About Us

We believe in creating a more honest, open, and transparent world. Virtrue is the way for anyone to control their online identity, thereby helping to manage the way you are viewed online and offline. For individuals, we help you transact safely. For employers, we help you hire the most honest, trustworthy people. Become Virtrue.us!

The idea for Virtrue started when our co-founder, Adam, purchased some software on eBay. The software was pirated. Adam left a negative review for the seller who then countered with a negative review of Adam despite him paying on-time. The seller then offered a settlement – delete both reviews. Adam began thinking – how can you create a single global & universal online identity and reputation? The idea for Virtrue became even more critical as the team started hearing negative trust stories about the then nascent collaborative consumption economy and human resource hiring nightmares that cost companies millions, such as Yahoo! with their disgraced former CEO, Scott Thompson. While idealistic, Virtrue’s mission is to create a trusted, transparent, and secure third party database of verified data to enable safe and honest transactions globally.

The company has partnerships with a variety of top tier service providers who help provide us with the most relevant, accurate data available. Our investors and advisors include some of the top trusted and respected names in the business. We are led by a seasoned team focused on one goal: enabling you to verify your identity.

Virtrue is based in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. If you are in the area, don’t hesitate to come and visit. We love to meet our customers or potential partners. Contact us at contact@virtrue.us. You can also call us at 415-326-4604.

Our Team

ADAM SPECTOR

Co-Founder and CEO

Adam is responsible for everything the rest of the team does not want to do but if they are smiling, then he is too. Prior to Virtrue, Adam worked at the e-discovery company, Clearwell Systems and, post acquisition, at Symantec. Before heading West, he worked at Neustar, a trusted, neutral provider of real-time information. Adam started AdoptACoral.org and is now a board member of the Coral Restoration Foundation. Adam holds a JD & MBA from the University of Miami and a dual-major plus minor B.S. from Vanderbilt University, cum laude.

WALTER LEE

Co-Founder

Walter is responsible for product development and engineering at Virtrue. Prior to Virtrue, Walter was Director of Product at NileGuide, a travel recommendations startup in San Francisco. Before NileGuide, he worked as a software engineer at Google and a product manager at YouTube. Walter holds a B.S.E. in computer science from Princeton University, magna cum laude.

AARON WEBBER

Co-Founder

Aaron is responsible for architecture and data analysis at Virtrue. Prior to Virtrue, Aaron was a Senior Software Engineer at Clearwell Systems and Symantec where he met Adam. He has worked at Zap Technology, an Australian business intelligence firm, and Edusoft, an educational software company. Aaron holds a B.A. in Physics from Oberlin College.

Our Advisors

Edward Palmieri

 

 

Edward Palmieri is a leading thinker on all issues related to privacy on the social web. He is currently Associate General Counsel, Privacy at Facebook. Previously, he was the Deputy Chief Privacy Director at Sprint where he advised on mobile and Internet privacy issues, internal and external compliance, marketing, and government affairs. He also served as Sprint’s Board Member for the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Edward has hold a B.A. from the College of Holy Cross and a JD from the Catholic University, Columbus School of Law.

Edward Palmieri

Ross Chanin

 

 

Ross is a repeat Internet entrepreneur with experience in public policy. He is currently CEO at American Efficient and serves on the Edison Electric Institute’s IEE Management Committee & Partner Roundtable. American Efficient monetizes product choice energy efficiency for the energy sector. Previously, Ross was a founder at Reputation.com, the world leader in online privacy & reputation management solutions. Reputation.com now serves customers in over 100 countries and is a 2011 World Economic Forum (Davos) Technology Partner. Ross also previously served on the speechwriting staff of a major presidential campaign. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Law School.

Ross Chanin

David Michaels

 

 

David Michaels is a 14-year veteran of Silicon Valley startups and an expert in designing and building secure, distributed systems capable of Internet scale. David was the first VP at Mint.com and the chief architect behind Mint’s security and scalability. Mint, the web’s largest free personal finance application, was acquired by Intuit for $170 million in November 2009. David enjoys the challenges and exhilaration of early-stage companies, having been among the first employees at seven venture-backed startups since 1996: starting with GeoCities where he built one of the first ad servers on the net. GeoCities became the third most popular destination on the web and was ultimately acquired by Yahoo for $5 billion. David implemented performance and scalability features for NetDynamics, the first Java-based application server (acquired by Sun), and most recently was at PGP Corporation where he managed the engineering teams behind the company’s flagship encryption products. Originally from New Jersey, David came to California in 1994 joining Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he worked on distributed systems and the (then nascent) WWW. David graduated magna cum laude from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and holds an M.S. in Computer Science with honors from Stanford.

David Michaels

Ron Aquino

 

 

Ron Aquino is the Head of Risk and Compliance Operations at oDesk. An early employee at oDesk, Ron built multiple departments from the ground up, including Risk Management, Compliance, Customer Support, and Marketplace Quality. He created the oDesk marketplace dispute resolution program and oDesk’s global identity verification systems. Ron has presented at some of the largest risk conferences in the world, including the Merchant Risk Council Platinum Meeting. He has advised multiple start-up companies on identity verification, payments risk and marketplace quality.

Ron Aquino