September 15, 1998, Zürich, Switzerland - Software Engineer Chris Bai, approaching a job change begins working on a little tool for his own personal use. Named “Pathfinder” after the Mars mission, the original intent was to create a storage device for specific bookmarks because he was working on many different machines in many different locations and access was needed across all devices. Registered as Pathfinder.ch, the tool needed was developed with data stored offsite so, Pathfinder.ch became, in a very real way, an early “cloud storage” software device. As the year turned to 1999, the expertise gained since multiple engineering degrees were obtained at The ZHAW in Switzerland along with multiple IT and software development assignments led to a tremendous opportunity at Swiss Re, one of the largest and most prestigious financial firms in the world. He also began dating a lovely young woman. A beautiful place, beautiful girlfriend, great career; life was good.

As often happens when career and life get in the way Chris and his lovely girlfriend drifted apart within a year and her life path took her to the United States. Chris, meanwhile, continued to progress at Swiss Re as Senior Infrastructure Architect. Responsibility for planning, implementing, and operating the global Web Gateway (proxy), global streaming media solution used for video on demand, and the global global video conferencing core infrastructures, all operational aspects of telecommunications, database creation, and maintenance, working with IT security teams, creating the repository for all network components and more, was pretty big stuff.

Working on Pathfinder.ch when he could, he came to realize that note taking, or even document creation, could be combined with bookmarking to create greater efficiencies over standard note-taking software. As notes, login credentials including passwords, bookmarks and much more were being stored in the cloud through Pathfinder, searching through folder trees became tiresome so, “tagging” was introduced. In 2006, realizing that much of what was being stored, namely passwords or proprietary code and such, was sensitive, encryption was added. Pathfinder.ch was becoming a very useful tool. Small changes and improvements were to follow but...

In 2011, it was time for a sabbatical, see something different, so it was off to Buenos Aires for a couple of years to brush up on the Spanish. Playing around in South America had to end sometime so in 2014, wanting to resume the career, he took a position with United Security Providers as a software engineer designing, testing, and managing releases for the Product Software Secure Entry Server Web Application Firewall. It was a good fit because one of the key customers was Credit Suisse and the corporate culture was very similar to Swiss Re. So much so that Chris was “leased” to them for 4 months to deal with their web entry configurization and web applications for ebanking services and mulitple other applications.

Work on Pathfinder in his spare time had resumed during all of this and wanting more than just a bookmark manager and password manager, he realized that entire documents could be created, stored, and even encrypted if you were not limited by plain text so, in release 4.14.0, a rich-text editor was added. NOW, a tool that could be used as a virtual dashboard for locating documents, encrypting any text desired, locating files in cloud services, storing and managing passwords and other credentials, creating and searching bookmarks for any purpose, and it could all be done on your screen and in the cloud AND, it could all be done without the security vulnerabilities posed by browser extensions, add-ons, or plug-ins. Syncing between devices could be eliminated entirely for reliability. Along the way perfecting the code to make Pathfinder faster and more reliable was also a key goal. A private search engine for finding the things needed in your digital life had been created and all entries could, by simply broadening the definition, be labeled “bookmarks”. And with every new version more internet surfers seemed to find it and use it. Then IT happened...

Summer 2016 - While checking his social media for the day, a message was received via his LinkedIn account. No, it couldn’t be? No way! Really? But, it was! It was HER! She would be in the country visiting family and had seen his LinkedIn profile. What would she be like after all this time? Could they have coffee? noooo problem. She was as beautiful as ever, and the relationship picked up where it had left off 16 years before but, there was a problem. She was a partner in business in the United States and long distance relationships are tough. Having never been bothered by new adventure, the decision was easy. Off to the new world. But, what would you do when you arrived?

There are certain realities when moving to the US and assistance in certain financial affairs was sought. Someone his girlfriend had known for years, John Campbell, an investment advisor and insurance agency owner was called and a meeting established. A year later some adjustments needed to be made so another meeting was made. After this meeting a second meeting was set up. The fortunate error occurred at this meeting when John, Chris, and his girlfriend were at a well branded coffee shop. John could not seem to get into a needed account. Hmmm... Embarrassing. After being on the phone for while trying to get a new login link, Chris’s wonderful girlfriend suggested that Chris show him Pathfinder. A few weeks later, after learning some of the ends and outs, John could not live without Pathfinder. During discussions on other matters, the topic of employment came about and the question arose- why isn’t Pathfinder being marketed? Why not create your own job? With divergent skill sets, the answer was to partner together, change the name to Passfindr, form an LLC, and get started.

Passfindr has changed, become more user friendly, enhanced in many ways but the core ideas of increased usefulness, passion for getting it right, and simplicity are always going to be there. Who knows where it will go from here? But, Passfindr as it exists today would never have happened if not for a rekindled romance 16 years gone and an ocean apart. Thanks Mrs. Chris (true name hidden)! Oh!, did we forget that along the way they were married? Crazy how life works out isn’t it?

Oh, by the way, If you know and use Passfindr, then you already get it so spread it around. If you don’t use it yet, keep your credit card in your wallet and give it a try. It will make Chris' wife very happy.

Cheers,

Your Friends at Passfindr