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Memory is a powerful tool. But if your job was on the line, would you be able to trust your memory?

Enter OpenSpace. Founded in August 2017, three MIT graduate students came together to solve this problem for those who work in the physical industries, such as construction, real estate development and inspectors.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e an office worker, you kind of take for granted that you write a document and it鈥檚 stored somewhere and you can look at it over time and you can see how much change has been made, collaborate, but if you鈥檙e building something in the real physical world, you just don鈥檛 have that ability,鈥� said Jeevan Kalanithi, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenSpace.

Kalanithi worked with drones flying over construction sites to get a bird鈥檚 eye view for developers at his prior company. Through that, he befriended a mid-size general contractor from the Bay Area. He would talk through his ideas with him until finally they landed on an idea that the contractor said, 鈥淥h my gosh, we want that. That would be great, can you build that? If so, we鈥檒l buy it.鈥�

This idea was OpenSpace. OpenSpace is a software that captures 鈥淕oogle streetview鈥� of a project that automatically tracks progress photos, whether by hours, days, months or years. Simply strap a 360掳 camera that OpenSpace provides onto a hard hat, hit go on the OpenSpace app, and the documenting begins. Users can then go back and look at the photos from any point in time on their computer or mobile device.

The reason this is a game changer in the construction industry is that workers will be able to see the layers of the project and not have to rely on someone鈥檚 memory. For example, if a project manager needed to know what was under the concrete before it was poured, they would be able to use OpenSpace to look back and find out for themselves.

鈥淎 lot of these things [in the construction industry] are irreversible,鈥� Kalanithi said. 鈥淚 mean, when you鈥檙e pouring concrete, that鈥檚 an issue because it鈥檚 so expensive and time consuming to figure out what鈥檚 under there. $15,000 minimum to see what鈥檚 under there. A picture is worth a thousand words. What we say is that we like to provide truth.鈥�

It鈥檚 unnecessary for all workers to wear a camera, Kalanithi says, as the goal is to keep the behavior of the job unchanged.

Since the company launched a year and a half ago, it has grown from three to 15 employees and has captured 80 million square feet of projects. For context, that鈥檚 27 Dallas Cowboys stadiums worth of space captured. Current clients are located across the globe, from Japan, Thailand, Brazil and within the United States.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing so many wins from our customers whether that鈥檚 to check something or resolve a conflict. It鈥檚 going to save not just a lot of money, but a lot of pain, a lot of trust destruction we鈥檙e helping to avoid, which we feel pretty good about,鈥� Kalanithi said.

As for future growth, OpenSpace is looking to expand upon their current technology to help project managers make informed decisions in the future based on what was captured from the past. 鈥淲e are looking to build analytics products on top of the data we鈥檙e collecting, to begin doing things like automatically measure change, flag issues before they are problems, all these things that we think will be really useful for our users that is like an additional brain and will help make their jobs easier,鈥� Kathani said.

OpenSpace is currently located in San Francisco, California, but is hoping to expand their company to other locations in the future.

As for those who are looking to create their own tech company, Kalanithi recommends, 鈥淵ou shouldn鈥檛 want to start a tech company for its own sake. You should seek a problem you think you can solve in the world and you should decide if the best way to do that is with a technology startup. Never start a tech company for its own sake.鈥�

Jeevan Kalanithi will be a panelist at聽the 2019 AZ Tech Innovation Summit, featuring keynote speaker Mark Cuban. The Summit welcomes speakers from leading edge tech companies that are driving innovation in Arizona, as well as investors who are powering today鈥檚 most exciting startups. To learn more, click聽.