In every emergency, whether the danger is violence, an automobile wreck, or a Class-A fire, the most critical element is time. Minutes matter. Seconds save lives.
Yet, even with the intense dedication of first responders, emergency call-takers and dispatchers and today’s multitude of advanced communications technologies, lost information and miscommunications can compromise emergency response.
That’s why, in just two years, Entrepreneurs’ Center (EC) client Smart Response Technologies (SRT), is attracting such attention from 911 centers from coast-to-coast and from angel investors in multiple states.
“We have paying subscribers in 12 states,” said CEO Roger Mann. “How did we get into 12 states in two years with such a high-performing company? It might seem like our success happened overnight, but we’ve been at this for several years. It’s been an amazing, draining and fulfilling journey. You have to be obsessed and pour yourself into the business and we are.”
Real-time AI engine delivers live radio and 911 call transcription to improve speed and accuracy of information and dispatch
SRT’s Delphini is a patented cloud-based SaaS platform aimed at eradicating miscommunication and missed communications. As a caller or first responder is talking, the platform provides real-time, voice-to-text transcriptions over a simplified dashboard. This creates an order of magnitude improvement in clarity, accuracy and efficiency. Comprehension goes up; the chance of missing or misunderstanding critical information goes down.
EC Angels members, alongside angel groups from four other states, plus additional strategic entities, recently participated in a $1.55 million seed round in SRT. SRT says its total funding since 2022 has reached $2.55 million.
What’s more important — the starting technology or the founding team?
In the case of SRT — it’s not actually a matter of either/or. Delphini was developed in cooperation with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) with revolutionary capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI). But the secret sauce of this business — the fuel for SRT’s rapid success — is the experience, complimentary skills and seamless collaboration of the five-person founding team.
“The five co-founders had all worked together previously,” Mann said. “Three of the five of us came out of Lockheed Martin. The CTO and I are engineers. Both of us have applied the discipline of technology and systems thinking to patent inventions. The third one is a business operations manager, with a financial appreciation for enabling technology in engineering.”
At Lockheed, the three would go prospecting for capabilities in their research and development (R&D) phase to solve particular business problems.
“That’s how we were introduced to the core SRT technology,” Mann said, “The Wright Brothers Institute serving as a Partnership Intermediary for U.S. Air Force Research Labs at Wright Patterson Air Force Base introduced several R&D phase technologies for consideration to commercialize. From our systems engineering experience in public safety and by asking public safety experts including members of SRT’s founding team, we recognized that one of these technologies was something that could change the outcomes of emergency communications and response.”
SRT’s fourth co-founder is a technologist and entrepreneur who launched, grew and sold his own public safety technology company. Tim Shaw, the fifth co-founder, was a captain in the USMC, special agent in the FBI for 21 years, developed analytical intelligence training for the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center, developed courses and taught graduate and undergraduate college for seventeen years, specializing in homeland security, criminal justice and emergency management
“We are the hard-hat, bring-your-lunch-to-work type of company that has a really big differentiator — engineers who solve problems holistically. We look for errors in the workflow. That’s where we apply technology,” said Mann.
“We are very different in background and strength. We appreciate those differences and go to each other’s strengths. It is heartwarming to see the excitement that we are part of and continuing to build across the nation for this advanced service,” he said.
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Scott Koorndyk is president of the Entrepreneurs’ Center (EC), a modern economic development organization that powers progress and prosperity through entrepreneurship. The EC supports more than 1,000 innovation-focused startups and small businesses through a variety of programs. Clients are primarily in the concentrated sectors of technology, lifestyle and research.