About Tru

Story

Tru Social was originally built by JLINC Labs. Twenty years before, the founder of JLINC, Jim Fournier, had convened the Planetwork conference, which had in turn inspired a group of 50 IT and media professionals who met for two years to create a roadmap of social possibility on the Internet. That culminated in the Augmented Social Network (ASN) whitepaper written before Linkedin and published before Facebook. Tru’s roots comes from this deep conversation about how to utilize internet technology for society.

JLINC Labs spent two years building Tru Social as a totally new kind of publishing platform for intentional networks.  In early 2023, Jim recognized Surya Kramer as the one to take Tru forward.  Surya’s perspective is based in her own organization, Culture for Care which was there from beginning shaping Tru.

Surya and Jim had originally re-founded Tru as a Delaware public benefit corporation, Tru Internet Inc in 2022.  Over the past six months Surya has rebuilt it as a woman-led tech company working with What’s Cook’n to supply an international dev team.  Tru remains part of a larger ecosystem built on JLINC technology which continues to provide server admin.

Tru Federated Engagement is our tag line.  We are here to build a new kind of town square. Our mission is to build hubs and networks that work for different kinds of organizations; from non-profit to for profit, supporting activist and educational platforms.  Each hub/network has the capacity to be interoperable and decide what kind of culture they want to promote.  Tru will support a healthy well-fed collective collaborative ecosystem for society to get sh*t done.  We are here to offer a better social engagement platform than the world has ever seen. Our aim is to play well with others as we scale, while supporting a value system of collaboration through hub networks curating there own environment, with a filtering system that is designed to give creators the ability to set the tone for their network.

Please join us for this new and exciting journey towards a world we are aligned with – both on and off the net. Tru Federated Engagement aims to support healthy cohesion for relational exchange that supports the good in people in functioning at the speed of action, across all areas of relational exchange.

Tru Team

Surya Kramer

CEO

Surya is a force of nature. She a social architect, visual and performing artist, videographer and somatic educator who’s pioneering insights into emotional awareness and relational intelligence inform all aspects of her work. She is founder of Flagship Care, a consulting group offering community building and healing practices to help embed right relationship into the social DNA of organizations. Her expertise in social architecture, healing and growth has led to the development of multiple systems, where her work has been called social permaculture and regenerative design for collective emotional infrastructure.

Gary Tomchuk

Business Strategist

Gary is a leader in building social impact businesses bringing together 42 years of experience in business strategy & development, marketing, operations and management. He is a proven leader who produces successful outcomes, resulting in several awards (including an Inc 500), raising over $11 million, and the acquisition of several companies. His unique combination of technical background, relational skills and business experience working with startups has given Gary a full range of skills in starting, growing and running a cutting edge, sustainable, and profitable company that is true to its mission.

Laura Bathrick

Culture Consultant

Laura is a Life Coach and Community Advocate with a deep background in Social Cognitive Grief Support. She has worked privately with a number of eminent individuals across all aspects of their lives. Organizational development and systems integration for global good are her strengths and passion. She is mother of two amazing humans.

Tania Abdul

Consulting Product Manager

Executive Director of Breathe, a movement-building nonprofit organization that amplifies and supports solutions for racial, environmental, and climate justice. Breathe has partnered with Tru to develop their shared vision for a platform that nourishes community engagement. Tania is an immersive art and events producer, entrepreneur, and web designer, who has worked on social justice and environmental issues from many angles. Informed by her experience in electoral politics, artivism, and community organizing, Tania envisions an approach to movement-building that leverages storytelling, performing arts and technology for community activism.

Deni Phinney

Operations Strategist

As a business strategist and leadership coach, Deni is passionate about helping people and organizations create the perfect matrix to energize the magic in their reality. She supports leaders and their caregivers navigating life-altering health challenges, co-creates efficient operational foundations and processes with small and startup businesses, and has produced events that helped non-profits raise more than $3M to support their transformational work. She’s committed to clear, compassionate communication, forming connections and community, and alchemizing the experience of disease and grief in our world.

