What made you want to do the work you do? Please share the full story.
I spent twelve years in the Navy and later moved into an Army officer role, and both taught me how much damage happens when people don’t have accurate information at the moment they need it most.
Trained at the Military Police Academy and then NCIS, I saw firsthand how investigative work inside the military operates under real discipline, chain of custody, verified sourcing, findings that hold up under scrutiny.
When I left that structured environment and looked at the private investigation industry, the gap was obvious. Too many agencies were run by people with no law enforcement or military background, cutting corners on methods that would never survive a courtroom.
I built Privin Network in 2020 to close that gap, hiring investigators with real intelligence and law enforcement training and holding every case to a standard where the evidence can actually be used. That decision came from watching too many people get bad information from unqualified investigators when their marriage, their business, or their safety was on the line.
How is AI changing your business? What changes are you making to adapt?
Digital forensics tools now flag inconsistencies in metadata faster than manual review, so we’ve built AI-assisted triage into the first pass of any case involving digital evidence, which cuts initial review time significantly without replacing the human verification step that makes evidence court-admissible.
Open source intelligence gathering has exploded in volume because AI tools can now scan far more public records, social media, and data broker sites than a single investigator could manually, so we’ve had to add stricter internal protocols for confirming what these tools surface before it goes into a report.
Deepfake and synthetic media detection has become a real line item in cybercrime and defamation cases, so our team has added specific certification in AI-generated content analysis, since a client’s defamation case now sometimes hinges on proving whether a photo or recording is real.
Scammers and fraudsters are using AI to generate more convincing fake identities and documents, which means our background check and asset search methodology has to assume documents may be synthetic and cross-verify through multiple independent sources rather than trusting a single record.
Client intake and case scoping now uses AI-assisted research to build a faster initial picture of a case before the first consultation, which lets us give people a more accurate cost and timeline estimate upfront instead of a vague range.
We’ve had to train every investigator on the network in basic AI literacy, not to use it as a shortcut for fieldwork, but so they understand how AI-generated evidence can be planted, faked, or misread, which protects the integrity of every case we take on.
What are the 3 things you like best about your work and why?
The first is the moment a client finally has clarity after months of not knowing. Whether it’s a hidden asset case or a missing person search, people come to us stuck, and there’s nothing like watching someone get the actual answer instead of a guess.
The second is the technical side of the work itself, digital forensics and cybercrime investigation change constantly, and I like that this job never lets me get complacent with old methods.
The third is running a team built on people who came from real law enforcement and military backgrounds, because I get to hold the industry to a higher standard than the one I found when I started.
What are your greatest 3 skills and how have they helped you succeed?
The first is discipline around process, something the Military Police Academy and NCIS training drilled into me early, and it means every case follows a chain of custody that holds up if it ever reaches a courtroom.
The second is adaptability, since intelligence work in the military never looks the same twice, and that same flexibility lets me shift between a corporate fraud case and a family law matter without losing accuracy.
The third is technical fluency in digital forensics and cybercrime investigation, a skill set I built through direct certification rather than picking it up casually, and it’s become essential as more evidence lives on phones and servers instead of in physical records.
These three skills together are why Privin Network can take cases across 150 countries and still promise court-admissible results. Without process, adaptability, and technical depth working together, the agency wouldn’t be able to serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to private individuals with the same standard.
Tell us about a time you were dead wrong about something.
Early on I assumed that a strong military and law enforcement background alone would translate directly into running a successful private investigation agency, and I was wrong. The investigative skills transferred fine, but I underestimated how much of running Privin Network would be business operations, client communication, and building trust with people who had no framework for evaluating an investigator’s credibility.
I handled it by treating the business side with the same discipline I’d applied to fieldwork, building actual systems for client intake, case management, and communication instead of assuming good investigative instincts would carry the company on their own.
What I learned is that expertise in the work and expertise in running the business that delivers the work are two different skill sets, and neither one substitutes for the other. That lesson shaped how I built out the team at Privin, hiring people who could cover both sides rather than assuming military credentials alone would be enough.
