When was the last time you trusted a stranger?
From finding love to finding a ride, we’re connecting with more strangers than ever before. The digital age has transformed the way we meet and interact with each other.
The problem?
We have no way of knowing who we’re meeting online.
We have no way of knowing if they have a history of violence.
We have no way of knowing if they're likely to harm us.
We have no way of knowing who we’re putting our safety in the hands of.
Garbo is a new kind of online background check designed for the digital age. We enable anyone to see if someone has a history of violence - ideally before the first meeting.
Garbo aggregates billions of public records and reports and provides free, transparent access to this information in a matter of minutes. To search on Garbo, all a user needs is a first name and phone number.
What kind of data do we have on the platform?
- Arrests
- Warrants
- Convictions
- Civil cases
- EEOC lawsuits (sexual harassment, etc)
Today, Garbo is currently available in New York City. We are raising funds to help us expand into ten new cities including Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
To expand into these cities, we have to acquire data - which is a majority of our expenses. Each background check search costs Garbo approximately $2.00 in data and service fees. Your gracious donation goes to paying these costs so we can continue to keep the platform free for all of our users.
Each donation enables us to:
- Acquire public records and reports in each city
- Reach out to the most vulnerable populations
- Hire engineers and data scientists
Kathryn Kosmides is the founder and CEO of Garbo. She found Garbo after experiencing the legal system as a victim of domestic violence. Over the last two years, she’s spent over $150,000 fighting her abuser. She made it her mission to make sure no one becomes a victim - not only of gender-based violence, but also of the legal system.
She is a longtime entrepreneur and activist who has worked with some of the fastest growing venture-backed startups to launch and scale their sales and marketing.
We appreciate your support of Garbo. If you have any questions about this campaign or Garbo in general, please reach out to hello@garbo.io and we'll get right back to you.