HELPING RAION BUILD TRUST AND CREATE A PRIVACY COMPLIANT PLATFORM

Setting up for success

Raion may be a young company, but they are already poised for a successful future. The start-up already has over 20,000 users on their platform. Raion is currently bringing onboard the first batch of companies with whom they will form strategic partnerships. The team are in the final stages of product testing and development.

Outsourcing privacy support

As a small start-up, outsourcing support with GDPR was the best and most cost-effective option. Raion met with no less than thirty privacy companies before they found that right match. “Trying to find the right solution was a complete minefield,” explains Laurence Cohen, Raion’s CEO & Co-Founder. “There was no understanding or empathy. We are dealing with sensitive data and needed extra help. Nobody took the time to really understand what we needed to do – except DataGuard.”

What also reassured Raion was the friendly nature of the DataGuard sales team. Cohen noted that many of the other companies enlist lawyers to also work as their salespeople, which made him feel alienated during their conversations. For someone who doesn’t have a legal background, too much ‘legalese’ can quickly make you feel out of your depth. “Finding the right company to help with privacy is intimidating,” says Cohen. “But DataGuard was different - immediately friendly and accommodating. It was so reassuring.”

Ethical collection of data

“The democratisation of education and equal opportunity is something that the world has never been able to achieve, even with the creation the internet”, explains Cohen. In the coming decades, Cohen anticipates the creation of many new industries. The problem? These new industries are not going to create jobs for the average person – unless companies like Raion can help to give everyone access to the same opportunities.

As a tech company, tracking user metrics is critical from a product development standpoint. Raion need to understand critical metrics such as how users are engaging with their platform, how long people take to post jobs, how many jobs are being posted, or which jobs are more attractive than others. While the business benefits are clear, the team needed help to make sure this is done compliantly. “Privacy is not as binary as I initially thought. Often, companies only ask themselves: can we collect it? But they also need to ask: should we collect it? Working with DataGuard has made it much easier to understand the business decisions required to collect data compliantly,” says Cohen.

Together with DataGuard, Raion was able to define which data points needed to be collected in order to help the company’s mission and protect the best interests of their users. “It really is so hard to know if what you are doing is not only compliant, but whether it is legally binding as well. Without DataGuard, we never could have done this.”

Privacy builds trust with leads

In the early days, the team at Raion viewed the GDPR as a rather abstract topic. “If you heard my views on GDPR a few years ago, I would have said that it is an unnecessary money spin,” says Cohen. “But once you work in the tech industry you realise just how fragile everything is. You need to protect the data of your users, so as a founder you naturally gravitate towards compliance.”

Now with the help of DataGuard, this complex topic has been broken down and is much easier to understand. It is also easy to see the benefits. One of the most unexpected perks Cohen has noticed is the huge boost in confidence surrounding Raion’s marketing and sales efforts. “Working with DataGuard has forced us to learn more about what data we can collect, and as a by-product of that we have invested a lot more in the right analytics tools. Now we are confident that our marketing efforts are fully compliant and we can target the people who need the most help.”

The team at Raion now understand that the GDPR is not there to hinder their business – rather, to ensure that they conduct business in the best way. In recent months, Raion has also ramped up their email and e-book marketing. DataGuard’s specialists gave the team the essential knowledge they needed to collect emails in the right way. Working with DataGuard has totally changed Cohen’s opinion on GDPR and privacy. Before working with us, he would have considered privacy compliance a legal topic which he didn’t need to understand in detail – but that has changed. “From a Sales standpoint, if you know your GDPR – clients love you. It’s an amazing way to quickly build trust with prospects.”

An ongoing and positive partnership

Raion are convinced that DataGuard will be the best partner for them to achieve their goals going forward. “DataGuard executed and continue to execute on absolutely everything they say they will do. The relationship is constantly developing and it never feels pushy. Communication is unparalleled."

The team have also used DataGuard’s privacy platform with complete ease. This was a relief, as many tools on the market are built for privacy experts to use, which makes them inaccessible for those who don’t understand legal jargon. “The platform is not complex. It’s very straightforward to use, which both myself and the team appreciated,” says Cohen.

With success comes scrutiny

Now that Raion is on a growth path, Cohen finds himself in a situation faced by many tech founders. Business change is happening fast and Raion is generating a lot of interest – but they are also spending a lot to reach their goals. As such, new uses for the platform are being scoped, and these new ventures come with compliance challenges. Cohen wants to stay true to Raion’s core values and carefully calculate how their platform and the data they use develops. They want to avoid dark patterns that could create a divisive platform.

That said, it is likely that future platform developments mean that Raion will start asking for more specific types of data from users: this could encompass passports, driving licenses, or other sensitive information. Cohen feels positive that whatever change arises, they will be able to find compliant solutions: “As our platform develops, we will undoubtedly face tricky issues and more scrutiny from our user base when it comes to how we use their data. This comes with the territory as a SaaS start-up. But with DataGuard by our side, we feel well-prepared for whatever the future holds.”