Our Founder Brian Fox’s focus was always to “help the good guys catch the bad guys” through the use of the Confirmation.com service which garnered 7 patents and throughout the years caught billions in financial fraud while processing more than a trillion dollars in confirmation data every year.
Suresh, Chris, Brian, Kiran, Harsh, Ahmed, Hardik & Nikita in India
GHP/ Board Dinner: “Closing dinner with Great Hill Partners after TR Acquisition”
With the business plan written in Germain Boer’s Entrepreneurship class at Vanderbilt’s Owen Business School, and the seed capital coming from his father’s life insurance after a hiking accident took his life during Brian’s first year of business school, Brian, Janette Houser, Chris Schellhorn and Dave Malone founded the business and spent the first 2 years building it in Brian’s grandmother’s garage. Having started the business right after the Internet dotcom bust and right before 9/11, the business rarely had more than 30-60 days of capital with which to operate in those first 2 years. Clark Hudgins and Paul Strudivant played key roles in the early lean years in the garage.
Founders Chris, Janette, Brian & Dave
UK Team: “London team at the NFL London game.
With dedication, creativity and a “never give up” attitude the four founders created success in the marketplace and the business grew over the years eventually allowing them to raise $11M of capital lead by angel investors Crom Carmichael and Townes Duncan and the Nashville Capital Network run by Sid Chambliss and Chase Perry. In 2017 Confirmation. com raised $60M from Great Hill Partners led by Matt Vettel, Nick Cayer and Joe Germanese with help from Steve McLaughlin at FT Partners. In 2010 Confirmation.com ranked #96 on the Inc. 500 and was #169 in 2011. It remained on the Inc. 5000 for 10 years in a row until it sold to ThomsonReuters for $430M in 2019.
Sumo Wrestling: “Brian, Koji, Matthew, Dave, Keizo & Chris attend a Sumo Tournament in Japan
Florida team having fun at an MLB baseball game.
Over the years the business grew to operating in 184 countries with offices in 15. The first interim CTO was Jim Cox. Jim Hamilton was the first full-time CTO until his retirement when Suresh Babu became CTO. Shepley Smith was the CPO aka “the QB”, Mark Portanova led Global Sales, Elizabeth Fuller created and ran global HR, David Crenshaw was the CFO and internal legal counsel and Erik Carlson was the CMO. Stan Litow was the first outside board member who served all 19 years, Charlie Schellhorn was the second longest serving outside board member, Kayleigh Collins managed our offices and Scrum implementation, Jim Clancy led IT Operations and Dan Zangwill was the CSO.
The Garage: Brian’s grandmother’s garage, where it all started.
Sightseeing: “Chris, Brian, Dave, Janette & Scrum training for the company! Product Team: “Our Product team bonding on the river rapids!” Erik in London
Confirmation.com acquired LegalConfirm from Payton Baran in the US as well as VeriFirm in India from Kiran Bafna, Harsh Jogani and Nikita Gulechha, and ProConfirm in the UK from Sam O’Connor and Adam Goodall which Anders Jensen and Kyle Gibbons both spearheaded to grow the European, Middle East and North African markets until Anders opened Confirmation.com’s office in Dubai. Matthew Grace – a classmate of Brian’s from Vanderbilt – lead operations in Japan while business partners Tony Hallam and Natalie Lewicki oversaw APAC out of Australia until Victor Pineiro took over the region. Partners Ashely Cohen, Ryan Mer and Brett Chait in South Africa ran central and southern Africa. Felipe Lima established the South and Central American offices with help from Partner
Rocher Cyrus in the Caribbean. Partners Yousef AlMobarak and Omar AlHoshan ran Confirmations Ltd. in Saudi Arabia.
Executive team enjoying a beach bonfire!
Nashville Team: “Nashville Team enjoying a day at the Nashville Sounds Ballpark”
Confirmation.com’s success is because of the many people both inside and outside the company who gave so much to see it succeed. It was such an amazing adventure to see it grow from four people in the garage to the global success it became with the same 4 founders – Brian, Chris, Janette and Dave – starting together in the garage to still being there together the day it was sold 19 years later.
Wimbledon: “Kyle, Dave, Anders & Brian celebrate at Wimbledon”
Team in Saudi Arabia: “Yousef, Brian, Dave & Omar celebrate forming a partnership in Saudi Arabia
That’s a story you don’t often hear about happening! From the chili cookoffs, parking lot BBQs, pints in the pubs, Sumo matches in Japan, NFL games in London, cricket matches in India, football and soccer games in Florida and Tennessee, Star Wars movie premiers and bonfires on the beach, what great memories. Thank you to each and every person who was part of the Confirmation.com success story, we will be forever grateful and thankful to have worked alongside such incredible people with amazing stories.
Scrum training for the company!
Product Team: “Our Product team bonding on the river rapids!”
Thank you and God bless you!
