Brennen Byrne is the CEO and co founder of Clef. At the age of 24, he is on Forbes 12 most impressive young entrepreneurs list. Clef is Clef is a replacement for usernames and passwords. It recognize people by their phone instead of anything they need to remember or type. Walk up to any computer in the world, wave your phone, and you’re instantly logged in. They use the phone to do cryptography that makes logging in safer and easier. Essentially Brennen saw when LinkedIn had at the time the largest breach in history that there was a need for better online security. He and 2 college friends decided to try and make a difference to provide better security for everyone and make it easy. His company is currently booming out of Oakland California. What inspires me about this man, is that he on a whim, took 1 college course that essentially changed the rest of his life. He took a computer science class for a sense of what that actually entailed, and ended up liking it so much that he had the idea for Clef. What is inspiring in my eyes that it takes 1 thing to happen or 1 class in your life that really makes you ponder how you can make a difference and this is exactly what Brennen did.
You are so right Christian. It’s amazing that just one class made such a difference in his life. Usually, when an entrepreneur comes up with a good idea, it was formed by several small ideas coming together. In my experience, there is usually at least four separate ideas and then I’m able to connect the dots and make it into a big idea. For Brennan it only took two seemingly unrelated things to create Clef. Takes quite a unique mind.
It is cool to see that someone can be motivated by taking one college course. Programming skills are one of the most valuable skills to have. If you have a good idea, programming skills can help you develop your idea and reach the entire world through the web.
This is a neat story. I like the idea that your life can be changed by something as small as one college course. It involves a type of luck as well.