Simply Secure
Superbloom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that coaches designers, developers, and researchers building open-source and public-interest technology in human-centered UX design, privacy, and security, while fiscally sponsoring 14+ aligned digital rights projects.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Simply Secure does
Superbloom (formerly Simply Secure) is a US-registered 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit founded in 2014 and headquartered in New York, with a distributed operational presence including Berlin, Germany. The organization supports designers, developers, researchers, and information-security practitioners working on open-source and public-interest technology by delivering human-centered design coaching, workshops, fiscal-sponsorship infrastructure, and applied research. Its core service portfolio comprises Design Coaching (1:1 problem-solving, Ask Me Anything panels, reusable templates), Workshops (delivered at RightsCon, MozFest, COSCUP, FOSS Backstage, and the Global Gathering), and a Fiscal Sponsorship Program providing legal, financial, and operational infrastructure to 14+ independent initiatives including Ranking Digital Rights, Measurement Lab, REAL ML, CHAOSS Africa, and the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy.
Technically, Superbloom does not operate a commercial software product; its intellectual property consists of human-centered design research methodologies, open toolkits, and frameworks such as Decentralization Off The Shelf (7 Maxims), The Limits to Digital Consent, the YouTube Dark Patterns Controls Analysis, Remote Community Research methodology, DTPR (Digital Trust for Places & Routines), the UX Toolbox for Risk Mitigation and Accessibility, the Feature Guide for High-Risk Contexts, and the Measuring the Privacy Experience framework. Coaches operate in 15+ languages across all global time zones; cumulative engagement is reported as 300+ projects coached since 2014.
The organization's business model is grant-funded: revenue is sourced from foundation grants (Open Technology Fund, Mozilla, Prototype Fund, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Reset) and individual donations, with fiscal sponsorship administrative fees as a supplementary stream. Pricing for coaching and consulting services to eligible projects is structured at zero direct cost to the grantee, with the organization monetizing via grant-funded capacity. The organization rebranded from Simply Secure to Superbloom in October 2022 to reflect broadened scope, and is led by Executive Director Georgia Bullen with a distributed leadership team spanning operations, design research, coaching, and program management.
Simply Secure firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Simply Secure
- Legal name
- Superbloom
- Website
- https://simplysecure.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Superbloom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that coaches designers, developers, and researchers building open-source and public-interest technology in human-centered UX design, privacy, and security, while fiscally sponsoring 14+ aligned digital rights projects.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Simply Secure industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Human-Centered Design Consulting and Research for Responsible Technology
- NAICS
- Other Specialized Design Services (541490), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Privacy Governance & Consent Management (HDADAIAI)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Privacy Management (Consent, DSAR, RoPA) (HDADAFAH)
Keywords
Where Simply Secure is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Simply Secure business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Foundation Grants and Philanthropic Funding: Primary revenue source from foundations including Open Technology Fund, Mozilla, Usable, Prototype Fund, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Reset. These grants support specific projects, research initiatives, and operational costs.
- Individual Donations: Donations from individuals supporting the organization's mission to build trustworthy technology through professional education and research.
- Fiscal Sponsorship Fees: Superbloom provides fiscal sponsorship to independent initiatives, managing legal, financial, and operational infrastructure for a fee. This includes 14+ active fiscally sponsored projects.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Monthly | Free coaching and support services for qualifying projects |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Simply Secure product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Simply Secure (rebranded as Superbloom) delivers human-centered design coaching, UX guidance, user research support, and workshops to practitioners building privacy-preserving and responsible technology. It complements this service practice with applied research reports, an open Knowledge Base of practical resources, the DTPR open-source framework, and a Fiscal Sponsorship Program that provides legal, financial, and operational infrastructure to independent digital rights initiatives.
