I often get asked a number of questions when we’re doing presentations about how we got everything started. And today, I think what I want to talk about is, which is really important to us is the origin of the KoreConX Trust Charter. And why did we create it in the first place? So when Jason Futko and I got the company started, we came from the public capital markets, and the things we saw, well, I’m not going to cover that here. But we thought that was only isolated to the publicly traded world, it wasn’t, it was also the private company world. And we found that that in the private company world, it, it was just even more just magnified times, not 10 Times as they say, it’s 100, 1000 times because there’s that many more privately held companies versus public. So you can imagine how fragmented it is. So when we saw the emergence of the online capital markets, for private companies, with the introduction of the Jobs Act, wow, what an opportunity, but at the same time, if the problem kept going, this thing would never grow.
It will never grow. And it is growing. But the problems still haunt us the way we operate. And not seeing the way we as a company operate, but the way the industry and some participants have been operating for years. So when we set out to create KoreConX, and when we launched it, I mean, we’ve been doing this for over a decade planning and strategizing until we did launch the platform. But we wanted to make sure we get it in a different way. And that’s come with a price for us in many ways. Some people wouldn’t partner with us because there was no financial gain, for us to work with them. I know that sounds weird, but some people would not partner with us because well, if there’s, if you’re not financially motivated, then there’s no reason for us to be partners, which I thought was a bit odd. Because what we’re trying to do is bring a solution to the market.
You keep your revenue, we keep our revenue, and everything moves forward. It’s a regulated space, we you know, this is, it’s the forefront of everything. So, you know, we sat down all of us, myself, Kiran Garimella, Jason, and coming up with a Charter when we first introduced it in 2016. Nobody was paying attention to it. And of course, now we’re so busy building and trying to figure things out that there was not enough time. But now, it has reemerged again.
But our origins were right from the beginning. We wanted to make sure that people understood how we did business and what we were not ready to do. And these things have been there since the day we started. And it’s hard. It’s extremely hard. It’s hard, because it’s so easy to get caught in and saying yes, I’ll take it, you know, getting paid a little percentage from the credit card company getting paid from another service, just because you’re delivering it, you get paid, you make extra. And all of a sudden you’re part of that transaction where you shouldn’t be that transaction is regulated. And the only person there should be taking any fees related to that is the FINRA broker-dealer.
In this in, in this instance. So we made that decision a long time ago. As I said, it has been hard. Even with our shareholders, it didn’t, my apologies become Gladiators are Gladiators, it didn’t go well with them. Because, hey, look at that it’s a $100 million deal. If you just got 1%. I know if you just got 1%. But even if you could take the 1%, which there is a way of doing it compliantly we did not want to be a FINRA broker-dealer. We did not want to become a broker-dealer. We couldn’t deliver what we’re doing.
If we were a broker-dealer, we needed to create an infrastructure that everybody could work on. Everybody could, you know, transact on and work with each other without having to worry about over each other’s back. And it had to be in a way that it wouldn’t, we will never compete with them. We’re only here to support them and help them grow their business, which we’ve done with many broker-dealers. So this has been at the Kore, at the Kore of everything we’ve done, is making sure that this is the way we operate. And today, we’re re-launching the Charter of Trust. Again, we’re reemerging and why now?
Well, 2023 was a very hectic year, we had to deal with the issues with FTX and Binance and I know that’s not related to us, but it really is why there are people there’s companies or security regulators and the entire all the activity they’re getting throughout the world and the exposure it’s putting what is the saying to people don’t Trust us because of the technology. It’s not we’re human beings as human beings, we’re flawed. We need to follow certain rules that are not perfect. I can tell you that right now. A lot of my staff partners, Gladiators will tell you I of course I make mistakes, but I’m not gonna give up and I’m gonna make it better.
I’m going to always try to make it better for them for everyone. There’s a way to do things the right way. So you never have to be compromised in any situation. So we’ve lived up to that. We’ve never, ever, unless we own the business, unless we own that business in particular, only then do we charge without revenue, and we keep it otherwise, that revenue does not belong to us, whether it’s credit card, bank, and escrow, again, that belongs to those third-party vendors, they’re investing heavily, just the same way we are on their infrastructure, the last thing they want is someone taking a piece of their piece of their business and boom, scooping it up. And that’s been going on for years. And that had to come to an end. And then of course, the bigger one, why Trust, because look at the data that you’re being provided to safeguard the word is safeguard companies. Intrapreneurs, listen carefully, you’re entrusting us with your most important information, which is your board, your shareholders or your company that you work so hard to get, the last thing you want is us going after them without you or your permission, or any in any way and sending them new offerings, you wouldn’t be happy with that? Well, guess what, and that’s exactly what happened in 2023. That was the last piece that this market needed. It didn’t break any securities law, they didn’t break any privacy law. They didn’t break any terms and conditions, law, or anything. This just broke the ultimate Trust in business, which is I trusted you as my partner as my vendor, as my vendor to house my information, my confidential data, and you use it for your own. And we have, we’ve been conflicted with this over and over and over again, to do the same. And we will not we never have and never will.
Because that’s not who we are. And today, I’m excited. And I hope you read the Charter of Trust, all of us have signed it, all our senior-level people and our KoreTeam are dedicated to delivering just that, we will never be compromised by taking fees on any on the front end, the back end, we take our fees from our clients. And that’s it, we deliver the service. And that’s how we get paid. Number two, we do not sell anyone’s information.
None of that information only belongs to you the company that you work hard to get those individuals into your company, and therefore it shouldn’t be going to anyone else. And I hope this proves a point. More importantly, for everyone else. And I know, we’re not the only ones. We’re not the only ones doing it. And I know the industry, all of us are changing and evolving. And I’m encouraging the entire industry to follow through.
We welcome everybody to be part of this charter that we’ve created, sign on with us, and let’s show the industry that they can Trust all of us, all of us together working together, we will make this industry even stronger than it is today. Because we have look what we’ve done in a very short period of time. Our industry is only less than 10 years old, 10 years old, and only operational for the last six, seven years and look what we’ve accomplished so far. And we have so much great opportunity. It’s only uphill all the way through. It’s going to be bumpy. We’re going to be challenged. But the only way to make things even better is when we work together in order to make it happen.