Chris Owens Business Interview

Chris Owens is the owner of the company Identification Devices and the inventor of the medical device Medical if. Medical if is a USB drive made to store medical records, which can be easily accessed in an emergency. Owens talks about how he found the niche for his product and how fast he plans for his company to grow.

Speaker: Police, fire rescue, ambulance crews, they basically now have access to all of the emergency information even at the scene of an accident when you can’t respond. Zorianna Kit: Hi! Welcome to Dog and Pony, I am Zorianna Kit. Chris Owens is the founder of Identification devices, and inventor of the Medical ID tag, a USB device that holds personal information and medical records. Chris, Welcome. Chris Owens: Thank You! Zorriana Kit: Let us talk about this device. Chris Owens: Basically, ID is a USB flash drive that holds all of your emergency information and since police, fire rescue, ambulance crews as you know typically carry Laptop computers, they basically now have access to all of your emergency information even at the scene of an accident when you can’t respond. Zorriana Kit: Who should have this device? Chris Owens: Basically, I would say anyone needs to have the device. When you look at not only people who have medical conditions and what have you, who have urgent needs for it, the basic need of being able to identify someone, who they are, who to contact in case of an emergency is pretty universal. So, I would say anyone can definitely benefit from it. Those who can most benefit from it of course are those who are on multiple medications or have conditions that would require such. Zorriana Kit: What are the benefits of using this particular device instead of a regular USB drive? I mean we all have flash drives here and there, can we draw the hole and attach a little key chain to it and have one of our own? Chris Owens: I think the biggest benefit is recognition, basically EMS responders have been made aware of ID and how it operates if indeed you were to go to any Electronic store and pick up your own flash drive, you can certainly put information on it. But they would know how to access it; they would not know basically what is on it. And they would have to search for such. So, ID is something that they have been trained on, they know how to utilize it and it is quite simple for them. Zorriana Kit: And now, does it come with information already in there, that you just typed in or is it purely a flash drive that is sitting there empty? Chris Owens: It comes with a auto-loading form. Basically, the way it works is when you plug the flash drive in, this form automatically appears on your screen. And has a series of blank labeled fields into which you type your information and simply click on the save info button. That is just that simple. Zorriana Kit: Got it. Now, how does this device help in identifying, like let us say, you know, missing people? Stuff like that? Chris Owens: Well certainly, something in that instance, a missing person, one of the biggest issues with that is when they are found. Is the information current, is the information there that can actually get them home safely. Say for example, if it were a missing child, although they may find the child, does that child know his exact address? Does he know mom and dad’s phone number? All that information is on ID. Zorriana Kit: Got it. Have you had success stories that people have told you that you know, in this case somebody was found, or someone’s life was saved thanks to this device? Chris Owens: I have. Actually there was a woman who had Addison’s disease, which is a very rare disease and affects the adrenal glands. So, in one instance, she was unable to respond, she was down on her floor in her home, and basically she was able to contact the EMTs. When they arrived, she was so weak, she could barely respond. She had ID around her neck where she simply held it up, they recognized what it was, they plugged it in to their Laptop computer and basically they knew everything they needed to know about how to properly treat it. Zorriana Kit: Now, is it possible for consumers to just load their own information onto the USB drive? Chris Owens: Onto ID, they can, that is basically the way it works. It is that they put the information in and simply click on the save info button. So, there is really nothing that they need to search for, any forms that they need to create themselves, it is all self-contained. Zorriana Kit: Got it. Now, can they load that software onto their own personal USB drives? Chris Owens: I do not open the software individually from ID. It is kind of a package deal if you would. Zorriana Kit: Now, is the information on the USB drive transferable? Chris Owens: It is. In addition to the form which is very user-friendly, there is also a raw data file. That data file could simply be held onto any computer and if you were to purchase an additional device or update, what have you, you can simply plug that in and transfer that file onto the new device. Zorriana Kit: Well, we are going to play a game right now, called ‘None of your business.’ Chris Owens: Okay. Zorriana Kit: I am going to ask you a series of questions and you can either answer them or tell me that it is none of my business. You are ready? Chris Owens: I am ready. Zorriana Kit: What part of your job do you hate most? Chris Owens: That is none of your business. Zorriana Kit: If you could sell your company tomorrow, would you? Chris Owens: I would not. Zorriana Kit: You would not? Chris Owens: I would not. Zorriana Kit: And why not? Chris Owens: I think the potential, the real potential for ID has not been seen yet. So, if I were to sell it tomorrow, it would not be at its true worth. Once this becomes as popular as I think it is going to be very soon then we will talk price. Zorriana Kit: Are there different devices to still create? Chris Owens: Not so much that. Just universal recognition as well as we are referring to. Zorriana Kit: Got it. Chris Owens: I think ID is something that everyone needs to have and should and hopefully will become a household name. Zorriana Kit: When you said then we will talk, alright so then for how much when the time is right? Chris Owens: Oh boy. I would have to say that with the potential, once again, of ID being millions and millions in sales, we are probably looking at a hundreds of millions in terms of the sale price. Zorriana Kit: Oh, I hope that happens for you. Chris Owens: Thank you. Zorriana Kit: What information is on your medical ID device? Chris Owens: My own personal one? Zorriana Kit: Yeah? Chris Owens: Basically, I am a healthy guy, which I am very fortunate in that regard. For me of course there is all the standard information of who I am and who to contact in case of an emergency, who my doctors are and what have you. In terms of specific medical needs, I have hypoglycemia, so I have that on there, in addition I have a few allergies, nothing that is critical, but that is the type of information that is on mine. Zorriana Kit: Thanks for playing none of your business. Chris Owens, founder of identification devices. Thank you so much for joining us here today. If you have questions, comments or ideas for a guest, please Email us at info at dog and pony dot com. I am Zorriana Kit, thanks for watching.