Product overview
Simply Secure (now Superbloom) is an educational nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that supports practitioners in designing ethically-informed, values-driven technology. The organization operates as a coaching and consulting practice rather than a software product company. Its offerings include a Knowledge Base of practical resources, a Fiscal Sponsorship Program providing operational infrastructure for aligned projects, Design Coaching services for teams, and Workshops. The organization produces research reports on topics like decentralization, digital consent, dark patterns, and remote collaboration, and maintains open-source tools including the DTPR framework and UX security toolkits. The rebranded Superbloom identity includes a comprehensive design system.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Design Coaching Tailored 1:1 coaching, 'Ask Me Anything' panels, and problem-solving sessions for individuals and teams working on open-source and public-interest technology, covering UX design, user research, product strategy, data handling, governance, and fundraising.
- Workshops Educational workshops on user research, prototyping, UX design, and privacy-preserving technology development, often co-run with Open Technology Fund and Mozilla for developers and information-security professionals.
- Fiscal Sponsorship Program Provides legal, financial, HR, and operational infrastructure under Superbloom's 501(c)(3) status to independent digital rights, civic tech, and responsible-AI initiatives so they can access philanthropic funding without establishing standalone nonprofits.
- DTPR (Digital Trust for Places & Routines) An open-source framework and toolkit for making digital trust and transparency meaningful for communities by providing practical tools that make invisible digital systems around people visible.
- UX Toolbox for Risk Mitigation and Accessibility An updated usable security audit methodology and toolkit that reflects current practices in usability, accessibility, and security research.
- Feature Guide for High-Risk Contexts A 2025 guide covering features that activists, journalists, and human rights defenders need in technology tools for protection in high-risk environments.
- Measuring the Privacy Experience A framework providing practical assessment tools to measure how people actually experience privacy in tech products, beyond fine-print analysis.
- Communications Toolkit for Teams A communications toolkit designed for small tech and activist organizations, developed in collaboration with Open Technology Fund's Learning Lab to improve branding and outreach.
- Knowledge Base Open collection of practical resources including guides, templates, and research tools for designers, developers, activists, and researchers working on privacy-preserving technology and human-centered design.
- Decentralization Off The Shelf: 7 Maxims Research report examining obstacles to decentralization adoption, based on interviews with 53 practitioners and workshops with 85 participants, identifying key challenges and solutions.
- Dark Patterns in User Controls Analysis Research analyzing YouTube's recommendation settings from a usability standpoint to understand how design supports or undermines user control, conducted with Mozilla's YouTube Regrets project.
- The Limits to Digital Consent A research report examining consent paradigms in complex data systems, assessing whether ethical consent frameworks actually achieve their stated goals for underrepresented communities.
- Communities and Remote Collaboration Research Ethnographic and human-centered design research examining how academic communities engage in digital events and spaces during COVID-19, with 10 recommendations for digital event organizers.
Quantifiable outcome
- 300+ projects coached since 2014
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Simply Secure
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Simply Secure technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Simply Secure partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.
- Consumer Reports Digital LabflagshipPartnership on 'Designing Better Data Futures' project, collaborating with science fiction writers and 17 experts to create the 'Alternate Data Realities' series exploring future scenarios for data ownership.
- Popular ScienceflagshipPublishing partner for the 'Alternate Data Realities' three-story series exploring near-future scenarios in which people benefit from their own data.
- New Design CongressflagshipJoint research partnership examining consent paradigms in complex data systems. Combined Superbloom's design expertise with New Design Congress's technical research capabilities.
- Convocation Research + DesigncoreResearch partner on community and remote collaboration study. Led ethnographic research alongside Superbloom on digital events and academic community needs during COVID-19.
- Mozilla Foundation (YouTube Regrets)flagshipCollaboration on YouTube Regrets project to map and analyze YouTube's user control settings, identifying dark patterns and usability issues in recommendation management.
- World Wide Web FoundationflagshipPartnership on Tech Policy Design Lab addressing deceptive design patterns. Facilitated community sessions on risks to 'high risk' content creators and de-platforming.
- InternewscorePartner on Adoptable project creating resources helping open-source teams understand how design processes improve usability and security of open-source tools.
