POWER LEADER: Lifekey founder Jason Kintzler sees a smartphone-less future

Welcome to a brand new series on HackerNoon, called Power Leaders -- interviews with tech leaders who are leading change, innovation and disrupting their respective industries.

My next interview is with an entrepreneur I have followed for the last 13 years. He moved from broadcast journalist to modern day tech cowboy, innovating, first, field of public relations and now resides in the world of wearable tech.

A special welcome to Jason Kintzler, founder and CEO of Lifekey, a digital identity and wearable tech company.

Let’s get started.

SE: Thanks so much for sharing with the community, Jason. What innovations are you bringing to your industry? What sets you apart from your competitors?

JK: There’s a new world emerging beyond the smartphone generation. Most tech companies are just adding more, piling on to core capabilities with more distractions. We want to do more, with less – the stuff you need, without the stuff you don’t. Instead of more fitness or sleep trackers or another smart watch, we’re focussed on eliminating gadgets and making technology quieter and more functional, without the hassle that comes with more electronics, notifications and social comments.

We want to do more, with less – the stuff you need, without the stuff you don’t. Instead of more fitness or sleep trackers or another smart watch, we’re focussed on eliminating gadgets and making technology quieter and more functional.

SE: What is a recent win or announcement your company just celebrated? Why does it matter?

JK: We recently received critical compliance approvals that will enable us to complete the next phase of our fintech development. It’s enabling us to bring payment innovation to the U.S. that’s never existed outside of smartwatches and smartphones.

SE: What pain points does Lifekey help to solve?

JK: People don’t realize it yet, but personal electronics have become quite a hassle. I swear, it’s like we have to have battery level indicators in our subconscious at all times. The screen is never big enough, the phone is never small enough, the camera never zooms enough…the point is, smartphones are awesome, but we’ve never had a real alternative. Smartwatches aren’t much different than the old calculator watches form the 1980s – except instead of doing math, they send us notifications of crappy comments on our social media posts.

SE: What are your company’s industry major challenges right now?

JK: Financial technology for wearables is difficult given the complexity of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI / DSS). That, and building an alternative to products designed and sold by the largest brands in the world makes it doubly-difficult. But, it also makes it worthwhile.

SE: What stories aren’t currently being told about your industry that your customers should know?

JK: It’s mostly intuition at this point, but we feel that people are becoming overwhelmed with their devices. They’re noisy and more consuming everyday and there’s a real desire to “unplug.” We don’t think people are going to ditch their phones (which are basically personal computers), but they will have a desire to put them away more often. To focus on a walk or a run or a few moments with their kids or grandkids IRL.  They’ll want the features and functions that matter most: Things like connection to family, safety, banking, and convenience are things we want to provide in a wearable that doesn’t need batteries or charging. We want to help clean up our messy digital lives (ie. where’s that password, my kid’s SSN or my mom’s list of medications and dosages?). We want to make doing these things almost invisible. Why do we feel a need to lug around a brick battery with a screen attached? Can you visualize a world where everything else is connected instead?

SE: How do you envision your business changing in the next 3-5 years?

JK: We’re a startup with some great early traction. We already sell to national retailers like Target, Nordstrom, Petco, Chewy and Petsmart. And, our technology is embedded into products sold at REI, Backcountry.com and Moosejaw. However, I don’t think we’re really known as a technology brand yet and that will change pretty rapidly. From a business standpoint, we’re going to need to scale and that’s going to make the numbers we’re currently working with look drastically different.

SE: What changes do you think are necessary for your industry to stay competitive in current economic times?

JK: There’s only one measure and that’s revenue. Sorry to be blunt, but you can’t do any of it if you’re not winning. If we can survive this and do what we set out to do, we can adjust the goals and mission accordingly.