A Kansas City-built digital identity platform is launching streamlining technology to tackle what its founders see as a fundamental flaw of the world wide web: it was optimized for clicks, but never designed for the humans who use it.
Aaron Sloup, right, shares details of the &tag with attendees of a launch party for The & Company; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
“Identity was left out of the Internet,” said Aaron Sloup, co-founder of The & Company, alongside Dan Carroll. “Its architects considered servers and IP addresses and all these other aspects, but they didn’t design for people.”
The startup’s solution: “Let people be in control of their identity and their data, so the tool acts on behalf of them, no matter where they go,” he said.
The & Company’s people-first digital identity platform allows individuals to name, own and share what brings them joy. Rather than handing over data to algorithms built to capture attention, users claim a universal handle, or “&tag” that they control.
How it works: Each &tag becomes a living reflection of someone’s interests and communities. As participation increases, the platform reveals shared ground, showing where culture overlaps and connection begins.
That mission has guided the founders from the start, they said.
“It’s a platform that bends technology toward people,” Carroll said, rather than merely using users as a means to an end for data collection.
A crowd of Kansas Citians networks during The & Company’s launch event at Keystone Innovation District; courtesy photo
A first look at the platform
Carroll and Sloup unveiled the concept publicly during a Feb. 20 launch party at Keystone Innovation District.
Guests logged in, activated their &tags and added to a physical board, collectively mapping what brings joy to Kansas City. By the end of the evening, the installation had grown into what Carroll described as a “living portrait” of the city.
Reflecting on the journey to that moment, he acknowledged both the difficulty and the fulfillment of building something new.
“A lot of you guys in this room know that being an entrepreneur can be a lonely game, but this one has been an absolute joy,” Carroll said. “Aaron and I have together been focused on what technology for people would look like. We knew from the beginning it was going to be about empowering people and helping people find commonality.”
He also underscored the importance of the early adopters in the room — locals who get a glimpse at the technology before it’s set to debut more broadly in March during SXSW in Austin, Texas.
“You’re the ones who are moving Kansas City’s culture forward,” Carroll told the crowd. “This is the first group of people to get an &tag in the world. Tonight, we’re building the first living portrait of what brings joy to this city. If this room could do that in a single night, can you just imagine what the world will build with it?”
Attendees of The & Company’s launch party for the &tag chat near a collective installation at Keystone Innovation District; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Rewiring the internet for joy
The event doubled as a critique of today’s digital ecosystem, Sloup said, pointing to the incentives that shape most platforms and the ripple effects that follow.
Aaron Sloup, right, speaks alongside co-founder Dan Carroll during a launch party for The & Company; courtesy photo
“The world is wired to steal our attention right now, and it’s causing a lot of problems,” he said. “Together, people are going to rewire the world for joy. It starts right here with one small act of naming what brings joy in Kansas City.”
In the coming weeks, the platform will expand beyond Kansas City, enabling users to carry their &tag into other digital tools and eventually into offline interactions. The long-term goal is to build an identity layer that travels with the individual rather than remaining siloed inside separate platforms.
The concept has been years in the making, the founders said, noting they’ve been waiting for the right cultural moment. As conversations stretched late into the evening at Keystone, Sloup framed the launch as the beginning of a broader shift driven by intention instead of impulse.
“What companies chose to steal our attention was a conscious choice,” said Sloup, “but tonight, we’re making a different choice, and when all of us start to do that at scale, it just might move the world toward joy.”