- OkthankscoreCollaborated with Superbloom and Internews on the Adoptable project to create resources for open-source software teams on design and usability.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Simply Secure competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Mozilla Foundation: Major funder and strategic partner of Superbloom (YouTube Regrets, fellowships). Overlaps in mission around trustworthy internet and user agency, but operates at vastly greater scale and as an established incumbent rather than a niche design nonprofit.
- Center for Humane Technology: Larger nonprofit working on the intersection of technology, design, and human well-being. Comparable in mission focus on aligning technology with human values, but operates with a much larger public profile and broader portfolio than Superbloom.
- Access Now: International digital rights nonprofit defending and extending the digital rights of users at risk. Comparable in mission and foundation-funded model but significantly larger and more advocacy-led, with adjacent rather than overlapping services.
- World Wide Web Foundation: Strategic partner on Tech Policy Design Lab addressing deceptive design patterns. Operates in the same digital-rights/responsible-tech space but as a globally recognized foundation rather than a design-and-coaching practice.
- Consumer Reports Digital Lab: Strategic partner on the 'Designing Better Data Futures' project. Operates in the adjacent consumer-protection and digital-privacy space with a much larger organizational footprint than Superbloom.
Direct peers
- The Engine Room: Nonprofit supporting civil society actors to use technology responsibly and effectively. Shares Superbloom's foundation-funded, mission-driven model and its focus on capacity building for digital rights and responsible tech organizations.
- Tactical Tech Collective: International nonprofit designing interventions and resources that help people understand data, privacy, and digital rights. Closely aligned mission and audience with Superbloom, with overlapping practitioner-focused educational outputs and public-interest-tech orientation.
- USABLE: Design and usability initiative supporting security and privacy tool developers with resources and community. Highly comparable to Superbloom in mission (usable security), target audience (open-source privacy/security practitioners), and outputs (toolkits, guides), making it the closest direct peer.
- Ranking Digital Rights: Fiscally sponsored project under Superbloom that ranks the world's most powerful digital platforms on privacy and freedom of expression. Directly comparable in research outputs and ecosystem role, and structurally intertwined as an FSP.
- New Design Congress: Research and design practice examining the political implications of technology. Direct partner on Superbloom's Limits to Digital Consent work, with overlapping methodology and audience in the responsible-tech research community.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Simply Secure social profiles
Digital presenceSimply Secure financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Simply Secure leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles14 records
Simply Secure subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries14 records
Simply Secure funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Simply Secure M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Simply Secure
What does Simply Secure do?
Simply Secure (rebranded as Superbloom) delivers human-centered design coaching, UX guidance, user research support, and workshops to practitioners building privacy-preserving and responsible technology. It complements this service practice with applied research reports, an open Knowledge Base of practical resources, the DTPR open-source framework, and a Fiscal Sponsorship Program that provides legal, financial, and operational infrastructure to independent digital rights initiatives.
Is Simply Secure a public or private company?
Simply Secure is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Simply Secure founded?
Simply Secure was founded in 2014. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Simply Secure based?
Simply Secure is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Simply Secure make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Foundation Grants and Philanthropic Funding is the primary driver. The others are individual Donations and fiscal Sponsorship Fees.
Who are Simply Secure's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Mozilla Foundation, Center for Humane Technology, Access Now, World Wide Web Foundation and Consumer Reports Digital Lab. Direct peers are The Engine Room, Tactical Tech Collective, USABLE, Ranking Digital Rights and New Design Congress.
Does Simply Secure have an API?
No public API is recorded for Simply Secure.
What industry is Simply Secure in?
Simply Secure's product category is Human-Centered Design Consulting and Research for Responsible Technology. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDADAIAI, Privacy Governance & Consent Management, with a secondary code of HDADAFAH, Privacy Management (Consent, DSAR, RoPA). Its NAICS code is 541490 and its SIC code is 7370.