Stop Building In Rooms Without Users | Prepared, Michael Chime

Key Concepts

• Prepared: An AI assistant for 911 calls designed to improve call processing speed, accuracy, and quality.
• Public Safety Technology Gap: The significant lag in technological advancement within public safety compared to other sectors.
• Legacy 911 Systems: Current 911 infrastructure often relies on technology designed for landlines, hindering the integration of modern communication methods like live streaming and text.
• Bottom-Up Adoption: A strategy where technology is introduced to end-users first, gaining their support before broader organizational adoption, mirroring successful models in enterprise software.
• Distribution Hacking: The challenge of effectively distributing technology, particularly in government sectors, and the strategy of offering solutions for free to overcome initial barriers.
• Customer Obsession: A core company value emphasizing continuous engagement with users to identify and solve real-world problems.
• Founder's Evolution: The necessity for founders to adapt and transition from individual contributors to managers and leaders as the company scales.

Origins and Motivation

Michael Chime, co-founder and CEO of Prepared, was motivated to enter public safety technology by a traumatic childhood experience. At 12 years old, he witnessed a school shooting in his community that resulted in fatalities. This event highlighted the fragility of safety and the critical need for better emergency response systems. Growing up in a small town near Cleveland, Chime was initially drawn to sports and challenging endeavors. The school shooting, however, planted a seed of concern about safety that persisted through his adolescence and into college.

The Genesis of Prepared

Chime met his co-founders, Dylan and Neil, at Yale. They shared similar backgrounds, with Neil having experienced the Sandy Hook tragedy in his neighboring town. Initially, their focus was on developing a simple tool for schools. However, this evolved when schools began using their app for drills and wanted to share information, such as pictures, with 911 centers. This revealed a critical flaw: existing 911 systems were not equipped to handle modern data sharing.

Addressing the 911 Technology Deficit

A significant problem identified was that most 911 centers still relied on technology built with the assumption of landline calls. This outdated infrastructure struggled to process contemporary communication methods. Chime's vision for Prepared was to leverage technology to ensure that every 911 call resulted in the best possible response.

Overcoming Implementation Challenges

Recognizing the daunting task of replacing existing 911 technology, Prepared adopted a strategy of integration rather than outright replacement. This approach acknowledged the valid concerns of 911 centers about disrupting critical services. Instead of advocating for ripping out current systems, Prepared focused on building solutions that could fit within existing frameworks. This thoughtful approach, which Chime believes is unique among technology vendors in this space, was crucial for driving real change.

Early Successes and Product Evolution

Prepared's initial product allowed citizens to live stream video and share pictures with 911 centers. Within the first week of deployment, this technology was credited with saving a life during a CPR emergency. A caller used the live stream feature to allow the 911 operator to coach them through CPR, ultimately reviving the individual. This early success served as a powerful motivator.

The company's product suite has evolved based on observed usage patterns and emerging problems:

• Initial Live Streaming: Enabled citizens to share real-time visual information.
• Language Translation (Text-Based): Addressed the issue of language barriers by allowing centers to translate incoming text messages. This was a direct response to observing centers manually copying and pasting messages into translation tools.
• Language Translation (Audio-Based): Further evolved to translate audio directly during calls, eliminating the need for text-based workarounds.
• Voice Agent for Non-Emergency Calls: Identified the problem of long hold times on non-emergency calls and the misallocation of critical human resources. Prepared launched an AI-powered voice agent to handle these calls, freeing up human agents for emergency situations. This has led to major cities offloading non-emergency calls to Prepared.

Methodology and Customer Focus

Prepared's development process is deeply rooted in customer observation and feedback. Chime emphasizes spending significant time in 911 centers, sitting alongside call-takers to understand their challenges firsthand. This "customer-obsessed" approach ensures that new products are built to solve actual problems identified by users. The company's strategy has been to observe how centers are using their system and then develop solutions for the new problems that arise.

Distribution Strategy: "Hacking Distribution"

A key challenge in the public safety sector, particularly with government entities, is the procurement process. Chime likens this to the difficulties startups faced decades ago when trying to sell to Fortune 500 companies. These large organizations often had IT units that blocked new vendors, favoring established players.

To overcome this, Prepared adopted a "bottom-up" strategy, similar to companies like Slack and Yammer. Their initial product was offered at no cost to 911 centers. The goal was to get the technology into the hands of end-users, demonstrate its value, and shift the conversation from procurement to technology. This strategy allowed them to gain traction with thousands of cities that initially paid nothing but recognized the superior capabilities of Prepared's solutions.

Company Growth and Founder's Role

Prepared has experienced rapid growth, expanding from an apartment office to a company with over 100 employees, with plans to double in size within the next year. This growth necessitates a constant evolution of the founder's role. Chime highlights the difficulty of transitioning from individual contributor roles (like selling) to management and leadership. He stresses the importance of letting go of past roles and embracing the discomfort of learning new ones to effectively lead the company at scale.

Building a Culture and Mission

A core aspect of Prepared's success is its strong company culture, centered on customer obsession and a clear, ambitious mission: "to ensure that every time somebody calls in emergency they get the perfect response they get the best possible help." This ambitious goal, while difficult, attracts highly motivated talent willing to work harder. Chime believes that tackling hard, impactful problems is more effective for attracting the right talent than pursuing easier ventures.

Impact and Future Outlook

Prepared's work is seen as "raising the temperature" of the public safety technology space, encouraging innovation from both their own company and larger competitors. Chime expresses that even if other companies adopt and scale their innovations, leading to widespread life-saving impact, it would still be considered a success for the world. The underlying belief is that if Prepared didn't do this work, it likely wouldn't get done, and the world would remain less safe, accepting a status quo of decay and outdated technology, leading to preventable loss of life.