Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:00:00 · Garrett Langley
[00:00:00] S0: Our homicide clearance rates are down almost two x in the last fourteen years, you know, which means you've got about a fifty fifty chance of getting away with homicide in America today, which is pretty alarming. Right? That's... The first is witnesses don't cooperate anymore. The second is our expectations of proof have gone through the roof. And then those two things are compounded by a staffing crisis. So you have this kind of trifecta where it used to be very hard to get away with killing someone in America, and today, it's scandally really easy. And and that's like a problem that we look at and go, technology can fix this.
00:00:38 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:00:38] S1: Welcome to Inspired. I'm Alexa von Tobel. What if we could bring missing people home faster? What if we could solve crimes in hours instead of months while actually protecting privacy and reducing wrongful arrests? Garrett Langley believes safety and technology can coexist, and he is proving it's true. He's the founder and CEO of Flock Safety valued at about $7,500,000,000. Flock now works with over 5,000 communities and nearly 5,000 law enforcement agencies across America. This year alone, the technology will help generate close to a million arrests using drones that arrive on scene in under a minute and can literally have AI identify suspects from half a mile away all while reducing wrongful arrests. In this conversation, we talk about how Garrett Flock from the ground up, what the future of policing looks like when technology handles the paperwork, and why he believes we can be both safer and more protected because of technology. As a mom of three, as someone who cares deeply about safety of our children here in America, this episode hits close to home and gave me real hope for a safer society. I'm excited for you to listen. Let's dive right in. If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com.
00:02:04 · Alexa von Tobel, Garrett Langley
[00:02:04] S2: And with that, let's welcome Garrett. Garrett, first of all, I know we're just meeting for the first time. I am sincerely a massive fan. I sit here as a repeat entrepreneur myself, but most importantly, I sit here as a mom of three kids in a world where I often don't like to pick up the paper because today, there were so many shootings and not just one shooting, many shootings. And Yep. My kids were like, mom, what's this? And anyways, I just... I'm so grateful for what you're building here. I think the world needs it. And so just welcome. I'm... I... Really delightful to have you on today. [00:02:39] S0: Thanks for having me. Excited to chat.
00:02:39 · Garrett Langley, Alexa von Tobel
[00:02:39] S0: Thanks for having me. Excited to chat. [00:02:41] S2: So I wanna just quickly start from the beginning, which is I've had a lot of repeat entrepreneurs on here. You're a repeat, repeat entrepreneur, and, actually, you've had just already a really remarkable career. You were one of the first employees at Firethorn, which later sold to Qualcomm for over $200,000,000. You cofounded Experience, a live events platform, which when... Was acquired by Cox Enterprises for over $200,000,000. You helped architect Clutch, an incredible car subscription and fleet management company. This is far from your first rodeo and far from your most... You know, this is maybe one of your bigger companies, but you've seen a lot of success. And I think just before we dive into talking about Flock Safety, I would love to just ask, what have you learned that you could pay forward about being a successful entrepreneur that kind of has been some of the maybe rules and track of your life now that you've been through it so many times?
00:03:40 · Garrett Langley
[00:03:40] S0: Yeah. I mean, I think I always just go back to... There's this constant debate, I think, in technology entrepreneurship of is the product the most important thing? Is the market the most important thing? Is it the team? And I just... I mean, after twenty years or so now of trying to build important companies, it just seems like team is the only thing that matters. And I originally thought that was something that was particularly true for early stage companies, but now Flock's, you know, close close to 2,000 people. And when people ask internally, you know, what's the biggest risk to the company continuing to do well, I should get back to people. Like, if we can hire and retain and train incredible people who are mission oriented, everything rolls downhill. And when I think about fire adventures, we have the highest highs and lowest lows, like, all made better with a stronger team. So for me, like, whenever I look at a problem, I immediately jump to, like, let's just talk with people oriented. Let's focus on that first, and everything else tends to take care of itself.
00:04:43 · Alexa von Tobel, Garrett Langley
[00:04:43] S2: Yeah. I agree with you. People are pretty much the the the one, two, and three most important part of any equation. You grew up in Atlanta, and I always like to ask people... And I I... You still live in Atlanta, Flock Safety's headquarters in Atlanta. I always like to ask people before we dive into just the immense success that you've had. Is there anything from your childhood that really stands out that you kind of feel like was extremely helpful to enabling your success today? And and it could be anything, but I always like to ask, like, what did your parents do? [00:05:15] S0: Yeah. [00:05:15] S2: So not what did they do in their careers, but, like, how did they raise you that made you so comfortable with risk?