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David Gorodyansky
Board Director, CEO, Founder, $310M exit, Impact Investor
David Gorodyansky is a prominent figure in the tech industry, known for co-founding AnchorFree Inc. and leading the company as its CEO. With a background in International Marketing and Business, he has been recognized for his outstanding leadership, including being named among America's Most Promising CEOs by Forbes and featured in magazines like Inc, Fortune, and the New York Times.
Under David's leadership, AnchorFree became a global leader in consumer privacy, security, and Internet freedom, boasting over 650 million users worldwide. The company played a crucial role in safeguarding users from security threats and censorship, garnering accolades such as being selected as one of the Most Important Security Start-ups by Business Insider and FastCompany's title of the most innovative security company.
Apart from his work with AnchorFree, David is a dedicated investor with a focus on startups addressing significant societal challenges. His investments include companies like Modern Meadow, Knock, ZecOps, inDriver, and InvestX, reflecting his passion for supporting ventures with a social impact. He is also associated with the documentary #ChicagoGirl, which received prestigious awards for its portrayal of technology's role in the Syrian revolution.
David's contributions extend beyond the business realm, as evidenced by his engagements with prominent figures such as US Supreme Court Justices and former Secretaries of State, including Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Henry Kissinger. His educational background includes studying International Marketing and Business at the San Jose State School of Business, laying the foundation for his achievements in the entrepreneurial and investment spheres.
Highlights
France started to have some tech innovation recently and the gov’t of France just killed any desire for a start up founder to build in France. Hoping there are some smart people in the French government that will understand how technology works well enough to release Pavel Durov right away. People have a universal right to Privacy & Freedom of speech. Freedom of Speech & Privacy go hand in hand. You can’t freely express yourself if you don’t feel safe to do so. While moderation is important, so is people’s ability to freely express themselves. The debate over govt’s not liking end to end encryption has been going on forever. The best way for platforms to protect user data is to not have access to it. When we built the world’s largest VPN providing Internet Freedom and privacy to over half a billion people, we realized that the only way to protect user data, is to not collect it. It’s unfortunate that Telegram didn’t use full end-to-end encryption and collected some user data. Would have been better to have no user data, period. With that said, Pavel built a billion user platform with a 30 person team and has provided great value to humanity enabling people from all over the world to freely communicate. He should be freed immediately. It’s amazing to see many people who have been for freedom of speech now turning towards censorship, wanting to ban Tiktok, going after Telegram, will X be next? Many freedom lovers of the past are now proponents of censorship. Stay true to yourself. Fight censorship, stand for Internet Freedom & privacy. #FreePavelDurov
I was 24 years old when I started AnchorFree, and there were a lot of consultants who wanted to take advantage of my youth and inexperience to sell me advice.
It took me some time, but I learned that companies should pay for execution, not for advice. If somebody wants to give you advice, they should be an investor in your business.
If a person wants to get paid by a start-up, they better execute. I was never a fan of consultants.
Steve Jobs explains it best:
