Brennen Byrne started his company with two of his friends from college after thinking about innovative alternatives to usernames and passwords. While attending Pomona College and interning at Adobe, Byrne was able to experiment with a user identification system that utilized cell phones. He realized that this idea could be extremely helpful after witnessing massive information breaches sustained by LinkedIn, Target, and Sony. In this process of innovation, Byrne was able to identify a viable solution to a pertinent problem in everyday society.
Clef allows users to have personal login information on their phones and simply wave their phones in front of any computer to log into it. This system eliminates the need for users to remember their information, and also prevents the need for the storage of usernames and passwords.
Byrne’s journey is inspiring because he originally did not have a personal interest in electronics and computer programming. In college, he almost randomly enrolled in a computer science course, not realizing that the skills he learned there would help him become wildly successful. His story proves that life events that may seem insignificant can make incredible impacts.
This is a neat idea and a good example of someone solving a problem and using that solution for an entrepreneurial venture. He may not have had any interest in that field originally, but he identified a problem and was able to solve it in a unique way.
I like how he was able to find a problem, address the problem, and effectively solve it. To me that is exactly what anyone who calls themselves an entrepreneur should be able to do successfully. Also, I like the way he used his invention but utilizing something everyone seems to have now a days, a cellphone.