Nicholas Oliver | Founder & CEO
people.io

Nicholas is the CEO & founder of people.io - a European start-up who are giving people ownership of their data; their vision is to establish a firewall for people. In 2016, Nicholas was named Nasdaq’s Rising Star – an award given by his industry peers at the prestigious Founders Forum, London. 

people.io has already been deployed alongside telecom partners including Telefónica Deutschland, as an official co-branded app promoted to their 44 million customers. Providing a platform through which they can benefit from multi-dimension, MSISDN level, first-party data profiles of their customers - whilst also being compliant with the increasingly onerous regulatory environment. 

By introducing a firewall for people, individuals will be given a choice over how, when, where and by whom their personal data is used. Importantly though, this choice also enables an individual to realise its value – whether financial or experiential. 

In phase one, people.io has been designed to establish a sense of reward and gratification for those individuals choosing to take control of their data. By downloading the people.io app, a user is given a few simple ways to start unifying their data profile and realising its value. For example, each time they respond to a new question, they’re paid. Each time they engage with an advert or brand update, they’re paid. They’re also invited to connect external data sources (incl. email, IoT, bank accounts) where they’re paid for each source connected. Importantly, though, the data is never aggregated centrally or shared with any third-party, and if the user deletes their account, all their personal data is deleted immediately. 

Based in London, UK - people.io has received investment from a number of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs, including Thomas Höegh (founder of Lovefilm, Arts Alliance and Growth Street) and Nick Robertson (founder of ASOS) in addition to the Founders Factory (founded by Brent Hoberman and Henry Lane-Fox) and Wayra Deutschland (Telefonica). 

Prior to people.io Nicholas launched a digital agency at 15 and until recently, held the position of Global Creative Technical Director on the Ford Motor Co. business within the WPP. He has held senior global positions on 3 continents, with experience that now spans strategic & commercial innovation for international agency groups, Fortune 50 companies, and start-ups.