Our story
The idea behind Witnessed was born from a shared conviction: truth shouldn’t be so hard to prove.
Co-founders Carol Spain and Mike Spain come from different worlds — Carol from finance, analytics, and governance; Michael from software development and systems engineering. But they share one belief: technology should serve people, not the other way around.
Years ago, Mike began wondering how digital photos could be verified as authentic — how anyone could prove what’s real in a world of edited and manipulated content. As AI-generated imagery began to flood the internet, that question became urgent. Carol, after years leading in finance and policy, saw the same erosion of trust on a global scale.
Together, they decided to do something about it.
Witnessed is building a privacy-centric verification platform that certifies the originality of photos and videos at the moment of capture. Their mission is to make authenticity verifiable, privacy-protected, and accessible to everyone — from consumers and businesses.
They founded Witnessed as a values-driven company — to fight back against digital deception with cryptographic truth.
Carol Spain
Co-Founder & CEO
Carol is the Co-Founder and CEO of Witnessed, where she leads strategy, growth, and partnerships to advance the company’s mission of restoring trust in digital content. A former investment analyst, she has led global teams, launched AI-driven initiatives, scaled products, and navigated market trends. As an elected official, she helped shape community policy, build coalitions, and oversee financial and operational decisions. Self-made and purpose-driven, Carol founded Witnessed to build technology that puts truth, privacy, and people first — empowering users to know what’s real in an AI-driven world.
Mike Spain
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Mike Spain is the Co-Founder and CTO of Witnessed, where he leads product design and engineering for a privacy-first verification platform that authenticates images and videos at the moment of capture. A developer and systems thinker with experience at high-growth early stage companies, he’s passionate about building tools that serve people, not algorithms. His technical expertise in cryptographic hashes and commitment to ethical design guide Witnessed’s mission to fight digital deception with verifiable truth.
Our vision
To restore trust in digital content by making authenticity easy to verify, ensuring truth is the foundation of all business and social connections.
Our values
Trust
Trust is key to everything we do. We build trust into our tamper-proof data capture process. The reliability, security and integrity of our services are critical to the brand.
Customer focus
Our processes and platforms are tailored to meet our customers’ needs. We strive for intuitive technology and continuously improve our services based on customer feedback.
Innovation
We continuously evolve our technology to address ever-changing digital threats. We think creatively to solve unique business goals.
Privacy
We stay in compliance with evolving data protection laws. Image metadata is solely used for authentication purposes, and only with the customer’s consent.
Social Responsibility
We believe in the protection of authenticity in an AI-deceptive world. Because we believe that image verification should be accessible to all, we offer the ability to authenticate a photo without a subscription. We strive for energy efficient technology. We value workplace flexibility and diverse teams.
