This team of 5 vet entrepreneurs wants to make your next hotel stay safer

Team Mighty
Nov 1, 2018 8:38 PM PDT
1 minute read
This team of 5 vet entrepreneurs wants to make your next hotel stay safer


Two years ago, Air Force veteran Derek Blumke wound up staying in a sketchy neighborhood in Houston while on the road working for his first tech startup that had little money to spend on accommodations. After finding the external side door to his hotel ajar, he got to his room and saw -- from the shoddy repairs to the hinges and the door frame -- that the door had previously been kicked in "breach-style," as he put it.

"I was texting my brother letting him know where I was in case he didn't hear from me the next day," Blumke said. At the same time, he quickly searched his phone for security apps and found none that fit what he needed. And so TripSafe was born.

"If you have a security system at home, why wouldn't you have a smaller system that protects you when you're away from your familiar surroundings?" Blumke asked.

With home security system functionality in mind, he set out to design something that was much more than what he called a "panic button app" on a phone. He wanted something that would cover all the undesirable contingencies surrounding a hotel stay -- intrusion, theft, fire, whatever.

TripSafe CEO and Air Force vet Derek Blumke (right) with co-founder and technology advisor, Marine Corps vet Brian Alden. (Photo: Derek Blumke)

So he formed a team to make the product, drawing on the network of veterans he'd acquired while working in the entrepreneurial space.  Joining him were former U.S. Army infantryman James McGuirk (Chief Hardware Officer and Co-Founder), former U.S. Navy diver and bomb technician Kathy Borkoski (Chief Operating Officer), and U.S. Marine Corps veterans Brian Alden (Technology Advisor and Co-Founder) and Adam Healy (Chief Technology Officer).

The TripSafe is basically two electronic door-stoppers magnetically attached to a base unit that has a video monitor, motion and sound sensors, and smoke and gas detectors. The user can tailor Smartphone alerts and a 24/7 emergency response. The system easily fits into a computer bag or purse.

"We can't trust that everything will be fine everywhere we travel," Blumke said. "And if I have these concerns as a 6-foot-tall former military guy, what does my girlfriend have in those sort of situations?"

 

Watch:

To learn more about TripSafe, please visit www.tripsafesecure.com.

And go here to contribute to TripSafe's Indiegogo page.

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