Most kids’ first interaction with the internet is lying about their age. Kieran Donovan is building the fix.

Kieran left a top global law firm (he became one of the youngest partners at Latham & Watkins and is the only person to win “Privacy Lawyer of the Year” multiple times) to found k-ID. It’s a privacy-first identity layer that lets products adapt to a young user’s age and country automatically. No creepy surveillance. No fake birthdays. Just age-empowered design that lets kids participate safely and parents stay in control.

k-ID sits inside apps and games, toggling features like chat, ads, time limits, loot boxes, and even AI NPC dialog based on rules that change by region and age. Why Kieran? The mission is personal. He’s a survivor who testified in court as a child and later asked, “What am I doing with this?” He chose to build the tech he wished existed.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why age gates teach kids to lie and what replaces them
• How k-ID’s “compliance engine” adapts features on the fly (loot box odds, modding, social, ads, AI)
• The global rulebook: COPPA, AADC, Australia’s under-16 rules, Korea’s disclosure decimals, and more
• Compliance → product → moat: turning regulation into UX and scale
• Remote done right: Singapore as hub, customers and teams across US/EU/Asia
• AI’s trap: the demo is easy; production is a mountain (latency, tests, guardrails, policy)
• The day-0 sprint every founder should run (structure, IP, data, agreements)

If you build products used by minors, run a global team, or want to turn “red tape” into product advantage, this conversation is a masterclass in doing well and doing good.

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