Prepared is a company with a platform that empowers emergency response professionals with the data and tools to save lives in even the toughest conditions. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Prepared CEO Michael Chime to learn more about the company.
Formation Of Prepared
How did the idea for the company come together?
Chime said: “I along with Dylan Gleicher and Neal Soni founded Prepared with a mission to improve public safety after growing up in areas affected by school shootings. In 2012, we saw a nearby community devastated by a local school shooting at the Chardon High School, where a former student shot six students, killing three. As for Gleicher and Soni, they grew up less than 15 minutes from Sandy Hook Elementary in Sandy Hook, Conn., where 20 first-graders and six school staffers were killed that same year.”
“Soon after launch in 2019, the technology had reached over a hundred schools around the United States. In 2020, we dropped out of Yale after our junior year. In the process of growing the school-focused application, we discovered a new gap: between communities and 911. While consumer technology had advanced rapidly, that of our emergency lines lagged. Despite 85% of the 240 million 911 calls per year originating from mobile devices, 911 technology is still built as if they’re coming from landlines.”
“So, in October of 2021, to prevent the continued loss of valuable, lifesaving data, we launched Prepared Live, a free software enabling callers to livestream and share other lifesaving data directly with 911. Today, Prepared partners help protect over 90 million people in 49 states, have helped save countless lives, and have been featured in hundreds of new outlets, including TechCrunch, NBC’s TODAY Show, the New York Post and Forbes.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far?
Chime reflected: “It was that moment of realization that technology can have such a massive impact on mission critical needs and that we actually have the ability to make it happen. Also, the early startup days were always fun as we got to think through a number of ideas and pathways.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features?
Chime explained: “Prepared’s assistive, AI-powered platform has transformed the way telecommunicators do their jobs, and we’ve only just tapped the surface when it comes to the potential of unlocking the power of life-saving data. At our core, providing resilient, AI-powered infrastructure that powers the entities, keeping civilians safe while mitigating external threats across the evolving enterprise tech landscape, is our purpose.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Chime and the team faced in building the company?
Chime acknowledged: “Every day we are chipping away at introducing decision-makers to best-in-class technology solutions for their centers. Some are already there and ready to adopt, others take a little longer — we are focused on being able to show them the value of what Prepared can do mainly by connecting them with our customers because there isn’t a stronger signal than peer-to-peer.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching?
Chime noted: “Throughout our company’s history, our goal has always been to incorporate lifesaving data into emergency response that was previously inaccessible or was not cohesively actionable:
1.) Our flagship product, Prepared Assist, does that by enabling 911 centers to receive next-generation media, real-time GPS location, and execute two-way audio and text communication between caller and call-taker. Now that 911 is able to access this data, among a variety of other things they have to balance on a given call, we want to help them focus on the data that matters most: that which will help improve safety for field responders and the caller, increasing the likelihood of everyone returning home safely.
2.) To do that, we incorporated assistive AI into the platform, allowing call-takers to see a live transcript of the call, translating non-English audio into 33 languages, and pulling out key insights, such as addresses, suspect descriptions, emergency descriptions, and more, so that the call-taker and dispatcher have the most critical information highlighted and easily accessible.
3.) Additionally, we recently launched the availability of two-way audio translation, a speech-to-speech feature for non-English 911 calls. With a growing non-English speaking population, especially in larger cities, this has been a high-priority request from agencies, which otherwise depend on language translators who can sometimes take several minutes to join a call after a request, making it nearly impossible to process urgent non-English 911 calls, according to standards. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Standard for Emergency Services Communications is that urgent 911 calls should be processed in 60 seconds or less, 90% of the time, from the moment the call is answered until emergency resources are alerted.
4.) By synthesizing and displaying data, centralized on a single screen and supplemented by a supervisor view that allows agency leaders to monitor multiple calls at once from wherever they are, we fundamentally alter the capabilities of the 911 center. With critical information identified faster, emergency response moves faster. With the ability to better understand the caller’s perspective via media and text, emergency response is more accurate. No other platform achieves everything that Prepared Assist achieves within a single interface. With the launch of Emergency SOS Live Video within iOS 18, it becomes even easier for the caller to share the data that might save their life.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones?
Chime cited: “Being in 1,000 PSAPs is a big milestone. Launching our AI suite of offerings fundamentally changed what good use of technology looks like in public safety. Additionally, we recently announced our series B funding which allows us to move more quickly on building and shipping for public safety.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Chime about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“You can find more about our case studies at the link here.”
Funding
When asking Chime about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“The most recent series B round of $27 million is led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from returning investors First Round Capital and M13 and new investor NewView Capital, bringing total investments to nearly $60 million.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing?
Chime assessed: “The United States has approximately 6,000 PSAPs. Their sizes vary based on the city/population they are serving.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition?
Chime affirmed: “By synthesizing and displaying data, centralized on a single screen and supplemented by a supervisory view that allows agency leaders to monitor multiple calls at once from wherever they are, we fundamentally alter the capabilities of the 911 center. With critical information identified faster, emergency response moves faster. With the ability to better understand the caller’s perspective via media and text, an emergency response is more accurate. No other platform achieves everything that Prepared Assist achieves within a single interface. With the launch of Emergency SOS Live Video within iOS 18, it becomes even easier for the caller to share the data that might save them.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals?
Chime concluded: “We have been thinking a lot about the end-to-end experience of emergency response and how data and assistive AI can optimize the entire experience for call takers, dispatchers and supervisors.”
