What Investors Want to Know: How Bond is Changing Personal Security

Bond creates a new paradigm of Preventative Personal Security for the billions of cases annually where people feel afraid but it’s too early for them to dial 911. In such cases, Bond is your Personal Security Companion, combining cutting-edge technologies and AI with Bond Personal Security Agents in Bond Command Centers around the world who respond within seconds. Revolutionarily, Bond is available to look after you in these pre-911 situations, give you a sense that you’re never alone, electronically detect when there’s a problem, intervene, deter, and even orchestrate local first responders. Unlike a simple panic button that is used (if the user succeeds in activating it) only to notify 911, Bond is preventatively looking after you on demand while preserving your privacy 100%. 

I was looking for a worthy problem to solve. I studied this problem that I was familiar with since it troubles people that I care about.  I learned that the problem is far greater than I originally perceived. I concluded that we have reached a time where a combination of technological and operational innovation can alleviate the problem and enhance personal security in a manner that’s effective, preserves privacy and affordable for all.

Bond is massively scalable. Technologically, we are architected and built to take care of every human on earth. The AI and automation allow us to also be very efficient with our Bond Personal Security Agents who respond in seconds. There is much innovation on this plane. Hypothetically, in order for us to handle all ~4 billion global smartphone users we would need to be the size of one of the largest private sector employers in the world.  We are confident that this is possible, and can happen at a pace whereby operations don’t meaningfully slow down marketing.

Bond is a Personal Security Companion. Our mission is to allow millions of people to simultaneously seek our attention and be looked after by Bond, giving them a sense that they are not alone, combining empathy and security, while preserving their privacy. Our members can choose how they’ll be looked after by Bond – technologically and/or via the Bond Personal Security Agents, who respond in seconds and be with you on video, audio, chat, or – if you wish – also electronically make sense of patterns. Bond needs to be able to reliably and instantly detect an anomaly/threat, intervene in order to check on the member (the end-user), potentially calm them down, guide them, potentially deter unwelcome company (I’ll explain this facet), and if the situation escalates to an emergency, orchestrate local first responders or other forces/resources. Delivering on the above capabilities in a manner that is massively scalable, reliable, affordable and privacy preserving, but also empathetic – requires much innovation that does not exist in standard call centers. Bond operates Command Centers that we designed and built.  Each of the Command Centers in the US and around the world operate more like a Command Center for a special mission, or a flight to the moon than like a call center.

There is vast technological innovation that allows Bond to reliably, in real-time, make sense of patterns that the member (end-user) can allow us to look at on their phone, detect an anomaly, look closer technologically or via the Bond Personal Security Agents in Bond Command Centers around the world; who can then communicate directly with our member in need; know where they are and what’s the situation, including much more than just their location; be able to intervene via video on the phone screen of the member, guide the member (meaning that our Personal Security Agents are trained and tested security professionals – not call center operators); we have saved lives by also deterring/discouraging unwanted company (assailants) by communicating with them via the phone screen of our members (this is counterintuitive to untrained lay people, but the proven principle is that assailants do not want eyewitnesses and Bond Personal Security Agents serve as such eyewitnesses).

Further, Bond is connected to the local first responders in 28 countries (and growing). In the US there are ~6,000 911 centers (they are called PSAPs = Public Safety Answering Points), so we can quickly reach out to the right PSAP and orchestrate their engagement with our members, providing them vital situational awareness and enhancing the likelihood of positive outcomes.  There is a great degree of human centric design implemented in order to allow our members and Agents to deal with pressure situations in seconds; there is also much automation in the Command Centers in order to enhance speed and precision, while ensuring that human empathy is not lost in the process. In 99.9% of cases, our members simply wish for an empathetic professional Bond Agent to look after them. They don’t want to be alone.

Lastly, much technological innovation and sophistication is required in order to maximize data security and privacy. In summary, understanding design starts with understanding the requirements of the mission. Bond developed a new paradigm of personal security that required innovation on the phone, in the Command Centers and the Cloud.  The innovation and differentiation encompasses technologies, processes and the type of humans that are selected and trained to care for the Bond members.

Employers wish to enhance the personal security of their employees, as well as their feeling of safety. Besides that being the morally right thing to do, workplace violence costs corporations in the US about $2,000 per employee per year. That’s about $300 billion per year!  In 80% of cases, workplace violence is caused by someone who is not an employee. Until Bond there has not been a solution that allowed corporations to protect their employees (in a manner that’s effective, affordable and privacy preserving) when they are outside of the corporate buildings (when they commute, when they operate as lone workers –  50 million Americans are lone workers: realtors, sales people, repair personnel, social workers, delivery people, drivers, home care nurses, etc.) – when their employees travel for business, and when they work from home.. In other words, there has not been a solution that’s effective, affordable and that preserves privacy until Bond. Note that the employees do not wish to be looked after by their employers for privacy reasons. Bond is designed to address this problem. Bond is paid for by the employer, but works for the employee (similar to an insurance company), preserving the privacy of the employee. Whatever happens between Bond and the employee stays between them and is not shared with the employer.  Bond enhances the personal security and the peace of mind of the employees – thus increasing satisfaction, appreciation, retention and productivity.

They are a reflection of society. 63% are women and 37% are men, across age groups and other demographics. Senior executives, store employees in retail stores, nurses in hospitals or home care nurses, sales professionals and other lone workers, across age groups, across the US. Some of the largest retailers in the world are Bond customers. They offer Bond to their store employees across the US, and gradually around the world, in France, UK, etc. Corporations also arrange Bond discounts for the family members of their employees. We now start seeing interest by large consumer brands to offer Bond to their customers (not just to their employees). We recently signed such deal with a consumer brand that intends to offer Bond to their ~200 million customers globally.

Much of the emphasis is to avoid becoming a victim of prior success. That implies modestly identifying the necessary ingredients/behaviors/choices that enhance the likelihood of being successful. Then, necessarily designing processes/programs/routines that make it easier/required to uphold such principles.  For example, focusing on being successful and not on being right, ensuring that the team-members are chosen and encouraged to debate until a timely decision; to develop best practices for decision-making, for project management, for post-action reviews, for customer focus, etc. Naturally, there are also lessons about how to inspire innovation across the business, how to lead in general and in specific situations, how to choose the mission, how to choose the investors, how to negotiate the deals, how to manage myself…