Our Story

Where do we start? Well, as legend has it, it all started back in the day – right around the turn of the century.  These two would-be entrepreneurs, both non-techie-boot-blacks had a weekly routine of getting together after work to grab a few beers at their favorite watering hole. They would spend hours upon hours talking about all the interesting people they had met during that week at their shoeshine stands and then they’d jot down their customer’s names, contact information and their sometimes rather odd requests on the back of bar napkins, hoping that one day they would figure out how to make good use of all the data collected.  Like, for example, this one extremely wealthy guy came along one day and asked the bootblack if he liked his coffee black like his favorite shoe polish. Initially the bootblack didn’t fully understand the question and its significance. Now, fast forwarding a bit, that wealthy guy had already identified the bootblack as a pretty gifted and well connected individual and wanted to know what would he do with a quarter of a million dollars if he were to have been given a chance to go into business with him!  It didn’t take the bootblack long to make his decision, knowingly this could potentially change the course of his life forever.  See, things like this seemed to happen all the time too these two bootblacks.  Now, over the years and several beers and bar napkin ideas later, these two would-be-entrepreneurs decided one day to take all those napkins (ideas, information and contacts) and spread them out on the table and then across the tile floor. First they studied them carefully, then organized them into piles, then re-sorted them into “essential communities” (they were using this term long before today’s tech savvy generation) based on customer preference, needs and years of continued patronage.  And now, today, many moons later, what was once just a bunch of bar napkins ideas, sorted into piles on top of tiles has become known as what it is today…eKorkBoard. Oh, and by the way, the black coffee and shoe polish question was the prelude to opening a couple of coffee shops and a successful catering business.  You can learn more at www.EIGIncorporated.com.