Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com July 10, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 13 Knight says things happen in the kind of "unscripted casualness of interaction" that Upward Hartford fosters. It's the kind of envi- ronment where big ideas are birthed, he said. "I think that's the great potential for this place and being embedded right in the center of the city and having companies already willing to have space in here and then the startups that are percolating in here — it's like if you're putting together a spaghetti sauce, these are all the ingredi- ents you need for it to taste great," he said. Knight sees benefits for his own ideas, too. As an inventor/entrepreneur, being around other like-minded individuals allows him to tap ideas and resources as well — and the self-described Connecticut evangelist prefers to keep business local. "My first choice is working right here in the region … and other entrepreneurs feel the same way and it's that sort of mix that I think is very powerful," he said. Corporate appeal One large company drawn to Upward Hartford is insurer XL Catlin, which is leas- ing a four-person office on the upper floor as an innovation satellite of sorts to its local mothership of 500 to 600 employees at Con- stitution Plaza. XL Catlin plans to rotate people through the office to expose them to the collabora- tive work environment, ideas and general vibe at Upward Hartford, said Michael Walsh, global head of central application services. XL Catlin also can get an early look at emerging technologies that could benefit its insurance business, he said. "We consider ourselves to be an innovative company, both from an underwriting point of view as well as from a technology point of view," Walsh said, anticipating Upward Hart- ford could further enhance IT innovation. "For us at XL Catlin, I think that there is something there. I don't know exactly how to harness it at this time, but just getting into the environment, my hope is that eventually the lightbulb goes off and there's a time where we say, 'That's it, here's how we actually tie this into our everyday work,' " Walsh said. A new organization seeking to help the insurance industry is InsurTech Hart- ford, whose founder is working to grow the startup community around insurance technology, or InsurTech, using technology to improve or change how insurers operate or to create new products. As a 15-year IT veteran in Hartford's insur- ance industry, InsurTech Hartford founder Stacey Brown says he can help InsurTech companies better understand how they can benefit insurance companies. He's arranged "meet-ups," hackathons and educational seminars involving insurance industry and InsurTech representatives, including out- of-state companies, and views his organiza- tion as a platform to advance the insurance industry through new innovations. About $1.7 billion of venture capital funding was invested in InsurTech startups last year, Brown said, adding that much of it was invested in San Francisco, New York, Boston and overseas, with Hartford's insur- ance capital largely overlooked. "If there's that much interest in the indus- try, I think we have an opportunity to bring some of that investment … home," Brown said. He has already met with three local InsurTech startups, including one with a product and angel funding. "What we need to do is help people understand that this is real, this stuff that you watch on TV, shows like 'Silicon Val- ley' … it's not just TV, it's real life, you can really do this stuff," Brown said of attract- ing bright students coming out of area uni- versities. "All these students need to realize that there's opportunity here." n GlobeKeeper in search of a headquarters Dan Peleg, founder and CEO of GlobeKeeper, described as a secure col- laboration platform for security person- nel that uses military-grade security and encryption for civilian communication devices, also has benefited from shared work environments at coworking spaces in Tel Aviv, California and Georgia. Such spaces enhance focus and connections, he said, anticipating two or three staff- ers in Upward Hartford later this year. Hartford is attractive for its proximity to major Northeast markets and custom- ers there, he said. Customers include law enforcement and private security personnel in areas such as executive protection and campus security. Users can transmit live videos, share files and text messages and pictures in real time in a secure environment on standard smartphones and tablets. GlobeKeeper's R&D will remain in Tel Aviv, but Peleg said corporate headquar- ters will be in the U.S., possibly Hartford. environment where you can have many companies that can contribute one to another moving forward," he said. Boaz Zilberman, CEO and co-founder of Tel Aviv-based Project Ray, had already dis- covered the networking benefit of Upward Hartford during a visit June 15-16. Project Ray has a software application that allows blind and visually impaired people to oper- ate smartphones and social apps. He met a public relations person who intro- duced him to Hartford city officials who deal with the visually impaired and who refreshed his contact with the Connecticut Radio Infor- mation System (CRIS), a Windsor-based broadcast station that provides audio access to print information for people who are blind. "A few seconds and you got the connec- tion that you need because of sharing the experience and working in the same world," said Zilberman, who plans to hire an employ- ee for Upward Hartford this fall. Boston or New York would be too big to offer that kind of access, he said, but Hart- ford is close enough to serve his company's work in those areas. "So it ended up to be quite an interest- ing place, less expensive, with a benefit of a small environment," making it easier to meet stakeholders and government and social agencies, he said. Collaborative work environments are common in Israel and Zilberman knows their value, having worked in them and hav- ing started four companies. "It's unbelievable how important this net- working and this relation with other people is for a startup company," he said. n JRUDY@HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | P: 860-236-9998 WWW.HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM OF HBJ READERS SPEND BETWEEN 15-30 MINUTES READING EACH ISSUE. 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