Eight startup companies from around the world are in Syracuse working to get their ventures off the ground. They were chosen out of more than 300 companies to be a part of the first StartFast Venture Accelerator Program in Central New York. Over the next several weeks, leading up to their demo day in August, we will introduce you to each of the companies. This week, our Katie Gibas introduces us to two entrepreneurs of Israel who created the mobile app, "Guard My Angel."
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Hagar Romach and Amir Cohen came from Israel to Syracuse for the StartFast Venture Accelerator program to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. They created the "Guard My Angel" security mobile app.
"My wife uses it every time she goes out of the gym when she goes to the parking lot because she goes out at night and she does not feel very comfortable. My kids use it when they go home from their activities and sometimes they go home alone," said Amir Cohen, "Guard My Angel" Co-Founder.
The app allows you to set a timer for how long you want your "angel" to watch over you. If you do not hit the "I'm Okay" button before the time runs out or if you hit the SOS button, an alert with a map will be sent to your preset contacts. The app can also detect if you're in a car crash.
"They will get a sense of being more safe and feeling secure in whatever they're doing. You can just press it, enable it when you are walking out of your house and stop it when you come back and you know that someone watched over you. And that feeling alone is comforting and helpful," said Hagar Romach, "Guard My Angel" Co-Founder.
The "Guard My Angel" app works on data connections, such as WiFi or 3G. So the map feature won't work without a connection. But it will continue to watch over and send alerts to your contacts.
"When you're hiking in the wilderness, it's very important where is your starting point, where you got to the point without any data connection and when and where you've been each and every time," said Cohen.
There are plenty of location sharing applications out there, so what makes "Guard My Angel" different?
"We respect people's privacy. We do not share the location unless they want to. And we share the complete information in case they need assistance," said Cohen.
Right now, the app is only available on Android. Developers are still working on the technology to expand to other mobile devices.