Steve Woda, President, CEO and Co-founder:
As President and CEO of uKnow.com, Inc., 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.
Blog – http://www.stevewoda.com
Twitter – http://twitter.com/stevewoda
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/stevewoda
Raj Naik, Vice President of Operations and Strategy
A 12 year veteran in the technology space, Raj Naik is the Vice President of Operations and Strategy for uKnow.com. Raj’s work in software development and executive management has guided early and mid-state technology companies through periods of significant growth.
Raj was formerly the Chief Operating Officer of Votenet Solutions, the global leader in software and management services in the election and awards sectors. At Votenet, Raj managed the company’s portfolio of industry-leading services and solutions and formed strategic business alliances. Under his guidance the number of clients utilizing eBallot®, the company’s market-leading enterprise-level online voting software, grew from 2 to over 1600. Continuing to lead the innovation of online voting solutions, Raj was charged with orchestrating the highly successful launches of VOTENET™ Voting On Demand, the world’s first web-based election software for small associations and organizations, and eduBallot®, the #1 online voting software designed specifically for automating voting for K-12 schools. Raj also lead the design, development and launch of Trofee, an enterprise award and contest management solution.
Prior to Votenet, Raj was the Co-founder and Director, Strategic Development and Operations of Riva Commerce Inc., (renamed Conformia Software, Inc.) a business intelligence software company, which develops regulatory/compliance data solutions. The company was venture backed by Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital and acquired by Oracle.
Raj earned his Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University. He is also a graduate of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill where he attended on a Duke Power Scholarship. A published author and sought-after speaker on election industry strategy and marketing, Raj has been a guest lecturer at George Mason University. Raj is also an accomplished long distance runner, having completed 3 marathons and 4 half marathons.
Ashish Khot, Technology and Co-founder:
Ashish leads the company’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 KidSafe, 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 of Strategic Growth & Business Development 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. 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”.
He is also the creator of, Keeping Kids Safe: An Internet & Mobile Safety Workshop™, which has been shared with many thousands of schools, faith-based organizations, PTAs and PTOs around the country.
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 and sales effort.
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 Symantec.
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. Tim has worn many hats but none more rewarding than husband and father of three amazing kids.
Blog – http://www.timwoda.com
Twitter – http://twitter.com/timwoda
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/timwoda.internetsafetyadvocate
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/timwoda
