Confirmix chairman and co-founder Patrick Esposito said all the company’s heavy lifting was done at the university.
“The components and algorithms of Secure Selfies — what I call the secret sauce — came out of WVU,” Esposito said. Ferrell said he is proud of that and thinks it’s something the WVU community should embrace.
“The thing is, this isn’t happening at MIT, Harvard or Carnegie Mellon,” he said. “It’s happening here in West Virginia.
“You don’t see stuff like this here,” Ferrell added. “We’re pretty normal guys. Before all this, we just sat around and played video games.”
A lot has happened since Dunn, Amerman and Ferrell accepted Bourlai’s offer.
Ferrell didn’t want to give any details, but he said he, Dunn and Amerman could make a small fortune if things go right.
And while the prospect of making millions is enticing, Dunn, Amerman and Ferrell say they plan on completing their degrees at WVU. They also said they would consider continuing their studies in graduate school, though that depends on what happens to the company.
If the last year is any indication of what could come, things could take off.
In the meantime, the team was waiting out the final days of a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 to get the Secure Selfies application up and running on Google’s mobile marketplace. If the fundraiser is successful, the team will quickly develop versions for Apple and Windows devices. While they only had 26 percent of the $50,000 currently pledged with three days left in the campaign, the team expected the needed money to come in time.
Even if the goal isn’t met, the team expects it will only be a matter of time until people are using their technology. While that would likely be enough for most, Dunn, Amerman and Ferrell say their measure of success is getting WVU President Gordon Gee to post a selfie of him using their application on his social media sites.
Gee, known for many things — his extensive bow tie collection chief among them — is an avid selfie-taker and often posts pictures of himself with students, celebrities and random objects.
“If he would do that, we would be so legitimate,” Ferrell said.
A launch date for Secure Selfies hasn’t been set yet, but the team expects it to be available for download on Android in spring 2015. 