We are humbled and grateful to announce that Tall Poppy has raised a $1M seed round from a wonderful community of investors including InnerLoop Capital, Y Combinator, and individual angels.
We will be using this investment to scale up the work of protecting people from online harassment. While there are many systemic issues at play in terms of how social media and other internet platforms address harassment and abuse, the world can’t wait for the platforms to act. This is why we’re focused on helping individuals take the steps they can to protect themselves. We’re starting by working with employers, because new kinds of work expose employees to new kinds of risk - and employers owe it to their employees to protect them from workplace risks.
"Like many internet scourges, targeted online harassment is an asymmetric threat and therefore difficult to counter,” said Inner Loop Capital Principal Justin Label. “Tall Poppy is smartly leveraging best practices, technology and the power of the target's employer to mitigate the threat and help targets live their online and offline lives fully, with increased peace of mind."
At Tall Poppy, we are building a new kind of risk-management employee benefit, and we believe it represents a multi-billion dollar market opportunity. We are working to make our service as common as Employee Assistance Programs, because personal security threats are ubiquitous and everyone deserves access to quality protection.
Our work is part of an ecosystem and builds on the knowledge and friendship of many other organizations including Crash Override, Feminist Frequency, OnlineSOS, BetterBrave, and EmpowerWork. If you’re looking to support what we’re doing but aren’t a potential customer or investor, we recommend donating to or signal-boosting their important work.
If your company or employees are experiencing online harassment, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
You can read more about us in this recent Fast Company profile. Some additional things people are saying about our work:
Thanks to @hypatiadotca for hosting an info session with our team on cultural online trends and personal protection! She inspired us to create a list of additional ways to advance our mission of being the smarter car insurance choice for millions of everyday drivers. pic.twitter.com/Z7KEqYzMkh
— Clearcover, Inc. (@clearcover) October 25, 2018
I’m not sharing this only because I am an investor at @tallpoppyio , but also because I am incredibly thankful for the important work @hypatiadotca and @lgdean are doing https://t.co/FFmDPVJwTC
— Alex Pinto (@alexcpsec) May 16, 2019
A coworker has been through numerous attempts at identity theft over a twitter handle. It's massively disruptive to productivity and mental well being. @hypatiadotca and @lgdean are coming to the rescue with @tallpoppyio. I'm proud to be an early investor. https://t.co/NNd3ie21aF
— JΞRΞMY (@jhubert) May 21, 2019
I tried it and heartily endorse. Congrats on the article and launch! https://t.co/oheXT1eAo4
— Everett Harper (@everettharper) July 23, 2018
Anyone can be a victim of online harassment. When I ran reddit, I called @hypatiadotca when our employees were being doxed and targeted. Recently she and @lgdean founded @tallpoppy to help all companies keep their employees safe https://t.co/1uAtPUZASX
— Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) May 17, 2019