Looking To Invest In The Next Household Name? This Startup Could Be It

Most financial advisors recommend a diversified portfolio that’s mostly made up of assets that are considered to be safer investments. However, many investors still like to leave some room for a higher-risk play here and there that has the potential to generate life-changing returns. 

Penny stocks and meme coins have hogged the attention of most retail investors, but billionaire investors like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban and several others are placing their bets on startups. 

Venture capital (VC) firms amass huge fortunes investing in companies before they become household names. Just look at Sequoia Capital’s 4,900% gain on its investment in WhatsApp when Facebook acquired the messaging platform. Even more impressive is the 24,900% gain Benchmark Capital Partners made on its early investment in Snap.

These investors have done well by choosing companies that fulfill a need that most people don’t even know they have yet. Look at Ring —– formerly known as Doorbot — that got shut down on Shark Tank but later went on to be acquired by Amazon.com Inc. for $1 billion. The company solved a problem that even the sharks didn’t realize existed.

So what’s the next major problem that households across the globe will be searching for a solution to? Many experts believe it’s the digital threats making their way into home Wi-Fi networks. 

Not only are issues like privacy and identity theft becoming more-complex problems to tackle, but it’s also getting harder for parents to protect their children from harmful content and predators on the internet. 

One startup that is gaining significant traction when it comes to solving these problems for families is Gryphon Online Safety. The company created a cloud-managed network protection service platform that combines an elegant high-performance mesh Wi-Fi system, a simple-to-use app and cloud-based machine learning that will continuously improve the protection over time and usage.

The thing that sets Gryphon apart is how simple the system is to set up. Most home network security systems require more than basic IT knowledge to set up properly, whereas Gryphon offers a solution that anyone capable of plugging in a Wi-Fi router and installing an app can use. 

The chances of this product becoming as common in households as a Ring doorbell are relatively high, considering that there was a 330% increase in hacking during COVID-19 and 90% of kids aged 8 to 16 have already seen inappropriate content online. The truth is that more people fall victim to online attacks in their homes than they do package thieves. 

You don’t have to be a billionaire investor or VC firm to get an early stake in Gryphon. The startup is currently raising capital through a Reg CF offering on the equity crowdfunding platform Republic. Individuals can invest in Gryphon’s current funding round with as little as $250.

View Gryphon’s offering page on Republic

Gryphon’s founders are veterans in the tech space. Co-founder and CEO John Wu was one of the key inventors of the MiFi mobile hotspot — selected by Time Magazine as one of the top gadgets of the century. Co-founder and CTO Arup Bhattacharya was an executive at PortalPlayer, where he developed multiple generations of the media chip that powered the Apple iPod and helped lead the company to IPO and eventual acquisition by NVIDIA.

The company has already shipped over 55,000 units and has over $9 million in total revenue, including $1.7 million from software services.

Image by E2.art.lab on Shutterstock