startup

Rosslyn-Based Higher Logic Expands With New Startup Acquisition

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Tower).

Rosslyn-based Higher Logic followed up on a recent expansion of its 1919 N. Lynn Street offices with the acquisition of Customer Imperative, a South Carolina-based startup that focuses on building communities and establishing a dialogue between businesses and their customers.

Higher Logic’s focus is on creating online forums for companies, nonprofits and member-based organizations. The company said that the goal of the acquisition was to establish new ways to open dialogues with customers and between community members.

“Communities are a cornerstone of the customer success model,” Higher Logic said in a press release. “Higher Logic enables organizations to establish relationships with and between their customers, providing personalized experiences at scale that drive retention and growth.”

The acquisition will also bring some of the Customer Imperative leadership into Higher Logic. Customer Imperative founder Jay Nathan will join Higher Logic as Chief Customer Officer and lead the “Gain Grow Retain” community. Managing Partner Jeff Breunsbach will become Director of Customer Experience for Higher Logic and oversee day-to-day community operations for Gain Grow Retain, the press release said.

“Today more than ever, the need to clearly understand and drive customer success is a core business requirement,” said Higher Logic Chief Executive Officer Kevin Boyce. “Higher Logic was founded on the principle of personalized engagement at scale. Adding the industry expertise of Customer Imperative and the unique insights of the Gain Grow Retain community to Higher Logic allows us to rapidly advance our mission in the customer success world and further our ongoing commitment to the association space.”

“Together we will continue to bring people together for meaningful conversations and use those conversations to discover key insights and drive better outcomes,” Boyce added

Gain Grow Retain, which is included in the acquisition, is a sort of forum for customer-focused business leaders. The Gain Grow Retain website announced that the acquisition by Higher Logic means that it will be going through a relaunch.

Higher Logic cited the fact that Gain Grow Retain had gained over 3,000 members under six months a marker for success. Members engage in weekly office hour calls, participate in a podcast, and have a back-and-forth dialogue in online forums, according to Higher Logic. The project will continue as an independent program within Higher Logic with access to new tools from the larger company.

“We’re excited to re-launch Gain Grow Retain on the premier community platform, built by Higher Logic,” Jeff Breunsbach, a managing partner for Customer Imperative, said on the website. “There will be a deeper focus on customer experience and connecting all of our channels together in one place.”

Photo via Higher Logic/Facebook

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Trash Collection Delays — “Due to truck breakdowns, some residential trash/recycling routes were not completed yesterday and today. If your trash and/or recycling carts have not been emptied, please leave them at the curb for collection.” [Arlington County]

BLM Event Planned on Saturday — The group Arlington for Justice is holding a March for Black Lives on Saturday from 4-6 p.m. The event will start at the Charles Drew Community Center in Green Valley (3500 23rd Street S.). [Facebook]

Pro-School Opening Group Planning Rally — The group Arlington Parents for Education is planning a rally in support of opening Northern Virginia schools in the fall. The event is planned from 9-10 a.m. Saturday at Arlington Public Schools headquarters (2100 Washington Blvd). “Wear green. Social distance and wear masks. Bring banners and friends & families who support this cause,” the group says. [Twitter]

Marymount Offers to Host Int’l Students — Marymount University is currently planning to bring students back to campus in the fall, including international students. With Immigration and Customs Enforcement not allowing international students to enter the country if their school is operating entirely online, Marymount is also offering to host international students from other schools. [Press Release]

Arlington Ranks High for Single Homeownership — A new set of rankings from the website SmartAsset puts Arlington at No. 25 for places “where singles are increasingly choosing to buy over rent.” [SmartAsset]

Startup CEO Facing SEC Lawsuit, Too — “Former Trustify CEO Danny Boice is accused of spending millions of investors’ dollars on private jet flights, vacations, jewelry and mortgage payments on a beach house as part of what’s alleged to be an $18.5 million fraudulent scheme, according to a lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission filed Friday against both Boice and Trustify Inc.” [Washington Business Journal]

Arlington Startup Hungry Offering Ballpark Food Delivery for Nationals Fans

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Tower).

As the Washington Nationals play ball without fans in the stands, the team is turning to Arlington startup Hungry to bring the ballpark dining experience to homes.

If a Washington Nationals game just wouldn’t be the same for you without a hot dog, ballpark peanuts or other baseball cuisine, the new Best Ballpark Bites program may be a homerun. It aims to deliver gameday meals to those watching the games safely from their livings rooms.

