William Christodoulou and Sukhman Dulay of Cyder are putting the “personal” back into personal data, providing both agency and compensation for users for how their data is used.
We live in a world drowning in data; our data.
And it is an integral part of the development of new products and services, whether in the digital or the real world. In fact, some are calling data, the modern equivalent of gold!
For years, companies have been able to farm and use personal data without consent, but a barrage of data privacy legislation around the world is tightening the tap on this gold rush.
With these changes have come new opportunities for entrepreneurs to help make user data not only work for corporations but for everyday people as well.
Enter William Christodoulou, BEng’17, MSc’ 19, and Sukhman Dulay, MSc ’19.
They are the co-founders of Cyder, a SaaS (software as a service) company that is putting the “personal” back into personal data, providing both agency and compensation to users for how their data is used.
Cyder has created a browser extension that guards and stores one’s user data, and only allows companies to access it with permission, and for a fee.
You are in control. It is a bank for your data. You decide where the data goes, and we put the data to work for you.
William Christodoulou, BEng’18, MSc’ 19
There are other tools in the market. Many of them compile batches of data, involving thousands of users, and offer payments for selling these caches to various companies. With Cyder, there is a sense of customization and knowledge of who is accessing the information.
While concerns have always existed on how companies use personal data, the problem caught alight with the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, when the British consulting firm utilized personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users, without their consent, for political advertising.
Led by Germany, a number of European Governments, decided to frame new rules on how companies can collect and use data - and the domino effect has crossed the Atlantic, most prominently with Quebec’s Law 25 that took effect this fall.
"The market is moving this way. Data and ownership are becoming more and more of a play, and we recognize that," said Christodoulou.
Everything is part of the journey
Christodoulou hails from an entrepreneurial family.
I grew up where dinner was talking about sports, life, and then business.
He played around with a number of businesses, from operating a lawn mowing company to selling products at Western; but knew there was always something bigger on the horizon.
Still, for Christodoulou, everything is a part of the journey, including the people you meet along the way.
He still remembers walking into the BMO auditorium and noticing Dulay sitting right in front of him. They were complete strangers who soon became best friends through the MSc Program.
Months into their careers, the world was plunged into a global pandemic.
The two scheduled weekly calls to keep each other sane, pitching business ideas ranging from a more artist-centric music platform to protein-enriched peanut butter. The idea for a data privacy management system was something Christodoulou had worked on with a mutual friend, but one that seemingly went down a dark alley.
But after mentioning it to Sukhman, the lights came back on!
From then on, their weekly 15-minute calls grew to an hour. Then, it became a call every day. After they had planned out the concept for Cyder, the two decided to set a timeline and booked two tickets to San Francisco, 6-months in advance.
Cyder was on the move and they had a deadline to meet!
With a concept in hand, Christodoulou and Dulay pitched Cyder to a host of investors in Silicon Valley, met some great contacts, and received $200,000 USD from the University of California, Berkley’s accelerator program.
In the fall of 2022, Christodoulou and Dulay were selected to pitch at Western Angels’ Demo Day, making new connections that continued to open new doors for Cyder. In the spring of 2023, Christodoulou noticed that CBC’s Dragon’s Den was hosting tryouts for Season 18. The application deadline was a few days away, and they knew Cyder wasn’t the typical start-up to feature on the show.
“We have a good story, we have a good product! Let’s just do it,” Christodoulou recalls telling Dulay.
They worked through the night to get the application in, thinking of the popular start-up adage: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
They got through the interview process and were invited to present at the show. While Christodoulou and Dulay had pitched to investors and VCs before, the Dragons’ Den was a unique experience; one that helped them snag a prominent Dragon!
Connecting to the past with eyes on the future
Throughout the experience of building Cyder, Christodoulou, and Dulay have leaned in on their origins, connecting back to Western and the Ivey MSc Program.
They actually ran a case with Ivey MSc students to help gain some clarity on new features and platforms for Cyder to explore. For example, most users surf the net on mobile, which raised the obvious question: Should Cyder be on mobile?
“They came back to us and said, ‘you can do this but it’s going to cost you…’ and we decided to deviate away from it.”
Building a SaaS product can be expensive, and Christodoulou and Dulay have to be strategic in how they utilize the capital base they have been building for the past year. Prior to their Dragon’s Den appearance, they have been able to raise over $800,000 and build out their team. Now, their focus has shifted to sales.
Christodoulou is excited for the next phase of their journey.
A lot of pieces are coming together at the right time, which has always been part and parcel of Christodoulou’s philosophy. It’s a step-by-step process and you never know how one experience or meeting can open doors to the next.