What is the biggest challenge you face each day and how do you handle it?
The biggest challenge is separating what a client wants to be true from what the evidence actually shows. People come to Privin Network already convinced of an outcome, a cheating spouse, a partner hiding money, a person who wronged them, and they want confirmation, not investigation.
I handle it by being direct from the first consultation that our job is to follow the facts wherever they lead, even when that means telling a client their suspicion doesn’t hold up. That conversation is uncomfortable more often than people expect, but it protects the integrity of every report we produce.
Holding that line every day is harder than any technical part of the work, because it means disappointing people who are already in a difficult moment in their lives.
What do you value most and why?
I value integrity above every other trait, both in myself and in the investigators I bring onto the network. It’s the reason I started Privin Network in 2020 in the first place, because I saw too many agencies run by people without real law enforcement or military training, cutting corners on methods that would never hold up if a case went to court.
Integrity in this line of work isn’t abstract, it shows up in whether an investigator documents chain of custody correctly, whether they report an inconvenient finding honestly, and whether they resist the pressure to tell a client what they want to hear. I learned the weight of that standard during my years in the Navy and later as an Army officer, where sloppy work has consequences far beyond a bad review.
That standard is non-negotiable for anyone who works under the Privin name.
What achievement are you the proudest of and why?
I value integrity above every other trait, both in myself and in the investigators I bring onto the network. It’s the reason I started Privin Network in 2020 in the first place, because I saw too many agencies run by people without real law enforcement or military training, cutting corners on methods that would never hold up if a case went to court.
Integrity in this line of work isn’t abstract, it shows up in whether an investigator documents chain of custody correctly, whether they report an inconvenient finding honestly, and whether they resist the pressure to tell a client what they want to hear. I learned the weight of that standard during my years in the Navy and later as an Army officer, where sloppy work has consequences far beyond a bad review.
That standard is non-negotiable for anyone who works under the Privin name.
What is your favorite book and why?
“Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin is the book I come back to most, and it’s not close. The core idea, that a leader owns every failure on the team without exception, matches exactly what I learned in the military and what I try to instill at Privin Network.
It’s easy to blame a bad outcome on a client’s unrealistic expectations or an investigator who missed something, but that mindset erodes standards fast. Reading it again a few years after leaving the Navy reframed how I ran the agency, especially in how I hold the team accountable when a case doesn’t go the way anyone hoped.
That single principle, ownership without excuses, shows up in how Privin operates every day.
What advice would you give to your younger self and why?
I would tell my younger self that technical skill alone doesn’t build a company, and that the discipline I learned in the Military Police Academy and NCIS training was only half the equation. When I started Privin Network in 2020, I underestimated how much time would go into client communication, case management systems, and simply running a business rather than doing investigative work itself.
That gap cost me time early on that better preparation could have saved. I’d tell my younger self to study business operations with the same seriousness I applied to investigative training, because the two skill sets have to work together for either one to matter.
Nobody tells you that founding a company means becoming good at things that have nothing to do with your actual expertise.
Who has been your biggest mentor in life (personal or professional) and how have they helped you?
My biggest mentor was a commanding officer I served under during my time in the Navy, someone who ran his unit with a standard of accountability I hadn’t encountered before. He had a habit of asking one question after every mission, whether the outcome mattered more than how it was achieved, and that question stuck with me long after I left his command.
He wasn’t interested in shortcuts, even when they would have made a job easier or faster. Watching him hold that line under real pressure taught me more about leadership than any classroom training did, and it’s the standard I’ve tried to build into Privin Network since day one.
Every investigator on the network hears some version of that same question now, whether the outcome matters more than how it was reached.
Just for fun, what is your favorite food?
Steak, cooked simple, is my answer every time. There’s nothing complicated about it, and after years of a job that requires overanalyzing every detail of a case, I like that a good steak doesn’t need much thought beyond getting the temperature right.
It’s become something of a ritual after closing a difficult case, a way to mark the end of something without needing to talk about the work itself. Simple, reliable, no surprises, which is honestly the opposite of most of my workday.