In the quiet suburbs just outside Cleveland, Ohio, a 12-year-old boy witnessed something no child should ever see: a school shooting that claimed four lives in a neighboring town. That moment—etched into his memory with the clarity of trauma—would one day ignite a mission that reshaped emergency response across the United States.
That boy is Michael Chime, co-founder and CEO of Prepared, an AI-powered platform transforming how 911 centers handle emergency calls. Today, Prepared serves over 100 million Americans in 49 states, processing tens of millions of emergency interactions annually—all driven by a simple yet profound belief: every emergency call deserves the best possible response.
This isn’t just another tech success story. It’s a startup story born from pain, purpose, and persistence—a narrative that proves innovation doesn’t always come from Silicon Valley boardrooms, but sometimes from the quiet resolve of someone who refuses to accept a broken system.
The Origin: When Safety Stopped Being a Given
For most children, school is a place of safety—a sanctuary of learning, laughter, and routine. But for Michael, that illusion shattered in third grade.
“I was 12 when this happened… You just recognize: hey, safety is something that’s not a given.”
The Chardon High School shooting in 2012—just miles from his hometown—left four students injured and three dead. Though Michael wasn’t on campus that day, the proximity was chilling. His school walked students down the road to witness the aftermath. The fear in teachers’ voices wasn’t part of a drill. It was real.
That experience planted a seed: What if technology could prevent or mitigate such tragedies?
Years later, at Yale University, Michael reconnected with two classmates—Dylan and Neil—who carried similar scars. Neil grew up near Sandy Hook, another community forever changed by gun violence. Together, they asked: Could we build tools to help schools respond faster during emergencies?
Their first product was a simple app allowing schools to share real-time photos and location data with first responders during drills or crises. But they quickly hit a wall: 911 centers couldn’t receive digital data.
Why? Because most emergency dispatch systems still operate on legacy infrastructure designed for landline calls—technology from the 1960s.
The Wake-Up Call: Walking Into a 911 Center
Michael’s turning point came when he visited his first 911 dispatch center. Expecting cutting-edge tech, he found the opposite.
“I saw the complete inverse… Call takers were frantically typing every detail a caller described—missing critical info while someone’s life hung in the balance.”
In that moment, he realized: The problem wasn’t lack of will—it was outdated systems. Dispatchers were heroes working with tools decades behind the times.
But replacing those systems? Nearly impossible. A single missed call during a transition could mean legal liability—or worse, loss of life. So instead of demanding a full overhaul, Prepared took a different approach: Integrate, don’t replace.
They built software that worked alongside existing 911 infrastructure, adding AI capabilities without disrupting core operations. This “bottoms-up” strategy—giving the tool directly to frontline dispatchers—bypassed bureaucratic procurement hurdles that had blocked innovation for decades.
From Free Tool to Life-Saving AI: The Prepared Evolution
Prepared’s initial product was free. No contracts. No sales pitches. Just a simple link dispatchers could send to callers, enabling them to share live video, photos, and location data during emergencies.
The impact was immediate.
Week One: A Life Saved
In their very first week of deployment, a caller used Prepared during a CPR emergency. The caller had no training. But by live-streaming the attempt, the 911 operator could visually guide hand placement and breathing rhythm—and the victim regained consciousness.
“That was in our first week… and you’re like, okay, that’s pretty cool.”
From there, growth exploded:
- Month 1: 350 incidents processed
- Month 3: 60,000 monthly messages
- Today: Over 30 million emergency interactions per year
But Prepared didn’t stop at video. They listened—obsessively—to dispatchers.
Solving Real Problems, One at a Time
Language Barriers:
Dispatchers were copying Spanish texts into Google Translate mid-call. Prepared built real-time AI translation for both text and voice, supporting over 100 languages.Non-Emergency Overload:
Up to 80% of 911 calls are non-emergencies—noise complaints, parking issues, lost pets. These tie up critical human resources.
