Owning and Controlling Your Data With Madison Majeed and Haydar Majeed of Privatyze

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos, Tacos and tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper captains counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy and coffee my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos El gordo, the taco standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean Watch the sunset la Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana esti be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the moon SD Tecos with your host, Neil Bloom. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom and I'm thrilled to have you here. On the Tacos and Tech Podcast. We interview builders of technologies, of companies, of communities, and we do it weekly, so thanks for tuning in. Every Tuesday, a new interview and on Fridays we talk about what's new in the San Diego tech ecosystem from a news perspective. So make sure you join us there as well too. We also have a tech newsletter that comes out every other week@freshbroodtech.com you can subscribe to listen to it without further ado. Enjoy this episode and welcome back to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom and I'm so thrilled to have on a terrific husband, wife, tech team here on the podcast. Madison and Haidar Majeed, CEO and CTO of Privatize. Hey two, thanks for joining the podcast.

Thanks so much for having us, Neil. We're happy to be here.

Pleasure being here.

Yeah, no, it's been a thrill to be watching you guys build companies in the community. Had hard to be able to interact with you a bit more lately coming out of COVID And I'm really excited to get to know the Privatize story a bit. But do you guys want to give us a quick one minute overview, Madison, of what Privatize is?

Yeah, absolutely. So Privatize is a Web3 company and we are laser focused on customer loyalty and brand recognition with our flagship product dpaas and with deepass with our patent pending technology enables any business to leverage Web3 technology to really supercharge their customer loyalty and brand recognition strategies, all while generating new revenue streams for the business. So our goal with this is to really make it easy for any business to implement NFTs and verifiable credentials into their sales and marketing strategy and make it super easy for everyday people to participate and reap the rewards of Web3 in the real world and online.

Okay.

There's a lot of great functions and tools, a lot of Web2 tools I'm hearing packaging up and applying to the Web3 world which I'm excited to get into. I also know your guys cybersecurity background is deep and so we're going to talk about that and how that's applying forward into the web three world as well. So yes, I'm very excited to unpack what privatize is and what you guys are doing, but love to know the person behind the brand if you will. You know what got you here? Where did you, where did you get started in the tech world? Tyler, you want to take us through kind of your background a little bit?

Yeah, absolutely. So my interest in cybersecurity and digital identity really started when I worked for the US military as a contractor overseas, primarily in Iraq and in war zone. Really. And after I came to the United States, I made it my goal to be an expert in the field. I continued my education, gained national security study, bachelor's degree, master of cybersecurity Engineering and then currently PhD at the Colorado Tech as well with for computer science and digital identity. So when I met Madison, who has always been entrepreneurial and has business minded as well, so we knew that we, if we combine our skills and work together, we could create something truly unique and build some build business that will solve a lot of problems we're seeing in the world in terms of technology and digital trust. So that's really how like I, I got into the field.

Okay. And Madison, an entrepreneur background, what was your first startup? Where did you first dip your toes? Into the start.

Yeah. So I really got my footing launching my own web design and development company and really kind of started teaching myself marketing and business development and all of these different skills and really kind of learned from the ground up how to build businesses and it just kind of evolved from there into the startup world.

Very cool.

How'd you guys meet?

So we met actually I'm from the Pacific Northwest and we met there back in 2014, moved to San Diego, never looked back and now we're loving the California sunshine.

Wow. Incredible. Well Haida, how did you end up from Were you working in cyber security in Iraq like prior to like was that something you grew up knowing that there's an area of focus you want to take yourself all the way through to now?

Yeah. So that's start took my. I was actually doing running start early attending high school and doing college running start early. And at that point in that region in the Middle east, the U.S. i was very aligned with the mission and the U.S. were looking for someone with kind of that combination. Someone young that can be trusted at the same time got technical abilities and background and I was recruited to do that. So with my kind of curiosity really in technology and linguistic skills as well that combined was actually and the training and the mentoring I've received from the company that worked for the US Military in general put me in to see kind of the future. When you work with with that caliber you can see all the technologies that work on it and you is kind of futuristic and something that's going to be relevant in the next 10 years or so. So the really that what my my curiosity and love to technology breaking things put them back together and my linguistic abilities actually put that together to produce really who I am and what attract the United States military to kind of hire me and work on on there.

Wow. I mean yes, one thing you saw with that was currently being used in field but also some foresight to say what is going to be continued invested in for you both to invest in that career. So how did you decide on the first company that you guys co founded together and what was that like? Like who who said hey let's both jump in on this. I'm curious how that works within the relationship of like let's go do it.

