Episode Details

In this episode of the podcast, General Atlantic Co-President, Managing Director and Chairman of the Global Technology Group Anton Levy sits down with Caryn Seidman-Becker, Chairman and CEO of CLEAR, a leading biometrics company that streamlines authentication and security as it strives to provide a safe, secure and frictionless way for people to live, work and travel, including solutions for airports, sports stadiums and anywhere else credentials need to be verified. They discuss Caryn’s first job on Wall Street working in risk arbitrage; her decision to start her own investment firm named Arience Capital; discovering Verified Identity Pass and buying the company at a bankruptcy sale; working alongside co-founder Ken Cornick and rebranding the company to CLEAR; Caryn’s personal goal to make flying safer and more efficient in a post-9/11 world; the importance of the customer experience and responding to constructive criticism; how one out of every ten US jobs has a travel-related association; why CLEAR’s ticker symbol is “YOU”; experiences of needing multiple forms of identification and finding a solution that is more productive; destigmatizing the word ‘biometrics’; launching solutions beyond CLEAR access at airports, including Health Pass, which was created during the pandemic; examples of Powered by CLEAR experiences, including frictionless verification at the Raiders’ stadium to help fans order a beer and a partnership with Avis to expedite the car rental check-in process; the Home to Gate app that calculates traffic to the airport and time to walk from the CLEAR line to your gate; why she believes digital trust online is the next great frontier; the launch of Reserve powered by CLEAR to make a reservation for your spot in the CLEAR line at the airport; CLEAR’s IPO listing and commemorating the occasion with a company-wide volunteering day; Caryn’s vision for the company in the next five to ten years; sharing her experience with other founders as a trailblazing female founder bringing her company from inception to IPO; operating during the pandemic and keeping the company connected; Caryn’s best travel tips; the power of partnership; CLEAR’s core value of being indefatigable; and other topics.