We live in a time that is glorious but yet has a disturbing dark and sinister background. The world is a big place with an increasing crime rate and it is not always possible to be around to protect your loved ones from harm’s way. This sense of helplessness is indeed crippling and not to mention frightening.
“Your life is a collection of body parts that could be used to save many people. And you’re not doing anything. What are you doing with your life that’s so important? Come on, let’s dissemble and discombobulate you for the greatest good for the greatest number.”
It seems like Aaron Kunnemann, Nick Droege and Zach Beattie did take this philosophy to heart. These University of Missouri graduates with their ‘secret codes and development’ have given people a superhero that will keep them safe no matter where they go. Rightfully called SafeTrek, it is your ‘bat signal’ that brings help to you immediately in murky situations.
Meet The New Superhero In Town!
SafeTrek is basically a mobile panic alarm. The way it works is simple – if you are feeling unsafe, simply press and hold on the safe button. When you are safe, release your finger from the button and type in your 4-digit pin. In the event that you need help, do not type in your pin after releasing your finger – your local police department will be notified of your location and emergency.
We most definitely live in a scary world, and walking alone can be especially scary. SafeTrek is built to guard you from this very fear in the simplest way possible – a single button design that puts police at your fingertips.
The Driving Force!
“After constantly receiving crime report emails and hearing stories from our friends about incidents that were occurring on our college campus, we decided to tackle the problem that the campus blue light system was failing to solve. Once we ran the initial SafeTrek concept by our friends, it became very clear that there was a need for it”, says the team.
The Kryptonite!
The team faced tons of hurdles and every day there was a new one to tackle. When they designed the initial version of SafeTrek, the idea was that they would sell individual police departments a dashboard that would allow the cops to accept alerts and crime prediction data from SafeTrek users in their area. The team spent several months trying to work out a pilot with their local police department as well as trying to sell several other police departments the idea. Unfortunately the team was making very little progress as the police departments didn’t want anything to do with it.
In spite of this road block, the one thing that kept them going was the thousands of emails the team was receiving from people all over the US telling personal stories about where SafeTrek would have helped them and asking when it would be available in their area. Also, the harsh reality was that the team would never get SafeTrek to market by working directly with the police departments. This urged them to figure out how they could provide coverage for the entire United States without cooperating with the police departments directly.
“We decided to create a call center that dispatched each user’s local police department to their exact location – it allowed us to cover 100% of the united states, it forced police departments to respond to our alerts, and it made us completely confident that we were going to be going above and beyond our promise to our users’ safety – so on Oct 3, 2013 we launched the initial version of SafeTrek to the Apple app store. The solution we came up with has become the core of why we have been successful and how we continue to maintain an almost perfect 5 star app store rating on the Apple App Store”, further adds the team.
On Competitors and Expansion Plans!
All mobile safety applications present in the market are competitors to SafeTrek at some levels. Further, SafeTrek currently works anywhere in the United States that is covered by a police department. However, the team is laser focused on optimizing their operations and user experience and expanding in the United States. In the future, the team also wants to look for opportunities to expand outside US.
On Target Audience & Monetizing Model
Presently, all users on SafeTrek are 18 to 24 year old females on or near college campuses and realtors all across the United States.
Further, for a successful stint, effective monetizing plan is required to generate revenues. “Currently we are monetizing SafeTrek through a one-time download charge of $2 but are continuously experimenting with different monetization models”, says the team.
So what are you waiting for? Carry your very own superhero wherever you go. With SafeTrek, help is just a phone button away.
To download the app now and for more details, do visit: http://www.safetrekapp.com
