SYRACUSE — Crowsnest Labs isn’t just out to win the CenterState CEO Startup Labs Syracuse competition. The company’s founders are also hoping the technology they developed will encourage more entrepreneurs to develop new ideas and new businesses. Michael Kruk and Ian Wilson first began toying with cameras last summer, working to develop an easier way […]
SYRACUSE — Crowsnest Labs isn’t just out to win the CenterState CEO Startup Labs Syracuse competition. The company’s founders are also hoping the technology they developed will encourage more entrepreneurs to develop new ideas and new businesses.
Michael Kruk and Ian Wilson first began toying with cameras last summer, working to develop an easier way to connect them to the Internet. This isn’t smartphone technology, Wilson says, but rather technology to connect cameras, such as security cameras, not already connected.
“We believe there is a lot of potential in connecting the Internet and the real world,” Kruk says.
They initially tested out the platform they developed to connect cameras to the Internet with an automatic Twitter feed featuring a cat. Whenever the cat crossed the path of the camera, the camera automatically snapped a picture and uploaded it to Twitter.
With the success of that test, Kruk says, more ideas kept flooding in for additional ways to connect cameras for a variety of purposes including security and even advertising.
One example of a security type of request was a customer who used Crowsnest’s platform to connect a camera in his driveway to his own technology to capture and process an image. The goal was to recognize a UPS truck when it entered his driveway and open the garage door so the UPS driver could leave the package safely inside his garage.
The goal, Wilson says, is to create a platform that will support multiple uses through safe and secure Internet access.
Crowsnest is currently testing potential advertising use with a client with a camera placed behind the client’s advertising. “As people walk by it, it will take photos and keep track of the age and gender,” he says. The images are analyzed and provide an array of data to the client ranging from who is walking past the ad to who is actually paying attention to it. The thought behind it, he says, is that a client can use that type of information to make sure it is on point with its advertising and actually reaching its target market.
Ultimately, Kruk and Wilson say they hope Crowsnest’s technology sparks even more technology growth and other startup companies. Their vision is that others will develop technology that builds off the Crowsnest platform. One area where there is potential, Wilson says, is the growing home-automation market. There is already technology out there where users can handle such tasks as shutting the garage door or turning on the alarm system when they are away from home, typically using their smartphones.
“There’s potential out there to grow a business,” Wilson says.
The company’s technology currently supports Foscam cameras and Crowsnest offers three levels of access to its platform. The captain level, which is free, allows users to connect one camera and provides 24 hours of cloud storage. The commodore level, at $10 a month, connects two cameras and provides seven days of cloud storage. The admiral level, at $25 a month, connects five cameras and provides 30 days of cloud storage.
Kruk and Wilson, who formed Crowsnest in September 2013, received $20,000 for being a finalist in the CenterState CEO Startup Labs Syracuse competition and participated in a 22-day accelerator program. On Jan. 28, the startup pitched its business plan, along with fellow finalists Centscere, LLC and Regattable to competition organizers.
If Crowsnest is crowned the winner on April 14, it will receive a cash prize of $150,000 and marketing and branding services worth $50,000 from Eric Mower + Associates of Syracuse.
That money will go a long way toward helping Crowsnest achieve its goals of adding employees and working to market the company and add new clients. Three years from now, Kruk says, he envisions a profitable company with a mix of clients and a trail of new companies formed around Crowsnest’s technology. At that point, he says, it would be ideal if the company were acquired and gained the resources to take things to the next level, whatever that may be.
In the meantime, the company is already adding to its staff with the addition of a part-time designer and is considering adding a marketing and sales representative. Kruk and Wilson are also doing their due diligence, researching privacy issues, testing the technology, and working to get the word out about Crowsnest, including to potential investors.
However, the company will move forward whether or not it wins the competition, Kruk says.
Crowsnest (app.crowsnest.io/) is located in the Syracuse Technology Garden at 235 Harrison St. in Syracuse.
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