A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Jacker, CEO and co-founder of ZaiNar, made me an alluring offer: Would I like to see the first-ever public demonstration of the technology his startup had spent nine years laboriously developing in anonymity? He described it as the most accurate location-tracking tech on the planet, capable of pinpointing an object’s whereabouts within inches—indoors and outdoors—from a great distance away. Sure, Google Maps and Apple’s Find My feature are pretty terrific, but even in the best cases, they typically can only determine someone’s location to within dozens of feet and sometimes can’t find a device’s location at all if it’s inside or underground. 

I knew Jacker had lined up a cadre of major investors, including Steve Jurvetson and Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, and had revealed the startup’s existence in February by announcing they’d valued the company at $1 billion.

I couldn’t possibly turn him down.