InternetPrivacy: Turning a stalled app into a lead-gen engine for a reputation management business
A stalled build for a returning client. I finished it, shipped it, and turned it into a funnel for their real business.
The challenge
InternetPrivacy belonged to the same founder behind NetReputation, a returning client who'd already trusted me to lead product on Client Manager and the rest of that platform. This project had a second job beyond being its own product: exposing someone's leaked personal data is also the exact moment they're primed to care about their online reputation. A non-technical founder started the build, but with NetReputation and other businesses competing for attention, it stalled with no one driving it, no one scoping what was left, and no one thinking about how this app was supposed to feed the business it was really built to support.
The solution
Came in as Product Lead and picked up the project where it stalled, building it as both a standalone product and a lead-gen engine feeding NetReputation. Scoped the remaining work and built the core product: a quick scan engine covering 45+ data broker sites, a privacy dashboard with exposure scoring, an automated opt-out engine, an admin control panel, and a Stripe-powered scan-to-subscription funnel that doubles as a natural on-ramp into reputation management conversations. Shipped both a web app and a React Native mobile app for iOS and Android, and got it live in both app stores. Solved the hard technical problems along the way: migrated to AWS for high-concurrency scraping, built a custom proxy solution to beat anti-bot protections like Cloudflare and PerimeterX, normalized inconsistent data across dozens of sites, and built custom testing workflows since standard tools don't work with React Native.
The outcome
A stalled project became a live product in both app stores, with a working scan-to-subscription funnel and an automated removal system replacing manual research. And because the product was built with the bigger business in mind, every user who finds out their data is exposed is a warm lead for NetReputation's core reputation management services. This is the same client twice: once to fix internal chaos, once to build an external product that quietly grows the business behind it.
At a glance
Company: InternetPrivacy, consumer privacy monitoring platform
My role: Product Lead, embedded between a non-technical founder and the dev team, taking the build from stalled to shipped
Timeline: 3-6 months
Stack: React Native (iOS/Android), AWS, Stripe, custom scan/crawler API
Status: Live in the App Store and Google Play
Who they are
InternetPrivacy helps people find and remove their personal information from data broker and people-search sites, the sites that quietly sell your name, age, and address to anyone who searches for it. Users scan for their exposure, then subscribe to have their data monitored and continuously removed. A real consumer product, with real subscribers paying for peace of mind.
What was broken
The build wasn't broken. It was stalled. A non-technical founder had gotten it started, but running multiple other businesses meant nobody was actually driving it forward. Development had stopped without a launch. No one was scoping what was left to build, managing the developers, or pushing it toward an actual release. A real product idea was sitting unfinished because nobody owned getting it across the finish line.
What I did
I came in as Product Lead and picked up where the project had stalled, then took it further than backend leadership alone.
Scoped what was left to build
Assessed the existing build, identified the gaps, and set a real plan to take it from stalled to shippable.
Built out the core product
A quick scan engine letting users search their exposure across 45+ data broker sites from a simple front-end form.
A privacy dashboard showing a Privacy Score and a site-by-site breakdown of what's exposed, in progress, or removed.
An automated opt-out engine that requests data removal from third-party sites without manual work on every single one.
An admin control panel for internal teams to manage accounts, oversee removal workflows, and review scan results.
A monetization flow moving users from a free scan straight into paid subscription tiers, integrated with Stripe.
Shipped it as a real mobile product
Built the consumer web app with proper staging and production environments, plus a React Native mobile app for iOS and Android with monitoring and notification alerts. Got the app through both app stores and live.
Solved the hard technical problems that actually made it work
Migrated to an AWS environment that could handle the high-concurrency demands of scraping 45+ sites at once.
Built a custom proxy solution to keep data collection reliable against Cloudflare, PerimeterX, and other anti-bot protections, the cat-and-mouse game every data-broker scraper has to win.
Standardized inconsistent data from dozens of different sites into one unified format for the dashboard.
Solved cross-platform UI consistency issues across device types and resolutions for the mobile app.
Built custom testing workflows using physical devices and emulators, since standard tools like BrowserStack don't work with React Native, to make sure builds were stable before every TestFlight and APK release.
The result
A stalled project became a live product in both app stores, with a working scan-to-subscription funnel and an automated system doing the removal work that used to require manual research. The business moved from "hoping this gets finished someday" to a real product generating real subscribers.
The honest note
Good ideas die in the gap between "started" and "finished" more often than they die from being bad ideas. This one didn't die. It just needed someone to own getting it across the line.