Pictometry co-founder joins high tech startup

Stephen Schultz, who co-founded Pictometry International almost 20 years ago, has been named chief technology officer for CryptoLabs, a fast rising startup company at Rochester Institute of Technology's Venture Creations business incubator.

The company is developing a bitcoin wallet, a sophisticated piece of hardware the size of a credit card that allows users to send and receive digital currency.

"We're all really excited and honored to have Steve join our team," said Melanie Shapiro, CryptoLabs' founder and CEO. "He brings the wisdom and talent that will help us bring our product to market and begin iterating for future versions of our technology."

Schultz helped launch Pictometry in 1996 and developed most of the underlying technologies on which the aerial imaging company operated. It eventually grew to over 300 employees, and he left after Pictometry merged with EagleView Technologies in 2014.

"One of the things I learned going through that startup process was that people make the difference," Schultz said. "Having met Melanie and her team, they are really strong people. And I love the aspect of being in a startup."

To launch Pictometry, Schultz didn't just create new algorithms, he created a paradigm shift. Traditional aerial photography was based on the premise of taking photos from directly overhead and using a variety of interpretation techniques to analyze the content of the photos — a science known as photogrammetry.

"It's not intuitive. People aren't used to looking directly down on flat objects," Schultz said. "Since I didn't have training in that field, I didn't have any blinders on. I could just solve problems without any pre-existing constraints."

Schultz pioneered the use of oblique photography, taking aerial images at a 40-degree angle. The result is a rich database of images that appear three dimensional, making it possible to take very accurate measurements of size and position. And when people look at the images, they recognize what they're looking at.

That effort to blaze new trails is exactly what CryptoLabs is doing, using a combination of hardware and software to change the way that people make bitcoin transactions.

Bitcoin is a digital currency, similar to dollars or euros except that they aren't actually printed. They only exist in digital form. What makes the concept intriguing is that bitcoin is a decentralized currency. No single institution controls the bitcoin network, so users are not at the mercy of a large bank or even a country that might be destabilized.

CryptoLab's device, which will be sold under the name "Case," provides users with three keys. One is the device itself and the second is the user's fingerprint, which is read through a built-in biometric scanner. The third key is stored on a server.

If the server gets hacked, the attacker only has access to one key. If a user loses the device, whoever finds it will only have one key. Unlike a credit card, physical possession of the object isn't enough to authorize a transaction.

Case offers a balance between security and ease-of-use, something that could encourage more consumers and businesses to use bitcoins to conduct financial transactions.

But Schultz is quick to point out that the success of CryptoLabs is not dependent on broad adoption of bitcoin. Their core technology is the multiple key authentication method, and it could be used for a variety of security applications.

It could be used to provide secure access to your stock portfolio, for example, or any transaction where identity certification is important.

"Bitcoin is just product number one," said Schultz. "I'm excited to see all of the places where we can take the technology."

Shapiro has an impressive track record of success with high tech startups. She co-founded Digsby, a social networking/instant messaging client that started as a class project at RIT. She and co-founder Steve Shapiro, whom she later married, built a user base of more than three million customers before selling the company in 2011.

Shapiro launched CryptoLabs in April 2014 and it quickly drew significant attention in the technology press. She says they plan to start shipping Case during the second quarter of this year.

Both Schultz and Shapiro are RIT graduates. Shapiro received a bachelor of fine arts degree from RIT in 2007 and an MBA in marketing in 2008. Schultz graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1989, and he also serves on the school's board of trustees.

Many of CryptoLabs' employees are also RIT grads or current students, and both Schultz and Shapiro believe those sort of local resources are a valuable asset. It comes back to the lessons that both learned in their previous startup experiences.

"Now we're both armed with the knowledge it takes to grow a company," Schultz said, "and we can create a long-lasting venture that's both profitable and a good place to work."

SLAHMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com\SeanLahman