The new email platform is called ProtonMail. The services five founders met while working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, and bonded over a shared desire to build a secure email service.

ProtonMail is end-to-end encrypted email that is based offshore in Switzerland, where the team could operate free of surveillance mandates. Although "encryption is not necessarily a new technology," according to Yen, "only one to two percent of the population knows how to do it." ProtonMail handles the entire process without forcing users to install any software, and promises NSA-proof correspondence.

"Say you're an activist in China fighting for democracy, this is a life or death service."
"Even we don't have the ability to read that email," Yen asserted. "If we can't read it, we obviously can't turn it over to any government agencies."