Our talented development partners from LinkedTrust

Golda Velez

Consulting Architect

has 30 years of software engineering experience, with recent work on decentralized protocols. Currently an infrastructure and observability engineer on the Ceramic protocol, she was also involved in the original formation of the Bluesky project and contributes to open source projects in decentralized trust and reputation, informed by previous work at Uber/Postmates combatting organized fraud rings through AI models. She is also deeply involved in human rights advocacy through direct relationships with affected individuals, as well as creating opportunities for remote work for those impacted by world events.

Ahmed Hany

Senior Software Engineer

Ahmed has the Continuous learning mindset to keep up with evolving technologies and frameworks, with 6+ years of experience and Proficiency in programming languages, like Python, C, C++, C# and JavaScript. With good understanding of data structures and algorithms and debugging and problem-solving skills for efficient coding. And familiarity with databases and SQL. Specialized in front-end development with react. And with experience in collaboration skills & team leading using software development methodologies such as Agile or Scrum.

Muhammed Abdelnaser

Junior Software Engineer

Muhammed Abdelnaser is a seasoned software engineer with over 2 years of dynamic experience in JS, Python, and C. His journey encompasses a solid understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms. Specializing in Fullstack Development, he seamlessly blends front-end finesse with robust back-end solutions. Beyond technical prowess, Muhammed excels as an adept team player, fostering collaboration and contributing significantly to collective success in the ever-evolving realm of software engineering.

Agnes Koinange

Software Engineer

As a full-stack developer, I pioneer in cutting-edge solutions that push the boundaries of what's possible in the digital realm, turning every project into an exhilarating adventure.

Rishabh

Design

With over 4+ years of experience in design, including more than 1+ year in Product Management, I have strong collaboration skills and a proven ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams. I possess excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as a deep understanding of customer needs and market trends. I see myself as a problem solver who is passionate about guiding and working with a team to achieve a common or larger vision through attainable milestones.

Romeo

Full Stack Developer

Ezeugwu Chukwuemeka Romeo is a full Stack Developer from Nigeria with two years of professional experience. I am passionate about creating innovative and robust web applications that solve real-world problems.

And other gifted advisors

Ana LaDou

Consulting Advisor

Ana is a creative strategist who nurtures leaders, mobilizes teams, and develops strategic processes that result in stronger, scalable organizations. She most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for MAPS. She graduated from Columbia University in New York, and launched her career in marketing at Miramax Films and maintains her ties to the industry. Ana is committed to vipassana mindfulness and Non Violent Communication (NVC) practices, and engaging Boards and executive leaders in deeper conversations that lead to conscious action.

Tru Internet Inc. is a Delaware public benefit corporation


Tru Social Inc. has both data integrity and environmental convants written into its founding articles, as follows:


II. PURPOSE
A.            The purpose of this Corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which a corporation may be organized under the General Corporation Law of California other than the banking business, the trust company business, or the practice of a profession permitted to be incorporated by the California Corporations Code.

B.            This Corporation is a benefit corporation.

C.           This Corporation shall have the following specific benefit purposes pursuant to Section 14610 of the California Corporations Code:  

1.             Many businesses cause environmental degradation in pursuit of short-term profits. Such behavior has been proven to undermine both long-term profits and society.  This Corporation shall avoid such short-sighted errors by considering the impact of any company action on the earth’s climate, biodiversity, and the well-being of future generations.  This Corporation shall prioritize these considerations above short-term profits of the company and its shareholders.

2.             This Corporation shall collect, collate and analyze stakeholder supply chain data based on the best available scientific methodology and report the aggregated results on a neutral and unbiased basis.  The company shall neither solicit nor accept financial or other consideration in exchange for exceptional treatment.

3.             This Corporation shall operate network infrastructure that allows all parties to exchange information under mutually binding terms and conditions in a manner that protects both entities and individual users, by preventing personal information from being exploited for financial gain without prior knowledge and consent.

4.             This Corporation shall connect individual users with other entities according to user-defined preferences applied in combination with objective selection and consistent ranking criteria, without any manipulation based on compensation offered or paid by such connected entities.