Founder of newly crowned tech all-star still living on the breadline

Despite being the hottest European start-up, Trustev founder Chris Kennedy is still living on the breadline working to ensure that the company survives to fulfil its billion-euro potential.

The company was this week crowned the Tech All-Stars Champion, being awarded the honour by European Commission vice-president Neelie Kroes.

Trustev was only founded last year by Chris Kennedy and Pat Phelan with the aim of eliminating online fraud. The relationship between the founders goes further back than that, however.

Mr Kennedy, from Tramore, Co Waterford, said: “I was Pat’s first hire at Cubic telecoms in 2007. I was 22 and straight out of college. I had been doing a master’s that wasn’t really working out and then he offered me a job.”

Mr Kennedy had graduated from University College Cork with a degree in business information systems, a course he only picked at the last minute after a UCC delegate gave his class a talk on it.

He left Cubic Telecoms two years ago and began working on an algorithm to tackle fraud through social media channels.

To keep the wolf away from the door he took a number of freelance projects while all the time working on getting the algorithm together to start Trustev.

The company has evolved rapidly since it was founded and no longer just relies on the social fingerprint.

“As the system grows and expands, it has reached big data status. We’re now evaluating thousands of data points with using them to determine if a person will commit fraud,” Mr Kennedy said.

Online fraud is valued at between €10bn and €20bn a year, with companies spending nearly three times that figure to combat it. This is the market Trustev believes it can dominate.

The founders are unwilling to put a valuation on the company for the moment, resisting the option of taking the easy money to make sure that the company makes it.

“We are still living on the breadline, we have to make sure that the company makes it,” Mr Kennedy said.

A handy golfer playing off of a handicap of 6, Mr Kennedy said that he had to give up his membership with Tramore Golf Club to save money.

A sign of Trustev’s growth over the past year, he’s now thinking of getting back into the swing of things by joining a club.