Page 66 - Innovation Delaware 2021

MIKE BOWMAN
MIKE BOWMAN expect their centers to be operating at or near capacity well after the impact of the virus subsides.
As for the other co-working spaces, Herrera is optimistic, even though he isn’t quite sure what the future will hold. As the rate of vaccinations picked up in February and March, Herrera started seeing more daily traffic at The Mill. “People want options to get out of the house. You get fatigued working from home all the time,” he says.
For the longer haul, he won’t be surprised to see operations like his grow, at the expense of more traditional office buildings. “Even large companies don’t know what their office needs will be like two years from now,” he says.
“I’m very bullish on our model expanding,” he adds. “Conference rooms will become more important, and more people will want to use desks in co- working spaces as docking stations for a day.”
pandemic INNOVATORS
These Delaware companies pivoted to provide new solutions in the time of
COVID, and have thrived as a result.
W360VR Technology
hen SURY
GUPTA co- founded 360VR Technology during his
undergraduate studies at the University of Delaware, the original idea was to make the lives of first responders a little easier.
“There’s a critical issue of first
responders not knowing what the
inside of a building looks like when they arrive,” Gupta says. “Using our experience with virtual reality, we found a way to create 3D models of building interiors and translate them into an easy- to-use platform for first responders that cuts down on risk and guesswork.”
Gupta and his co-founder started the company in 2018, but lost momentum when the pandemic hit, cutting down on commercial building use and reducing the budgets of potential customers.
“We went back to the drawing board to create something that had some utility for businesses
and would help us get back on track,” Gupta says. After talking with several dozen business owners and HR managers, 360VR created a simple check-in application to help building managers verify and track COVID symptoms of anyone coming into their offices.
SURY GUPTA
“We wanted to keep it as lightweight as possible,” Gupta says. “So in comparison to other solutions, where you have to install an app on your phone and give personal information, we rely on email communication. The individual will get a unique link sent to their email. All they have to do is clock the link and answer a few symptom questions in their web browser. The results get sent back to their HR manager.”
360VR has been offering its solution for free to about 300 customers, as a
way to build goodwill for its business, once the economy recovers.
One new business line 360VR is set to move into involves object identification. “If you’re looking for a particular piece of equipment, like a fire extinguisher or a water heater, you can search
for it and be able to see all the results. It’s like a Google search for buildings,” Gupta says. “We’re developing that on the tech side and tying it back to insurance claims processing, where you can have a really good record of what’s in the building and what got damaged, without having to manually go through pictures.”
In the meantime, Gupta is going to keep busy with a more personal project: starting his master’s degree in computer science at UD.
64 DelawareBusinessTimes.com
JUSTIN HEYES/MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY