One viral explosion later (thanks Nikita Bier), I found myself inundated with hundreds of inbounds from founders and recruiters in my inbox.

I whittled these hundreds of inbounds into dozens of companies I was interested in talking to, and over the next few weeks I found myself with a full-time job of back-to-back calls and zooms with passionate and talented people doing interesting things around the world.

With all these opportunities before me, I chose to go work at Citizen, and 6 months+ later I have no doubt I made the right decision (and not simply because so many web3 opportunities imploded like a souffle).

Here’s why:

Citizen is the rare opportunity that is both plausible and interesting.

Caption: Nobody will kill LinkedIn. It is the cockroach of online services. 80 years from now, GenZ funeral invites saying “I’m dead. But actually” will be going out on LinkedIn.

As I was talking to all these companies I noticed a pattern in which they could all be placed along 2 distinct axes: interestingness (is this something I find exciting and in a large enough market to matter?) and plausibility (is this something that seems possible to do?)

With the caveat that I am no VC and could very well have guessed wrong (and even the best VCs don’t always get these calls right), I felt that precious few companies wound up in the sweet spot quadrant of being both plausible and interesting. Citizen was one of them.

I was attracted to the bold vision of Citizen–this is not a vision of tinkering around the edges of public safety, but a deep rethink of how communities use mobile technology to keep themselves safe. If we can succeed in building out what we’re working on (including some spicy as-yet unannounced products), we will be the most transformational change to public safety in decades. That is exciting. That is powerful. That matters.

But at the same time, I was attracted to their reality-based plans for getting there: building a freemium subscription service, iterating it towards PMF and then investing to make the revenue charts go up and to the right (and without disclosing more than I can say, they are definitely doing that). Citizen is not an idea for a business, Citizen is a business.

A Product and service that is helping people you might not expect

When people think about Citizen (and its paid subscription, Citizen Premium), they often think it’s a Karen product: some sort of tool to help affluent white people get faster access to help to project a bubble of suburban-like safety wherever they go. But that’s not the case!

Amongst our consumer base (and subscriber base), we find that it is the marginalized communities who are overrepresented. When our User Research team asks them why they use and even pay for Citizen, they tell us it is because Citizen helps them stay safe in a way that the existing patchwork of public safety services alone does not. Citizen helps people at the most risk know what is going on around them. Citizen serves as the eyes and ears for the single woman walking her dog at night. Citizen reassures families living in high-risk areas knowing their loved ones are safe. Citizen enables a high-risk community’s own Violence Interrupters to intervene in an emerging situation before it escalates to the police needing to get involved. Citizen gets first responders to show up.

Dedicated and passionate employees taking their responsibilities seriously

Remember Bodega? That was a fun week of getting mad on the Internet. If you don’t, the tl;dr was that some privileged tech bros entered a space they didn’t understand well with intent to disrupt an existing ecosystem of bodegas (NYC-speak for corner stores), the disruption of which may disproportionately impact the marginalized communities who depend on them for food and employment. The Internet wouldn’t have it, and arose in such righteous fury that Bodega had to backtrack.

Citizen’s employee profile is not like Bodega’s, or most other tech companies’. The Product and Engineering teams are only a part of Citizen. Most of our headcount is for a (unionized ✊✊) operations team, distributed in communities across the country. Some of our longest-serving high-impact employees are members of the marginalized communities we serve. They drive our company culture and are integral to our product thinking in ways that are new and exciting for me (but that I bet will be standard in tech companies nationwide in a decade’s time).

A company that goes heavy on picking the right people, so they can go light on process

Facebook’s response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal was to lasso all of Facebook’s product workstreams into a protective web of procedures and processes to ensure that no more Bad Things Happened by having you review every proposed new product (or addition of a feature to a product. Or removal of a feature. Or changing of a feature…) with an ever-growing checklist of privacy, policy, legal, technical, and other bureaucrats, like our own internal DMV (ask anyone who worked at FB/Meta in the last couple years what they think of “PXFN” and they will either run away, burst into tears or attack you).

It slowed Facebook’s ability to ship to a crawl, crushed morale (and that was when we could drown our sorrows in RSUs that were flying high), and stifled creativity. How did they get to this point?

Facebook had to do this because they essentially had to overcorrect through bureaucracy that which had not been baked into the culture. Citizen is avoiding that trap because we are very mindfully selecting for the sort of person who naturally cares deeply about the social impact of the products they ship, and reinforcing that in our internal culture.