I can definitely take a bit on on the start of it. Digital identity has always been something that we always believe is going to be relevant for a very long time. Even like whether it's Web two, Web three, you have to have identity for basically people online or in a physical world. Organization things they always has to be identified. Right. There's a user, there's an organization, there's an item, there's a subject. Right. But one of the things that we see in the current what we call Web2 is if you were to create an account, you have to go to multiple companies and create an account. Right. So we end up having thousands of Username passwords. And that has to be the other way around. It has to be where, you know, as a human and. Or we got a lot of like, attributes that can identify us. We have the best really identifiable data that we can provide. So we will have one log, username, password, and it's called one to many relationship. Right. So instead of we creating many username password, actually we just create one and that's us as our identity. So we started what we call Cryptic id, which is basically a cryptographically verifiable identity platform. And then that's how we really got started because we've seen the identity is going to be relevant. But Madison, if you want to also contribute to that.

Yeah. So we kind of dove headfirst into building Cryptic and kind of focused our efforts in the Middle east since Haidar had such strong connections there. And things eventually evolved and grew and we made it a success. So, you know, it was a great learning experience. We learned a lot from all of the different challenges. We learned what to do and what not to do. So the entrepreneurial journey is always has its ups and downs, but I think, you know, as long as you're learning and always moving forward, it's. Oh, it's never a bad experience.

Got it. So cryptic. And by the way, like, we're talking in real time right now on verification on Twitter, which, who knows when this episode necessarily is going live, but man, is it noisy right now around the blue check mark and what Elon is going to be doing to make sure the bots are gone. You know, you guys have been working on this for nearly a decade. This verification layer. Where did you see it go from where you first started it to where you ultimately sold like how different was and iterations had the company gone through both technology and the business?

Yeah, it's definitely. So a little story about that before I jump into the answer is our previous startup, BizSecure, we also did the exact same thing. We also did what we call verify credentials. And then that company, we actually first got recognized by the. After joining the San Diego Startup Week. I think that day was a day instead of week because the pandemic was in 2020. So we actually joined and we ended up winning the demo day. And then that's. I think that's the first time I got to learn about newbloom. I get to learn about the San Diego Startup Week and month and the incredible things they do for the community from there, become our journey, become really easy because we got to connect with people. We got to know who you are. Honestly, I followed you and connected with you on LinkedIn and started seeing like, you know, the floods of people that always kind of connected to you and send you. So that how the really ecosystem establish how we establish the ecosystem and get kind of basically start getting to know everyone. And so much credit really to go to you guys because we got recognized, obviously our name is there and then even the company who got acquired, I mean who acquired the previous company might have, you know, googled this and looked into the product and recognize us through you guys. So we definitely want to mention that. But how we got to really the identity layer is. And where we see things going really is that we see there's a lot of people thinking about identity. Used to be something I log in with something that, you know, recognizes me as I'm not a bottom human. That's really it. But with the digital economy, things are shifting. Where people thinking data is really is like the new currency. It's not just something I log in with, it's something I can monetize as well. So really things are different now. Right. So you think about data ownership. This is my data. I can actually leverage it and use it. And then we'll talk about that. How we see also what we do on the privatize to make it even more easy for people to monetize the data while preserving their privacy, which is a balance that has to be there.

Well, first of all, yes, we were so stoked to have Biz Secure in. I think that was the first Startup San Diego incubator that we created in 2020. It was great to have you guys in there and so quickly to be able to show the track record of where the company went since then, obviously is great for both of you. And Startup San Diego, we'd like to think that, you know, there's a bit of a filter of who we let in. We handpicked. I think it was 10 companies that over the course of a month brought to some virtual workshops and ultimately a demo day. So yeah, we're on. We've already just finished year three of the incubator, which is pretty cool to have already in such a short time now incubated 30 companies over the last two years. So I'm guessing, yeah, I mean you obviously have found a lot of interest and deep need for going on company number three now around this same space. So built and sold two companies in identity management. And how did you start thinking about Privatize? I know you're kind of come through Launch Factory Take us through your connection and intro to Launch Factory, maybe Madison for you, how you got to know them and how you ultimately settled on running privatized with them.

