People say the best startups are the ones created to solve a big “pain-point.” The whole vitamin vs. painkiller theory. However, some companies are built not just to ease pain, but to address pain caused from scarring. Indeed, scar tissue may be sufficient reason to start a company.

Less than two years ago, Hurricane Sandy caused widespread distress to many New York City communities. In its wake, we’ve seen a number of bright entrepreneurs start new companies that hatched from their experiences.

Take Makespace for instance. The inspiration came after Sam Rosen had to help his girlfriend move out of her flooded Hoboken apartment into a storage facility. The task made him realize that market for storage of personal goods was ready to disrupted.

This post is about another company that’s launching its product today: goTenna.

The trigger, familiar to all New Yorkers who were around in October 2012, was when over a quarter of cell towers were downed because of the storm. Mobile phones were out for people supported by these towers, and other forms of communication that ran over an Internet connection were unreliable or unavailable after the storm because power was out across broad swaths of the city.

Two siblings, Daniela and Jorge Perdomo, came up with the idea of a device — goTenna — that communicates off-grid with those who also have a goTenna. goTennas pair with smartphones to exchange data over an unlicensed radio frequency known as the MURS band. This allows communication to happen securely, privately and independent of cellular data networks, wifi or even satellites — all of this while you use the phone you already have on you all the time.

The best thing about goTenna is that it supports a long list of use-cases. The emergency scenario may have been the inspiration, but there are numerous situations where cellular network or wifi quality degrades or is simply non-existent. Take goTenna trekking or skiing outdoors, traveling abroad with family, attending a large concert or sporting event with friends, or simply communicating privately (as goTenna is end-to-end encrypted).

We at Collaborative Fund are excited to support Daniela, Jorge and the goTenna team in their mission to let people communicate whenever and wherever they want — and on their own terms.

And you can too if you pre-order a pair of goTennas at www.gotenna.com.