Trustd

About Us

About Us

Our Vision

Our vision is to enable trust among all participants of the Sharing Economy to have a risk-free service exchange.

Our Mission

Our mission is to extract objective behavioral metrics from raw transactional data in Short Term Rentals sector, and expand our services to cover all verticals of the Sharing Economy so that participants can trust each other for a smooth, risk-free service exchange.

Our story is inspired by our founder’s experience with short-term rentals during his business travels. Faced with consecutive disappointments during his stays, a twist of irony led him to transform his humble abode into a haven for short-term guests.

In the pursuit of the coveted Superhost title on Airbnb, he encountered diverse challenges posed by the array of guests. Each encounter revealed insights into disruptive behavior and the shared struggles of property owners and managers.

With a strong background in data science, our co-founder possesses a unique expertise in interpreting raw booking data, leading to the establishment of trustd.ai.

We refined our focus on data analytics concerning booking structures while pinpointing and addressing behavioral issues exhibited by disruptive guests.

Despite rigorous background checks and verifications, eye-opening instances arose where seemingly legitimate guests, who passed all screenings, caused significant property damage.

This realization prompted the understanding that while verifications are beneficial, they alone cannot prevent issues arising from disruptive guests. Surprisingly, almost all our problems stemmed from guests who had passed background screenings and verifications.

Through comprehensive analysis, we concluded that the core issue lay not in the absence of verifications but rather in the behavior of disruptive guests.

This revelation prompted us at trustd.ai to further explore guests’ behavioral patterns during the booking process. It became evident that behavioral data itself holds the key to solving this problem.

Therefore, at trustd.ai, alongside guest screening, we meticulously focus on objective and measurable data points sourced from various platforms.

Leveraging innovative AI technology, we’ve developed a pioneering solution—an AI-driven metric for guests—crafted to provide seamless service to all hosts, mitigate risks, and foster trust and transparency.

Our Team Members

Joe Male

Joe Male

Chairman, Co-Founder

Biography

The principal of Aidem TI, an advisory firm focused on technology innovation and revenue growth, Joseph has a rich professional background.

Previously, he served as the VP and GM at Dialogic Corp. Joseph was the Founder and CEO of OpenMediaLabs, a software company specializing in video analytics, which was later acquired by Dialogic.

Additionally, he co-founded and served as the CEO of elemedia™, a startup concentrating on multimedia software for IP networks, which was acquired by Lucent Technologies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmele/

Murat Sonmez, Ph.D.

Murat Sonmez, Ph.D.

CEO, Co-Founder

Biography

Murat is a pioneer in AI and one of the first scientists to apply AI to solve real-world problems in medicine during his Ph.D. studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

His Ph.D. project received the “Best Ph.D. Project” award in 1997. His work has been recognized by the National Research Council (NRC), and he was awarded an NRC Fellowship for the US Navy, focusing on alertness monitoring of Navy Pilots using AI.

Between 2003 and 2008, Murat served as a Cyber Security and Fraud Director at a mobile operator in Europe, gaining deep insight into fraudulent behaviors of consumers.

In 2008, he launched his first startup, concentrating on Cyber Security products and Fraud Services.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/muratsonmez01/

John Power, Ph.D.

John Power, Ph.D.

CFO, Co-Founder

Biography

John Power is a financial operations executive with a wealth of experience across multiple industries. Previously, John served as the CFO of DS Healthcare and co-founder and CFO of OTC Mobile Stores.

He held the position of Chief Administrative Officer at Mellon Investor Services and served as the President of Mellon Securities through their acquisition by the Bank of New York.

Before joining Mellon, John was the Director of Finance for E*Trade.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-john-power-38a14b1/

Mark Chmiel

Mark Chmiel

COO, Co-Founder

Biography

Mark works closely with entrepreneurs in early stages and middle-market entities, seeking disruptive segment opportunities.

He is the former EVP Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at Denny’s, with expertise in traditional and digital marketing for retail and hospitality.

Mark is a published author and has been a guest speaker for The Economist and Forbes.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markchmiel/

Alper Halbutogullari

Alper Halbutogullari

CTO, Co-Founder

Biography

Alper is a Data Scientist with a background in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science Algorithms. He is an ML Manager at Google and has worked at Apple, eBay, AMD, and Groupon.

He holds two patents, received a medal in the International Math Olympiads, and is a consistent solver of IBM Research Problems.

Alper runs his own Data Science course where he has mentored hundreds of Data Scientists.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/halbut/

S. Phil Kennard

S. Phil Kennard

Founding Advisor

Biography

Philip is an entrepreneur with two startups and is a Co-Founder of Futurestay (https://futurestay.com).

Phil coded and sold his first software at the age of 15, then bridged gaps between people, product, and psychology for Fortune 500 companies.

He doesn’t believe in limits for himself, his team, or our industry.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanphilip/