About Us - Moonshot

Our Story

From Our Founders

We founded Moonshot in 2015 to build solutions for one of the most pressing challenges facing communities around the world: violent extremism.

Our experience working with governments, tech companies and communities revealed a major gap in the approach to this deadly problem. The lessons learned in addressing the underlying drivers to violent extremism offline simply weren’t being applied effectively online, where extremist propagandists and recruiters continue to prey on vulnerable individuals. We knew we needed to build better tech to apply those lessons well.

Moonshot has since expanded the scope of online threats and harms that we tackle. Today, we work to better understand and disrupt disinformation networks, gender-based violence, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and organized crime, among other harms.

As a social impact business, we re-invest in research and development to further our mission, building evidence for new methodologies and regularly pushing the boundaries of our tech. Our team is also made up of some of the most impressive people we’ve ever known, expert analysts and software developers with wide-ranging backgrounds and decades of experience in government, security tech and business.

We use all the tools at our disposal to provide a variety of clients with insights and interventions that protect them from malicious actors online, advance their missions and ultimately save lives. We work with global brands, governments, NGOs and tech companies big and small to deliver evidence-based solutions at scale. Most importantly, we remain committed to making the internet a safer place for everyone.

Vidhya Ramalingam
& Ross Frenett

Moonshot Founders

Founders

Vidhya Ramalingam

Vidhya first started talking to white nationalists 15 years ago. After conducting ethnographic fieldwork with far right movements, she was tapped to lead the European Union’s first inter-governmental initiative to fight far-right terrorism. In this role, she traveled across the globe working with tech companies, governments and activists to set up efforts to deradicalize and disengage individuals at-risk of violent extremism. A pioneer in the field, she has headlined SXSW and TED, advises Heads of State and regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress on terrorism prevention.

Ross Frenett

Ross grew up with a fascination with understanding terrorism, which took him from interviewing IRA prisoners to shadowing Hezbollah in a Lebanese war zone. He went on to partner with Google to build the world’s first global network of former extremists and survivors of terrorism, designed to counter terrorism through deradicalization and strategic communications efforts. In 2020, he was appointed co-leader of the Communication & Narratives Working Group of the European Union Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). A native of County Cork, Ross is a former member of the Irish Defence Forces.

Ethics

Moonshot’s work is rooted in ethics, empathy and human rights. The Do No Harm principle informs the work we choose to undertake, and the tools and methodologies we build.

Our data practices are governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European Union law aimed at protecting personal data and user privacy. We abide by GDPR in every country where we work – not just Europe.

Company
Values

We are ambitious and daring about our ability to impact global problems with innovative solutions, and positive about people’s ability to change. We value joy, while pursuing a serious mission.

We recognise the unique value of every single member of our team. We care for and support our colleagues, and cultivate a safe working environment for all. We empathise with victims of online harms as well as those at risk of perpetrating them.

We root our work in evidence, and see the humanity behind online harms. We remember the people behind the data points. As we navigate fast-changing trends and increasingly complex environments, we stay true to our mission: one based on creativity, integrity, and hope.

We push ourselves to be personally responsible and hold ourselves and others to account in our work; we believe that trust and challenge can co-exist. When we make mistakes, we acknowledge them and find ways to improve. We provide autonomy and opportunity to our team as a pathway to personal growth and collective excellence. We incorporate ethics in all aspects of our decision making.

We use our deep regional knowledge and subject matter expertise to deliver high quality work. Where we don’t have the knowledge or skills, we find those who do, and build collaborative partnerships.

We recognise the harms caused by racial inequality and gender inequality globally and especially in our own sector. We commit to our own ongoing education. We actively take steps to dismantle these, and other forms of inequality, through our internal policies and through the delivery of inclusive, ethical and effective programming.