Venture Capital: Start-ups in business of advancing public safety
December 19, 2003
By John Cook
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Call it a sign of the times.

Two of the most recent Puget Sound area start-ups to successfully raise money are in the business of designing software that helps fire and police departments better respond to disasters.

Seattle-based Prepared Response, whose Rapid Responder mapping software helped defuse a school shooting incident in Spokane three months ago, and Tacoma-based Ascentry Technologies, whose mobile communications technology allows emergency personnel to coordinate tasks over wireless networks, both raised more than $1 million in first-round financings in the past month.

While disaster planning can be traced back to the duck-and-cover days of the Cold War, there has been a renewed interest following the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But this time it has a high-tech twist.

Instead of instructional films encouraging students to avoid nuclear attacks by hiding under wooden desks, the software developed by Prepared Response and Ascentry allows emergency crews to access critical information from mobile computers in seconds. Both companies say their technology will help save lives.

That may have already been the case at Spokane's Lewis and Clark High School, where a 16-year-old gunman entered a science classroom and fired a shot into a wall in September.

Only days before the incident, the high school had deployed technology from Prepared Response. It allowed police and fire departments to quickly analyze the situation, scouring blueprints, floor plans and utility shut off locations over the Internet. Spokane Police Chief Roger Bragdon credited the software with helping to bring the situation under control with only the gunman being wounded.

By 2005, every high school in Washington state will be equipped with Prepared Response's technology as part of a $3.5 million contract.

Brian Howe, principal at Stevenson High School in south-central Washington, can't wait. Last week, he saw the need for the software when a bomb threat was phoned into the 400-student high school. Some confusion occurred in coordinating the evacuation with the fire department, he said.

"This would have all the scenarios located in one place that everyone would have access to," said Howe, who expects the software to be installed next year. "I know this building well and I think I am a little unique in knowing physical structures. But if I am not here, who is going to access what is in my brain? This program provides all the information that they need at their fingertips."

Ascentry Technologies is not working with schools. But its technology has a similar aim: allowing public agencies to get crucial information quickly.

In fact, the idea for the company was born amid the wreckage of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.

Ascentry co-founder Federico Pacquing, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who was stationed at nearby Tinker Air Force Base, was on the scene of the tragedy within 15 minutes. As a rescue worker, Pacquing experienced first-hand the communication bottlenecks that occur during a disaster.

"There were a number of incidents where the luck of being able to get very simple information across very short distances probably meant the difference between life and death for a number of individuals," said Pacquing, who co-founded the company with his Air Force Academy roommate in April 2001.

Currently, Ascentry's technology has been deployed at the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the U.S. Navy Base in San Diego.

The Navy is using the technology as part of a larger system that allows individuals to quickly deploy mobile video surveillance. Six other customers plan to roll out the technology by the end of March.

"Think of what we do as glue," said Pacquing. "We glue together video, voice and data and allow individuals to deliver real-time actionable information to devices across the country on the fly."

Ascentry, which raised $1.75 million earlier this month, has more than tripled its work force to 35 people this year. It expects to add 20 more employees in the next four months.

"The biggest challenge right now is keeping up with demand," said Pacquing, adding that the events of Sept. 11 brought added interest to the emergency preparedness market.

Jim Finnell, chief executive of Prepared Response, agrees. The 3-year-old company, whose technology was developed by Pierce County officials in response to the Columbine shootings, expects sales to more than triple next year to about $8 million. It is profitable and employs 20 people.

Customers include hospitals, commercial real estate firms and a tribal casino. But Finnell doesn't want to stop there. Cruise ships, planes, oil refineries, semiconductor plants and biotech companies are just a few of the places where the online mapping and coordination technology could be deployed, he said.

"Everybody likes this. It is just a matter of cost-benefit," Finnell said. "We are trying to develop a tangible return on their investment."

Benaroya, a Seattle real estate and venture capital firm, which is an investor in the company, is installing the software at four of its downtown office buildings. It is too early to say if the system will pay off.

But John Carleton, a principal with the firm, is confident it will. Not only does the technology have the potential to save lives, he said there is a compelling business case as well.

"We saw this as an opportunity to improve our tenants' position because if we have Rapid Responder in our building it protects the assets and the people in a much safer fashion," Carleton said. "By going this route, we also think the total cost of our deductibles can be lowered and we are working with very large insurance companies in this regard."

With government agencies and corporations paying more attention to emergency preparedness, both Finnell and Pacquing think the time is right to overhaul an outdated system.

"We are replacing three-ring binders with technology," said Finnell. "If something really bad happens you usually don't run out of the building with a three-ring binder. But most folks are pretty used to grabbing their laptops."

Pacquing, a computer scientist who formerly worked at Getty Images and Network Commerce, agreed that the current emergency response system is not adequate.

"The first-responder and the physical-security market both are using 40-year-old technology," he said. "Because of that there is an inability to get real time, important information."