When John and I launched Inrupt to the public in late September 2018, our mission was hugely ambitious: to usher in a completely new era of the web.

We thought of it as a fundamental “mid-course correction” that would restore power to users and allow everyone to benefit from new kinds of innovation and opportunity.

We didn’t know at the time how others would respond to this mission.

But almost immediately we experienced a rush of interest. In the past year, we’ve spoken to open source developers, startup founders, leaders at Fortune 1000 organizations, government officials, and executives at tech giants.

A few things have become clear as a result.

First, the world really sees value in the change we are trying to spark. People from nearly every industry and sector came to us not just with interest in our vision, but with real problems around data and trust that they wanted Inrupt to help solve. More than once, people building their own projects with similar pro-human values, found that Solid and Inrupt gives them just what they needed.

Second, solving these problems will require more than just passion and vision. For the world to experience the true value of the web we’re building, we must address vital issues related to privacy, trust and security, and the complexities of transforming Solid into a massively-scalable, production-quality technology platform.

Third, the help we need is out there. Inrupt is grateful to be building upon the ongoing efforts of a vibrant open source community of developers contributing to Solid. We’re fortunate to have raised the funds we need from a group of strategically chosen investors who believe in our mission.

We’re thrilled today to announce a leadership team that will power Inrupt through the many challenges ahead and make real this vision for a better web.

Beginning last summer with Bruce Schneier — someone whose public voice on both technology and society I’ve long admired — we’ve been building a group of executives with exactly the mix of skills, expertise, and vision needed to address all those issues vital to our success.

I’m very proud of the progress we’ve made with Inrupt in the past year and more optimistic than I’ve ever been that we’ll help build a better web for everyone.

Read more from our CEO: Building a World-Class Team at Inrupt