Prepared launched an AI voice agent that handles non-urgent calls, freeing dispatchers for true emergencies. Major cities like Orlando now fully offload these calls to Prepared’s system.Data That Hurts More Than Helps:
They discovered that inaccurate or chaotic information could worsen outcomes. So they engineered AI to filter, prioritize, and structure data—ensuring only actionable insights reach dispatchers.
Every feature emerged from sitting beside dispatchers, watching their workflows, and asking: “What’s slowing you down?”
The Startup Strategy That Defied Conventional Wisdom
When Michael pitched investors, he heard the same refrain:
“Don’t work in government. Don’t work in 911. It’s too hard. There’s no money.”
But he saw opportunity in the friction. Inspired by Slack and Yammer’s “bottoms-up” enterprise strategy, Prepared gave its product directly to end users—the dispatchers—bypassing slow procurement cycles.
“If we could get our technology in the hands of end users and make the discussion about technology—not procurement—we would win.”
And they did. Over 1,000 cities adopted Prepared for free before the company introduced paid tiers. By proving value first, they turned users into advocates—changing the conversation from ‘Can we afford this?’ to ‘How soon can we scale it?’
The Human Cost of Inaction
Michael doesn’t speak in metrics alone. He speaks in lives.
“If we stopped tomorrow, the world would be less safe… Everyday lost life is the result of accepting decay.”
According to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), the U.S. handles over 240 million 911 calls annually. Yet many centers still rely on paper maps, manual logging, and analog phone lines.
A 2023 FCC report confirmed that Next Generation 911 (NG911)—which enables text, video, and data sharing—is still not fully deployed nationwide due to funding and fragmentation.
Prepared isn’t waiting. They’re accelerating the future—one dispatch center at a time.
Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines
As Prepared scaled from a folding-table startup to a 100+ person company, Michael faced a founder’s toughest challenge: letting go.
“I was selling. Then I had to manage sellers. Now I build culture. The job changes every month.”
His mantra? Stay close to the customer. Even today, he spends 1–2 weeks per month inside 911 centers, observing, listening, learning.
“A lot of decisions get made in rooms far from anyone using the tech. We refuse to do that.”
This customer-obsession fuels their culture. New hires shadow dispatchers. Product teams eat lunch in call centers. Innovation isn’t theorized—it’s witnessed.
Why Ambitious Missions Attract Exceptional Talent
Critics called public safety “a weird space” for a startup. But Michael argues the opposite:
“It’s easier to build a hard company than an easy one.”
Why? Because purpose attracts passion. Engineers at Prepared aren’t optimizing ad clicks—they’re ensuring a mother can send a video of her choking child to 911. That mission draws talent willing to work harder, learn faster, and care deeper.
And while big tech companies now eye the space, Michael welcomes the competition:
“If our work inspires others to save millions of lives—even if they do it—that’s a win for the world.”
The Road Ahead: A Safer Future, Powered by AI
Prepared’s vision is audacious: Every emergency call receives the perfect response.
With AI now handling translation, triage, and real-time visual assistance, they’re proving that technology can be both cutting-edge and compassionate.
As NG911 adoption accelerates and federal funding increases (the 911 SAVES Act allocated $15 billion for modernization), Prepared is positioned to become the central nervous system of American emergency response.
But for Michael, success isn’t market share—it’s a world where no child loses a classmate because help came too late.
Final Thought: The Power of “What If?”
Michael Chime never planned to be a CEO. He dreamed of playing sports. But life redirected him toward a mission far greater.
His story reminds us that the best startup stories aren’t about disruption for profit—they’re about healing for humanity.
In a world racing toward AI, Prepared proves that the most powerful algorithms are those that serve our most vulnerable moments.
And sometimes, the spark for world-changing innovation begins not in a garage, but in the heart of a 12-year-old who dared to ask:
“What if we could do better?”
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