“The Nationals want to bring the ballpark experience to you in the comfort and safety of your home,” the Nationals said in a press release. “Introducing Best Ballpark Bites Delivered, featuring classic gameday meals.”

The partnership is part of a continued shift towards no-contact deliveries during the pandemic, according to Hungry’s website. The Ballston-based company also was able to recently secure over $20 million in funding from donors like comedian Kevin Hart and former Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb.

The packages come in three optional sets:

  • Enzo’s Pizza Pack — featuring a hand-tossed pepperoni pizza to bake at home, Old Bay dry rub and Buffalo wings, a pasta salad, two packages of cracker jacks and three Cokes
  • Backyard Grill Pack — Two Hebrew Nationals Hot Dogs to be reheated at home, an Italian sausage and bratwurst to be grilled at home along with their respective condiments, tortilla chips, nacho dip, chili, Cracker Jacks and three Cokes
  • Tacos and Nachos Pack — Nine chicken and black bean tacos, “NAT-cho” chips, corn salad, Cracker Jacks and three Cokes

All packs are $75 and designed to serve 2-3 people with contactless deliveries.

Alcohol orders are also included but will require the recipient to present ID on delivery. In addition to online ordering, the press release says orders can be placed via 1-888-8HUNGRY or emailing [email protected]. Orders have to be placed by midnight the day before the game for night games.

According to Hungry’s website, orders will include a free Nats bobblehead for a limited time.

Flickr photo by Stephen Yates

JUST IN: Arlington Startup CEO Facing Federal Fraud Charges

By ARLnow.com

A once high-flying Arlington startup is now at the center of a federal fraud case.

Trustify, a Crystal City-based technology firm that provided an online marketplace for private investigations, went bankrupt last year. Just two years prior to that, the company moved into a swanky new office and was touted by the governor’s office for its plan to create 184 new jobs in Arlington.

Now, federal prosecutors are charging CEO and co-founder Danny Boice with investment fraud, saying he bilked investors out of millions of dollars while overstating the company’s financial performance.

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia:

The CEO and co-founder of Trustify Inc. (Trustify), a privately-held technology company founded in 2015 and based in Arlington, Virginia, was charged in an indictment unsealed today for his alleged role in a fraud scheme resulting in millions of dollars of losses to investors.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

Daniel Boice, 41, of Alexandria, Virginia, was charged with five counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, and two counts of money laundering.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in 2015, Boice fraudulently solicited investments in Trustify, a privately-held technology start-up company that connected customers with private investigators.  Boice allegedly raised approximately $18.5 million from over 90 investors by, among other things, falsely overstating Trustify’s financial performance.  The indictment also alleges that Boice made false statements to investors about the amount of investor funds that he would personally receive, while diverting a substantial amount of the investor money to his own benefit.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office is investigating the case.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provided assistance and is also filing a civil complaint against the defendant for related conduct.  Trial Attorney Blake Goebel of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Carlberg of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.  The department would also like to thank the Virginia State Corporation Commission for its assistance.

Individuals who believe they may be a victim in this case should contact the Victim Witness Services Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at 703-299-3700 for more information.

Trustify co-founder Jennifer Mellon, who was also married to Boice, received a federal appointment as the company went belly-up. She is not named in the indictment.

In an ARLnow profile in 2017, Boice discussed why the internet was great for the private investigation business, saying that it “provides the perfect catalyst for puffing up your Facebook profile or LinkedIn or lying about not being in a relationship when you’re on Tinder, all those things.”

“The internet makes a great accelerator for dishonesty,” said Boice.

Arlington Startup Aims to Help People Build Connections With Homeless Neighbors

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Tower).

Givr started with a sermon that founder Mark Ferguson just couldn’t get out of his head.

While attending church in 2019, Ferguson said his pastor gave everyone two minutes and told them to write down the names of eight neighbors. He couldn’t, and neither could many of his fellow parishioners.

The second part of the idea came when Ferguson switched jobs and started walking to work in Arlington.

“It coincided with me changing jobs and walking to work,” Ferguson said. “For the next few months, I was thinking about [the sermon]. I downloaded a neighborhood app, I was inviting neighbors to dinner. But as I was walking to work, I realized my viewpoint on who was my neighbor changed.”

Ferguson said he began to see the same people on the streets around Clarendon, and in talking to coworkers and friends said that many of them saw the same people as well, but didn’t know their names. After Ferguson was laid off from a venture capital firm in March, he said he felt an obligation to do something about the idea that had been rattling around in his head.

