Five Questions with Ash Bassili & Deanne Bassili, myLaminin

1. What’s your secret (or not-so-secret) origin story? What made you want to build a cybersecurity solution?

Client pull. We came to market with a blockchain-enabled verifiable credentials solution. It was during a demo of that solution, to researchers at Queen’s University, that the question was posed: “Cool technology. Can you apply this to research data?”

2. Pitch your startup to us as if we’re an individual or organization that thinks cyber crime is “someone else’s problem.”

Research data in the health science space is the most valued — and one of the softest targets for cybercrime. It’s a focus of state actors as well as industrial espionage, and every western government has initiated significant investments to mitigate these risks.

myLaminin secures sensitive research data, facilitates global collaboration, and reduces operational inefficiencies and risk profiles for institutions conducting sensitive research.

3. How is the Cyber Challenge helping you right now?

Our ability to get market visibility through engagement with subject matter experts is extremely valuable. We have ratified our value proposition and are working to refine our go-to-market approach.

4. What impact do you hope to see in 2030, from the work your startup is doing?

We hope to be recognized for establishing a national and world-class research data management platform, one which is effectively using Blockchain to secure research and clinical trial data, and is delivering a data traceability capability that is not available in the market today.

5. What makes Cyber Challenge unique, compared to other innovation programs, incubators or accelerators you’ve come across?

The program is clearly focused on helping participants engage with potential clients. That is gold.