A Safer Future: How Tech Will Unite Us as Citizens
By Josh Wolfe
At a time when the world feels dangerous and divisive, it’s easy to forget that technology has great power to connect us as citizens in cities, bond us with shared values and community. It often takes crisis for us to remember technology can help mobilize people, attention, and resources and unleash the best in people and our humanity and concern for each other.
Some technology we take for granted like the smartphone supercomputers we all carry that have networked us within and across cities, to each other and to instant communication, convenience, shopping, and fun — a remote control for our wants and needs. But we also sometimes take for granted what we need most: the secure feeling of safety and peace of mind for ourselves and our loved ones.
There are two bold questions that bold founders ask of great technology when building great ventures. The first is asking not what happens when just one person has a technology, but when everyone does. The second is then asking and imagining what the huge social effects might be.
At Lux Capital, we partner with great founders who both invent cutting-edge new technologies and also use those technologies at scale to focus on “matters that matter.” After a period of stealth and success in building a technology layer on top of New York City, to provide situational awareness and safety for networked citizens, Andrew Frame, founder and CEO of Citizen is unveiling that they are now expanding and active in San Francisco along with a new funding round led by Sequoia. We are proud to have been helping Frame and the team by investing very early on in what is sure to have huge growth and huge impact on cities and citizens around the world.
It’s said sunlight is the best disinfectant. With Citizen, technology now connects citizens to each other and first responders, with instant information, live reporting and historical information feeds to provide early and real-time warnings and awareness to help keep each other safe and informed, shining sunlight on risks and crimes before and as they are happening.
The richness of big city life comes with big risks, sometimes hidden from plain sight. For some the race of a rescuing ambulance is just ambient background noise of city living. We get lulled into thinking accidents or crimes are the things that happen to other people, not us or people we know — until it does and everything changes. We might react with alarm, concern, curiosity when we see a parade of police, the commotion of a crowd or hear a loud bang or the wail of sirens. In the past, we’d turn to friends or coworkers and check on Twitter for what might be going on. With all our daily worries and our focus on family or personal stresses and ambitions, the last thing we need is to end up near dangerous people or dangerous situations.
The most important thing in our lives are not our possessions but the people we love. If you have a spouse at work, kids in schools, an older parent who needs care, you want peace of mind to know they are safe in their surroundings and if there are threats they can be warned to take extra precaution or steer clear. We are excited to partner with Frame and the Citizen team on the future they are building. And hope you will join us in answering a third question: What will be possible when technology unites the forces of good?
