Carbyne's journey: Building the next generation of 911
"When you’re guided by passion or a personal experience it can give you the drive you need to create something truly great," writes Amir Elichai
The idea for Carbyne came to me when I was robbed while at the beach in Tel Aviv. When I dialed 100 (to reach the Israeli police), I was shocked to learn that they did not automatically have my location -- and they were completely reliant upon my ability to tell them where I was before they could send help. I thought to myself, “how could rideshare apps, mobile games and food delivery apps have more location information than our emergency call centers?” After explaining that I didn’t know exactly where I was, the emergency call taker asked me to describe my surroundings. I offered to share my video feed with the call taker, but they told me that they weren’t capable of receiving a video call either... It was at this moment that I realized if my life was in serious or immediate danger, they might not have been able to help me.
That feeling stays with me while we're building and implementing our Next Generation 9-1-1 platforms. We’re helping emergency communication centers across the globe upgrade their technology so they can better protect everyday people in their time of need.
We started our company in 2015 in Israel and moved our headquarters to New York City in 2017. Being in NYC gave us direct access to the largest public safety market in the world. It also made much more sense from a logistical perspective because we were getting great traction globally, specifically in Central and South America. The first step we took in the United States was to find the absolute best people in public safety. We needed the top salespeople and industry experts to help us build our network and advise us in creating the Next Generation 9-1-1 platform that emergency call centers had been waiting for. From there, networking and finding an appropriate first office was paramount. We’ve since outgrown our first official office and are upgrading to a much larger space that can accommodate our rapidly growing team.
Networking and partner relationships have been key to our growth and funding opportunities. The U.S. market is very well connected and many opportunities are available here. Referrals and personal/professional networks allow for the best introductions that a new company needs to secure funding and top notch advisors. At Carbyne, we’re blessed to have such an incredible advisory board with leaders from Homeland Security, FEMA, the FBI and renowned police departments. These incredible people freely provide the guidance, validation and insights we need to make sure we’re providing the very best emergency collaboration solution in the market.
I often think about that call I made from the beach in Tel Aviv. I think about the incredible relationships we’ve made in the past six years and of the thousands of lives we’ve saved. When you’re guided by passion or a personal experience it can give you the drive you need to create something truly great. Carbyne saves lives hourly and every day our platform gets better, so we can help even more people.
