http://www.startribune.com/business/499464391.html

In the mid-1990s Joel MacIntosh and his brother launched a company that was supposed to help sports teams sell unsold seats using the latest, greatest technology available at the time: voice recognition software.

During a make-or-break, boardroom demo with key executives for a team they hoped would use the system, a call that was supposed to connect to computer software was instead picked up by an answering machine inadvertently connected to the same line.