Working with students on their ITEC projects brought to mind a client I had a number of years ago. I was the lowest account staff member of a public relations team of about five, and there was a lot of excitement about this new client. They were two genius brothers, one the brains and one the salesman, and they had a novel technology ready to unleash. They specialized in digital signatures. I asked the second lowest person on the team what a digital signature was.
He explained that a digital signature, or at least how our client conceived of one, was an authoritative electronic stamp that could legally and authentically prove that a document was signed on such and such a date, or that a document was reviewed by whichever parties had claimed to have reviewed it. This was in 2001. It was around the same time a Forbes article was being passed around the office, which declared that the worst job one could have during the tech bust was that of a PR account executive for a tech company. This was my job.
Looking the company up now, I can’t find them. I don’t think they remained clients of my firm’s for very long—their funding, along with others, dried up. And I didn’t remain with the firm very long either after the bust—eventually, nearly all of the technology account staff got laid off, except for the people who happen to be working with a walkie-talkie company. Evidently, someone always needs walkie-talkies.
What went wrong with the digital signature company? Were they not unique enough? Were they not marketable? Could they not implement it effectively? After visiting with students and sitting in ITEC classes at AU, I’m asking questions now that I didn’t ask then.
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Pete,
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell without more information, but my guess would be funding problems. Generally, technology companies require a lot of capital. This company had the bad luck of running into a recession when they were probably already struggling to find money.
It's an interesting concept for a technology though. Do you know how it was supposed to work? Did they use fingerprints to prove that the person was who they claimed to be? If this was back in 2001, they were probably about a decade ahead of their time. As far as I know, using fingerprints on a PC is a technology that is still just over the horizon.
Maybe their problem was being too optimistic about how soon they could get their technology to market.
hi
ReplyDeleteIts really informative.It's an interesting concept for a technology though. As far as I know, using fingerprints on a PC is a technology that is still just over the horizon.My guess would be funding problems. Generally, technology companies require a lot of capital. I agree with Jon thompson.
ReplyDeletepdf digital signature