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Origins

Tim Woda had worked for years at buySAFE, an Internet trust and safety company, helping to protect consumers from poor online shopping experiences. But when one of his own children became the target of an Internet child predator, it was a wakeup call. While his child was not harmed, it forced Woda to think about ways to prevent the new technologies kids use-such as social networking and text messages-from opening doors to such risks.

Joined by his brother Steve Woda, founder of buySAFE, and a talented team of entrepreneurs and technologists, development began on the world’s first Parental Intelligence System that would leverage the team’s tremendous knowledge of Internet security and risk management to help parents keep their social and mobile kids safe.

The concept of uKnow.com was born in June of 2009. The team developed an online service that makes it easier for you to connect to your child's digital world. Our technology helps protect kids from predators, bullies and sexting. Unlike parental control software, uKnow.com enables parents to “have their child’s back” without constantly looking over their shoulder. By giving parents the information they need to educate and engage their children about staying safe online and smarter tools to supervise their children in a digital world, uKnow.com helps make technology safer for kids and less intimidating for parents. And by supplementing this proactive approach to parenting social and mobile kids with a notification and reporting system to inform parents if their child becomes intertwined in a risky situation, uKnow.com provides parents with uniquely smart tools to help keep our kids safe.

Team

Located just outside of Washington, D.C., the uKnow.com team includes some of the nation's leading privacy and cyber safety experts and child safety advocates.

Steve Woda - President, CEO and Co-Founder

As President and CEO of uKnow.com, Steve leads the company in its mission of empowering parents with smart tools to keep social and mobile kids safe from the scariest digital dangers including child predators, sexting, and cyberbullying. He is responsible for guiding the company's strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations.

Previously, Steve was the Founder and Chairman of buySAFE, the world's leading ecommerce trust and safety company, which is now partially owned by Symantec (purchased from Verisign). During his nine years at buySAFE, Steve led almost every aspect of operations and co-raised almost $30 million in venture capital. As Senior Vice President of Product and Strategy, he was responsible for leading the company's business intelligence, professional services, and product management teams that developed all of the Company's core products, including the buySAFE Seal™, Website Bonding, the Safe Shopping Rating™, and the buySAFE Shopping Advisor™. He also previously led the marketing, sales, and business development teams as Senior Vice President of Strategic Growth during the company's initial years of rapid growth.

Prior to founding buySAFE, Steve led USF&G's New York City surety bond operations where he managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of surety bond guarantees and built the business from $3 million to more than $10 million annual revenue in just two years. Steve began his career at Travelers, and also worked at PayMyBills.com, an idealab! company focused on online bill management and payments.

Steve is a recognized expert and regular public speaker on the subjects of Internet/mobile safety and security, ecommerce, and information economics, and he serves on the Advisory Boards of buySAFE, Arcus, and LaunchBox Digital. Steve was appointed to the Virginia Joint Commission on Science and Technology's Cybercrimes Advisory Committee in 2006, and he is also the inventor of the "Safe Transaction Guaranty” (US Patent 7,644,019) as well as two additional patent applications related to "Method, System, and Components for Obtaining, Evaluating and/or Utilizing Seller, Buyer, and Transaction Data” (US Patent Applications 20090119161 and 20090119160).

Steve earned his MBA in both Entrepreneurship and Operations & Information Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. With the help of a college golf scholarship, he earned his BS in Business Administration - Finance & Marketing at Florida Southern College. Steve's most treasured project is that of husband and father for his incredible wife and two young children.

Ashish Khot - Technology and Co-Founder

Ashish leads uKnow.com's development team. He has extensive experience in technology development where he has designed and developed transaction processing, financial services and other real-time and mission critical systems. In addition to his role with uKnow.com, Ashish also founded TechnoMile, a technology consulting company. Before that Ashish was Director of Product Development and Systems Architect for buySAFE, Inc.

Ashish has a Masters degree from Clemson University and a Bachelors from the University of Mumbai.

Tim Woda - SVP, Strategic Growth and Co-Founder

A passionate advocate for empowering families and protecting children from today's scariest digital dangers, Tim originally conceived of uKnow.com following his own family's encounter with an Internet child predator.

As a co-founder of uKnow.com, Tim has been instrumental in shaping uKnow.com's product and growth strategy. Tim is an experienced entrepreneur with a successful track record in rapidly growing revenue. Tim is responsible for the company's business development effort, operations and direct sales and customer support organizations. An expert on Internet & mobile phone safety issues impacting children, he is a frequent public speaker on the topic and also informally serves as the company's "Chief Child Safety Advocate".

Tim is the author of Keeping Kids Safe: A Guide for Parents of Social and Mobile Children.

Prior to uKnow.com, Tim was the Vice President of Business Development & Sales for buySAFE, Inc., the world's leading e-commerce trust and safety company now partially owned by Verisign.

Under his direction, buySAFE's revenue grew 600% in the five quarters he served in that role. Tim initially joined buySAFE when the company launched and prior to assuming revenue responsibility as VP, he served as buySAFE's Director of Business Development.

Tim also founded The Telecom Recruiter, LLC, an executive search firm serving the telecommunications industry. He also held the position of Southeast Area Director for MCI Communications where he managed several district sales teams and was inducted into the MCI Small Business Hall of Fame.

Shayan Pahlevani - Manager of Customer Satisfaction

Shayan Pahlevani is a graduate of the James Madison University (JMU), where he completed a degree in Business Management with a concentration in Product Innovation. After graduation, Shy brought his innovative skills to buySAFE, a trust and safety company in Washington, as Project Manager where he was involved in developing new features for consumer driven products. In 2009, Shy had the great opportunity to join Steve Woda, Tim Woda, and Ashish Khot on the uKnow.com team as a Product Manager. Shy has also helped lead and manage Customer Satisfaction here at uKnow.com.