Trustmatic’s Startup Founder profile: Who is Donal Greene?
Donal Greene is an tech entrepreneur you just can’t miss. He’s the founder and CEO of Trustmatic (you can check them out here), co-founder of Uroda Ventures, and Chief Experience Officer of Innovatrics. And this Ireland-based tech startup businessman is paving the way for young startup founders to follow their true calling.
Initially working towards becoming a professional football player, Greene’s injury had forced him to shift gears. This life-changing event opened his eyes to the entrepreneurial world, and what he can do to make it better.
“My journey to becoming an entrepreneur is down to two things; necessity and curiosity,” Greene says.
“Necessity because my initial plan in life was to be a professional football player and when injury curtailed my career in my early 20s, I found myself needing to find some meaningful employment without the benefit of third-level education.
Curiosity because I believe to be successful in business you need to have a deep curiosity about whatever field you apply yourself to, and the problems you’re trying to solve.“
Startup Business: Trustmatic
Greene worked at Innovatrics for six years before founding his tech startup. Innovatrics is a global leader in biometric technology, where the multi-talented businessman managed business in the EMEA region. Whilst working in this industry, Greene quickly realized the obvious gap in the identity industry.
“On one side, you have deep tech companies developing super accurate biometric and computer vision algorithms, and on the other side, you have organisations that have business problems that can be solved using these algorithms, but who don’t have the knowledge or experience to integrate them efficiently.”
So, being the opportunist that he is, Donal Greene therefore took it upon himself to fix this issue by founding his own tech startup, Trustmatic. As he describes it, Trustmatic was born “to take best-in-class identity technology and use it to build applications and platforms which solve real-world problems.“
Trustmatic’s Challenges: Fundraising and Networking
Ask any startup founder what they need the most help with, and you’ll probably find that the most common answer is fundraising. Donal Greene found that he had a few options to raise seed capital for Trustmatic. However, he did not feel like they were suitable for him.
“I wasn’t comfortable with the amount of equity I’d have to sacrifice.”
This startup problem led him to think outside the box. He realized that networking was crucial to “build a founding team of talented people who could work on the technical development and get us off the ground without a huge amount of initial investment.” Smart.
Startup Management Tools: Objective and Key Results (OKRs)
When asked about the tools and platforms he uses to manage his tech startup business strategically, Donal Greene mentions Objective and Key Results (OKR) frameworks to set high-level goals, and to effectively track their progress to get there.
His team also uses platforms such as Trello to keep track of ongoing tasks. Furthermore, he uses the Agile Kanban methodology. This ensures that his team makes the most of the resources available to them.
But regarding OKRs, Donal has a great piece of advice. He believes that “As a startup, it’s most important to be dynamic and react to changes early.”
Trustmatic is always looking for the most effective way to work as a unit.
Looking Ahead: Trustmatic’s Future
Donal is confident that Trustmatic will scale up from startup to a major player in the next five years.
“We have the vision, the strategy, and the people to execute it.”
Like any good startup business, Trustmatic is open to opportunity. Greene believes that the tech company could be invested in or acquired by a large player within this timeframe. Given the determination, efficiency and the dire need for this service in the tech industry, we think so too.
Advice from Trustmatic’s Founder
What motivates you with trustmatic?
“I’m motivated by waking up each day with a sense of purpose; knowing that I have a number of things to achieve within a certain timeframe. I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishing goals, especially shared goals, as these require teamwork and communication.”
Looking back, what is one advice you would give to yourself as a startup founder?
“Be humble. It’s easy to get carried away. Also, reflect on yourself as often as you can and find ways to improve yourself, even if it’s just by 1% each day. Never stop learning.” Additionally, Donal Greene is a founder of Uroda Ventures. This is a sustainable organization focused on empowering Ugandan communities through access to education and technology.
“Uroda Ventures came about as the result of a chat with my Ugandan friend, Martin Mayanja. His description of the situation in Uganda convinced me that it was possible to develop a sustainable organisation that would focus on community farming, clean water, and biogas toilet projects. The aim of Uroda is to improve the lives of rural Ugandans by empowering them economically. It’s a project that I’m very proud of and we’ve made a difference to a lot of people already.”
Donal Greene is an exemplary startup founder to look out for. You can follow him and his startup Trustmatic and Uroda Ventures to witness the growth of these well-deserved startups that make the world a better place.
Amit Khanna, 7startup Founder
Amit has 18 years of experience in the industry and an MBA. He supports entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business including concept and product development, investor presentations, and fundraising. Amit & 7startup assist startups in the pre due-diligence process and help connect them to our vast network of investors. Reach out to us today and see if we’re a fit! If you enjoyed this read, you may like to read about data privacy and web3 in 2023. Or, for more on specific startups, read our blog post on Payl8r.
