams, as they no longer have to manually handle these requests or worry about compliance issues. Verifiers like banks, landlords, businesses or background check companies can request access to an employee’s records directly from the employee. Once granted access, they can instantly verify the documents through TransCrypts’ cryptographic validation process, which utilizes blockchain technology to ensure security, transparency, and immutability of the data.
Co-founder and CEO Zain Zaidi started TransCrypts right out of undergraduate school, incubating the company at the Harvard Innovations Lab, where he attended graduate school and did research in Emerging Technologies and Cryptocurrencies. As a result, he was featured as an Under 25 entrepreneur by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. He co-founded the company with his cousin Ali Zaheer, who had a blockchain consultancy company that he sold in 2015. Since launching, TransCrypts’ verification product has conducted over 3 million verifications and they aim to enable individuals and businesses to gain complete control over their data by breaking down data silos and offering secure, efficient, and innovative solutions.
What inspired you to build TransCrypts?
The idea came when I was applying to grad school during COVID and I paid for my official undergraduate transcript to be sent, but it never arrived and put my admission at risk. This made me realize that I didn’t actually own any proof of my education and that I'm forever reliant on my university to validate that I went to school there. I thought there should be a way for people to own their official records. That’s how the idea originated, but we later pivoted into employment and income verification, as it’s a similar problem because people are reliant on others to provide this information, rather than owning it themselves.
What is TransCrypts’ North Star?
Our North Star is to allow people to control their employment and education history, rather than relying on third parties. We want to create a system where individuals can easily share verified information, reducing friction for all parties, while also preventing fraud.
How does TransCrypts inspire “customer love”?
Our solution offers three main benefits for HR departments: time and cost savings by eliminating the need to manually handle and verify requests, reduced liability by protecting against fraudulent verification attempts, and improved employee satisfaction by providing systems employees prefer. It's a win, win, win and that's what they love about us.
What sets TransCrypts apart?
While other startups and credit bureaus focus on serving verifiers by speeding up verification, we focus on HR and controlling the data source itself. In any data business you want to build as close as possible to the data source because if you control the data source, you control everyone downstream from you, and verifiers are downstream of HR. That's our competitive advantage and that's why we're going to win.
How has your background influenced you as a founder?
I grew up in the Bay Area, surrounded by tech, though not directly part of it, as my parents worked in law enforcement and healthcare. Living in Fremont, I witnessed the transformation of the local economy firsthand, from the closure of a Toyota factory in 2007, which devastated jobs, to its revival when Tesla took over in 2010, creating massive wealth and job opportunities. Watching companies like Facebook and Nvidia grow from startups to global giants, and experiencing the influence of leaders like Jensen Huang at my college, gave me a front-row view of entrepreneurship’s impact. I also have the immigrant mentality. My parents came to the US from India and Pakistan and sacrificed so much, so I want to do right by them and make them proud.
Any favorite books?
I think my favorite book of all time is A Tale of Two Cities. I also like The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Fun fact:
I’m a certified scuba diver! It’s a great stress-relieving hobby if you’re not scared of the ocean.
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