Founder Stories
Oversharing, Privacy, and the Future of Messaging w/ Tessa Brown, CEO of Germ Network
We don’t need more ways to connect — we need better ways to protect what we share.
Or listen on:
Episode Description
Tessa Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of Germ Network, joins the show to talk about,
- Tessa's journey from Stanford writing professor to startup founder, the dangers of social platforms designed to maximize exposure, and why privacy should be the default, not the exception.
- How Germ lets users create multiple, compartmentalized identities
- The flaws of phone number–based messaging and the case for link-based connection, and her philosophy on building with integrity in a surveillance-based tech world
- Tessa’s experience fundraising from K5 Global and Mozilla Ventures
Episode Transcript
Tessa Brown
CEO of Germ Network
Tessa Brown is the co-founder and CEO of Germ Network, an encrypted messaging company on a mission to promote healthy communication.
She last was a Lecturer in Stanford’s writing program, where she taught about expressions of language, literacy, and social justice in hiphop and on social media. She lives in San Francisco.
Latest episodes
Subscribe Now
