In an interview with Insights Success Mark Kay, CEO of StrikeForce shares insights about his entrepreneurial voyage. He has served with various roles including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer and Global Technology Auditor during his tenure, mostly relating to the Investment, Technology, Audit and Securities divisions of JP Morgan.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Mark and Insights Success:
How do you diversify your solutions that appeal to your target audience?
StrikeForce sells ProtectID® (out-of-band Authentication solution), GuardedID® (keystroke encryption solution) and MobileTrust® (IOS and Android keystroke solution). These products are sold via retail and enterprise markets and together are necessary solutions in preventing hackers from stealing your key information. We sell them through various means, channel, consultants, direct, through major resellers, all which are working.
Describe some of the vital attributes that every CEO should possess.
That is a great question. The vital attributes a CEO must have include some basic ones, but mostly selling ALL the time. No matter who I am talking to, I am always selling and feel like I am always working, since a CEO’s job really never stops. Some of the other attributes are orchestrating all to accomplish our biggest sales that meet our clients’ expectations. We added a lot of support and maintenance, and even when it all works, we still have to be very polite to all the customers and learn a lot from them. Our products, even though they are excellent, we need to explain them to the customers that need to understand the importance and criticalness of our products and how much the market is hurting them and stealing from them, even if they don’t see it. We can’t take anything for granted.
What were the past experiences, achievements or lessons that shaped your journey?
We went through many years with our ProtectID product and had to deal with the cell phone as one way to offer the product. The early years (2001-2008) were very difficult for the cell phone, where now it is a given when one says phone. We stuck with the phone and thank God we did. Now and only now, Out-of-Band Authentication is very real and is just about required, which has a lot of competition, however our 3 patents have helped us greatly and provided us a major capability that shaped our Company. We also had the same thing happen with our GuardedID keystroke encryption capability that now is a major focus by hackers in the network and when we started, was barely an issue in the early 2006’s. Hopefully, now that we are involved in the blockchain, it isn’t too early and we should do quite well, or at least expect to related to leveraging these products.
What were some of the primal challenges and roadblocks that you faced during the initial phase of your journey?
During the primal days, roadblocks we faced were the cell phones, as part of the solution, as well as keystroke encryption that wasn’t that much needed, but are now heavily leveraged. Then as the problems grew and the hacking by keylogging and cell phones increased greatly, our solutions became very strong and definitely patent worthy.
Where does StrikeForce Technologies sees itself in the near future and how will you catalyze the change?
We see StrikeForce having products that will deal in the millions with many very large companies (sooner than later) and soon selling our products and making large amounts as we own the patents and will soon have the major clients. GuardedID and MobileTrust are already selling its products next year (contractually) for $9million, at least for the enterprise, and StrikeForce will continue selling them to the retail markets. Meanwhile, StrikeForce will continue to look to sell our ProtectID Authentication to the right company for a fair and high price in the near future.
What is your advice for the emerging entrepreneurs?
If what you want to accomplish seems too hard, then that is what you want to focus on, especially if you feel strong about it. If it is too easy then it is probably wrong.
About the Leader:
Mark Kay is the CEO of StrikeForce Technologies, Inc., a public Company on the OTCQB Markets that has developed proprietary software that “Specializes in Preventing Cyber Security Theft.” This is a growing problem for every company and person across the globe. Prior to StrikeForce, Mark worked at JPMorganChase & Co., where, for the majority of his 26 year employment, he was a Managing Director. During his tenure Mr. Kay globally led various strategic and corporate business groups. His business concentrations were Securities (Fixed Income and Equities), Proprietary Trading & Treasury, Global Custody Services, Audit, Cash Management (including Money Transfer and Demand Deposit), Corporate Business Services and Web Services. Prior to JPMC, Mark was a Systems Engineer at Electronic Data Services (EDS) for over five years, where he developed his technical and people skills. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from City University of New York.