Every company has an origin story, some initial idea or conversation that led founders down a path toward an invention or new startup. This is the story of a conversation that occurred several years ago and led to both a new product and the company to support it. This is the CastNet Origin Story.
The hidden camera that sparked an invention
As recounted by Bart Holzer, Co-Founder of CastNet, Inc. and principle contributor to the patent that became CastNet CMS.
Setting the Scene
“We were on a family road trip, with me driving and my wife navigating (napping). Our four kids were in the back of our minivan, bored and ready to reach Grammy’s house. A true crime podcast was playing.
My phone was connected to the van’s radio, so everyone startled at the sound of my phone ringing through the speakers. It was Greg, a friend and former colleague from our days in the FBI’s Nashville office. I answered, because I knew something interesting was coming my way. Greg had retired and was doing bug sweeps with some other former colleagues. If this call was work related, I knew it would be an interesting discussion.
Greg quickly got down to business due to the urgency of what occurred with a client. An anonymous tipster sent an email to the client’s corporate headquarters. The email was concerning, as it contained a link to a video streaming service with images that appeared to be coming from one of their locations. Because of the location, the matter escalated quickly. It did not take long for the investigation to confirm that the live video streamed from one of their locations. They needed help in finding the camera, and a reference connected them to Greg and his team.
The heart of our conversation started with something along the lines of, “so Bart, if you wanted to place a hidden camera in a location like this, how would you go about it?” Greg sought a second option despite having extensive experience on this particular topic himself. The camera was connected to the Internet, so he reached out to me. I was his first call for all cyber issues.
Seriously?
What transpired next was a hour or so of options and strategy, culminating in procedures to find the hidden camera. My imagination ran wild. I came up with thoroughly deceptive and insightful ideas, demonstrating an evil genius at what I imagined was James-Bond level inspiration. As Greg and I ended the call, I smiled at how I had used my powers for good.
I looked around and saw that no member of my family was paying attention to me at all. My self-satisfaction was dashed along with my self confidence. Since my wife was still navigating, I looked in the review mirror at the kids and said one word in that frustrated-Dad tone you would surely recognize: “Seriously?”
All four of my kids spoke at the same time, using different words but conveying the same message. Apparently, they had been exposed to this sort of unorthodox, counterspy, hacking drivel their whole life. My James Bond was their Get Smart.
How CastNet Started
This particular camera came up again. Greg was growing frustrated with what they were finding doing bug sweeps, known as TSCM in his world. Small, affordable, high quality – in terms of video and audio quality, and accessible spy devices were showing up in corporate and residential environments. Anyone could buy a battery-operated nanny cam off Amazon for $60 and plop it down in a location it did not belong. And that, it turns out, was exactly what some people were doing.
The issue wasn’t that Greg and his team couldn’t find these devices during a sweep – in fact, they were finding them. The issue was that bug sweeps only occur periodically. What about all that time in between sweeps? Greg insisted that there had to be a better way. And again, he came to me to see how hard it would be to build something. That is when the conversation turned to inventing something ourselves. We needed persistent monitoring. We needed a continuous monitoring solution.
And that is when the idea, which has since grown into CastNet – the invention and the company, started to take shape.” -BH
CastNet: Find the Hidden
Our mission is to reveal hidden threats and defend your privacy through experience and innovation.
