When entrepreneur Dexter Caffey launched his company, Smart Eye Technology, he already had a solid business idea and the drive to succeed. However, what Caffey needed most to expand his company into the healthcare sector were contacts within the industry. Through the Arkansas Collaborative for Technological and Innovative Venture Equality (ACTIVE) program, he found exactly that.
The ACTIVE program, run by BioVentures LLC., supports Arkansans with early-stage healthcare or health business ideas who come from groups that have historically faced barriers to business capital. By connecting participants with healthcare industry leaders, mentors, networking opportunities and individualized resources, the program provides unique opportunities.
For Caffey, who lives in Bentonville, Ark., this access proved invaluable. Previous entrepreneurial training and accelerator programs helped him identify healthcare and banking as his ideal customer profiles. While he has had success gaining clients in the banking sector, healthcare has been a competitive market to break into.
“ACTIVE helped Smart Eye Technology get in front of institutions we would never have gotten in front of,” Caffey said. “Through ACTIVE, we connected directly with high-level executives and decision-makers who are now potential clients. It would have taken us forever to do that on our own. It’s been a huge opportunity for us to get put right in front of them.”
Caffey’s journey into entrepreneurship started young, long before founding his own company. Encouraged by his father to sell newspapers in his neighborhood as a 10-year-old, Caffey developed the determination that would later drive his success. He also has a knack for cultivating client loyalty, as his brother found out the hard way when he tried to take some of Caffey’s customers.
“They told him, ‘We already work with Dex,’ and that was the end of that,” Caffey said, with a laugh.
That was just the beginning, and today, Caffey’s mission is in cybersecurity. Smart Eye Technology, which Caffey founded in 2018, is a biometric security platform designed to safeguard sensitive information. It uses continuous facial recognition and other biometrics to authenticate users, ensuring data is accessible only to authorized individuals. Unlike traditional biometric systems, Smart Eye not only uses multifactor biometric authorization at the beginning of a session, but it continuously scans the user’s face while they are using a device, offering an added layer of security even if the device falls into the wrong hands or is hacked remotely.
“A lot of biometric systems only check your face one time,” Caffey said. “But if someone grabs your phone or computer after that one-time authentication, they still have access. With Smart Eye, we continuously verify the user’s face, so if anyone else looks at the screen, the information is automatically blocked.”
While Smart Eye protects against security threats and cyberattacks, the technology also safeguards against the everyday unintended exposures of sensitive data that are a problematic reality in healthcare.
“For example, say a nurse is looking at an electronic health record of a patient’s sensitive, protected health data, and another member of the medical team who is not treating that patient comes up behind them to talk,” Caffey said. “They could potentially see information they are not authorized to see. No one is trying to do anything bad here, but this is the kind of situation that arises in clinics on a daily basis. Smart Eye has a solution for that. When the second, unauthorized face appears, it protects the sensitive data on the screen.”
While Caffey came into the ACTIVE program with a fully developed business, many participants in the program are just starting out and may simply have an idea. ACTIVE is able to meet the needs of its unique cohort members by providing an individualized growth plan to take their business to the next level, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Someone like Caffey is always looking toward what is next in the technology space. While he’s proud to be part of ACTIVE because it supports Arkansas-based entrepreneurs and strengthens the state’s healthcare sector, he sees Smart Eye’s potential on a national or international level, working with large healthcare providers and technology vendors.
“We’d love to partner with established providers in the medical software space,” Caffey said. “ACTIVE has been instrumental in helping us get a foot in the door, but continued connections will be key to integrating Smart Eye Technology into existing healthcare systems on a larger scale.”
For more about Smart Eye Technology, listen to his full interview on our BioVentures Podcast, connect with Caffey on LinkedIn or read his bio on the ACTIVE website.
ACTIVE is actively recruiting for its January 2025 cohort. Arkansas-based entrepreneurs ready to make an impact in healthcare are encouraged to apply. Applications are due by Friday, Nov. 22. ACTIVE is funded by the Capital Readiness Program from the Minority Business Development Agency.
For more information about ACTIVE, visit the ACTIVE website or email ACTIVE@uams.edu. Ready to apply? Fill out the application form here.