Yeah. So in early 2021, Haidar and I were recruited by Launch Factory. They're a startup studio right here in San Diego. So over the course of eight weeks, we competed with some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs from all around the world. So every week we were faced with new challenges like, you know, putting together a business plan, financial projections and analyzing the market and the competitive landscape. And every week they were eliminating teams as we went along. So at the end of the eight weeks, the competition ended with a final pitch to the Launch Factory judges. And so after the final pitch, it ended up we were selected as the winners, which was just so incredible and humbling. And thanks to Launch Factory's investment, we were able to launch Privatize and roll up our sleeves and really get to work.

That's awesome. Yeah. In full transparency, interlock capital invested in back in 2020 in the full 2021 suite of companies that Launch Factory created. So in fact we are investors, which we're thrilled to be a part and get to know the founders behind the company now, which is great. A little bit of a reverse for probably most investors and you trust the process and look what emerges from the process. Two great co founders to run a company. So, you know, you get recruited by Launch Factory, they have their own idea and you have your own ideas and then comes the customer development and the validation. So take us through a little bit of a where since joining Privatize, where the company has gone from now maybe Hedda, are your end on like the technology or at least kind of the tech you decided to build ultimately.

Got it. Yeah, it's been, it's been incredible. And shout out to launch facts. Really amazing. So being a customer focused startup, we made it our mission really to always start with the customer, work our our way back to the technology. This way we can build a solution a the customer actually can meet and can solve the pain points and earn the trust and loyalty as well. So this conversation with our clients and their customers and the feedback that we received from our pilot programs have enabled us to really make informed decisions on how we see private house going strategically over the next few years. And what, what is it going to. So really what we see next is that we believe the next unicorn company in web3 and the web3 space will be the one that successfully bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 and with DPass we're making a reality. What is great about DPass is that it is easy to use to provide so much value to the business and their customers. Most people already know how to add credit cards and debit cards, Starbucks gift cards and insurance cardboard and passes into their device mobile wallets. So there's really no learning curve and there's no new app to download when you're using DPass. It just the stuff you already have natively in your phone. Business can send notifications that are actually relevant and timely avoiding spamming their customers inboxes. If you're walking by your favorite Docker spot which is we'll get to talk about my favorite you can send a buy one, get one a free coupon or remind that there's a happy hour saving people money and cutting down decision making process we're most excited about is that we're connecting business with their loyal customers and eliminating the middleman and the control for searching and social advertisements and marketing the one that keeping business from interacting with their customers. Not only that we, we see this as the way for to lower costs for businesses but a way for consumers to have full control over the brand. They interact and they like they interact with. So this is basically like how we really enable. That's the strategic direction we decided to take. We actually based on the idea that we have and based on the conversation that we have with our clients we decided to build something that really solved that pain.

Point Madison where's the platform today? Like where is it? You know just from a status. Is it live? Are there customers? Where are you in the life cycle journey?

So we are live. Dpaas is ready for action. We've just been completing some of our initial pilot programs and onboarding our first customers, getting everybody up to speed. And from here we are ready to scale and grow and onboard as many customers as we can. We really see DPAAs rolling out to Southern California at large and really becoming a customer loyalty and rewards and VIP experiences hub for businesses all across the region.

Yeah, I think it's an interesting piece around community and interaction both internally within say a brand and what a brand wants to do to interact and gain followers. Which is nothing new. We've had clubs and reward points for decades if not hundreds of years and now the web three layer is adding a layer to it. Right. Curious to know from what your end what's the difference in the technology that needs to be developed to meet the need? Because there's. There's obviously been some tech that's done pieces of this you're packaging a lot of features up together but you're also bringing it to web 3. What's the difference in the technology?

Yeah, I'll take that. So one, one thing also to mention in terms of like how early like we still actually building deep hats and we have really exciting the first ever Web3 conference in San Diego. Reach out to us and say what you guys building is amazing. We have one issue we would love for you to solve is that we try to bring people kind of bring their own identity what they already have into the conference. So like basically a way to bring an NFT that can identify them and get into the event with it as a ticket. But the problem with that there's so many complexities. You have to have like a couple different apps and signatures and keys and then with DPAAs. So we actually enable them to bring these NFTs and these credentials into their Apple and Google Wallet. So they don't download anything really just go there, buy a ticket, add a tab on Google. But that ticket is representing their NFT as well. So and with full verification that less than a second we're able to verify them. So really that's how we got started. Now where we see things heading in Web3 and what the difference and what is really added value is that really the ability to for business to attract new customers without having to use the traditional, you know, text message email addresses and so on. If I connect with Neil on in web3 I'm able to actually communicate with him through just about any outlet. But the one we're creating is what we call app list. So I'm able to send Neil Madison, my customers, you know a notification to their Apple or Google Wallet which is natively there and then they can receive an act on it immediately without having a third party app involved. Why? Because now this credential that user holds is theirs. That's it's promoting data ownership is theirs is not issued by anyone is actually is their NFT and they can get in with and they can even get rewards on it too which is something that has not been done. We patent the approach and they're currently in use. Well yeah, so that's this is something really exciting. We actually got to use it with Web3 Conference. It was successful. It was a great turnout as well. But yeah that's basically what we see things heading and now our kind of focus on loyalty and then that's something we see a huge app obviously we just heard Starbucks itself moving the entire $2 billion worth of loyalty program into Web3 and blockchain.