Again, Citizen is not a place where you come to go rogue. You’ll still measure twice and cut once. You’ll still sanity-check what you’re doing with legal and with the broader team. But instead of having to go through heaps of soul-crushing, productivity-melting, morale-destroying bureaucratic process, you are expected to be the sort of person who is doing the work to make sure you are building responsibly, because you are the sort of person who cares too much to do anything less.

6 months+ in: was joining Citizen the right call?

Now that I’ve been here for half a year+, it’s a great opportunity to look back and take stock of how things have gone, and how much they may have deviated from what I expected.

It’s not a perfect company, no company is. But when I think of the companies I talked to–the companies I could have joined–there is no place I’d rather be than Citizen. The people I work with are passionate and phenomenal, the space we are in is huge and important, and the product(s) we are building to rise to the immense challenge (and opportunity) in front of us.

I also would like to vouch for the company’s supportive culture. Right as I was accepting my offer, I came down with COVID, and unfortunately I turned out to be one of the unlucky few whose COVID infection comes with a complimentary subscription to Long COVID. My health spiraled downwards in my first 2 months at Citizen, and ultimately reached a nadir where I couldn’t really work. I hadn’t been at Citizen nearly long enough to qualify for any sorts of medical leave benefits or protections. Citizen could have let me go, or even put me on some form of unpaid leave. Instead, they let me take a month and a half off work, and kept me on the payroll so I could focus on rest and recovery. When I came back, they let me ramp up slowly so as to not over-exert myself and trigger a relapse of Long COVID symptoms. I’m still not 100% better, but I’ve made tremendous strides in my recovery thanks to the space Citizen has given me for it.

Any startup can say they care about their employees (and every startup does say that), but I can point to real proof at Citizen.

Also, we’re hiring!

Why I Joined Citizen was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When a Premium subscriber who frequently uses the service found an unconscious man on the sidewalk, they connected with Citizen Agent Angelo in a live video call. In under a minute, Agent Angelo assessed the man in distress and connected with 911 to request EMS.

It’s common for 911 operators to give bystanders “pre-arrival instructions” to perform before first responders arrive at the scene. In this case, the 911 operator directed our caller to roll the unconscious man on his side to protect his airway until EMS arrived. The 911 operator then left the call, but Agent Angelo could see via the live video feed that our caller had not properly performed the instruction.

Agent Angelo calmly repeated the 911 operator’s directives, and even provided a visual demonstration of how the unconscious man should be positioned. The caller was ultimately able to protect the man’s airway, and Agent Angelo stayed on the line with them until EMS arrived.

This incredible demonstration of collaboration shows how Citizen Agents enhance the 911 system. By being able to actually view the scene, the agent had additional situational context that helped both the caller and the unconscious man the caller had found.

We are grateful to Agent Angelo for his patience and ingenuity while assisting both the subscriber and the man in medical distress.

If you’re interested in trying connecting with a Citizen Agent, you can start a free trial here.

Mission Moment: Citizen Agent and Frequent Caller Help Unconscious Man was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This social justice collective builds safety, leadership, and political empowerment within the LGBTQ+ community of Atlanta.

“When we are thinking about safety we wanted to be in the practice of having safety without stigma and without shame,” says Toni-Michelle Williams, the Executive Director of SNAP Co. SNAP Co.

Trans folks, particularly Black transgender women, are at a heightened risk of violence. According to a recent study done by the Williams Institute at UCLA the trans community is:

• 4X more likely to be victimized than cisgender people.
• 2X the rates of property victimization than cisgender households.
• Half as likely to report violent victimizations to police.

Citizen is committed to being a part of the solution by partnering with trans-led organizations by providing both an alternative and complement to calling 911 by providing free Citizen Premium accounts.

Citizen Premium provides 24/7 access to our team of highly trained agents who will immediately “tap in” via video or text when you need someone to watch your back. On request, Agents can monitor your location when you go on a first date or when you are out for a walk by yourself, letting your emergency contacts know if you don’t make it home.

Citizen Agents can also help you assess your surroundings using your camera if you feel unsafe, and they can even escalate to emergency services if you think it is necessary. For members of the trans community who may have hesitation around reporting a crime, our Agents will stay on the line, and on camera, with you throughout any police interaction.

By offering Citizen Premium into the SNAP Co. resource toolkit, we help bridge the gap in safety by providing support at the push of a button. We offer accountability by way of reporting interactions and sharing locations with trusted responders. As Toni-Michelle said:

“[SNAP Co.’s] partnership with Citizen allows us to shift the culture of safety with dignity and community power.”

