In an April 2024 episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, host Logan Bartlett welcomed guest Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of Flock Safety. Valued at more than $4 billion, Flock Safety builds AI-powered technologies that help law enforcement and other officials fight crime more effectively, objectively, and successfully. It offers a suite of products, including license plate readers, gunshot detection technology, and situational awareness platforms. The company has played a role in solving more than 10% of crimes in the U.S. Its ultimate ambition: to make it harder to commit crime and ultimately, to eliminate it.
Here’s a summary of some of the most important points covered in the discussion:
- Flock collaborates with law enforcement and local authorities to pinpoint crime problems and develop tailored solutions. The company’s technologies work to improve crime clearance rates, which are low in many cities—primarily because there’s a dearth of objective evidence. Eyewitness testimony can be subjective and is often inaccurate. Police are often understaffed as well.
- As an example, Langley cites a case in Tennessee involving an armed robbery of a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was held at gunpoint and gave police a description of the assailant that later proved inaccurate. However, with Flock, the police were able to obtain a list of all pickup trucks in the area of the crime at the time when it was committed. The police were then able to obtain license plate information, narrow the list to a suspect, then obtain a search warrant.
- This example shows that Flock can not only help law enforcement solve more crimes, but also inject more objectivity into the crime solving process. Detectives can focus more on objective evidence instead of having to rely solely on subjective testimony.
- There are many traditional solutions available for gathering this kind of evidence, but they are costly and decentralized. Flock aims to address these cost barriers by providing more affordable, effective solutions.
- Langley attributes Flock’s success partly to good timing and to leveraging smartphone technology—particularly camera technology. The dramatic reduction in cloud compute costs and ongoing innovation in AI have also contributed to Flock’s success in leveraging cloud technology for their imaging platform.
- Flock is also using AI to identify and track suspicious vehicles for crime prevention. For example, it utilizes 400 devices in San Francisco for real-time vehicle monitoring and law enforcement notifications. It captures vehicle fingerprint and attributes for accurate identification and tracking.
- By helping to improve crime clearance rates, Flock is helping reduce crime rates. This is because the severity of penalties for various crimes does not significantly affect crime rates as much as getting caught does.
- Flock creates a statewide hot list for tracking vehicles and helps in quickly locating missing children. The system notifies the nearest police department and relevant authorities when a hit is found, enabling the safe return of a missing child. The technology connects multiple police departments and has a significant impact in reuniting families and solving crimes.
- Balancing company decisions with societal values is important for Langley. Flock chooses not to build facial recognition despite its effectiveness. It respects societal decision-making, like the specific data retention policies applicable in the communities in which it works. Privacy is also important, and concerns can be addressed with reasonable tradeoffs. Flock provides a public transparency portal that helps police departments communicate exactly how they are using Flock technologies, what data is collected, how it is stored, and other details the public has a right to know.
- Flock’s success in selling to local government is notable, since it’s a market once considered underserved and non-venture-backable. However, investors are now recognizing this market’s potential.
- Langley emphasizes the importance of selecting the right team members to work with. He dislikes traditional job descriptions and values immediate measurable impact during the onboarding process. The company creates actionable 90-day plans for new employees during interviews to align them for success from the start.
- Effective management involves aligning and directing the energy of the team. Managers should not just hire smart people and let them run, but instead drive alignment within the team. Identifying and addressing resourcing issues leads to improvements, and uncomfortable changes can result in happy outcomes.
- Langley expressed his dislike for only receiving polished goods; he prefers to see raw progress and iterative work.
- Fostering meaningful in-person interactions with employees is a priority. Employees are expected to have at least two in-person touchpoints a year, one with their team and one with the whole company, and the company is intentional about the design of these touchpoints for maximum impact. The focus is on assessing whether employees are genuinely contributing substantively or if they are better at managing up and communicating.
- Langley describes himself as a “macro optimist but micro pessimist.” He believes in the success of Flock over the long term, but the executive team focuses more on challenges and problems. He believes that presenting only the optimistic perspective can undermine team confidence, because it may not reflect their reality. Employees are living in the messy day-to-day business of customer complaints and product delays—they’re in the weeds, so it is important for executives to acknowledge challenges. Optimism is valued, but it must be backed by a plan for success.
- Financial metrics are not a primary focus for employees at the company. The majority of employees are new to working at a venture-backed company and find the company’s worth irrelevant. They value Flock’s mission and impact instead.
- Langley highlights the importance of gaining life experience before starting a company. Starting a company at a young age can lead to poor decision-making. Learning from experienced people in early days of a company can make you a better CEO or founder.
- After early success in his career, he experienced a period of uncertainty and reflection. One of his realizations was the importance of working with people you like.
- Impact also matters greatly to Langley as an entrepreneur. He feels a strong calling to Flock’s mission to improve public safety and values his team, co-founders, customers—and the unsolved challenges that Flock is addressing. He also believes successful fundraising is more fulfilling when the company makes a real impact.
- In fundraising, the investor class changes at certain points in time, and so the investor perspective on the business changes. These inflection points occur at the Series B and pre-IPO stages. Series B funding requires more than just a compelling story. Metrics become crucial for Series B investments. Flock faced fundraising challenges at certain points in its history—at the worst point, it was less than three months away from running out of capital.
- Langley faced skepticism and challenges in fundraising at certain points, but successfully proved doubters wrong by tripling business and addressing feedback from investors.
- The venture community demands clear storytelling and proof of success. Investors need benchmarks for future goals, making it challenging for startups in uncharted territory and new verticals. Flock overcame this challenge by setting ambitious goals—for example, scaling from $16 million to $50 million in annual revenue—and then posting a few quarters demonstrating that trajectory. This led to an inflection point where the investor community started to believe in the company and its expertise.