Female Disruptors: Ana Araujo Of Safe Circle On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It sounds cliche but, “do not give up”. It took over a year to get the app how I wanted and persistence was key. Also “filter the feedbacks” you get, people mean well but they don’t always understand your vision, even if you explain it. And sometimes “it’s ok to rest”. We get so wrapped up on the gridding idea that we forget that we are humans.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing
Ana Araujo felt the need for a safety app that would actually keep her safer while she was out with friends and working. She got to work to come up with features and an alert system that actually made a difference. Now she is working to spread the word about Safe Circle App, trying to make the world safer one download at a time.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I am originally from Brazil. I graduated in Journalism in 2011 and came to NYC immediately after. I felt out of love for Journalism and after years working in the restaurants business and trying to figure out my path, I decided to watch web development tutorials. And never stopped! Now I am a full stack web developer.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The old safety check apps allows you to add people from your contacts and therefore you will have access to their GPS locations 24/7.
With Safe Circle, you can create circles and Journeys. Only the people in the circle selected will have access to your information and only during the Journey.
For example, are you going on an online date? Select a Circle with your best friend. Going on a work trip? Select the circle with your manager.
And most importantly, the Alert System: When creating a Journey, you will select up to three check in times to mark that you are safe. At the time scheduled, you will get a notification to remind you to mark as safe. In case you don’t, the friends in your selected Circle will get an alert to inform that they should check up on you!
Other useful features are:
“All good” and “In danger” pins: You can create an extra layer for your alert system. The dual pin system! You can create two different pins that will be used to finish your Journey.
The first pin is the “all good” pin. If you finish your Journey with this pin, it will mean that you are safe and your Circle will be notified that you are safe!
The second pin is the “in danger” pin. If you finish your Journey using this pin, it will finish the Journey normally on your phone. However your Circle will be notified that you might be in danger and they will still have access to your Journey information.
Get Me Out: Well, if you are not in danger but want to get out of a situation, just press the Get Me Out button and your friend will be alerted to call you with an excuse for you to leave.
Emergency: You can have up to two emergency contact, then even if you don’t have a Journey set up, when you click on the emergency button, a Journey will automatically created and your contacts will have access to your GPS location. Plus they will receive an alert on their phones!
No data storage: Once you safely finish your Journey, all data is deleted! Nothing in any cloud or database!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Oh I made a few mistakes. Posting about the app publicly before it was actually ready and the only thing I got from it was insurance companies calling offering their services. Also not keeping proper track of interviews. I made a really cool video to one university in New Zealand and I was never able to find it after. Also be ready when telling people about your idea, you would be surprised how people seem prepared to shoot it down.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I don’t have one specific mentor. I’ve been listening to my first users with very close attention. For example, the “all good” and “in danger” pin came about after a few mom’s got concerned with what would happen if the kidnapper knew about the app and told their kids to finish their Journey.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I believe it’s positive when ic comes to make people’s life better or easier. Being able to make a few lives better, without affecting other people in a negative way, it’s a blast. Sometimes, we can be revolutionary without harmful side effects.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
It sounds cliche but, “do not give up”. It took over a year to get the app how I wanted and persistence was key. Also “filter the feedbacks” you get, people mean well but they don’t always understand your vision, even if you explain it. And sometimes “it’s ok to rest”. We get so wrapped up on the gridding idea that we forget that we are humans.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
People’s favorite feature on the Safe Circle was the Get Me Out, so I launched a stand alone version of it, the Get Me Out app. I want to make it accessible and turn it into a real service to society. I want to use technology for a positive change. I am working on ideas that can make people happier and safer. Also, would love to have a free tech school for kids from low income areas some day.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I hate when people look at me like “oh how cute, she is doing this thing”. And when people look surprised that you are working on something that it’s actually good. Would you be that surprised if I was a male?
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
You already have the no. Now go after the yes. — Ask for what you want and need, go for it, and if you hear a “no”, it’s totally fine. Just keep searching for the yes.
How can our readers follow you online?
@safe_circle_app
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Thank you!!