Citizen is available for iOS and Android platforms. Learn more about the app here.

Citizen x Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative (SNaPCo) was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Recently, a subscriber called a Citizen Agent after being threatened by a man armed with a pickaxe. Citizen Agent Christopher answered the call and gathered information from the subscriber. In addition to providing the initial incident details, the subscriber stated that the man had tried to smash their car windows with the weapon, but that they had been able to drive away unharmed.

The subscriber shared with Agent Christopher, “I just thought I should alert this app because I wasn’t sure what to do.” After determining that the subscriber was safe, Agent Christopher escalated the call to 911 and created an incident, informing nearby Citizen users in the Seattle area of the potential danger.

This incident is a common example of how Citizen subscribers think of us first when they don’t feel safe and want to alert their community. Especially when subscribers don’t know exactly what the right course of action is, Citizen Agents are there to guide them through dangerous situations, and ensure both the subscriber and their community are safe and informed.

If you’re interested in connecting with a Citizen Agent, you can start a free trial here.

Mission Moment: Seattle Citizen User Helps Promote Community Safety was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Citizen team recently was welcomed to the weekly My Block My Hood My City Zoom call to see over 70 faces that seemed to be celebrating. Pride beamed from Block Leaders during roll call as they shared updates on the positive progress of their neighborhoods. My Block My Hood My City, is a violence interruption and advocacy group based in Chicago with the mission “To inspire youth, empower communities, and build a better world one block at a time”. On that Zoom call, it was undeniable that the My Block My Hood My City leaders have a pulse on their city and a deep connection to the people they are committed to keeping safe, something that Citizen respects and is one of the many reasons why we are excited to work with this noble organization.

Citizen was introduced to this group and their incredible work while on the ground in Chicago. Citizen’s mission of “Protecting Your World” includes finding mission driven organizations like MBMHMC to work together to empower communities to take control of their safety. In a recent blog post, we shared Citizen Pledging $5 Million to Protect Bay Area’s Asian Community, and now once again, thanks to the generous help of the Goodwater Collective, Citizen offered one year Citizen Premium accounts to all members My Block My Hood My City to support them in their work.

Founder and CEO, Jahmal Cole, notes that My Block My Hood My City was born from the desire to provide opportunities for Chicago’s youth and empower the community by reducing a major barrier that plagues the city — violence. Countless numbers of the youth of Chicago feel limited in their choice for success, My Block My Hood My City aims to expand what their world gets to look like to these young people by providing scholarships, neighborhood walks, and access to the group’s Explorers Program.

Over the past five years My Block My Hood My City’s presence and efforts have expanded into community organizing and development, holistic care offerings and small business relief. My Block My Hood My City understands that this sort of overwhelming change starts by moving block by block.

“That’s why we’re excited to be partnering with the Citizen app to highlight positive things being done [on] the block. For us at My Block My Hood My City, democracy starts at the block level.”

Citizen and My Block My Hood My City are working together to create a better world. Building on our newly formed partnership is a step in the right direction to keep Chicagoans safe and bring the Chicago community together.

Citizen is available for iOS and Android platforms. Learn more about the app here.

Citizen x My Block My Hood My City was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Recently, police officers responded to a report of a missing man in North Hollywood. As they spoke with his worried loved ones, one police officer recommended the family download Citizen and create a missing persons post!

The family did not hesitate to ask the Citizen community for help. They started a live broadcast on the Citizen app, describing the missing man as a vulnerable adult with Down Syndrome. Citizen Agent Christopher proactively initiated a video call with them, and was able to collect photos of the missing man and verify details of the case with the police officers on scene.

Agent Christopher then created a public incident and notified over 8,000 Citizen users in the surrounding area. Hours after this interaction, the missing man was found safe!

We know that when law enforcement truly understands the power of our platform, they use Citizen as a tool to aid in their efforts to find missing individuals. We’re grateful that this police department shared the recommendation to download Citizen with the family of the missing man and even more grateful that he was found safe in a short period of time.

If you’re interested in connecting with a Citizen Agent, you can start a free trial here.

Mission Moment: Police Recommends Citizen App to Help Find Missing Man was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are thrilled to announce that we‘ve begun expanding Citizen’s service area into the greater New York City Metro area. This expansion launch includes coverage of four New York State counties surrounding New York City: Rockland, Westchester, Nassau (sharing fire and UGC incidents to begin), and Suffolk.

