Danny Done, the founder of Gobekli Inc., has a story deeply rooted in innovation and determination. Growing up as a dyslexic homeschooler, Danny was profoundly influenced by his father, a veteran of Apple during the 80s, and the visionary words of Steve Jobs “here’s to the crazy ones”. These early experiences ignited Danny’s entrepreneurial spirit and set him on a unique educational path.

At a young age, Danny decided to graduate high school early to gain real-world experience. His mother supported his ambition but set a challenging condition: Danny had to navigate the state department of education’s requirements, understand the necessary documentation, and submit comprehensive evidence of his homeschooling. Rising to the challenge, Danny successfully self-reported his education and graduated by the age of 15. His innovative approach to self-reporting his education eventually became a template used by thousands of homeschoolers to achieve early graduation.

At 15, Danny enrolled in Bellevue Community College. During his time there, he not only excelled academically but also became a significant figure in student leadership. He served as Chief Justice of the student body, then as student body president, a student member of the board of trustees, a member of the tenure review committee, and a legislative liaison during a crucial accreditation year and a civil rights crisis. This intensive involvement provided Danny with a first hand understanding of the higher education system and the processes involved in educational and governmental interactions.

Danny’s academic journey continued with a focus on the comparative history of ideas, where he studied the evolution of major cultures through the Enlightenment to the post-modern world. His thesis on “Techno-Human Feedback Loops” examined the interplay between humans and their technological creations, coinciding with the release of the first iPhone in 2008.

Danny’s entrepreneurial journey began with the founding of a digital marketing agency aimed at helping small and mid-sized businesses transition from traditional to digital and mobile marketing. This agency allowed businesses to subscribe to marketing packages, essentially providing them with an outsourced marketing team. This venture not only honed Danny’s business acumen but also laid the groundwork for his future endeavors in educational and employment technology.

During his tenure at the helm of a top-ranking digital marketing agency, Danny Done spearheaded a groundbreaking initiative known as Project Gobekli. Under Danny’s leadership, the agency achieved global recognition, consistently ranking number one for its innovative marketing packages. The key to this success lay in the unique structure of hybrid decentralized teams of aligned professionals, each strategically contributing to client goals under the guidance of an in-house account manager.

Danny’s vision for Project Gobekli was ambitious: to create a talent inventory management system that could seamlessly assemble teams based on individual skills and expertise. This system aimed to simplify the process of building effective teams by leveraging detailed talent profiles. The goal was to ensure that every team member’s capabilities were fully aligned with the project’s needs, thereby maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.

However, despite its initial success, Project Gobekli faced significant challenges. The existing technology at the time had notable limitations, particularly in the areas of data verification and the ability to measure and compare talent effectively. These constraints meant that while the system could manage a few hundred teams, it struggled to scale further without relying heavily on assumptions and manual oversight.

Recognizing these limitations, Danny made a pivotal decision. He sold the marketing agency to focus entirely on refining the ideas behind Project Gobekli. His mission was clear: to develop a more robust solution that would enable organizations to accurately see, understand, and nurture the talent of their individuals. Danny’s experiences with the agency highlighted the critical need for a system that could provide verifiable, comprehensive insights into employee capabilities, fostering growth and development on a much larger scale.

This realization marked the genesis of Gobekli Inc. Danny’s commitment to overcoming the obstacles he faced with Project Gobekli laid the foundation for the innovative Learning and Employment Record (LER) solutions that Gobekli Inc. would go on to develop, revolutionizing how organizations manage and grow their talent.

After selling his marketing agency, Danny Done took a bold step towards realizing the vision of Gobekli. He retained the rights to Project Gobekli and decided to take a sabbatical, selling everything he owned and leaving Seattle. Danny embarked on a journey across the United States, exploring the country’s national parks and meeting with business owners, investors, and anyone willing to discuss his idea.

From Silicon Valley to Miami, Danny reached out to potential stakeholders before arriving in each city. He set up meetings to gather feedback and refine his concept. By March 2020, Danny circled back to Austin for South by Southwest, hoping to further discuss his ideas. Although the event was canceled due to the COVID outbreak Danny had already garnered substantial feedback. The consensus was clear: he needed to build a Universal Talent Passport.

