Doing It Again — Building Consent.io
You’d think the second time would be easier. It’s not. It’s just different.
When Everfund ended, I wasn’t sure I’d build again — not soon, anyway. Starting a company takes something from you. Not just time or energy, but belief. Belief that the pain is worth it, that the mission matters, that the next version of yourself is waiting on the other side of the suffering.
But a few months later, I couldn’t shake the feeling: there was still something important I needed to build. Something I wish we’d had during Everfund. Something infrastructural, something ethical, something foundational.
So here I am again — glass in hand — building Consent.io.
Why Consent.io?
Because privacy shouldn’t be a plugin. Because trust isn’t a dark pattern. Because developers shouldn’t need a law degree to implement responsible consent.
Consent.io started as a technical itch. I was tired of duct-taping half-baked solutions together to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and everything else that followed. The tools out there were built for lawyers, not builders. They were expensive, clunky, and opaque.
So I started sketching out what a developer-first consent infrastructure would look like. Not a cookie banner. A foundation. Something composable, auditable, and open — built for the people writing the code, and respectful of the people using the product.
That foundation became c15t.
Introducing c15t — The Developer-First Cookie Banner
Built for React and Next.js, c15t is an open source CMP (Consent Management Platform) that gives developers complete control over consent flows, cookie banners, and privacy compliance. No vendor lock-in, no mystery logic — just clean, composable components you can trust.
c15t is already out in the wild, and we're proud to say some impressive names are already using it in production.
It transforms privacy consent from a compliance checkbox into a fully observable system. Built for modern development teams, c15t unifies analytics, consent tracking, and privacy controls into a single performant solution — no more slow cookie banners or blind spots in user privacy choices.
Visit c15t.com or check out the GitHub repo to get started.
What is Consent Management?
Consent Management (c15t) is an open-source platform that gives you:
- Analytics integration
- Consent management
- Privacy controls
- Complete consent state visibility
Gone are the days of:
- Cookie banners slowing down your site
- Blind spots in consent tracking
- Complex multi-vendor implementations
- Uncertainty about privacy policy changes
- Poor visibility into consent states
Core Principles
1. Open Source First
- Inspect and understand the code handling user consent
- Contribute improvements and fixes
- Self-host for complete control
- Trust through transparency
2. Developer Experience
- TypeScript-first APIs with full type safety
- Modern React patterns and hooks
- Intuitive state management
- Comprehensive documentation
3. Performance as Standard
- Minimal bundle impact
- Efficient state management
- Optimized server/client patterns
- Smart code splitting
4. Privacy by Design
- GDPR-compliant by default
- Granular consent controls
- Complete audit trail
- Privacy-first architecture
We're currently focused on one workflow: make the best cookie banner ever.
Because the consent UX is the first thing users see — and too often, the worst. We're here to change that.
How It’s Different This Time
The first time, I was 21, fueled by energy and caffeine and the sheer novelty of shipping things. I was chasing validation, press coverage, maybe even a bit of startup mythology.
This time, I’m building what I need — what we as developers have needed all along. I’m dogfooding the product obsessively. I’m marketing it out loud, even when it’s uncomfortable. This is not some sunkworks project quietly perfecting itself behind the scenes. We built c15t, we shipped it, and it’s live now — three months later.
Yes, there’s more experience this time. More edge cases in my head. More awareness of what breaks at scale. But I’m not slowing down. I’m building in public. I’m building with urgency. Because the product is real, and the need is real.
What Still Hurts (and What Still Matters)
Some things haven’t changed. I still stare at the ceiling at 3am wondering if it’ll work. I still second-guess whether I’m doing too much or not enough. And I still feel that irrational thrill when someone uses the product for the first time and gets it.
But I’ve also learned what pain is worth enduring:
- The glass-eating that comes from writing a spec that no one else has dared to write.
- The invisible weight of doing something the right way when the wrong way is faster.
- The joy in solving not just for today’s customers, but for the future maintainers.
And now, I’m trying to listen as much as I speak — to really hear what people need. I’m breaking down doors, awkwardly joining conversations at meetups, and learning how to talk about consent without people tuning out. It still feels unconventional. I still wonder, am I the only developer who cares this much about building consent tools for developers instead of lawyers? But I keep going.
Because maybe awkward is just what early conviction looks like. Some people hear me out and say, "I don’t care." And that’s okay — not everyone will. But others light up. They’ve felt the pain of every CMP being just a useEffect hook. They’ve wished for something better. Those are the developers I can’t wait to build relationships with.
And maybe that’s the part that matters most.
What I’m Building
Consent.io isn’t just a compliance tool. It’s a belief:
That users deserve dignity, and developers deserve tools that don’t compromise trust for convenience.
It’s structured around the principles of clarity, auditability, and control — for both sides of the screen. Whether you’re managing cookie banners, consent logs, or regional requirements, Consent.io is designed to be your backend for privacy-first user interactions.
Built with an open-core model. Inspired by great developer tools. Shaped by real-world startup scars.
Looking Ahead
This time around, I’m not trying to “go big.” I’m trying to go deep. I want to build something I’d be proud to run for a decade, not just something I can flip in two.
To other second-time founders out there: it’s okay to feel the weight more heavily. That just means you know what it takes. But it also means you know what not to carry this time.
To everyone who followed the Everfund story, thank you. The next chapter is already underway. And this time, I’m building it on purpose.
If you’re a developer, founder, or privacy nerd who cares about trust and transparency, I’d love to hear from you.
Let’s build something better this time.