Emergency Response For The Twenty-First Century: RapidDeploy

There’s little question that the public sector can be slow to change, given the unwieldy nature of bureaucracy and the often limited funding these organizations have. And while that inefficiency often causes little more than frustration among the public it serves, what happens when it’s a matter of life and death?

For as much as technology has changed the world, emergency response remains much the same as it was in our childhood, no matter our age: we dial 9-1-1 and wait for an ambulance or fire truck to arrive. But what if we could communicate with first responders more efficiently, or even provide them more information about the situation before they arrive? I spoke with Steven Raucher and Brett Meyerowitz, the co-founders of RapidDeploy, who are bringing their own experience and ideas to solve that particular issue.   RapidDeploy is a global organization with U.S. operations headquartered in Austin, Texas and the engineering team based in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Juetten: When did you start?

Raucher and Meyerowitz: We met in August 2016 at a dinner party in Cape Town. We were both volunteer first responders and connected immediately. 

Meyerowitz: I had been working on a cloud-based Emergency Response platform for the agency that I volunteered at and invited Steve to take a look at the work that I had been doing. 

Raucher: Once I saw Brett’s platform, I was hooked. A week later, we agreed on a deal and started working on a plan to commercialize the product.

Juetten: What problem are you solving?

Raucher:  Public safety and 9-1-1 are really the final frontier for digital transformation. While the world moves forward at hyper velocity when it comes to data and insights, public safety is struggling to keep up and as a result, every year billions of dollars are spent by agencies to maintain proprietary, expensive and out-of-date technology. Imagine if you could communicate with 9-1-1 via text or social media, or with video or pictures. Imagine if 9-1-1 telecommunicators had situational awareness before sending a first responder to a scene – weather or traffic or even COVID-19 incidents. Imagine if 9-1-1 could talk to your devices – alarm data, car crash data and wearable data, among others. With more than 240 million 9-1-1 calls in the U.S. every year, we need telecommunicators and first responders to have access to relevant data in these moments that matter.

Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?

Raucher: We believe that every 9-1-1 communications center, regardless of size, budget or location should have access to cutting-edge technology. We work with state 9-1-1- agencies across the U.S., including California, Kansas, Arizona and Minnesota, who are looking to enhance situational awareness and efficiency across their 9-1-1 centers. Additionally, we partner with local 9-1-1 communications centers to transform from a voice-centric 9-1-1 center to a data-driven organization. We have met most of these customers through our participation in Public Safety industry conferences across the U.S.

Juetten: How did past projects or experience help with this new project?

Raucher:  Investment banking prepares you for start-ups. It’s a fast-moving, always-on, high-stakes environment. It prepared me for the ups and downs of running a startup. But it was actually a personal tragedy that was the turning point for me – ten years after I lost my brother in a horrific accident at sea, I moved back home to Cape Town to reset my life. While investment banking afforded me a great lifestyle, it was this reset that inspired me to re-evaluate what I wanted my legacy to be. In Cape Town, I trained to become a Sea Rescue First Responder with the organization that had tried to save my brother. I knew from that point on that I wanted to be in an industry that served first responders. 

Meyerowitz: Before founding RapidDeploy, I was the CTO of an online gaming business for ten years and after that was involved in the Fintech industry. While not a ‘mission critical’ platform like emergency response, architecting a cloud-native platform paved the way for me to build RapidDeploy from the ground up. After I moved back to South Africa, I completed my Basic Ambulance Assistant (BAA) training and started gaining real world experience in emergency response. As I discovered the inefficiencies from my work as a volunteer first responder, I decided to start building a mobile platform to help medics and dispatchers make the most of their efforts.

Juetten: Who is on your team?

Raucher:  Our team is rapidly growing as our business momentum accelerates. We currently have 150 employees, many of them with experience in public safety and as first responders. Our collective experience ensures that we design a platform that is truly revolutionary and meets the unique needs of 9-1-1 and emergency response. 

Juetten: Did you raise money?

Raucher:  Yes, in 2019, we secured our Series A funding of $13m led by Great Point Ventures, Samsung Next and TAO Capital Partners. 

Juetten: Startups are an adventure — what’s your favorite startup story?

Raucher:  In 2017-18, we were bootstrapping with personal investments and a few customer contracts. In order to scale the business, we knew we had to raise money, but most of the Silicon Valley investors we met did not believe that a tech company from South Africa could succeed in the U.S Gov-Tech industry. I was introduced to the legendary Ray Lane at Great Point Ventures. Due to an unexpected turn of weather on the East Coast and a lack of available ride shares, I almost didn’t make it to my first meeting with Ray. In a moment of desperation (and innovation), I walked into the hotel lobby and offered $100 to anyone who could drive me to the meeting. One volunteer stepped up and drove me in the pouring rain. We pulled up to the meeting just in time. It’s a good thing that we did, because in that initial meeting, Ray instantly understood the industry problem that we are trying to solve. He and his firm were the lead investors in our Series A and he still continues to serve on our board. 

Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?

Raucher: When people congratulate me on RapidDeploy’s success, I never talk about ARR (annual recurring revenue) and contracts won; I talk about our people. We have the highest quality team I have ever worked with in my 25-year career, and this includes time at four Swiss banks and two international finance houses. Our mission has allowed us to punch above our weight with hiring. In the early days of RapidDeploy, I was living out of hotel rooms and attending every conference and customer event I could access. During these years, I met a host of subject matter experts and incredibly driven people.  I made a list, promising myself that if we secured funding, we would try and hire some of the people on that list.  We managed to hire them all without exception. This is definitely one of my favorite success stories. A company is nothing without people, and even less without a mission.  We are blessed to have an exceptional team to deliver the mission.

Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?

Raucher:  Anchor on the challenge in the industry that you want to solve. Don’t get caught up on the solution – solutions can pivot but the challenge is the Northstar. Stay focused on what you believe needs to be fixed and be agile, curious and take calculated risks to solve that challenge. Oh, and be lucky!

Juetten: What’s the long-term vision for your company?

Meyerowitz: Building a cloud-native solution for 9-1-1 will truly democratize public safety. We believe a life in Boone County, Arkansas is just as important as a life in San Francisco which is why every 9-1-1 agency should have the ability to access the most innovative technology solutions. If we can arm 9-1-1 telecommunicators and first responders with more real-time information and situational awareness, we will see an overall reduction in emergency response times. Ultimately, this will save more lives.

Thanks to Steven and Brett for talking with me, I am inspired by your story. Improving the speed and efficiency of emergency response is the type of work that benefits all. #onwards.