This Universal Talent Passport would allow individuals to carry their entire work and education record in their pocket, in a quantifiable and verifiable way. It would enable users to filter and share their information as needed, opening up numerous opportunities throughout their lives. With this solidified vision, Danny incorporated Gobekli Inc. and began exploring the best technical means to achieve this goal.

Over the next nine months, Danny worked closely with potential IT partners and investors to explore the feasibility of the project. The conclusion was that such an application could not be built using traditional Web 2.0 technology due to ethical, practical, and legal concerns. It was too risky for organizations to host and manage all that personal data. Instead, the solution lay in building on a Web3 foundation, utilizing self-sovereign identity and data principles.

In search of the right environment to build Gobekli, Danny moved to Boston, recognizing the city’s rich ecosystem for innovation and technology. This led him to explore programs at MIT that could support his vision. During this time, he discovered the MIT Solid project by Tim Berners-Lee and the MIT Digital Credential Consortium. It was here that Danny met Kayode Ezike, who would become his co-founder. Together, they embarked on the journey to bring Gobekli to life, leveraging cutting-edge technology to create a transformative solution for managing and sharing talent data.

In June 2021, Danny Done and Kayode Ezike officially partnered to bring Gobekli Inc. to the forefront of the emerging Learning and Employment Record (LER) ecosystem. Kayode, who had already made significant contributions to the verifiable credential space, joined Gobekli with a wealth of experience and expertise. As a graduate of MIT with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Engineering, Kayode had been instrumental in connecting verifiable credentials to Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid human-distributed data project. This work essentially created the mailbox for the self-sovereign house of data that Sir Tim envisioned, forming the core engine of the Universal Talent Passport.

Danny and Kayode recognized that while their vision for the Universal Talent Passport very attainable, it still required key advancements in verifiable credential and wallet technology, which were rapidly emerging. As they began their partnership, they focused on integrating Gobekli into the broader LER ecosystem.

Danny actively participated in several LER committee meetings, including those of the IEEE, US Chamber Foundation, Education Design Lab, and Jobs for the Future. Meanwhile, Kayode continued his involvement with the MIT Digital Credential Consortium and the VCEdu group, which set the standards and developed the open-source technology needed for verifiable credentials.

Under the banner of Gobekli, Kayode built the foundations of the Universal Talent Passport. He played a pivotal role in three plugfests for Jobs for the Future, which promoted wallet interoperability. During this time, the team identified several technical and human-centered challenges that needed to be addressed. In response, they developed innovative methods for skill tagging that create meaningful data visualizations and semantic interoperability for machines, known as STAMP (Standardized Talent Asset Mapping Protocol).

They also created structured ways of organizing LERs to provide a comprehensive snapshot of a person that can be compared against competency standards derived from job descriptions. These innovations, termed VISA (Variable Individual Self Analytics) and PASS (Personnel Archetype Specification Standards), were crucial in making LER technologies useful, scalable, and practical for organizations and individuals.

To build the Universal Talent Passport, Gobekli needed to contribute directly to the creation of the LER ecosystem both technically and from a thought leadership and networking perspective. Danny and Kayode’s efforts helped foster interest and vision, making this new layer of the internet and the ability for self-presentation and individual empowerment possible for the first time in human history.

While Kayode led the technical development at Gobekli Inc., Danny spearheaded the charge in building relationships with leaders in work and education, as well as their technology suppliers. Over the past four years, Danny has conducted over 500 industry interviews with key stakeholders in these sectors. These interactions have been instrumental in designing the Passport Pages in TalentPass, articulating potential solutions through LERs, and gathering feedback on the best ways to design programs that organizations can adopt and customize to meet their needs.

Through these interviews and collaborations, Gobekli has refined its offerings, ensuring they are aligned with the needs and expectations of industry leaders. Danny and the team have engaged with various state workforce and education agencies, recognizing the increasing importance of LER registries in these discussions. Gobekli has partnered with key organizations such as Velocity Network, 1EdTech, and Credential Engine. They also maintain key contacts at SHRM, Strada, and other influential bodies, all of which have significantly impacted the design and functionality of Gobekli’s products.

