Trace: Fast Facts

Trace is a comprehensive safety monitoring and proximity-based contact tracing solution aimed at returning students, faculty, and staff to campus safely. Trace is tailor-made for school administrators and campus officials, providing precise, actionable data to keep their communities safe.

Schools Need COVID-19
Contact Tracing

COVID-19 has significantly impacted the operations and financial position of every school in the country. Because of the length and severity of the problem, schools require a reliable, relevant solution to return to campus safely - and stay there.

COVID-19 testing is necessary for schools to be able to see if the virus has infiltrated their community, however testing is expensive, and results can take several days to process.

Manual contact tracing is slow and labor-intensive, and student accounts of their own interactions can lack consistent accuracy.

Trace: Comprehensive Contact Tracing

Trace provides comprehensive and accurate contact tracing data in real time through its software, allowing a school to quickly and effectively mitigate an outbreak of COVID-19 – or any other disease – on its campus.

Our digital solution uses Bluetooth to measure proximity and GPS to confirm adoption and activity status. The product is delivered through a mobile app to the student, and also includes a web-based dashboard for use by administrators. This allows schools to reopen safely, while minimizing the chances of a school closure due to an infection by quickly identifying at-risk individuals.

How Trace Works

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Traction & Accomplishments

Product Development

Customer Acceptance
Trace has contracted with 15 schools for periods ranging 8 months to 2 years. We have been supporting clients since August 2020 and have received positive feedback as well as actionable data to continue to refine our offering.

Patents/IP
Trace’s mobile application, administrator dashboard and respective source code were developed internally. To date, Trace has not filed for legal protection and treats all proprietary information as trade secrets.

Social Proof
Trace has received significant outreach and converted several clients based on the positive experiences of early clients. Generally, the academic customer base is increasingly accepting and valuing the digital contact tracing solutions offered by Trace.

Partnerships & Select Clients
Dartmouth College
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)
Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS)
Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE)
The Higher Education Systems & Services Consortium (HESS)
Harvard-Westlake School, Pomfret School, The Hill School
Mercersburg Academy, Lakeside School, Stevenson School

Manufacturing and Distribution
Software is developed internally through a contractor relationship with SEARAN, LLC. Trace engages with client schools and contracts grant access to our mobile application for all students and faculty. Applications are distributed privately via Apple and Google enterprise accounts.  A public-facing version should be available in public app stores shortly.

What About a Vaccine?

While markets, politicians, and the general public have pinned hopes on a COVID-19 vaccine, there are a number of challenges facing the rollout of any vaccine(s):

• Supply chain issues (organization of distribution networks, freezers needed for vaccine storage, etc.)
• Lack of state funding to support effective distribution
• Other strains: currently, the COVID-19 strain predominantly seen in the US is the Italian strain/mutation, not the Wuhan strain. The upcoming vaccines will only cover the Italian strain, leaving mutations and alternate strains still dangerous
  
  
• Politically and geopolitically-fraught distribution issues: which segments of the population get access first? (Front line health care workers, the elderly, first responders, politicians, government workers, the military)
• Which segments get access last: healthy young adults ages 16 – 22 – A.K.A. students

At this point, the “train has left the station” with contact tracing. New and innovative technology developed for specific events has historically never been “put back in the box” after said event has passed. Disease mitigation and pandemic response technology will only become more important over the next decade and beyond.

Meet The Team

Porter Grieve: CEO, Co-Founder

• Head of Special Projects, AS Roma
• Past: Founder and advisor on two early-stage technology startups
• B.A., Economics, Washington & Lee University 

Kate Ablon: Head of Product

• Past: Product, DealCloud, Private Equity Analyst, SL Group
• B.A., Amherst College 

Graham Grieve: Co-Founder, Product Evangelist

• Past: English Teaching Assistant, The US – Italy Fulbright Commission; Communications & Research Associate, Atlas Organization former Aide to Senators John McCain & Jon Kyl
• B.A. Colgate University 

Arkady Pittel: Head of Engineering

• President & CEO, SEARAN LLC (commercial Bluetooth applications)
• Past: Founder, CandleDragon (handheld Bluetooth technology provider); Founder, RadioAct Corp. (developer of telecommunications software) 

Kyle Trehub, CPA: CFO

• MBA Candidate, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
• Past: Cumberland Farms, Senior Accountant; Ernst & Young, Staff Accountant
• B.A.+ MAACT, Tulane University 

Alexander Grieve: Co-Founder, Government & Investor Relations

• Government Relations, DTCC (specializing in data privacy, cybersecurity, Fintech, cloud, and financial markets policy)
• Past: Presidential Inaugural Committee; Aide to Speaker of the House John Boehner
• B.A., Colgate University 

Steve Wittmann: VP - Strategy

• MBA Candidate, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
• Past: Private Equity Senior Associate, Fort Point Capital, Investment Banking Analyst, Stephens Inc.
• B.A., University of Mississippi 

Andrew Winter: Head of Customer Success

• Past: Program Manager, ClassPass; Product Operations Analyst - Financial Institutions Group, S&P Global
• B.A., Economics, Washington & Lee University