Kyle Linton awoke in the early hours of a 2018 morning to his phone ringing, the caller ID displaying the name of a friend’s father.
“Have you heard from them?” the man on the line said. “I think something happened last night.”
Hours later, Linton’s friend got in touch with him, sharing news that they had been sexually assaulted the night before.
Linton was overwhelmed with anger and sadness after hearing his friend’s experience. So, he decided to channel his energy into something productive. Thus was the beginning of Our Wave, an online space for survivors of sexual assault to share their stories anonymously.
The tech-based nonprofit started in Raleigh, and the 501(c)(3) organization is designed to provide survivors with support and resources. Users who access the website can submit a story through the anonymous forum, where Linton (who is Co-Founder and Executive Director) and his team process and post the submissions within 24 hours. Then, Our Wave will send the survivors custom resources to help them process and heal.
Linton, along with co-founder and CTO Brendan Michaelsen, has built the technology that Our Wave uses to help survivors. Our Wave has collected almost 1,000 stories, and data about different survivor groups is recorded for research.
For example, Our Wave has recently received submissions under the category of child-on-child sexual assault (COCSA). Linton said there is little academic research on this topic, and Our Wave’s research team—led by PhD Laura Sinko, a trained nurse with expertise in mental health and sexual assault—is looking into creating a study to support and educate affected populations.
Says Linton, “We’re really starting to see these little movements build around these specific examples that survivors share with us, that we’re then able to make a wave of change.”
Linton believes that Our Wave has found the non-profit version of product-market-fit.
Last week, Linton reviewed a survivor’s story who had submitted an update to his story from six months prior. Now, the survivor is seeing a trauma therapist, engaging with the resources from Our Wave and supporting other survivors.
“There’s some serious fire, and impact and ability that we’re recognizing,” Linton said. “We’re taking people who have experienced the worst things that have happened to them, and when they’re ready, using that to help other people in a way that I don’t think would be possible otherwise.”
As of January, 60,000 people have used or visited Our Wave, and Linton said they hope to reach 100,000 in 2024.
While online movements, such as the viral #metoo hashtag, have encouraged survivors to share their stories, Linton said not everyone is willing to share so publicly.
“There is a huge population of people that this has happened to where they didn’t feel comfortable talking about it on social media, they didn’t feel like they could share this really heavy thing in front of their friends and family,” he said. “So, we wanted to give those people a place and a voice that’s anonymous.”
The website also recently launched an anonymous Q&A forum, where the research team is able to draw on their data to provide support and advice. For example, a survivor had realized they became a perpetrator of violence, and they reached out to find advice about how to handle the situation and move forward.
“We consider it almost like an educated older sister, to be kind and loving to people when responding to their questions that they have that no one else is answering,” Linton said.
Our Wave partners with several organizations who work with specific communities of survivors, such as Me Too and NO MORE. These organizations pay a monthly subscription to have access to the online forum on their own platforms, and those stories enter the broader database within Our Wave.
In 2024, Linton said he hopes to onboard an additional 10 or 20 partners to reach an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over $100,000.
All employees and volunteers currently work part-time, but Linton—who is currently the VP of Operations at Raleigh-based at software development company Lithios—hopes to offer full-time positions this year. He hopes to go full-time as well.
Over 15 people volunteer with Our Wave, working remotely from India, the United Kingdom and various locations around the United States. Volunteers help with marketing, social media, research and other jobs, each bringing a unique skill set and creating a “beautiful machine,” Linton said.
If you’d like to support Our Wave’s mission of serving survivors of sexual assault, you can donate here.
