Building AllClear
“I think I have the virus.”
It was a rainy evening in late March, and my wife Hillary and I were doing the same as millions of others around the globe — video chatting with family. Two days prior, I had celebrated my birthday with a few close friends, over the video chat app Houseparty. This was Pandemic Life, and it was the new normal.
On this particular evening, we were Facetiming with my father in law, Steve.
Steve is a worker for one of the largest railroad companies in the nation. He’s one of the people deemed to be an essential worker as he helps to ensure that cross country freight trains are operating and delivering supplies. Unlike myself, who was working from home the last few weeks, Steve’s job required him to be physically present at a railroad hub. While many of us quarantined inside, Steve was still going into work five days a week to keep the trains running.
“I think I have the virus,” Steve said over FaceTime. “I’m not sure what to do next.” My wife and I looked at each other and shook our heads.
Steve is in his early 60’s. He’s battled cancer. He’s a tall, physical guy, but we knew his age and pre-existing health conditions make him extra vulnerable to COVID-19.
Steve told my wife and me that he was feeling run down, like he had the worst flu of this life. He wasn’t experiencing any shortness of breath, which was a relief.
“You need to get tested,” my wife said to her dad over Facetime.
“Ok, how do I go about doing that?” replied her dad.
A few nights before that call, I was on a Zoom video chat with two of my friends and coworkers — Joe Essenfeld and Matt Geffken. Joe, Matt, and I have been working together for years. The three of us had been talking for weeks about wanting to build something to help with the current health situation. We spent time tossing around ideas. One of the ideas was a place where COVID-19 survivors could share their personal stories. We all liked the idea, but after a couple of rounds of back and forth, we decided to call it a night.
The night after my father in law told us he thought he had Coronavirus, Joe, Matt and I were back on Zoom. I shared the news with them. I told them Steve thought he had contracted COVID-19, and was trying to figure out if and where to get tested.
“You know, it’s tough to find a place to get tested,” Joe said. He started sharing his screen over Zoom. “The information just isn’t out there.” Joe began plugging search terms into Google. He tried “COVID-19 test centers” and “Where do I get tested for Coronavirus.” The results weren’t helpful. Some results were from state health departments but were lacking essential information like operating hours and how to schedule an appointment. Many of the results indicated they were solely for Healthcare workers. It was tough to figure out which test facilities had drive-through testing available.
After a half-hour of trying and failing to find how and where to get tested, we knew we had something. It was abundantly clear that there was no way for someone who had Coronavirus symptoms to easily and quickly find a place to get tested. We were going to build it.
The next day, I texted two of the most talented developers I’ve worked with — David Small and Shamir Saddler. Separately Matt had texted a super talented designer we had worked within the past, Ashley Branch. Joe looped in Camir Ricketts, a Ph.D. student in Computational Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine. We pitched the idea to all four of them — an app to make it easy for people across the United States to find nearby testing sites. All four of them immediately wanted to be part of the mission. We had a team!
That Saturday afternoon, on March 21st, 2020, we had our first team standup. It was time to start building.
The next four weeks flew by. On weekdays, I would wake up at 7 am, get my toddler out of her crib and feed her breakfast. As my wife tagged in for her shift taking care of our daughter, I’d retreat into a makeshift home office and spend the next 8 to 10 hours devoted to my day job at iCIMS, building best in class recruiting software. After cooking dinner and putting my daughter to bed, I’d head back into my makeshift home office, fire up Zoom and join the rest of the AllClear team for our nightly 8:30 pm standup. After standup, it was coding, reviewing pull requests, strategizing, and agonizing over how to roll out a product that would be useful to the public as quickly as possible.
Within the first week, the team doubled. Some of the new team members like Naveed Nadjmabadi I had worked with in the past, others like Carrie Streed and Joe Sangiorgio I currently worked with at iCIMS. David Danko, another Ph.D. from Weill Cornell, joined Camir on the research & data team. The next week, the team doubled again. We were on a roll.
Today, I’m thrilled to share with you what we’ve built over the last month.
AllClear is a nonprofit committed to expanding access to COVID-19 testing.
With AllClear, we’re releasing a free app to help people across the United States find nearby testing sites and access key information, such as screening requirements based on an individual’s symptoms. We’ve created the most comprehensive database in the country for COVID-19 tests, with over 10,000 verified testing sites, and we’re continually updating that database.
We’ve open-sourced AllClear to be transparent with the community, and we plan to add additional resources and features soon, such as information on at-home test kits and the ability to participate in contact tracing to help stop the spread.
Check us out at allclear.app
