Meet the Knightscope Team
There are all kinds of so called experts and pundits focused on startups that subscribe to a theory that with the absolute best technology, or the brightest engineers, or killer marketing, or uncompromising service, or enlightened sources of capital — somehow through osmosis or the pigeonhole principle you’ll be successful. That’s akin to trying to tell a Formula 1 racecar driver that either his brakes or his steering wheel is more important than the other. Actually, everything needs to work as one total system with no particular functional area being the dominating factor.
Building a company from scratch is very hard, almost all will fail, and it is like solving a hundred simultaneous equations at the same time where each equation dynamically changes over time or just randomly alters its inputs and outputs for no reason — and people are throwing things at you while you try to figure it all out. What one must actually do is to methodically architect a comprehensive solution across all disciplines that is highly adaptive, strategically sound and tactically possible to execute at speed. This is the approach we have taken at Knightscope. And although it is still a work-in-progress, we are off to a strong start — especially now that we have had over 7,000 people apply to come work here at our rapidly growing company!
I’d like to introduce you to the team, our strategic investors and our channel partners so you can begin to see how we are setting a strong foundation for what we believe will one day be a $30 billion global security powerhouse.
MEET THE TEAM
One of the ways to avoid silos and “not my job” attitudes is to literally give teammates multiple different, sometimes conflicting, responsibilities so they inherently have to view issues holistically. For example, the folks that help install the ERP system are also responsible for using and maintaining it, even though their day jobs are in software engineering and production. The engineer responsible for developing a new navigation feature is the same engineer that has to interface with a client and get direct feedback while working on networking issues. The person that designed a part of the machine now has to also help build it, deploy it and service it. Recruiting a group of people committed to the mission that can technically do numerous jobs competently, work in a dynamic startup environment and has the stamina to do it, plus can get along with everyone (we don’t hire difficult people no matter how bright) — takes a lot of “architecting”.
I learned a great deal during my decade long stint at Ford Motor Company. Twelve different jobs focused on four different continents in every functional discipline. My second to last job was Director Mergers & Acquisitions when we were running around buying everything and my last job there was Founder and Chief Operating Officer for a $250 million subsidiary I built for Ford which became the second largest automotive recycler in the world with over 600 employees. Not bad for being 28 years old at the time and the youngest senior executive worldwide. I am grateful for the precious lessons I learned in Detroit and along the way thereafter, which help set a strong foundation to lead Knightscope as its Chairman and CEO.
My co-founder, Stacy Dean Stephens, is a former Dallas area law enforcement officer and tenacious entrepreneur. “As a police officer, I developed a passion for public safety. I always felt, however, that the availability of technologies capable of providing the actionable intelligence needed to combat crime were egregious. My work at Knightscope allows me to finally put that technology in their hands today.” Stacy is our VP Marketing & Sales and has built a knack for public relations over the years. I call him “Hollywood” sometimes.
I have had the honor and pleasure of working very closely with Aaron Lehnhardt, VP Design, for 15 years now. Over that time, we’ve developed a lot of crazy short-hand to get things designed and built quickly — and we always have had a good laugh over his time in Detroit at Ford Motor Company as well. “The challenge of designing stunning products that also have the potential to save and protect lives is what makes me so excited to be a part of the Knightscope team. Many projects I’ve worked on in the past have had the sole purpose of ‘looking cool’ but it exhilarates me to know that what we are working on at Knightscope has a positive influence on society.” Aaron is scary talented, profoundly humble, fast and has a tremendous work ethic. He can also read minds especially mine.
Mercedes Soria came to the U.S. from Ecuador over two decades ago and didn’t speak a word of English at the time. But somehow she now holds 3 computer science degrees and an MBA, helped Gibson Guitars establish their first online presence back in the day and developed a good amount of experience in dealing with large scale deployments of technology during her tenure at Deloitte. She was also a top ranked chess champion in Ecuador and ranked seventh in the world in amateur ballroom dancing globally. Mercedes is our VP Software Engineering. “Working with some of the brightest and driven minds in Silicon Valley to help protect people really resonates with me. I can help make a difference here!”
Our VP Business Development is Jack Schenk and Jack doesn’t mess around. He is former Israel Defense Forces and also led a $250 million book of business for the second largest private security firm in the world, Securitas. His connections in the private security industry run deep and wide. As an investor and executive at an early stage technology startup, Jack also gained valuable experience in selling new technologies to enterprises. “Having worked in the physical security industry for over 20 years, I joined Knightscope because the technology solves real business problems and elevates an industry that has seen basically no innovation during those same 20 years.”
The balance of our team is a group of very bright, dedicated, slightly insane people hailing from all around the world and all walks of life. Some were here from the beginning 3 years ago and helped build the company out of quite literally nothing using some duct tape, hardcore hacking and a level of determination typically only found in professional athletes. Some come from top schools like Carnegie Mellon University, MIT and IIT, while others have worked in the jungles of the Amazon, NASA and several other startups. We also have some absolute gems we recruited out of Santa Clara University. I’ve built a lot of teams in my life, but I could not be more proud of this one and love them more than they will ever know — they are just as possessed about the long-term mission as I am about reaching our goals — we will do whatever it takes!
MEET THE STRATEGIC INVESTORS
Knightscope has 5 strategic investors and all are planned to play different roles in the short-term or long-term.
Konica Minolta is a 40,000+ global team of experts in printers, copiers and imaging who fortunately have over 2,000 service technicians across the United States. We are proud to have them play a pivotal role in our customer support, service strategy and deployments.
Silicon Valley Bank has helped fund more than 30,000 startups. They help innovators, enterprises and investors move forward, fast, with financial solutions for starting up, managing growth, and expanding globally. SVB has been very thoughtful in helping us do some financial engineering and putting thoughtful financial instruments in place.
In the longer-term as we plan to expand globally, we have additional scaling opportunities and regional partners to work with over the long haul.
Flex is the world’s 2nd largest contract manufacturer with 200,000 employees operating in over 40 countries which will be helpful in supporting our “build in country for country” strategy given the sensitive nature of our security technologies in the future.
NetPosa is a $5 billion publicly traded video surveillance company in China and a 15-year old startup prior backed by Intel Capital. The team there has not only gone through the growth process of a successful startup but have a deep understanding of the security market from a variety of angles.
NTT DOCOMO is Japan’s largest telecommunications company serving over 68 million customers via advanced wireless networks. They are also a key sponsor of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and we are hopeful with their support to do our worldwide launch there on that unique global stage in a few years time.
MEET THE CHANNEL PARTNERS
We are proud to be working with both Allied Universal and Securitas as an efficient way to put the power of our technology into clients’ hands.
Allied Universal is the largest private security company in the U.S. with over 140,000 employees and nearly $5 billion in sales. The firm grew out of the recent merger between Universal Protection Service and Allied Barton.
Securitas is the world’s 2nd largest private security company with 300,000 employees and $10 billion in revenue. These companies understand that the world is changing dramatically and that technology is an enabler to provide their customers new solutions in a cost-effective manner.
In summary, Knightscope has pulled together and architected the right people, partners, investors and mindset to execute our plans — now what is left is a mountain of workload for us to get through together. Our mission will take time but we are going to put a huge crater-size dent in the security problem globally — and autonomously!
William Santana Li, Chairman and CEO, Knightscope, Inc.
Help #StopTheViolence at www.knightscope.com