Due to this effort, millions of additional New Yorkers across the state will have access to Citizen’s free safety notification service, which delivers real time alerts, live video from the scene of incidents, and more. These services are offered through the app, in addition to Citizen’s Premium service, which connects subscribers with live safety agents, available to them 24/7. Subscribers can access a fully personalized and innovative suite of safety resources through these highly trained agents. Users can connect to agents, who are able to assess and address subscribers’ safety needs– from live monitoring to dispatching first-responders, by text, voice or video, with an average response time of under 10 seconds.

“After successfully launching in the Los Angeles Metro Area, we’re excited to expand our footprint outside our largest service area, New York City” said Citizen Founder & CEO Andrew Frame. “One in eight New Yorkers use Citizen and widening our reach will ensure we keep more nearby communities safe.”

In order to provide local real time safety alerts, Citizen has placed custom-built receivers across these four New York counties. These receivers process police, fire and EMS transmissions, which are then interpreted by our expert team of analysts and sent to users as safety notifications based on their location.

Citizen, which was born in New York City, has a special relationship with the citizens of the greater New York Metro Area and is proud to be able to further serve New Yorkers.

Citizen reports on approximately 6,000 incidents per day across 60 cities in the United States and serves over 10 million users who have downloaded the app.

If you’re interested in learning more, download the app here.

New York Born Personal Safety App Expands further in NYC Metro Area was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A subscriber recently sent a message to an agent stating they were on their way to adopt a cat from a foster home. Because the subscriber had never met the foster parents before, they asked Citizen Agent Angelo to live monitor them during the interaction.

Agent Angelo suggested the subscriber use a “safe” word to let him know everything was OK and to end the call. They also agreed on a “trigger” word to let Agent Angelo know the situation was not safe and to alert local authorities.

A few minutes after the subscriber arrived at the foster home, Agent Angelo discreetly sent a message to check in. The subscriber replied, “Flower,” letting Agent Angelo know they were safe, all was well with the adoption, and no further assistance was needed.

We’re grateful this interaction went smoothly, that Agent Angelo was able to provide support to our subscriber during an unfamiliar interaction, and that a cat found a new home in the process.

If you’re interested in connecting with a Citizen Agent, you can start a free trial here.

Mission Moment: Citizen Subscriber Helped Feel Safe During Cat Adoption was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Whether you are in need of emergency assistance, if you are traveling to another state, if you become lost or feel unsure about your surroundings, want help locating your missing pet or just need some peace of mind, our Agents have your back.

Below, we share some of the top tips from the Agents themselves!

1. Keep your location on for better accuracy when you’re in need of help. Agents can send resources or emergency responders to your exact location.
2. Don’t forget to enable your audio and video permissions prior to connecting! For iOS: Open the Settings app, Scroll down and select Citizen & Toggle on Microphone and Camera access! For Android: Open the Settings app, Tap Apps and select Citizen & Tap Permissions and choose Allow for both Microphone and Camera!
3. For faster response to an emergency situation, tap the blue shield on the Citizen home screen and start a Video Call, rather than starting an Agent Chat.
4. Citizen isn’t just for 911 response! If there is something going on that is making you feel uneasy, you can connect with a Citizen Agent to monitor you until you feel safe.
5. Safe Words, Save Lives! You can set up a secret phrase with your Agent in case of an emergency. Your Agent can notify police or your emergency contacts.
6. If you want to post your missing pet on Citizen, the best way to do so is to tap the blue shield and speak to an Agent instead of trying to go live.
7. If you’re having technical issues with the app, you should email support@citizen.com instead of pressing the blue shield. Our Customer Experience team will respond quickly to your concerns.

We hope these top agent tips prove useful!

If you’re interested in connecting with a Citizen Agent, you can start a free trial here.

Top Citizen Agent Tips was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Today’s story occurred recently when Agent Kelly connected with a subscriber who was reporting a violation of an Order of Protection. The subscriber stated that the violator was at her back door, and utilized Citizen Premium’s chat feature to discreetly give the Citizen Agent details about them, including their name and vehicle description. While safely in her residence, the subscriber used her camera to show Agent Kelly what was going on outside her home. Citizen Agent Kelly calmly relayed the situation to 911.

Citizen Agent Kelly advised the user to stay inside with her doors locked until police arrived. She even spoke to the responding officer to give further details and ensure the user knew that police had secured her residence, and that it was safe to open the door and speak with them.

We’re grateful that this subscriber was able to rely on Citizen Agent Kelly and stay safe during this distressing experience.

If you’re interested in trying Citizen Premium, you can start a 30-day free trial here.

Mission Moments: Citizen Agent Manages Disturbance at Residence was originally published in CITIZEN Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.