I’ve been thinking a lot about how information gets distributed in emergency situations. In the United States we have the Emergency Alert System, which you’ve probably seen on TV:
The thing is, the EAS is centered around TV and radio broadcasts. In the age of DVRs, Netflix, iPods, etc, how does emergency information reach people when we are increasingly not consuming live TV and radio? Online distribution isn’t currently effective either, because it requires the user to actively seek out alerts. Even more importantly, what about people living in poorer countries with limited access to technology?
Initially, I thought the solution was to create a system to push emergency alerts to people while they are online…but I was wrong. The key to this entire puzzle is mobile phones. Mobile phones have incredible global penetration. More than any other consumer device. There are now more than 5 billion active mobile phones in the world. Remember, there are less than 7 billion people in the world. Even Third World countries have massive adoption.
We need a system to push emergency alerts directly to mobile phones based on their location without the need for the person to opt-in.
The first idea I posted, Oregato, was a fairly small idea. Meaning, even at scale, it could be executed by a relatively small team and will never be an IPO type company. This idea is much, much bigger.
There aren’t many startups that have the potential to be a billion+ dollar company, help hundreds of millions (maybe billions) of people, and save countless lives. If you want to change the world, you have to think big.
This is Allertia