A self-professed “geek” for the first 10 years of his professional life, Ric Fleisher has made a career out of spotting and capitalizing on Internet and technology trends. He made his first “leap into startups” during the 90’s, working for ISDN Systems Corporation, which was ultimately sold to US Robotics. Ric went on to co-found Reliacast, Inc., a streaming media company that later acquired thePlatform for Media, Inc. The resulting company was sold in 2006 to Comcast Corp. for over $100 million. 

More recently, Ric and Mark Ezra launched Honesty Online, which provides identity verification for Internet users.  Amplifier Network recently spoke with Ric about his current company and its future.

Amplifier: When did you start your company?

Fleisher: The company was started in '05 with Mark Ezra doing research, and started speaking to industry in early '06 at iDate. After an entrepreneur attorney introduced me to Mark, I invested and started working with him in November of 2006.

Amplifier:  What does your company do? 

Fleisher: Honesty Online is focused on Identity Proofing. We believe that the next and most natural step for organic growth on the Internet is trust among users at a personal and professional level. We provide an identity credential that protects personal information, but assures that a person is real, has the pedigree they state, and is not a criminal or sex offender. We are focused on the relationship market (social networking, internet dating), employment/recruiting, and eCommerce.

Amplifier: What was the impetus for starting Honesty Online?

Fleisher: Mark’s friends, who were single and using online dating services, reported that they were sometimes matched with people who weren’t who they said they were.  How can people build a relationship without knowing who they’re dealing with?  Anonymity represents the Internet’s greatest freedom; at the same time, it’s the Internet’s greatest weakness.

Amplifier: So, when they see that a member carries your credential, online daters are spared some of the trepidation that they normally have (or should have) when dealing with a relative stranger.   

Fleisher:  Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, recently said that “The Internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats... if the Internet is left to develop unchecked, ‘bad phenomen’" will erode its usefulness."  Honesty Online brings trust back to online communities and interaction.

Amplifier:  What is unique about your company?

Fleisher: We have the opportunity to be the first mover with a portable and reusable digital credential for identity. We will have a Marital Status Indicator product later this year as well.

Amplifier: Since a high percentage of online dating service users are actually married, that should come in handy.  Just to clarify, this is one voluntary credential that users would be able to present in a variety of environments – job seeking, dating, and social networking sites?

Fleisher:  Yes, we’ve approached the market from a user's perspective. To date, tools that solve Identity Proofing and management have been cumbersome for folks to work with. We developed a platform that not only simplifies the user interaction, but also makes it simple for businesses of any size to integrate our solution without a lot of heavy lifting.

Amplifier:  How have you funded the company to date?

Fleisher: Mark and I have funded the operations to date with the exception of a small amount of friends and family.

Amplifier:  At what stage of development is your company?

Fleisher: Our product is built and functional. We have three partner contracts and are waiting to integrate with them. The largest is with Mate1. Mate1 has over 15.5 Million profiles. 

Amplifier:  What’s your biggest current challenge?

Fleisher:  Raising funds to execute on our opportunity. Finding great talent as we grow.

Amplifier:  What would you be doing if you weren't an entrepreneur?

Fleisher:  I would be working for one of the non-profits where I sit on the board.

Ric Fleisher lives in the Washington DC area with his wife and 2 sons.  He currently sits on the advisory council for the Medical Care for Children Partnership (MCCP), and on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.  In 2006, he received their Young Leadership Award.