About once a week I carry my keyboard and mouse into the ATDC lunch room, plop them into the sink, pour on some Ivory soap, and turn on the water. Every time I do this, some innocent bystander can’t help but flash a confused look and exclaim, “Can you do that!?!” This startled reaction is an endless source of amusement. Not only can I wash my keyboard and mouse in the sink, I can stick them in the dishwasher! How much do such marvelous devices cost? Exactly the same as the keyboard and mouse I destroyed a year ago with a poorly placed glass of water and an unwieldy elbow.
WETKEYS is the ATDC company that makes my day every week when I wash my keyboard. WETKEYS mice and keyboards are completely sealed and washable and come in wireless and flexible roll-up versions too. The company even offers washable cell phones and smart card readers. WETKEYS.com also serves as a retail site for other manufacturers of waterproof data entry devices.
The company started out designing and manufacturing easy-to-sanitize devices targeted to medical facilities and food processing plants to help stop the spread of disease. Founders David Malo, Chief Operating Officer, and Paul Lawrence, Director of Design and Marketing, have extensive experience in technology deployment and product design. The duo launched the first WETKEYS products in early 2008 and their wireless keyboard and mouse made CNBC’s Top 10 Tech Gifts list the same year.
Today, WETKEYS has expanded to retail to an impressive list of customers including AstraZeneca, Coca Cola, Dannon Yogurt, Harvard Medical School, several hospital systems, the U.S. Navy, and many other well-known names in health, government, and business. Quarterly introductions of new products keep the company at the leading edge of the industry. Since joining the ATDC in October of 2009, the company has added four employees and more than doubled sales. With superbugs and run of the mill germs on every surface in sight, it seems more and more people and businesses are taking the plunge and giving their hardware a bath!