Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • September 16, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com New CT Tech Council CEO Slap eyes formal alliance with CCAT Q&A talks with State Rep. Derek Slap (D-West Hartford) who in January was named president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council. Q. The Connecticut Technology Council hired someone with more of a legisla- tive and political background as its new CEO. Why were you interested in the job and why does your political background make you a good fit in the role? A. The Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) is a small nonprofit with a big task — to help strengthen the tech ecosystem in Connecticut and make it easier for businesses to thrive. We are one of many organizations in Connecticut that — in some fashion — share this mission. Suc- cess for the CTC, and more importantly for its 200-member companies, depends on listening to this constituency, develop- ing clearly defined and realistic goals, and building relationships. You don't have to be a tech expert to lead that effort. Of course, Connecticut has a citizen legislature, which means most lawmak- ers have careers and responsibilities outside of the General Assembly. Prior to joining the CTC, I was the vice president of marketing and communications at the UConn Foundation and I learned a great deal about stewarding donors and build- ing strategic communication plans. Q. You've been CTC's CEO since January. What have you been working on so far? A. My focus has largely been on three areas: meeting with and listen- ing to the needs of CTC's members; strengthening the organization's events and programming; and work- ing on developing alliances with other nonprofits that share our mission. In terms of a listening tour, I've met with dozens of business and educa- tional leaders from across the state. I've toured new incubator spaces in Hartford and New Haven and heard from budding entrepreneurs about what they need to be successful. In March, CTC hosted its Women of Innovation event, celebrating women who are leaders in the STEM fields. I'm pleased that by any measure it was the most successful event in the program's 15-year history. Lastly, CTC has been in discus- sions with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) for several months about how we can col- laborate more closely. After reviewing our respective visions and missions it became clear that there was such good synergy that our dialogue has now evolved to forming a formal alliance. The details are still being ironed out and both of our boards are enthusias- tic about the chance to provide even more value to companies/members in the most efficient manner possible. CCAT's educational programs and their Advanced Manufacturing Center are just two examples of their resources for technology development and advanced training, which are attractive to many of our members. Derek Slap CEO & President, Connecticut Technology Council FOCUS: Technology By Natalie Missakian Special to the Hartford Business Journal T he human brain is great at spotting patterns, but at recall, not so much. Enter Polarity, an augmented reality startup that has developed a memory-enhancing tech- nology for desktop computers in the workplace. The company uses AR technology to enrich information that appears on an employee's computer screen, with a goal of helping teams of workers col- laborate more efficiently. "It enables what we call a collective memory across the team," said CEO and co-founder Paul Battista, a Connecti- cut native and former U.S. intelligence officer who leads the mostly virtual company from his Farmington home. With 20 employees, the five-year-old startup has raised $11.6 million in ven- ture capital so far and is growing, with plans to double the size of its team in the next 18 months. "The biggest challenge right now is scaling and hiring folks," said Battista. "We have lots of potential use cases but limited resources." Strictly defined, augmented real- ity overlays virtual images on top of real-world vision. It may bring to mind headsets or smart glasses (such as Google Glass) or mobile gaming apps like Pokemon GO. Battista markets Polarity as AR minus the goggles. It uses computer-vision algorithms and overlays to add data to text that appears on a user's screen. It works in two ways: First, users can highlight text on their screen, such as a person's name, and add a notation, like a brief biography. Polarity's algo- rithms will then recognize those characters and display the note anytime that text appears on their screen, regardless of the application. The notes will also become part of the team's "collective memory," making it easier for co-workers to collaborate, Battista said. "You don't have to interrupt workflows or send emails asking about updates on things. You're seeing everybody's notes in line with the tools you're already us- ing," Battista said. In the cybersecurity world — a target market — it can alert analysts to suspicious IP addresses flagged by other team members. Another feature allows users to pull data from outside sources, bypass- ing the need for a Google search. For instance, Google Maps could be displayed whenever a street address is recognized, or Standard & Poor's data could be linked to company names. From zombies to cybersecurity Battista, 36, grew up in Plainville and studied economic crime inves- tigation at Utica College in upstate New York. He spent time working as an "ethical hacker" on Wall Street and held cybersecurity positions with the New York Attorney General's office, Aetna and the state police before tak- ing a job with the federal government. His first foray into AR was developing a zombie-shooter game app for smart- phones, which sold for $1. It didn't make millions, but was modestly suc- cessful for a side project, with sales in the thousands, he said. "The timing was pretty good," he said, noting its re- lease at the height of Hollywood's zombie craze. He started Polar- ity (formerly Breach Intelligence) in 2014 with fellow intelligence officer Joseph Rivela of Easton to create a better way for security analysts to share informa- tion. They began beta-testing the product with a large private equity firm and top consumer bank, and released it publicly two years later. Today, Polarity boasts "millions in sales" and customers that include Fortune 10 companies and the federal Man & Machine Farmington's Polarity raises millions connecting augmented reality to the workplace, cybersecurity Polarity employees including co-founder and CEO Paul Battista (third from right). A snapshot of the digital interface of Polarity's augmented reality technology. IMAGE | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Continued on page 10 >> Continued on page 10 >>

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