With Givr, subscribers can receive two care packages per month to distribute to neighbors dealing with homelessness. The packages are $22 per month, or less with other subscription plans, and contain food, clothing, hygiene items, and seasonal needs like winter clothing or sunscreen.

Givr was started not just as a way to help people experiencing homelessness — local nonprofits like Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) are experienced and uniquely situated for that — but as a way of connecting people to their neighbors.

“When you look at us you might say ‘this is a way to distribute aid’ as the actual product or something, but we don’t think about it like that,” Ferguson said. “We will measure bags and care packages distributed, but what we really care about and track on our end is names learned. It’s less about how much aid we can provide vs how much community we can build.”

It isn’t a new idea, Ferguson acknowledged. He said his girlfriend has been packing bags like this for months with items like socks and granola bars, to be thrown into her car and distributed. Churches and rotary clubs put similar packages together. What Ferguson said he hopes Givr can accomplish is taking the assembly stage out of it and using the startup model to spread the implementation.

“What we do is we assemble these care packages and ship them on a monthly basis to givers who sign up for our service,” Ferguson said. “You sign up and we’d send you a care package, which would include items that people experiencing homelessness really and truly need.”

As he and his co-founders started putting together the project, one of the big lessons Ferguson said he learned was that food is not always the most essential need.

(more…)

Crystal City Startup Secures $6 Million to Expand Defense Contract Search Platform

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Tower).

Crystal City-based Second Front Systems, a startup that helps connect government agencies to commercially-developed technologies, recently received $6 million in seed funding to boost its startup technology assessment program.

Atlas Fulcrum is Second Front Systems’ platform that helps to catalog and organize venture capital-backed technologies and track market trends. The goal is to make it easier for the national security organizations to identify the latest new technological advances from startups in the private sector rather than relying on sometimes outdated technology from larger companies.

“I came back from combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan where my men and I were hamstrung by outdated technology that negated what should have been an advantage against insurgent adversaries,” said Second Front CEO Peter Dixon in a statement. “Subsequently, at the Pentagon, I watched as billions of dollars were awarded to traditional defense companies, many of whom were unable to deliver usable technology to front-line troops.”

“This venture financing and initial partnerships gives Second Front the velocity to build a new type of ‘lean systems integrator’ that can harness the innovations of the American entrepreneurial ecosystem where the traditional defense firms have failed,” Dixon said of the new round of investment.

Second Front Systems is a veteran-owned business with a Board of Directors boasting former Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace and former Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The new funding was led by Artis Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invested in YouTube in 2006 and has partnered with controversial defense contractor Palantir since 2014.

“The venture funding will be used to expand the capabilities of Second Front’s software platform, Atlas Fulcrum, which has recently received a major contract award from the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Air Force’s AFWERX,” the company said in a press release. “The U.S. military recognizes that commercially driven tech, such as autonomy, cyber, biotech, and AI, has surpassed the defense base in relevance to national security in the 21st century.”

Image via Second Front Systems

Rosslyn Startup Shifts from Travel App Developer to Online Identity Verifier

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

Rosslyn startup Airside Mobile is rebranding to just Airside as part of a pivot from being a travel app developer to a company focused on securing data and privacy in online interactions.

“Airside was founded shortly after the first generation iPhone was launched,” the company said in its blog. “We hopped at the opportunity to develop ultra-secure mobile technology, including the award-winning Mobile Passport App. However, the ‘Airside Mobile’ label no longer applies to our broader set of capabilities and offerings that extend beyond mobile apps to SDKs, APIs, and more. Our new name maintains the continuity of our brand while also allowing more breadth and depth for our products and services.”

In an interview with the podcast State of Identity, Chief Commercial Officer Jessica Patel said that international changes brought about by COVID-19 have emphasized the need for secure online interactions.

“The world has changed so much in these last couple of months,” Patel said. “There are some industries in the short term that have gone fully virtual that people might not have expected, like technology supporting fully virtual education. Obviously virtual healthcare and the overall health-tech space has evolved and become a bigger need in these more recent weeks… There are some of these industries that were not nearly as virtual as they are today [and there is] a need for digital identity to play a major role.”

Patel said she doubted that many of the industries that had to shift to virtual interactions will ever go back to the level of in-person interaction before the pandemic.

“When I think about changes all kinds of industries will have to make there’s going to be moves to offering digital interactions instead of physical,” Patel said. “There’s going to be a real push to implement more contactless solutions. I think that’s where leveraging digital ID and biometric technologies are going to play a huge role in a lot of these verticals.”

Over the last few months, the company has offered its digital suite of products to organizations on the front lines of fighting the pandemic, free of charge.

