Lawrence Regional Technology Center

Griffin Technologies touts security device
By Chad Lawhorn, Journal-World

Thursday, October 7, 2004

A Lawrence-based technology company is expected to increase its sales and work force with a new product designed to bite into the Apple computer market.

Griffin Technologies, 916 Mass., this week launched a new security device for the Macintosh operating system and its popular Apple brand of computers.

Macintosh users are only about 5 percent of the computer market, but officials with Griffin estimate the new product could boost company sales by 25 percent. The privately owned company doesn't release its sales totals.

"We'll really have one of the first security markets in general for the Mac market," said Bennett Griffin, the company's president. "Plus, Apple is experiencing a resurgence right now with their new designs and new operating system. There is a lot of excitement in the Mac world, and we feel like we can capitalize off their excitement."

The security device, which sells for $129, consists of a small computer key with a microchip that is plugged into the USB port of the computer. The computer won't operate if that key is not inserted in the computer and if the user doesn't know the correct password. Griffin has marketed a similar device for the PC market for the past two years, but the new product is its first for the Macintosh market.

Griffin said the new security device would require the company to boost its employee totals at its corporate office by two people, bringing the company's work force to 12.

The new product punctuates a busy year for the company, which Griffin founded as a Kansas University student in 1993.

The company's PC security device received a positive product review from famed reviewer Walter Mossberg, who reviews products for the Wall Street Journal, the CNBC television network and several other publications. The Griffin review appeared in the April issue of SmartMoney Magazine.

In August, the company's PC product also received the "Best Buy Award" from the editors of PC World Magazine.

Also in August, the company received its first round of venture capital financing. Griffin declined to name the new investors or the amount of money invested, other than to say it was "significant."

"It will really allow us to position the company for the next stage of growth," Griffin said. "It gives us the resources to go after our goals aggressively."

The new investment also is a good sign that the company has a solid business idea, said Matt McClorey, chief executive of the Lawrence Regional Technology Center, which helped Griffin obtained the venture capital money.

"There are quite a few people who are pretty bullish on their prospects," McClorey said.

McClorey said that was partly because the computer security market was a "very hot space" right now.

"People have just become a lot more conscious about the need to protect the information on their computers," he said. "There are so many more people who are running around with laptop computers, and there is so much valuable information on those."

Griffin said the company was focusing on expanding its distribution and sales network. The company currently sells its product through its Web site, but Griffin said the company was in negotiations with big-box stores and electronics retailers around the world.

He said the company was finalizing a deal with the Britain-based Dixons brand of discount stores that would allow the company to begin selling its product in some of those stores later this year.