Safety, Training Top Goals for Stratford Startups
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Two Stratford entrepreneurs are showcasing their startups at the 2018 Impact Accelerator program in Hartford in hopes of taking the next step in their business dreams.
Reem Alattas, founder of the RumbleHelmet, and Fred Caserta, founder of the Fire Rescue VR Simulator, are among 22 business owners participating in the annual four-month program hosted by Hartford-based nonprofit reSET. The program is entering its second week of workshops and features other resources and mentorship opportunities to help entrepreneurs prepare to pitch their concepts and find investors.
“Our goal is to support and advance companies that have potential for growth, scale and impact,” said reSET’s managing director Ojala Naeem in a news release. “Both Fire Rescue and Rumble Helmet are excellent examples of top talent with the potential to create innovative, cutting-edge products that provide economic value and increase safety.”
Alattas said she designed her RumbleHelmet concept to boost safety for cyclists by increasing their visibility and improving the way they can communicate with motorists.
“I love cycling, but I’m scared,” she said, adding that she was inspired to develop the product after her former roommate was involved in a car-bicycle accident in 2013.
“She was on her bike and a car hit her because they didn’t see the hand signal,” she continued. “She was turning left and the lane was on the right, and it was terrible. She fractured her leg.”
The helmet features signal lights to help people communicate with motorists and increase their visibility in the dark. According to Alattas, she is looking into offering two options for the helmet function, including buttons on the handlebars of the bike that can activate the signal lights, and eventually hand signal-activated lights.
The other proposal focuses on the virtual.
Aside from classroom training, local fire departments have conducted hands-on and live-fire exercises for years. According to Caserta, due to cost and risk of injury, live training has been infrequent, occurring once or twice annually.
With a background in graphic design, advertising and marketing, he developed a modern way for firefighters to train with his Fire Rescue VR Simulator. The Stratford resident said he and his team developed the virtual reality platform as a safer and cheaper training method to encourage fire departments to train more.
“I said it’d be wonderful to use the medium in a way to impact society in a major way, and I thought that virtual reality would be a great medium to train those who work or train in hazardous environments and then firefighter literally popped into my head,” Caserta said. “The hair stood up on the back of my neck.”
Caserta partnered with Jeff Pinckney and Pete Morotto, two career firefighters in Fairfield and Bridgeport, respectively. Both took part in recovery efforts in the aftermath of 9/11.
A little over a year since coming up with the concept, Caserta said he and his partners have a functioning product and are preparing to conduct training sessions with area fire departments with the assistance of the Connecticut Firefighter’s Union.
“I feel very fortunate because this really is my life’s mission right now,” Caserta said. “If there was one thing that I’d really want to complete in this lifetime is to get this product into the hands of as many firefighters as I can to give them more training and more education so that they are better prepared being that they selflessly put their lives on the line to save ours.”
The Impact Accelerator program runs through May. All candidates who graduate the program will then have an opportunity to compete in a venture showcase event on May 10, where the winner will gain at least $20,000 in startup capital.
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