JAYE Muller had an idea, a very good idea. Late one night, whilethe struggling rock musician surfed the hotel switchboards in a vainattempt to retrieve the host of missed messages trailing aroundEurope in his wake, he thought: "Hey! Wouldn't it be great if allyour faxes went to one number and then followed wherever you went?"
Three years later, the idea has become one of the fastest growingcompanies in the world and the company, JFax, has racked up aFortune500 valuation of $100 million, joined forces with some of thebiggestnames in the business and scooped a host of top industry awards.
"I felt that you should be able to do business whatever way youchoose, wherever you choose, not tied to a place just because thefaxmachine is there," grins a buoyant Muller. "I thought: 'There mustbe something like that out there' but there wasn't, so I launchedthecompany and things took off from there. It's been amazing. I didn'texpect anything like this - I only ever wanted to receive my faxes."The service Muller conceived while on a 1996 college tour ofBritain promoting his debut album, We Are The Majority, has evolvedbeyond his wildest dreams. Today, JFax customers in 55 cities world-wide pay GBP 7.50 per month for a unique telephone number -anywherefrom New York to Cape Town - and collect the faxes and voicemessagessent to that number from wherever they may be, either by telephoneore-mail.From the perspective of those sending the messages, a JFax numberis no different from the traditional telephone system. Callers dialin, listen to the personalised greeting and either leave a messageorlet their fax machine do the talking. JFax's system software thenconverts received messages into either audio or fax files and withinminutes sends them via e-mail to the end user, who uses the system'sfree proprietary software to read or listen.With a 30-second voice message converting to a tiny 56K file, thedownload process is relatively rapid and the entire service may beconfigured using either a password-protected website or a freephonelocal telephone number. Users can elect to have hard copiesforwarded to their nearest fax machine, sent to temporary e-mailboxes or read out over the phone. Faxes may also be sent world-wideat 5p a page.At the time of writing, 100,000 people subscribe to JFax, thoughthe system currently has the capacity to house two million. Thatthis remarkably workable system progressed from being a late nightflash of inspiration to a multi-million dollar company is in largepart due to the dictatorial regime behind cold war East Germany.Although already embarking on his career in music, as an EastBerlin schoolboy Muller was obliged to attend obligatory careertraining courses in the evenings, a bind he rendered more palatableby selecting his second interest, technology, as his course ofstudy.By the time the wall came down and Muller, at the tender age of 17,had quit the fatherland for bohemian Paris, he had spent severalyears reverse engineering microchips and investigating newtechnologies, an experience which equipped him with the knowledge helater required to build his own prototype software, prove theconceptand attract the attention of some serious investors.Getting JFax from the point where it was a fledgling good idea toits official launch in 1996 demanded an initial investment of $2million, pitching Muller headlong into a maelstrom of accountantsandmeetings at a point when the 23-year-old musician knew virtuallynothing about the ways of business. He coped with the situation, hesays, by relying on a blend of instinct and "how to" books."I literally picked things up as I went along. A lot of bignumbers were being talked about, but for much of the time they wereonly on paper and didn't matter that much. I just mentally removedthe zeroes from every figure they threw at me and didn't takeanything too seriously."If his approach to high finance is unconventional, in a businesscontext Muller's appearance is too. Resplendent with flowing locksand sultry leer, he looks every inch the man who claims never tohaveowned a tie, though admits to once having worn an evening suit tocollect BT's prestigious Technology Award in 1996.In the bullish young internet industry, such things are of littleimportance. "I had no problems at all," says Muller. "The wholeinternet sector was very new and nobody knew what to expect ofanybody so it just didn't matter. The only thing that counted washaving a great product at the right price and with the potential tomake a great deal of money."Success is not sewn into the lining of a sharp suit, and whenasked to put his finger on what qualities have sponsored hisremarkable success, Muller lays the praise at the feet of his corestaff, with whom he worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week to getthe company off the ground. Music had to take a back seat for 18months during JFax's birth. However, now that things are up andrunning, Muller divides his time equally between serving as co-director and exploring his muse from a plush apartment inManhattan'strendy Soho district, where he is now based.It has been a relief to return to the recording studio, he says,because "there's no way I could do the business thing all my life -it's just too boring".Muller's future, it would seem, is so bright that he's got to wearshades. A second album and tour is forthcoming towards the end ofthe year and his company is performing so well that he suspects atakeover by an acquisitive technology leviathan could well be on thecards.Whether that happens or not, he hints that fresh good ideas arebrewing, and that further innovative services are yet to emerge. "Ihave a few ideas I'd like to develop a little further," he smiles."But I think that soon I'm going to find myself getting excitedaboutone of them and saying: 'We've got the finance, the ability and agood team. We've done it once. Hell, let's do it again.'"The company's website is www.jfax.com
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