“If your organization is on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 and you believe that a digital identity solution would support your cause, please contact us,” the company said in a press release. “We’re here to help. Airside is uniquely positioned to respond to this need because we can protect the data with best-in-class encryption, ensure a high level of privacy for the individual and the organization, and utilize our FedRAMP-certified environment to handle increased transactions for your fundamentally important cause.”

Patel said the company’s experience in verifying identities while maintaining privacy is opening doors to expanding into a variety of financial, retail, and travel interactions. The company offers products like software development kits businesses can use for their own products or document scanning and chip reading products. Some of those, Patel said, are sold as monthly or annual licenses, while others are product sales.

“As we look to grow how we’re supporting consumers, we’ve grown beyond a customs application into a broader digital identity solution,” Patel said, “whether in banking, travel, insurance, education technology… we’re seeking to a be a ubiquitous form of digital identity that continues to put the control of sensitive information in the consumer’s hands.”

It’s a message that seems to have resonated with investors, with the Washington Business Journal reporting last week that Airside has raised $13.6 million in new funding.

Photo via Airside/Facebook

Local Startup Storyblocks Acquired by Boston Firm, But Will Remain in Courthouse

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

Arlington stock footage startup Storyblocks, which saw continued success during the pandemic, has been acquired by Boston-based private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

The price was not publicly disclosed, but a representative said business will continue as usual in Arlington. A press release said the partnership will allow Storyblocks to “accelerate its mission of modernizing the creative process to better support affordable, efficient video creation and to extend its current capabilities and product offerings.”

Great Hills Partners is known for its investments in Gizmodo and, locally, Fairfax County-based Custom Ink.

“We have seen dramatic changes to workflows for customers ranging from freelancers to small businesses to major production studios in recent years as they adapt to an ever-increasing demand for high-quality video content,” said TJ Leonard, CEO of Storyblocks, in the press release. “We are excited to partner with the Great Hill team because we share the belief that creatives are hungry for a new model to meet these new needs.”

Storyblocks started in 2009 as Footage Firm, shipping stock footage via DVDs, and the company has changed locations and brand over several years.

The company will retain its existing staff of 115 people, the Washington Business Journal reported, but will expand its product, engineering, marketing and sales staff.

Photos courtesy Storyblocks

Local Real Estate Investor Turned Inventor Tinkering With New Prototype Bottlecap

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

On hot summer days, Alex Ordonez’s kids and their soccer team, which he coached, had a hard time cooling down. The players were being sprayed with water, but Ordonez figured there had to be a better way.

Thus, the Spritz Cap — or an early concept for it, anyway — was born.

“While coaching for both teams in the summer, the heat became too much, and there were limited breaks,” Ordonez said. “When the kids became exhausted, they would run near our sidelines and we would spray them with water, and with time, I was able to modify a product to allow for any water bottle to turn into a portable multiuse bottle that allows for water conservation and several functions for user use.”

Ordonez, who also works as a real estate investor, is working on a prototype for a multi-use bottle cap he hopes to produce at affordable levels to adapt any water bottle into a spritzer.

“With our product, consumers will be able to save water and utilize water bottles for alternate needs, such as rinsing, cleaning, camping needs, etc,” Ordonez said on a Kickstarter campaign. “Spritz Cap is a two-part replacement that replaces an existing water bottle cap, made out of plastic and will be packaged in 1, 3, and 10 quantity packages.”

A video Ordonez put together for the product said the idea is to design a cap that could turn a water bottle into a tool to wash hands or cool down after a workout without wasting water.

Taking the Spritz Cap from an idea to a product is no easy feat, and one Ordonez is still working through. A Kickstarter for the project was launched but cancelled in January after getting only four backers and $28. Ordonez said he took down the Kickstarter because he wanted to work on the product some more. He’s now nearing the end of the prototype phase and hopes to re-launch soon.

“There were prospective investors but most wanted to see me with a product vs. a virtual design,” Ordonez said. “I decided to remove the Kickstarter, while I finalized the product and possibly come up with additional features that could increase additional interest. I hope to re-launch within a few weeks.”

Ordonez said the goal is to keep the product affordable, with several package options and individually packaged at 99 cents.

While development of the product has faced setbacks — including Ordonez’s limited access to funding, in part due to self-admitted “imperfect credit” as the result of an injury — he said one of the greatest sources of help in the development of the Spritz Cap has been Arlington Economic Development.

