# Scott McKinley

> Scott McKinley is the founder and CEO of Truthset, an Oakland-based data validation company that scores the accuracy of consumer data used across advertising and marketing. A former captain of the 1988 US Olympic Road Cycling Team who walked away from the sport as doping spread, he spent roughly two decades in ad tech and martech - including a stretch as an EVP at Nielsen and CEO of IDify - before starting Truthset in 2019 to bring transparency and accountability to an industry he felt was full of unchecked claims about data.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Truthset
- **Organizations:** Truthset, IDify, Nielsen
- **From:** Seattle, Washington, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Captain of the 1988 US Olympic Road Cycling Team in Seoul, 8th place, 1986 World Junior Road Race Championship, Stage wins at Etoile de Besseges and Westfalen Rundfahrt (1990)

## Career timeline

- **1986** — Finished 8th in the World Junior Road Race Championship
- **1988** — Captained the US Olympic Road Cycling Team at the Seoul Summer Olympics
- **1988-1996** — Raced professionally for teams including 7-Eleven-Hoonved, Motorola, Spago, Coors Light-Serotta, and Saturn
- **1990** — Won Stage 1 at Etoile de Besseges and Stage 1 at Westfalen Rundfahrt
- **1993** — Placed 2nd at both the U.S. National Criterium and Road Race Championships
- **Late 1990s** — Worked as a website manager for Cox-owned TV stations
- **2000s** — Co-founded and ran several measurement, software, and analytics companies
- **2010-2017** — Executive Vice President at Nielsen, leading product innovation in person-level data, identity management, and M&A
- **2017-2019** — CEO of IDify, an identity data firm
- **2019** — Founded Truthset, an independent data validation company
- **2021** — Truthset won the I-COM Data Startup Challenge
- **2024** — Raised a $5M Series A (Oct 2024), bringing total funding to about $9.75M

## Achievements

- Captain of the 1988 US Olympic Road Cycling Team in Seoul
- 8th place, 1986 World Junior Road Race Championship
- Stage wins at Etoile de Besseges and Westfalen Rundfahrt (1990)
- 2nd place at both U.S. National Criterium and Road Race Championships (1993)
- EVP of product innovation at Nielsen
- Founded Truthset, described as one of the first independent data quality services in ad tech
- Led Truthset to win the I-COM Data Startup Challenge (2021)
- Raised roughly $9.75M in total venture funding for Truthset

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Appeared on the 'Big Brains' series with Evan Shapiro at Cannes Lions, discussing device IDs, phantom profiles, and flawed identity graphs.
- **2024-10** — Truthset closed a $5M Series A round, bringing total funding to roughly $9.75M.

## Links

- Website: https://truthset.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmmckinley
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/scottmmckinley
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/TruthsetData

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/scott-mckinley
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-29