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While Ryan Taggart was filming a commercial at a gym over winter break last academic year, he left some equipment in his car. After the shoot, he returned to his vehicle and saw thousands of dollars worth of technology stolen after the lock on one of his car’s doors was picked.

“It was pretty devastating,” said Taggart, who graduated from Syracuse University in 2020. “You can’t just drop thousands on your computer and stuff.”

The stolen items, as well as the difficulty in getting the serial numbers of each item to police to find the equipment, led to Taggart’s creation of Itemize. The company stores information about users’ technology so someone can ensure the item is returned if it goes missing.

Taggart founded Itemize last year alongside SU senior Jason Zhou and graduate student Zhen Ruan. The beta version of the Itemize website, which launched this week, is ready for the public to use. An app will come in the next few weeks, Zhou said.

The founders currently want to focus the beta run specifically on SU students.

“I want students to be covered, so if they lose something or if it gets stolen, I want to be able to find a solution,” Taggart said.

Before Itemize became a company, Taggart decided to use the idea for the School of Information Studies’ 2020 Raymond von Dran Fund for Student Entrepreneurship, a pitch competition. He knew he needed help to bring the idea to fruition, so he reached out to Zhou and Ruan, who had all met in an information studies and technology class.

At the time, Taggart was looking for a designer while Itemize was still being fleshed out. He was lucky enough to know Zhou, whom he thought had a talent for design.

“He was like ‘Wow this is amazing!’” Zhou said, laughing when describing Taggart’s reaction to his work.

While Zhou was hesitant to help with the project because of his workload, Taggart convinced him to join the team as a designer.

In April 2020, the Itemize crew won the student entrepreneurship competition. The funding allowed the small team to hire more people to work social media, marketing and development.

Ruan, who works as a developer for Itemize, said that one of the most important parts of the company is the blockchain function — which provides secure encryption of information. To prevent false claims, the blockchain protects the information put in by users so nobody else can edit it, Ruan said.

Itemize’s system makes it easier for the users to determine if the returned piece of technology is actually theirs by confirming the serial number, Taggart said. The company also serves as a good preventative measure in case users have to prove to authorities that an item actually belongs to them, Ruan said.

“Having a platform where you can take five seconds, enter your name and the serial code, and store it for future cases where you need to file claims is a good thing to have,” Ruan said.

Congratulations to all of the teams — a great round of stellar pitches by truly innovative ventures. We’re so proud of everyone who competed from across campus. It’s an honor to work with you, and we can’t wait to see where you take these great ideas. https://t.co/oZVSKDSsxr

— Syracuse LaunchPad (@LaunchPadSYR) April 15, 2020

Taggart was influenced by social media sites such as Facebook, which he said hasn’t done a good enough job of helping students with their lost technology.

“I think this is a problem for all people you need to pay attention to,” Zhou said.

The three have been unable to meet and work together in person due to the pandemic, and Zhou hopes this changes eventually.

The company has been brainstorming ideas that they can bring to Itemize in the near future, such as a lost-and-found feature that will allow other users of Itemize to find items and rightfully restore them to their owners, Zhou said.

While Zhou is eager to see where the company goes, he always sees customer satisfaction as a priority.

“There’s so much we want to improve, but we have to make sure we get feedback from the users,” Zhou said.

Published on March 15, 2021 at 10:07 pm

Contact Siron: sthoma10@syr.edu | @sironthomas