NEWS & EVENTS > FORENSICON CELEBRATES ITS TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY

A Decade in Review

Forensicon President Lee Neubecker Looks Back as Forensicon Celebrates its Ten Year Anniversary

CHICAGO: April 19th, 2010:A decade ago, I packed my belongings into a rented U-Haul and headed from Boston to Chicago. The new millennium had just begun and optimism was at an all time high. I had just left Lycos.com as the group product manager for interactive online social networking products. I entertained the idea of going to work for Akamai, the internet content caching company, as well as for Google, at the time a privately held company. Instead, I decided to start my own ".com": BuzzBolt.com, Inc. I founded the company in the winter of 2000 on a cold, snowy day while sitting in a Chicago coffee shop.

My original aim was to help people communicate event listings and to provide a content syndication service to old and new media websites.

I was soon joined by Jeanne Heydecker and Ed McClane who believed in our quest for venture funding. We developed web based tools that gave the non-techie the ability to easily publish website content. Our offices were in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. Back then, my commute to work was just a few minutes.

Unfortunately, not too long into 2000, the .com tech bubble began to deflate, resulting in a rapidly changing market for venture capital funding of unproven ideas. We decided to refocus our software into a service offering for the legal market and began developing law firm websites with dynamic components that allowed marketing staff of law firms to post and manage bios, new releases, articles and other list type content.

Following 9/11, our company experienced severe hardship as corporations stopped spending money on marketing services and competition from web service providers based out of India drove prices down on web consulting services. Fortunately, a client called us in early 2002 to ask if we knew anyone who would be able to help them search and sort through emails for a litigation matter. “Eureka!” I thought. Litigation had just begun a mass move in discovery from paper documents to electronically stored information. The first downturn in the economy since the widespread adoption of email as a key form of communication would surely drive this industry into growth regardless of the economic climate.

In 2003, the Enron litigation saga continued driving the market. Convinced of the permanence of the demand for computer forensics and eDiscovery services, we changed our name to Forensicon, Inc.

2004, 2005 and 2006 were periods of rapid growth and court room victories. We outgrew our offices on multiple occasions. After several moves, Forensicon relocated to its current 4000 sq. ft. home in the downtown Chicago Loop. Our staff began to receive widespread recognition in the press and court rooms as specialists in the trade secret misappropriation field.

In 2007, Forensicon brought in outside expertise to help revamp and upgrade its corporate marketing collateral and branding. The look and feel of today's website and marketing are key achievements of that era. I also became a foster father to two children, ages three and four. Adaptation to a new sleep cycle was required!

One of our longstanding investigation matters went to trial in 2008 and a Wisconsin jury returned a state record $147M award verdict on behalf of our client. Around this time, we also launched our innovative flat-rate forensic investigative report, which provides clients a preview of a user's computer activities. At the end of 2008, we learned that to become a bank, American Express ended their small business line of credit program to qualify for TARP funds. Ours was canceled in January 2009.

2009 reminded me in many ways of 2002. A commitment to our clients and to innovation helped us through the last downturn and was effective in helping us grow our business in 2009 when many of our competitors collapsed or had severe reductions in staffing levels. Most importantly, my family achieved permanence with the adoption of our children Braiden and Michael. We just celebrated Michael's sixth birthday and Braiden will soon be eight.

2010, wow, ten years! Life has changed significantly. I am grateful to my family, staff, clients and friends who have helped to make my journey this last decade interesting and successful.

About Forensicon

Specializing in trade secrets, employment litigation, and internal investigations, Forensicon is a computer forensics firm that provides expertise to the top law firms in the U.S. as well as corporations large and small. Forensicon offers nationwide computer forensics services for plaintiff, defense, as well as special master neutral third party representation. The firm has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and other large privately held corporations wanting to defend against or prosecute claims of intellectual property theft. For more information, contact Forensicon at 888.427.5667, email us at contact@forensicon.com or visit our web site at: http://www.forensicon.com.