Charlie Sherlock of checkitsreal describes how blockchain can help save lives

What is your background briefly?

I’ve had a long and very varied career! My first IT job was in AIB, which was actually a brilliant place to work. After ten years in AIB, I joined Gateway as Global Project Manager.

After Gateway things took a serious turn. I moved over to the dark side. I became a vendor, starting with Professional Services, supplying my old employers (AIB) amongst others. My first software sales role gig was in Norkom, where I looked after the UK market.

I’ve always wanted to do my own thing, so based on an idea, I set up my first enterprise software business, called Cinario. We were the first to market with a software solution to manage complex physical security technology for large organisations. I ran Cinario for five years before we sold to a much larger competitor. I worked for the company who bought Cinario for a while and then for a US start-up headed by Jack Smith, the founder of Hotmail.

About six years later I moved industries to work in the Aerospace and Defense sector, developing and running the Middle East and Africa market for a large Spanish defence company. A massive amount of travel, but it was very different.

I’ve also delivered consulting projects for the Irish and other governments, some venture capital organisations and some part-time lecturing.  

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

The genesis for checkitsreal came when I attended the Tech Connect event in Dublin last year.  

They were running some sessions on Blockchain and I went along to learn about this technology. I had done a lot of work in the past in anti-fraud solutions, including looking at solutions to stop fake meds. When I began to understand the concept behind Blockchain the idea really clicked with me.

Blockchain delivers a highly secure and totally transparent data structure, a perfect enabler for a solution to prevent fake meds. I then sat down with my long-time friend, and tech genius, Christopher Karatzinis and we began to develop the idea.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

• Why did you get involved with this ICO?

Christopher and I decided to go for an ICO as we felt that our message was very strong, our concept easy to understand and that we can generate real value for those people who take a bet on us early on.

An ICO is a very effective fundraising mechanism, although the sector itself has had its fair share of challenges and indeed scams.  

• Why do you think this is such a powerful idea?

The devastation, the deaths, the suffering caused by fake meds is just horrible. The Pharma sector has been looking for an effective solution to stamp out the fake meds business for years. A strong anti-counterfeit solution has to be easy to use, cost-effective to deploy and deliver a robust and secure solution. checkitsreal is all of these.

• How can people find out more about the ICO?

checkitsreal has an initial coin offer which starts with an invite-only round on the 6th of April 2018. 

You can join our Telegram group here. 

Watch our ICO video here. 

Or keep up with our progress on Twitter. 

• How can people find out more about you and your work?

Via our company site. 

We’re also on Twitter. 

Or on our Facebook page. 

How can people contact you and learn more about you?

I can be contacted via LinkedIn. 

My mail is cs@checkitsreal.com

My telegram is @charliesherlock. 

Prepared and edited by Andrew Carroll, Journalism MA in DIT. 

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