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1 episodes · 27 quoted claims
Garrett Langley says Flock Safety's growth up to roughly $20-40 million in annual recurring revenue came mainly from local 5 o'clock news coverage of crimes it helped solve.
“we might be the only company that for the first let's call it 20 or 30, 40 million of ARR, strictly driven off of 5 o 'clock news.”
Langley says Flock Safety helped clear just over a million crimes in the United States in the prior year.
“So last year we helped clear just north of a million crimes in America.”
Langley says Flock operates in just over 6,000 US cities, covering well over half of the US population.
“it's just over 6 ,000 cities. So it's well north of 50 % of America. That's covered by Flock.”
Langley says Flock Safety grew from zero to about $500 million in annual recurring revenue in seven years by selling cameras and drones to governments.
“the business has gone from zero to about 500 million in ARR in the last seven years, building cameras, drones, and selling them to the government”
Langley says law enforcement in Florida was not allowed to host data in the cloud until 2022, and Maryland followed in 2023.
“the cloud was only recently made legal in Florida as recently as 2022.”
Langley says a human trafficking bust coordinated on Flock led to 76 arrests across four states.
“we did a huge uh human trafficking bust it's 70 some 76 people arrested across four states like all organized on flock”
Langley says the FBI's NCIC list holds about a quarter to half a million vehicles tied to warrants and alerts, and Flock integrates directly with it.
“the FBI maintains a list called the NCIC, which is about quarter to half a million known vehicles with other warrants.”
Langley says a stolen car appears on the Bay Area Flock hot list at once but takes about 24 hours to reach the FBI's list, which is distributed as a CSV file over FTP servers.
“They will immediately put it in the Bay Area Flock hot list immediately. It will take 24 hours to make it to the FBI hot list. And that's a CSV file that gets sent around on FTP servers across the US.”
Langley says one early engineering challenge for Flock was building a camera that reads license plates and tracks cars on solar power with a 5G data link.
“Read a license plate, track a car on solar power with a 5G backhaul.”
Langley says Walmart reported nearly $1 billion in theft in the prior year.
“for someone like Walmart, I think they reported just shy of $1 billion of theft last year.”
Langley says US homicides rose three- to four-fold during COVID and then fell back to more reasonable levels.
“homicides three to four X'd and then plummeted back down to let's call it somewhat reasonable levels.”
Langley says Flock's Safe City program tends to cost about $20 per citizen per year.
“It tends to be about $20 a citizen a year. It's your choice.”
Langley describes an Eastern European group that bought a freight broker, collected loads under real paperwork and dissolved the company, stealing about $7 million of goods in a day.
“show up with real paperwork, fill up a 20-foot with product, drive away, dissolve the company. $7 million in a single day.”
Langley says Flock's corporate business has more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and is probably its fastest growing segment.
“um north of 100 million of ar oh okay so like it's real probably fastest growing segment”
Langley says Flock lost a large Mexican government deal to Hikvision, a Chinese camera maker, whose price was about a tenth of Flock's.
“And it was us versus Hickvision. Hickvision is a Chinese camera manufacturer, arguably a subsidiary of the CCP. And we were almost 10 times the price.”
Langley says Flock pulled 77 construction permits a day in the prior year, and he suspects it is among the largest general contractors in the US.
“We pulled 77 permits a day last year.”
Langley says Garry Tan led Flock's Series B round, which Langley describes as the only Series B Tan had done.
“So luckily, Gary Tan shared my beliefs of like, safety should be a public right. It shouldn't be a privilege.”
Langley says Axon went public in 2005 and has a market capitalization of about $40 billion.
“Second one would be Axon. You know, like I said, public in 2005, about a $40 billion market cap.”
Langley describes Motorola Solutions as Flock's biggest competitor, with about a $90 billion market cap and a roughly 120-year history.
“It's Motorola who's the biggest. They're about a $90 billion market cap, 120 years old, invented the radio”
Langley says that in a Tennessee town, police average a 7.5-minute response to 911 calls while a Flock drone arrives in 68 seconds.
“Their average response time to 911 calls is seven and a half minutes. Their drone from us gets there in 68 seconds.”
Langley says an average Flock drone can cover a 30-square-mile radius and reach a scene in under a minute.
“No, I mean, our average drone can cover a 30 square mile radius and get there within under a minute.”
Langley says the price of a solid-state memory part used in Flock's cameras rose fourfold in a short period, which he attributes to a much larger company placing a massive order.
“And like, we had this one part, those are our cameras, and the price had gone up 4x in near time”
Langley says the infrared cut filter is the one moving part in Flock's cameras, switching twice a day between day and night modes.
“there's one part, which is the IR cut filter. So when we operate at night, we operate on infrared and you need a different filter so that you don't have pink images during the day.”
Langley cites a Baltimore case in which an aircraft with a powerful camera flying around the clock was deemed an unwarranted search as a reason Flock's drones are dispatched only for specific incidents.
“Yeah, but, like, you look at the Carpenter case in Baltimore, and they had an airplane with a very powerful camera 24 hours a day. and that was deemed like a unwarranted search.”
Langley says Virginia's law set a 21-day data retention period, required audits and limited use to criminal investigations, but barred cooperation with the federal government, which he disagrees with.
“It defined, it did a few things well. And one thing I don't agree with. What it did well is it defined a modest data retention period of 21 days.”
Langley says Flock's core business is profitable and will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in operating cash flow in the current year.
“the core business now is profitable, which is great. Like we'll generate free cash flow, hundreds of millions of dollars of operating cash flow this year.”
Langley says the capital Flock's Thriving Cities Fund invested in local businesses earned about a 21% internal rate of return in the prior year.
“You know, last year, I think we were at, you know, 21 % IRR. So like, it's not a bad business.”