Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • November 13, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Matt Pilon | mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com Health Care/Bioscience, Startups & Entrepreneurs, Government/Law and Energy HEALTH CARE Low-income health insurance funding could run dry Federal funds that help provide health insurance to Connecticut children and pregnant women in low-to-moderate- income families who don't qualify for Medicaid are expected to run out by February or sooner, according to the state Department of Social Services. Congress has not yet extended the program, called Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), letting a Sept. 30 reauthorization deadline pass. Connecticut is one of a dozen states expected to run out of CHIP funding in the next few months, if Congress doesn't act, according to the University of New Hampshire's Carsey School of Public Policy. If CHIP coverage lapses, children and their families would become uninsured or be forced to switch to more expensive and less comprehensive health plans, UNH researchers said. DSS spokesman David Dearborn said Connecticut could lose $37 million a year in CHIP funds, which covers more than 17,000 children. Also at risk is up to $40 million in related funding, known as "SCHIP fix" funding, which provides extra support for Medicaid coverage of some children, he said. There was some movement in Congress on Nov. 3, as the House approved a bill that would provide a five-year funding extension. However, the bill may not get through the Senate. Democrats, who want a CHIP extension, are at odds with Republicans over how to pay for it. Republicans want to fund it by gutting an Obamacare public health program that pays for immunizations and lead poisoning and suicide prevention. STARTUPS & ENTREPRENEURS Hartford startup Ten Digit targets call-center market F ew people enjoy calling customer service, which can often involve get- ting put on hold and passed around to different departments. A fledgling Hartford company is shaking that process up for the modern era. Ten Digit Communications, founded by two telecom industry veterans and housed in a new incubator in the Stilts Building, recently received a patent for its technology called TDC Bridge, which, put simply, enables call-center workers to interact with multiple customers through a text-messaging system. It's actually much more complex than that. Ten Digit built-in sentiment analysis, foreign language translation, tie-ins to cus- tomer relationship management databases, encrypted call capabilities and many other features. "We think we've come up with something transformational," said CEO Gary Brandt. Brandt and his fellow co-founder, Thomas Howe, a communications engineer by train- ing, started building the system in 2013. The idea is to reduce the often high costs — $8 to $12 per call — of operating a call center, Brandt said. TDC Bridge is meant to allow call-center workers to handle more customers at once. "They can have 12 to 15 simultaneous conversations," Brandt said. He said many companies have sought to lower call-center costs by directing custom- ers in need of assistance to log into mobile apps. But convincing customers to down- load an app is an uphill slog. On the other hand, virtually every cell phone has texting capabilities, which is why Brandt said it makes more sense to plan customer interac- tions through text. The call-center market is big with more than 2.2 million workers in 6,800 centers across the country, accord- ing to Texas-based Site Select Group. The number is larger when includ- ing home-based agents and smaller call centers. It's a big market for Ten Digit to attack, and Brandt said he's ready. The company has already won over one marquee client — cable, internet and telephone provider Centu- ryLink — which began using TDC Bridge in its enterprise call centers a few months ago. Brandt said Ten Digit has several dozen more clients and is targeting Hartford-area insurers as potential customers. Ten Digit is now trying to raise funding, mainly to market its technology. The company has $400,000 in Small Busi- ness Express funds from the state, and has also raised approximately $600,000 more from friends and family, he said. STARTUPS & ENTREPRENEURS MakerspaceCT hones in on potential home The founders of a fledgling makerspace organization said they are close to announc- ing a new Hartford home on Main Street. Just over a year ago, husband and wife team Bryan Patton and Devra Sisitsky were trying to lease about 15,000 square feet in the Colt Armory complex, where they planned to invest $750,000 to design a space for tinker- ers, students and professionals to work and learn about welding, ceramics, glass blowing, programming and an array of other skills. "We couldn't come to terms," Patton said. The pair now has their eyes set on a larger space on Main Street, upwards of 25,000 square feet, with a similarly priced build-out planned, Patton said. At press time, they said they were work- ing to finalize a lease for the space, which they didn't want to identify until the deal was complete. Between the planned build-out and the need for certain infrastructure — like ventila- tion for welding equipment and a metal forge — finding a home has been complicated. "Fire and flame is certainly an issue in any building," Patton said. MakerspaceCT, a program of a relatively new not-for-profit called McEIVR Inc., said it has financial backing from the Rutledge Foundation and is also hoping to receive $45,000 through the state's Innovation Places program. MakerspaceCT is part of the Hartford- East Hartford group that submitted one of the winning applications for the $30 million program. The organization will host its second annu- al Maker Summit Nov. 17 at the University of Hartford's Gengras Center in West Hartford. There will be demos and displays from manufacturers and technology firms, key- notes from Bryan Dods, who heads additive manufacturing at the United Technologies Research Center, and Popular Mechan- ics Editor in Chief Ryan D'Agostino, plus a political debate. Confirmed gubernatorial hopefuls include Prasad Srinivasan, Mark Bough- ton, Jonathan Harris, Chris Mattei, Toni Boucher, Tim Herbst and Dita Bhargava. "We want to hear what their vision is for innovation and manufacturing," Sisitsky said. Tickets cost $45 and can be found at https://makerspacect.com/nems2017. Bryan Patton and Devra Sisitsky said they are close to finding a home for their fledgling MakerspaceCT. HBJ PHOTO | MATT PILON Gary Brandt, CEO, Ten Digit Communications Thomas Howe, Co-founder, Ten Digit Communications A screenshot of Ten Digit Communications' TDC Bridge technology, which allows call-center workers to interact with multiple customers through a text-messaging system.

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