Kickstarter was fun

What a ride! 31 days and tons of feedback; thank you, backers and other interested parties! We made it about 23% of the way. Not bad when I consider the fact that I hadn't done a Kickstarter campaign before and went into it without a marketing campaign (and budget) associated with reaching our $30,000 goal.

To everyone that backed us - thank you. And, since we didn't make our goal, your cards will not be charged and your'e not out anything.

Stay tuned! We've got some fun things coming your (and our) way in the next few weeks that we're sure you'll be interested in. Oh, and beta testing will be commencing in October. Interested in applying to be a beta tester? Sign up here!

1 Million Cups Peoria

I had the great opportunity to speak to an engaged group of Peoria entrepreneurs yesterday at the 1 Million Cups event that is held every Wednesday morning at 9am in the Art Guild building. If you're not familiar with 1 Million Cups, it is a weekly national program deployed in cities all around the country that connects entrepreneurs. Developed by the Kauffman Foundation, 1MC is based on the notion that entrepreneurs discover solutions and network over a million cups of coffee.

Interested in attending? Visit their site here.

Meet our Virtual Family

Soon, we will launch our Kickstarter campaign. All efforts that I and my colleagues have spent towards Virtual Halo come down to the support we will be asking for, from our friends, family, and people near and far that have an interest in personal security, have concerns for loved ones - whether they are elderly or young - or want a subtle presence available as they live their daily lives, in case something goes wrong. Kind of like a halo circling what's most important to you.

Our Virtual Family

Meet Jon, his wife Lynn, their daughter Hazel, and Gramps; they are all on board. In fact, they can't wait for Virtual Halo to come to fruition. They lead busy and independent lives and Virtual Halo gives them the freedom to know that they can get assistance if they need it, while collectively having peace of mind knowing that each other are fine.

Jon - Businessman, Professional, Avid Traveler and International Jet-Setter, Father of the Year and Son of the Millennium. You never know where Jon is going to be from one week to the next, and that works great with his family. When he's around, they are as "Brady Bunch" as a family can be, but they all know that times have changed, and they live broad, multi-dimensional lives.

Lynn - Professional, Philanthropic, Kind and Caring, Backwoods Adventure Seeker, Everyone's favorite Mom, Compassionate Daughter-In-Law. Lynn enjoys a lot of things, but nothing more than her family. Her husband Jon and daughter Hazel mean the most to her of anything in the world, which is why she wants to know they're safe. And if they should get into a situation, she wants to do everything in her power to help them, whenever or wherever they are.

Gramps - Fiercely Independent, Retired, Widowed, Lives on his own, Suffers from Vertigo, Grandfather, Father and Father-In-Law Extraordinaire. While Gramps insists on living alone, his vertigo has gotten the best of him from time to time, which is why Jon and Lynn keep such a close eye on him (it's also the reason he has so many railings in his house). Until Virtual Halo, they called him each morning to check in, and Gramps got really annoyed by those calls. He wished they'd call to chat and be social instead of the obligatory call to make sure he was mobile. Now, with Virtual Halo's "I'm OK" feature, Gramps looks forward to the calls from his son and daughter-in-law; they're more meaningful.

Hazel - Rebellious Teen, Rockstar, Foodie, Novice Hacker, Lover of Board Games, Fluent in German, and loves Krankenwagens. Hazel hates to check in, never tells her parents when she gets home from school (or where she's going when she goes out), but she's a good kid. She's still a Daddy's Girl, she doesn't get into much trouble, but her parents worry about her. The world is a changing place and they want to give her the freedom she needs to be the person she is, but they both want to make sure she's ok.

When our Kickstarter goes live, you will learn how our Virtual Family have integrated Virtual Halo into their lives. Not as a burden, but as a seamless piece of technology that provides a greater peace of mind.

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Freedom vs. Personal Safety - Can We Have Both?

"Those who sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

Even before we started putting a single piece of code to the screen, personal privacty was important to us and this entire project. It's hard to go places and not be seen. There are surveylance cameras everywhere - on the streets, in stores, and at the entrances of most buildings. Over the years, we as global citizens, have incrementally given up our personal freedoms in an effort to be safe. The question is, do you feel safer?

Terrorism, abductions, kidnappings for ransome, natural disasters and emergencies, one thing after another has eroded our perception of how life should be versus how life is. And this is our new reality. Social media has continued to exasperate the problem, as billions of people globally now have the opportunity to "check in" and post their whereabouts online for everyone they know to see. And their friends, and their friends of friends, and the bad guys, and the government. Where does it stop? When will it stop? Probably never.

What we can do, and have set out to do since the beginning of our project was to put privacy controls in the hands of our users. We will not rent, sell, or give out personally identifiable information unless legally obligated to do so. People will not know where you are on an ongoing basis, unless you give them permission. As a company, we do not make assumptions on your behalf; the default settings are always set to "private" so your location is not broadcast. We believe in giving people the option, because that's what we would want.

A couple weeks ago, a wife of one of our collaborators got home from work early and she decided to go on a job. She didn't think to call or text her husband to let him know where she'd be, nor did she leave a note on the kitchen counter. She wanted to get a way for a few moments and unwind, simple as that. Twenty minutes later, and three miles from her home, she was laying in a culvert, 8 feet down an incline from the road because a car had ran her off the road. She was lucky; she hadn't hit her head and she was conscious. Her cell phone worked, but she couldn't gain solid footing, so she called her husband to come pick her up. Things could have been much different had she been unconscious and had her cell phone been thrown in a direction where she couldn't find it.

Luckily, it was just a sprained ankle. Had she used Virtual Halo, it would have alerted her husband when she wasn't back by the preset time that his wife had gone on a job, and from there, he could have started looking for her.

The premise for our technology is simple. We do not stream video or audio of events; we do not require you to constantly push and hold buttons. We let you live your life. Engage the app when you're doing an activity on your own and disengage it when you're secure. Get into trouble? Push the SOS button and help will be notified. Want more of an active presence in the case of emergencies? Subscribe to our monitoring service. We believe in security, but instead of securing tangible objects such as your house and things, secure what's priceless - you and your loved ones. After all, it's what freedom is about, living your life as you see fit, on your terms without being bound by restrictive measures.

For those of you interested in what Ben Franklin actually said, read this.

Crafting the Perfect Logo

Over the past several weeks our graphics design team has been working on our logo and other graphical elements of our app. Below, you can see some of the early riff's and the direction we're going down.