About two months ago, a colleague convinced me to sign up for Verified Identity Pass' Clear service. I dutifully filled in the forms, had the company capture my fingerprints and take pictures of my iris, forked over a couple hundred bucks, and received my Clear pass in the mail.
I wouldn't quite say the Clear card changed my life, but the next couple months of travel (at airports that had special Clear lines) were a breeze. I made at least one flight because of Clear. I started recommending the service to my colleagues.
Then, last week, a sad email arrived in my inbox:
"At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations."
I'm honestly not all that surprised at this outcome. Clear was a beautiful technological solution. The machines worked reliably, processing my fingerprints almost instantaneously. The service delivered on its value proposition.
But I couldn't help but notice how Clear employees always outnumbered Clear customers in my visits to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati.
While I have no inside knowledge about Verified's operations, I'm willing to wager that the company fell into two traps that make it hard for innovators to build new growth businesses.
Read the rest at Scott's Havard Management blog, Innovation Insights.