The design of Gobekli’s products and services is the result of four years of partnership development with leaders in work, education, and their technology providers. These partnerships, combined with the technical innovations led by Kayode, have enabled Gobekli to contribute to the development of LER standards and technologies effectively.

Gobekli’s involvement in the LER community has been profound. By participating in conversations and collaborating with various organizations contributing to the standards, Danny and Kayode have ensured that Gobekli’s solutions are not only innovative but also practical and scalable. The feedback and insights gathered from these interactions have been pivotal in shaping Gobekli’s approach to creating a robust and user-friendly Universal Talent Passport.

Gobekli’s commitment to aligning with industry leaders and their technology suppliers underscores its dedication to creating solutions that empower individuals and organizations alike. This alignment ensures that Gobekli’s products are well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of the workforce and education sectors, driving forward the vision of a more interconnected and empowered future.

Because of Gobekli’s stated vision and contributions to the Learning and Employment Record (LER) ecosystem, the US Chamber of Commerce and Education Design Lab invited Gobekli in 2023 to prototype and test the Universal Talent Passport. This significant opportunity led to collaborations with the University of Phoenix and the City of Boston in the spring of 2023. The findings from these initial tests were presented at the US Chamber of Commerce Mid-Year Meeting in July 2023.

Over the next six months, Gobekli continued to work closely with focus group volunteers, gathering crucial feedback on their needs, use cases, design preferences, and the overall value of the Universal Talent Passport. This iterative process helped refine the product to ensure it was ready for mass adoption within today’s employment ecosystem.

The insights gained from these focus groups directly influenced the current design of TalentPass profiles. These profiles are now filterable and shareable, allowing users to showcase their skills for specific opportunities effectively. Key features like the Talent Tree, Pythia (an AI assistant), and Passport Pages have been fine-tuned to meet the practical needs of individuals and organizations alike.

Gobekli’s overarching goal is to create a universally accessible tool that individuals can use at any stage of their lives. By enabling people to articulate their skills in a meaningful way, TalentPass aims to provide tangible benefits to both individuals and their organizations. In a human-centered ecosystem, it is essential that the experience delivers enough value to drive widespread adoption.

Gobekli aspires to achieve for the LER ecosystem what the World Wide Web and human browser experience did for the internet: open it up for widespread use and adoption. A greater user experience that integrates seamlessly into daily life is essential to making the LER ecosystem truly powerful and meaningful. Gobekli aims to catalyze this mass adoption, driving systemic change at a pace that meets the needs of both people and organizations.

By focusing on user experience and delivering real value, Gobekli is positioned to accelerate the adoption of the LER ecosystem, ensuring it becomes an integral part of how individuals manage and present their skills and achievements throughout their lives.

Gobekli Inc. has now developed the beta version of the Universal Talent Passport and is ready for extensive testing this year. This phase aligns with the US Chamber of Commerce’s Experience You Project Round 2, which invites us to field test our innovation with key partners over the next year. Our goal is to engage in various field tests with partners in education, the workforce, state agencies, and directly with individuals to assess the adoption, retention, and sharing rates of TalentPass.

To achieve this, we will collaborate with partners in education and employment, state agencies, and individual users to refine and perfect TalentPass. We aim to gather feedback from third-party organizations to observe, provide feedback on, and measure our results. Additionally, we will engage a group of individuals directly through TikTok to understand current needs and conversations, building a beta tester list for simultaneous engagement.

From working with our partners, we intend to develop a beta software dashboard that allows organizations to connect their existing software and issue Passport Pages. This integration will enable the exchange of data to power various services, making TalentPass a versatile tool for both organizations and individuals.

Our target is to engage approximately 20,000 users, both independently and through partners, over the next 12 months. The insights gained from this extensive testing phase will culminate in a comprehensive report to the US Chamber of Commerce in 2025, marking our official public launch of the Universal Talent Passport.

In the meantime, we are raising a pre-seed investment round to support our efforts. Post-launch, our vision is to bring software and Passport integrations to every company, school, and state worldwide. Our mission is to enable individuals to speak the language of skills, achieve their unique potential, and thrive in collaboration with the organizations in their lives.

Gobekli aims to create a future where the Universal Talent Passport is a fundamental tool for personal and professional development. By empowering individuals to manage and showcase their skills, we strive to foster a more interconnected and empowered global community.