Engagement Overview and Value Proposition
Overall goal of the engagement:
- To create a simple way for Double to improve client onboarding, authentication, and security, with the aim of boosting sales, reducing client churn, and in the future enabling Double to explore AI augmentation of existing services.
Problems with access sharing today:
- In the current world of EA services, there is no consensus on a "best practice" or standard set of applications for handling critical functions such as customer onboarding and access management.
- In some cases, this paradigm can limit Double’s sales funnel or create client churn.
- A lack of auth standardization can exclude security-minded clients or organizations adhering to standards like PCI, HIPAA, or SOC2.
- A lack of access management software can create client frustration and churn, especially during “transitions” such as initial onboarding or when an assistant leaves, is fired, or is re-assigned to a new client.
- The software we are building at Anon can help Double address these issues and more, improving the client experience with standard onboarding and access management, no unnecessary sharing of passwords or credit card numbers, and minimal back-and-forth communication related to 2FA codes or account access.
Anon can help Double (and Double’s clients):
- 🔒 Ability to sell into new verticals, including security-conscious clients and those with HIPAA, PCI, or SOC 2 compliance standards.
- ♻️ Reduced back-and-forth for 2FA codes during initial authentication and re-authentication of services, especially during client onboarding or re-assignment to a new assistant.
- 🎮 Improved access permissions control including the ability to revoke or transfer existing access without the client needing to do manual work.
- 🤖 Improve security around AI adoption by creating a credential management process that works for AI agents that handle client credentials to access data or take actions online.
- 🥇 Reinforcement of reputation as most the most tech-forward and security-conscious service for executives, founders, and leaders looking for EAs.
How Anon is superior to password management tools
Tools like 1Password are designed for a single user to store passwords, but they have been adapted to handle credential sharing between clients and assistants. This creates security challenges and friction in accessing the accounts of your clients.
Specifically:
- 🔓 Shared passwords are unlikely to be hacked because of encryption on servers, but fully visible locally, making password vaults only marginally safer than text/email for sharing.
- ⛔ There is no way to “revoke” credentials, meaning an assistant that is fired or re-assigned still has access to all client accounts unless he/she changes all passwords.
- 🔀 There is no way to “transfer” access with password managers. A vault can be re-assigned, but the new assistant still has to login (and get 2FA codes) with each new client.
Proposed Agreement Outline
Overall Structure
- We propose a design partnership between Anon and Double. This agreement would ensure that Anon delivers software to Double that meets an agreed-upon set of requirements in return for Double providing expertise, and feedback to enable us to create a better product.
- Anon would also provide Double a significant (50%+) “Design Partner” discount on a future software license agreement.
Anon Software Requirements
- We should collectively define the final structure of the deliverable software, but our initial recommendation would be:
- Access management dashboard that enables Double assistants to manage access to a pre-set list of mutually-decided apps and services across all client accounts. This would enable requesting, revoking, and transferring account access. It would also enable Double admins to add, remove, and manage assistants.
- Access link sharing and auth product built into the dashboard that enabled assistants to request access via any form of communication (text, email, Slack, etc.) and enabled Double clients to complete authentication and 2-factor authentication.
Double Partner Requirements
- Double would be responsible for consistent product feedback to the Anon product team to inform the development and deployment of a software product that fits the needs of Double, including Double admins, assistants, and clients.
- Double would provide data on common services shared with assistants such that we could develop a pre-set list of apps and services available at launch.
- Double would provide client feedback data, including operational data like sales data, churn data, customer satisfaction data, etc. such that Anon can continue to improve our product offering.
- Double would pay Anon for the software, with some minimum commitment, at a discounted “Design Partner” rate.
- Per Daniel’s conversation with Alice, our ideal would be to charge a portion of a “security and access management software” line item / upsell to Double clients. The aim is that this expands Double’s software revenue, more than paying for Anon’s product.
- We would want feedback from Double on pricing, but estimate that Double add a $25-$50+/month/client software package, with Anon taking $15/client/month, discounted an additional 50% to $7.50/month/client as a “Design Partner”.
How does the software actually work?
We would love to do a full review of our technology with Double’s engineering team; however, below is an example of how an access management flow between a Double VA (Hannah) and a client matched using Double’s one-to-one VA matching service (Jose) would work.
More Info About Anon.com
What is Anon.com?
Anon.com is an early-stage technology company building an access management solution that enables identities to be securely shared with granular controls. We are building this solution primarily for EA/VA services and companies building AI agents.
Our vision is to create a more secure identity layer that connects users and companies. This layer will help businesses like Double improve security and access control today and will also enable Double to scale with AI or hybrid agent solutions in the future.
Who is behind Anon.com?
Anon.com is a 7-person team based in Los Angeles, CA.
The company was founded by three co-founders: Daniel, Peter, and Kai with deep background building companies in the security, AI, and financial services sectors. Collectively we have raised >$100mm for past companies, and have raised $2mm to-date for Anon.com, with more financing closing in the coming months.
The remainder of the team is heavily technical and product-oriented, with 2 software engineers with backgrounds at Amazon, Meta, and Stability AI, and 2 product/design-focused team members both from Cash App / Square.
Founder Backgrounds
Daniel Mason
CEO
- Previously was Partner at Framework Ventures, a $1.1B venture capital fund based in San Francisco.
- Before that co-founded Spring Labs, a security startup with $68mm in funding that provides security solutions to large institutions like TransUnion, GM Financial, Amount, and more.
Peter Nesbitt
President/COO
- Previously COO at TeamPay, a $175mm payments startup based in New York.
- Before that served on the executive team at Bit.ly, worked in Private Equity at Carlyle Group, and served as an Intelligence Officer in the US Army.
Kai Aichholz
CTO
- Previously was Chief Technology and HIPAA Security Officer at Alaffia, a Series A AI/ML Healthtech startup in New York.
- Before that worked in engineering at Goldman Sachs and Amazon after graduating from MIT.
Next Steps
- Thanks for reading all of that!
- Alice mentioned that Double has an offsite event next week and can spend some time to discuss our proposal with the broader team.
- Let us know if we can provide any additional details, either asynchronously or on a call, and we will look forward to speaking soon.