Most every major building in D.C. has a building manager at the front desk. If you find yourself frequenting these buildings for appointments or business meetings, then you're probably also familiar with the hassle it is to sign in every time you arrive. And for what? Sure it keeps track of people entering the building, but for the most part it's pointless and a major inconvenience. Bethesda-based Brivo Labs, though, has a product that could destroy these loathsome front desk clipboards forever.
As a business unit of Brivo Systems, Brivo Labs looks to leverage the same concept of access control, but in a digital and social way. Lee Odess, Brivo Labs' general manager, thinks the way people interact with the physical buildings around them is completely outdated. "Basically we're going after the paper and clipboard at the front desk of just about every single office you ever walk into," Odess said. "The way they handle and manage visitors is still from the 1950s."
To conquer this inadequacy, Brivo Systems birthed Brivo Labs in June, Odess said. "Brivo Labs is all about connecting your identity from the virtual world through SAM," their social access management API, "and then having it do things in the physical world like open doors, gates, or really anything around an experience where there's a service."
Randivoo is Brivo Labs' first product. The idea is that when businesses send notices to customers or clients via email, they would also send them a token of sorts, which could be anything, like a QR code. Then when the client shows up for an appointment, meeting, or whatever it may be, they scan their token on the Randivoo app, confirming they are there and alerting the other party of the same. Then, while they're there, the same token can be used to open doors and access things, such as the bathroom. "So it's automating the entire customer or contact experience around your office," the general manager said. It's essentially making a physical building social and letting it interact with you.
Perhaps you've heard of similar products on the market in a space called the Internet of Things. Brivo Labs considers itself a competitor in that space, too, but stands apart from others due to its structure and history. Essentially, it's a startup within a larger Brivo Systems company, which has been around for 14 years. "It's wonderful because you get all of the benefits of a larger company, and then all of the really good parts on an entrepreneurial startup," Odess said. But also, since the larger Brivo company has a wealth of experience in access management, they have a tremendous edge. "I think we sit in a unique position because we've been doing access control for customers for 14 years. So some of the hard parts, like how do you handle identity and all the parts that freak people out when you see something about a digital lock – we've been doing and handling that for years and leading in that world."
In less than six months, Brivo Labs has shown tremendous growth. Instead of just coming up with and struggling to act upon an idea, Brivo Labs has been able to dive right into product development. Randivoo is launched, and they're also developing an app for the Google Glass that will be physically interactive. "We have a vision of where we're going," Odess said. "We know the market wants and needs and is looking for this type of stuff, so we're not wasting any time – we're using the money to go and produce a product. We're actually building and moving."