Yeah, it's starting to really feel like there's some real application uses for this. A lot of us in what it was called crypto, and now Web3, you know, have largely been attracted to the what if potential, and now there's these real applications that are happening. Like you mentioned web3st conference that just happened here in early. What was it, mid to late October. A great showing of a lot of different communities coming together. Where else do you see, you know, especially Privatize headed where? What's next? Where are you guys a year from now, you think? Madison.

So a year from now, we really see the company growing. We're looking for investors currently to take Privatize to the next level. So hopefully from a year from now, you know, we are completely mainstream and saturated throughout San Diego especially, but also the entire Southern California region. Our goal is to expand to other major metropolitan cities across the United States and around the globe. So that is where our time and our effort is going to be spent and where we see the company expanding to.

Very exciting. So that was the next question. Where can the community help? It sounds like through expertise, talent and investment, specifically around the cyber community, which, you know, you guys have been building companies in this space now for a little bit. What's unique about San Diego from that Cybersecurity. Is it the talent? Is it the immediate applications? What do you think?

Yeah, so I think overall, really the need for cyber. I just also great connection. I just attended the Cyber Security center for Excellence meeting at Nouvernexus for the first time, and then one of the advisors there as well now. Thank you, Neil. Actually point that out, being, you know, actually following you on LinkedIn and then having a conversation with you and sharing my background and having you saying, oh, I can actually make that connection quickly. It was incredible. So. So that's really got to see how there's a huge shortage in cybersecurity in terms of talents. But really what excites me about cybersecurity is whether it's Web two or Web three, again, there's a need for. Because cybersecurity is not really just an application. It's not a gaming application. It's really something related to not only financial but private security and even national security. Right. So it's a great deal. But there's also that shown up in Web three, which is I got to talk to in our first meeting with the Cyber center of Excellence, is that there's also a huge need for cyber security in Web3. So most technologies are not really audited, they're not really vetted and currently operating Web3 handling millions of dollars and if not billions and then, and these technologies are open source, never been audited. So I think the next wave is going to be just like we, we got to learn about like all these new exciting technologies came to kind of stabilize Web2 in terms of cyber. I think there's a huge gap also being created in Web3. So cyber security, Web3, and we call them Web3 and Web5, that's going to be huge as well. But what excites me about cyber security is that in terms of, hey, is it great in terms of talent and help, we have the Navy here in San Diego, so we're a huge hub for cyber.

Yeah, I think it's really interesting to think that talent pool wise, like you came here and your expertise came through the military and while you're not necessarily working on that today, the talent pool came through that. And like you mentioned, there's thousands of cybersecurity experts who are either working on military applications or not. But that is kind of an entrant for technologists to then go work on the next thing. And I don't think most people think like military is cutting edge kinds of, you know, the most cutting edge. But maybe in cybersecurity that's different. Right. I gotta imagine that because it's this application layer where you, it's an immediate need and it really does change the lives of the war fighter. That might be unique and a unique spot of the military where the technology gets some of the first kinds of things out there. Have you seen some of that related to the cyber world?

Yeah, definitely. A great question. I think some of the brightest companies were really helping and supporting the US military here in San Diego and even outside. Right. So they definitely have cutting edge technologies and exciting really careers too. So I've started my career there and even went and went again there and we're back, worked for some of the DoD companies as well, helping our Navy. So it's always an edge. Very exciting. But really for me, like when I went into the cyber startup world is we start really like we start thinking maybe creating something unique is going to be needed in the next few years. Maybe that will also have some sort of DOD contracting arm that can do that as well because we know the need will be there. Like I mentioned earlier, the cybersecurity also, there's a huge missing gap when it comes to compliance in Web3. So really think that's going to be also something that we can relate back to the military and the DoD in terms of work.