“They were able to assist with several factors as well, but the biggest struggles that any company has or will find is finding the available capital,” Ordonez said. “I spoke with several entities such as the [Small Business Administration] and other government institutes, and every single one was a dead stop… However, Arlington Economic Development was extremely helpful, not with funding, but the information and assistance that they provided was and is still outstanding. They took the time to listen to my ideas, provide feedback and were able to assist with making the right connections.”

Image via Kickstarter

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Ballston Macy’s Property for Sale — “The Macy’s department store in Ballston is being offered for sale and possible redevelopment as the national retailer moves forward with plans to close underperforming locations across the country. Cushman & Wakefield recently began marketing the store at 685-701 N. Glebe Road to buyers on the company’s behalf.” [Washington Business Journal]

Arlington Firms in Fortune List — Five Arlington-based companies are in the latest Fortune 1000 list of the largest companies in the U.S., including: AES (#310), CACI International (#549), E*Trade Financial (#755), Graham Holdings (#795) and AvalonBay Communities (#912). Amazon, which is building its second headquarters in Arlington, is #2. [Fortune]

More Millions for Snag — “Snag Holdings Inc., the Arlington parent company of hourly jobs board Snag, has raised $8 million in new funding, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing… The company had raised about $10 million in debt funding in February 2019 and has raised a total of about $141 million over its lifetime.” [Washington Business Journal]

Synetic Pivots to Plague Play — “Synetic Theater’s final production of the 2019-20 season will feature a work that may be more than 650 years old, but has a certain resonance in the modern day… Written in Italy in response to The Black Plague of 1347-51, ‘The Decameron’ is structured as a collection of 100 tales told by a group of young people sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the pandemic.” [InsideNova]

Pentagon Officer Back Home After COVID Battle — “Patrick Bright is one of the most grateful people in the D.C. region tonight. He’s home from the hospital after a grueling six weeks fighting COVID-19… ​​​​​​​Friday’s homecoming was enough to inspire a hearty greeting from a convoy of Pentagon police officers who welcomed Bright — one of their own — home.” [Fox 5]

Emergency Power Proclamation Modified — “County Board members this week are expected to adopt an updated proclamation of a community emergency.” The new proclamation removes “a provision that potentially would have shunted aside the county government’s Long Range Planning Committee and various review committees that consider the implications of new development.” [InsideNova]

Flickr pool photo by Mrs. Gemstone

Rosslyn Startup Shifts to Helping Companies Coordinate Coronavirus Reopening

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

A Rosslyn-based company that keeps those at on the job or at school in contact over security-related issues is pivoting the toward sharing COVID-19 information as localities start to reopen.

LiveSafe is a mobile and web-based platform that enables employees and students to communicate safety concerns with managers and administrators. The company has been around for six years, but with the economy starting to reopen CEO Carolyn Parent said they wanted to shift to using their platform to help companies and employees communicate about plans for reopening and employees’ health status.

“When COVID hit, all our customers wanted to update [their companies] with CDC links,” Parent said. “Now we’re seeing back to work safety as a major issue, from restaurants in Arlington to bigger businesses.”

Parent said companies are asking how they can bring employees back and assure them that they aren’t being put at risk. To that end, Parent said LiveSafe has created a new module called WorkSafe that’s specifically about COVID-19 and workplace safety.

“Businesses can license this and use it for that sole purpose,” Parent said. “WorkSafe gives you the ability for employees to conduct daily health checks back into their companies, with either an ‘I feel okay’ or ‘I don’t.'”

Parent said the new program is being offered free for restaurants with only one location. For chain locations, it’s $50 per month, per location.

“We’re making it free for smaller businesses with one location,” Parent said. “Main Street America does need to come back.”

Parent said WorkSafe can also utilize surveys to allow companies to get feedback on opening from employees, as well as offer links to health protocols.

“The approach to prevention that many companies are doing is that once these employees show up to work, they’re taking temperatures at the door,” Parent said. “But if you are sick, you shouldn’t do that. It should be done before you leave the house [as] part of a morning ritual. We really feel like that can be a helpful way to have an observable, verifiable way of encouraging the right kind of behavior.”

Parent said part of the idea came from LiveSafe’s work with Hungry, a separate Arlington startup whose founders also co-founded LiveSafe.

Parent said Hungry’s challenge was that their spread-out workforce meant they needed a reliable way to check in with a large network of people to see who is healthy and available to work.

For employees, WorkSafe allows them to report (anonymously, if they so choose) health concerns like a lack of personal protective equipment or other issues that could arise after the pandemic.

“There is a whole collective idea that we have a responsibility to each other to communicate these things,” Parent said.

Image via LiveSafe

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