Rotary Club of Warren County: Nancie Williams and the Shred/Cube

Nancie Williams presented to the Rotary Club of Warren County explaining how she had taken an original idea and carried it through for many years, in spite of one road-block after another, until it was finally realized. The final product will be available on March 1.

In 2005, as she was starting out in her law practice, she realized that there were very few ways to eliminate confidential materials from a computer. As she said, you could download software to eliminate social security numbers, medical records and other private materials from client files and other cases that she had worked on, but this was not a satisfactory solution, since this enabled outside operatives an access to your computer and the other files that you were working on. She came up with the idea of a device that would shred this material once and for all, with no footprint, and no outside access to your computer. She was repeated told that this was impractical, it wouldn’t work, and besides, there were already programs available to do that.

Nancie persevered, and joined forces with Alex Stieb, an engineer who told her that her idea could work, and it could be developed. But this was not to be an overnight project–it would take many years to come to fruition. She then talked about design problems with the proposed item, including applying for a patent, information within the packaging (which her 81-year-old father reviewed for clarity), manufacturing problems, website development, graphics, software certification, e-commerce, and marketing problems.

As Nancie said, it was like building a house: you had to design the cube itself, a logo, software, user interface (what you see on the screen), the box, the foam inside the box, the back of the box, a website and e-commerce. Among the bumps in the road included getting the lighting right, software certification, UPC label, security of the software and hardware, payment methods like Apple pay, Corona Virus, the shape, Version 2 preparation, a software company search, terminology of the field, and balancing job, life, and home. But she was undaunted, and as she pointed out, there are 241 million computers in the US, and many people with records, bank statements, credit card information that can be eliminated. The patent for the device is pending, and once the patent is granted in the United States, then they can apply for patents worldwide.

The device that they developed was a revolutionary concept. It plugs into your computer and it eliminates unwanted files, files that were private or privileged. It does this two ways: First, there is the regular shredding process, where the files would be destroyed as if they had been shredded; and Second, there is the burning process, where the files are completely destroyed, as if you had put them in a container and burned them. When the device is removed from your computer, there is no evidence that it had ever been attached.

This device has a great appeal to many possible users. For example, doctors and medical centers who wish to be rid of old files with patient information, including social security numbers and medical records, can now use this device to eliminate these items. In the past, they had been able to shred paper records, but the computer records presented a major problem, since they could be accesses in many ways. Nancie also pointed out that this was the case with legal records, including information about various cases and client records that the attorneys had handled. She mentioned one situation where the person had lined up his old computers and shot them, to destroy the hard drives with the personal information.

She and Alex also walked us through the process of creation, with the design, manufacturing, patent and other problems. As she said, one unanticipated problem is that their manufacturing center for the device is in China, in the province with the Corona Virus, so that is slowing things a bit. But she expects the device to go live, to be available on March 1, and the device will sell for $149.

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For her complete program, please go to www.warrencountyrotary.org.

Story by: Hank Ecton