Lisa Manns
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
The Founder's Story
A Mother. An Educator.
30+ Years With Children.
Lisa Manns has spent more than three decades working with children — as a mother raising six of her own, as an Early Childhood educator and curriculum developer, and as the founder of Kids' Camp in Orlando. She didn't come to child safety through a market report. She came to it through thirty years of knowing exactly how children think, how they trust, and how they can be harmed when the adults responsible for their environment aren't paying attention.
In 2019, she tried to build a safe social network for her kids. The infrastructure to make it safe didn't exist. So she built it. AuthentiKid is what she had to build before the social network could exist.
Where It Started
"I wanted to build a social network for kids. I had six of them — extremely tech-savvy, social kids who were 8 to 24 years old in 2019. I knew what the internet was doing to children who weren't protected. The idea wasn't the problem. The problem was that I couldn't know — with any certainty — that the other users were actually kids."
— Lisa Manns, Founder & CEO, AuthentiKid
Before the Tech, There Were the Kids
30+ Years Dedicated to Children.
At home raising six children. In business running Kids' Camp Orlando. In the classroom developing curriculum for toddlers through age 12. Lisa's understanding of children isn't academic — it's lived.
Early Childhood Educator
Curriculum development for toddlers through age 12. Before and afterschool programming. A career built on understanding how children develop, how they process the world, and what they need to thrive in it.
Kids' Camp Orlando
Adventure guides — not babysitters — who arrived at hotel rooms with duffel bags full of games and toys. Excursions to Universal CityWalk, Sea World, Walt Disney World, and Universal Studios. Because kids deserve real adventures, not just supervision.
Curriculum Architect
Designed learning experiences from the ground up — knowing that the best curriculum meets children where they are, not where adults assume they should be. That same principle drives every AuthentiKid product decision.
Mother of Six
Six children. Eight grandchildren — ages 4 to 12. The exact age range AuthentiKid was built to protect. Every product decision is personal.
Orange County Sheriff's Department · Orlando, 1999–2002
It takes a predator seven minutes to move a child from the center of a theme park to their vehicle. The one thing they don't change is the child's shoes.
Lisa attended predator education seminars while running Kids' Camp in Orlando. Online, the equivalent of the shoes is age. You can change everything else. You cannot change that. If the platform verifies age at the infrastructure level, the disguise fails before the first message is sent.
The Person Behind the Platform
Lisa was adopted at birth and raised by a father who was her biggest role model and her fiercest protector. In 1972, with $500 and a telephone, he started his own company — no safety net, no roadmap, no guarantee. He built it into a multimillion-dollar business. When a close friend was about to drop out of college because he could no longer afford it, her father quietly offered to pay. When Lisa was nine, he suffered a massive stroke and had to learn to walk and talk all over again. He did. Lisa comes from a long line of people who do not quit.
That urgency was sharpened further by something personal. Lisa is a two-time cancer survivor. Facing your own mortality — twice — changes how you spend your time and what you decide is worth fighting for. It clarifies the question every founder eventually has to answer: if not me, then who? And if not now, then when?
"I will not put anyone else's child anywhere, or with anyone, that I would not put my own child or grandchild. If I trust them with my family, I believe anyone can. That is why I make sure my foundation, my walls, my roof is rock solid — to empower and protect the leaders of tomorrow."
— Lisa Manns, Founder & CEO, AuthentiKid
Listen
Podcast & Media Appearances
Lisa on child safety, digital protection, and building AuthentiKid.
What People Are Saying
Voices of Support
It is clear that Lisa's dedication comes from a place of profound purpose. To witness that kind of tireless commitment — especially when it is forged in the wake of such a devastating personal loss — is incredibly moving. The work she is doing to protect the next generation from the complexities of fraud and AI-driven exploitation is not just timely; it is essential.
In a world that often moves faster than our ability to regulate it, having someone with her heart and history standing as a shield for young people is a powerful tribute to the child your family lost.
Belinda G.
Supporter
Algorithms don't care how old a user is and so they will target anyone who interacts with any content online. You could be 99 or 9 looking for information about cartoons; within a few clicks on different links, you could quickly go from Bugs Bunny to something wildly different and inappropriate for your child. Worse still, your child could be on an age-appropriate site and chatting with other kids; but, how would you know they're actually kids? That's where AuthentiKid's Digital Village steps in.
David M.
Supporter
They don't see a line between IRL and online. Neither do we.
Their IRL footsteps and their digital footprints deserve the same protection.