ROAR has a goal of empowering people through technology to help create safer organizations. And its unique panic button technology solutions provide continuous coverage, even in dead-spot areas. Since the solution works independently of the facilities network, it is always on to ensure staff has a lifeline when they need it most. ROAR has chosen major hotel chains and healthcare providers because of its redundancies, ease of use, effortless implementation, and hassle-free maintenance. Pulse 2.0 interviewed ROAR co-founder and CEO Yasmine Mustafa to learn more.
Yasmine Mustafa’s Background
Mustafa’s background led to the founding of ROAR. And Mustafa said:
“I spent most of my life in unsafe conditions – living through a war, migrating to Philadelphia as a refugee at eight years old, learning I was undocumented when I went to apply for college at 15, living with an abusive father, and working under the table in numerous hospitality jobs to make ends meet. It’s not an accident ROAR is focused on safety and providing peace of mind.”
Formation Of ROAR
How did the idea for ROAR come together? Mustafa shared:
“The original idea for ROAR was to reimagine self-defense tools for women by women after a neighbor was raped one block from our apartment building. We pivoted to workplace safety after learning about the protection needs of front-line workers.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Mustafa’s favorite memory working for ROAR so far? Mustafa reflected:
“Seeing ROAR’s button in the wild. I passed someone wearing our original wearable shortly after it was shipped, and it was an elating feeling. Most recently, it was hearing how our solution may have helped save a housekeeper’s life who was attacked from behind by an unauthorized visitor.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Mustafa faced in building the company? Mustafa acknowledged:
“Like most companies, one of our biggest challenges was navigating COVID. We had just pivoted from B2C to B2B (another challenge) and we started by focusing on hospitality, the industry most impacted by the pandemic.”
Core Products
What are ROAR’s core products and features? Mustafa explained:
“ROAR provides panic button solutions for employers looking to protect their front-line workers from harassment, assaults, and injuries.”
“Our solution provides exact room and floor level tracking once the button is pressed and sends their location to in-staff security, managers, supervisors, or the predesignated responder. We just rolled out a 911 integration with a partnership with RapidSOS that now provides employers with the full opportunity of protecting their lone or overnight workers by ensuring a response from emergency services, whether it’s police, fire, or ambulance.”
“We’re currently serving hotels, behavioral health clinics, retail, massage, and public spaces.”
Evolution Of ROAR’S Technology
How has ROAR’s technology evolved since launching? Mustafa noted:
“We started as a B2C company selling safety wearables for women in urban cities, students, and anyone seeking an alternative to self-defense tools. Our pendant had a silent and alarm mode that could notify loved ones with their location and call for help if needed – similar features to the SOS functionality on today’s Android and iOS devices.”
“We shifted to B2B in 2018 to focus on serving at-risk workers by summoning help to their exact location inside the workplace (and nearby outdoor areas). We specifically focused on building a highly redundant and reliable solution that can work in any building (even dead zones) to ensure communications are sent no matter what. We pride ourselves in offering the best-in-class staff safety solution in the market that is battery powered (important in not disrupting business operations), is standalone (does not need to integrate with the facility’s IT department), and is cost-effective.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of ROAR’s most significant milestones? Mustafa cited:
“Our most important – we are close to protecting one million people with our technology.”
“Other notable milestones include raising $12.1M to date and receiving a patent for the unique way our battery-powered technology can route emergency alerts.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Mustafa about customer success stories, she replied:
“The most harrowing story is the one I mentioned earlier. An unauthorized visitor (aka not a guest) entered the elevator of one of our hotels with someone else who used their key card to go to the 8th floor. He got off on the same floor and followed a housekeeper into the linen closet, where he attacked her from behind. He started choking her, and she remembered to use her panic button to get security, who responded in less than 90 seconds, restrained the man, called the police, and provided her with first aid.”
“One of the unattended use cases of our solution is how often it’s been used to help other people. Staff members equipped with our panic buttons have used it to help guests experiencing domestic disputes, medical emergencies, to de-escalate verbal or physical incidents – it’s even part of human trafficking protocols in some locations.”
Funding
In terms of funding, Mustafa is able to share that the company raised $12.1 million to date, mostly from family offices and impact investors, and we will be gearing up for a Series A later this year.
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is ROAR pursuing? Mustafa assessed:
“5.5 million hotel rooms, 14.5k addiction centers, 700+ psych wards, and over 5.2k outpatient facilities in the U.S, not including the new retail and massage markets we just entered in the last month due to demand.”