Yeah, I agree. And especially with identity management becoming such a nation state kind of cybersecurity issue today. Right. Whether it's social media kind of stuff, deepfake kind of things around that. And you got to think the same for depend on where Privatize gets used. If we're talking capital and financial stacks like now, it even more so matters than just what someone tweeted. It really matters is like, are we moving the right kind of money given the right kind of access to things around that too. Where do you think? You know, and I think people talk a lot about NFTs being art form and other pieces like that, but there are some real technical aspects to community and permissions. Where do you think that next? I don't know. Breakthrough is going to come through Madison that Privatize is going to tackle and be a part of. Yeah.

So the way that we look at NFTs is really like your proof of ownership. That's where the value lies in an nft. It's not necessarily the artwork or the image that you're buying. NFT can represent any, anything. It's the representation that you own that thing now is what's valuable and what's important. One of the, you know, kind of technologies that we, that pairs really nicely with NFTs and that we believe is going to be the future is verifiable credentials. And there's a lot of companies that are jumping onto the verifiable credential bandwagon and really trying to bring it mainstream. And these are Fortune 500 companies and even the DOD. And so with verifiable credentials, you. These are basically your digital representation of a credential that you have. So that could be, you know, your birth certificate, it could be your vaccination record, it could be your high school diploma, it could be your college degree, could really be anything. It could even be the certification that you earn for completing, you know, a coding course. But that digital representation is something that belongs to you and then it can be verified without having to go back to that person that gave it to you to say, hey, is this real or not? So it really builds trust in a digital world where you don't know who's on the other side of the computer in a way where we're not having to continually go back to the source in order to verify and validate information.

Yeah, and you mentioned the identity, but and more, the kind of ecosystem around that there's some known San Diego companies that have actually built in that space. And while maybe not known out loud, but the Civic, Coin and Protocol founders now live in San Diego, even though it was started in San Francisco. So I know there's talent that has moved just in related to kind of the crypto connection at the coin level for Civic. Also another identity management. So, yeah, it's great to see people one, not just the talent amassing together, but like you mentioned, this is the next wave that needs to be tackled from a technological standpoint. Pretty cool to see that we've got a density here of talent in San Diego. You know who else we have in San Diego? We got some great tacos. And if most people haven't heard that by now, well, then they have to know what your two favorites are. Do you guys have your own favorite spot where you go?

Yeah. So typically we end up at Serrano Street Tacos downtown. So they have great food, you know, great atmosphere, it's a convenient location. That's pretty much where Heder and I end up when we're needing tacos in our life.

Solid one that has not been ever mentioned here. So excited to put that into the database. Heather, do you have one of your own or is that the go to?

No, I think that's Madison. I've got the same one. So that's the end. They have maybe something to add. They do have a Tuesday special, so it's very affordable and delicious as well. And then as they know us as entrepreneurs, so we're always showing up with our, you know, Mac books and just sitting there doing some work and eating great tacos and. But yeah, that's the same spot.

What's the smart order there?

We usually end up there on Tuesday. That's. We made it kind of like a weekly habits they have, I believe three to four sometimes, but typically three tacos for $10. And these tacos are really amazing. And then also special on drink as well. So they have other stuff, but like we go for the tacos. Beef, chicken, really fish. They have all of them. And a great drink as well.

All right, solid. You heard it here first. Well, Madison Haidar, it's great to have you in our community building companies and now build and privatize. So we're excited to continue on the journey with you. Best of luck and we'll see you soon.

Thank you, Neil. Pleasure talking to you today. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you for having us, Neil. We appreciate what you do for the community and appreciate having us so pleasure of course.

No, it's such a pleasure to know one that look like the community builds things that you hope intrinsically will pay back. And when you can see that companies have gotten ahead because of the others giving, that's what makes us want to keep doing that and keep building a good community that builds good companies. That's what it's all about. So keep building a good company and we all will stand to gain from that. So thank you both and we'll talk soon. Cheers.

Thanks Neil Cheers.

Thanks for tuning in to the Tacos and Tech podcast. You can find all of our episodes on freshfoodtech.com and as well as on Twitter at Tacos and Tech Pod. Also follow Fresh Brew Tech on all of our social platforms and make sure to share and give a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Play. Thanks again.

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