About us

Our Mission

Our mission is to give every person the power to make the world a safer place for them, their families, and their communities.

Our Story

How could it be that we can get an Uber wherever we are, or interact with real-time crowdsourced traffic information on Waze; but in an emergency, we are limited to calling 911?

Our founding team all has children and the Sandy Hook shooting, in late 2012, was an emotional catalyst for us to develop a solution.  We initially designed Punch Alert for K-12 schools and specifically for active threats, mainly active shooter.  After extensive research and hundreds of discussions with experts in the field and experienced in emergencies, we learned that the most critical issue is response time.  We also learned that most delays in response are due to lack of coordinated communication and/or incorrect location.  A clear part of the problem was 911, having been designed initially for landline phones, not a mobile environment.  The other, possibly even larger problem, is that we have no way of connecting easily with the people around us… be it the safety team at a school or business, or the surrounding community.  

With the ubiquity of smartphones and our aligned technology expertise, we started our journey and later expanded from schools to workplaces.  Today we are very proud of the impact we are making for K12 schools, colleges, YMCA’s, places of worship, public venues, health care organizations, sports teams, and other organizations.  

With the third major release of our platform this November 2017, we are very excited to announce that Punch Alert has added a new feature that will make an impact not only for your community but also your family. Please use the new 911+ feature as your primary means of calling 911.  Calling with 911+ allows you to talk with a 911 operator, send your accurate location to the 911 call center along with your name and phone number, and notify your family or your workplace all at the same time.  Continue to build your own community of safety, by posting “safety tips” in your neighborhood and following Punch-protected organizations in your area.

Thank you for helping us on our journey to build a global community that works together to make a difference!    

– Greg Artzt, Co-founder and CEO. 


Founders

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Greg Artzt

CEO

Carole Tobias

COO

Advisory Board

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Russ Artzt

John Garrett

Lee Brading

Bill Wainscott


Partners

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RingCentral is a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions. More flexible and cost-effective than legacy on-premises systems, the RingCentral platform empowers employees to work better together, from any location, on any device, and via any mode to serve customers, improving business efficiency and customer satisfaction. The company provides unified voice, video meetings, team messaging, digital customer engagement, and integrated contact center solutions for enterprises globally.

Team Rufus includes electrical & computer engineers, UI designers, and an amazing support staff to help us with everything from accounting, to marketing, to legal. Gabe, along with co-founders Matt, Travis, and Paula, with backgrounds in law, engineering, and business, help keep Team Rufus on track to deliver something revolutionary later this year!

They’ve spent the last year researching, testing, designing, model-making, picking components based on the best functionality & power consumption, and scrutinizing every aspect and every millimeter.

Sunstates Security is a privately held, woman-owned company headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company provides both armed and unarmed security officer services, security consulting and emergency response services. Since its inception in 1998, Sunstates has over 18 years of experience in delivering superior, personalized security programs to a diverse mix of clients including Class A Office Buildings, corporate campuses, utilities, gated communities, schools/ universities, retail environments, governmental agencies and manufacturing / distribution facilities.

Asfalis Advisors is a business resilience firm wtih expertise in crisis management and business continuity planning, training and consulting services. Every day, the team turns trauma into triumph with a vision of developing dominant DNA’s for customers. Asfalis serves as business longevity partners and helps clients prepare for, respond to, and recover from internal and external threats. The goal is to help customers maintain their reputation, profitability, and ability to operate in uncertainty and chaos.

CNP Technologies designs, installs, maintains and supports a full range of business technologies to keep companies connected. Founded in 1995 to provide thin client computing, the precursor to the virtual networks and cloud storage we design and support today. In 2002, CNP became one of the first in the nation to partner with ShoreTel, the leader in unified communications.

Today, they provide services across the United States. Their clients come from a broad range of business sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, education, professional services, government, financial, construction, and real estate.

SD3IT is focused on supporting the United States Federal Government, State and Local Government, and Enterprise Clients solve business issues leveraging technology solutions.  By starting from a business problem rather than a set of tools the solutions are customized to each environment.  They provide organizations with IT Transition, Advanced Threat

They provide organizations with IT Transition, Advanced Threat Analysis and Mitigation , as well as providing market research for any datacenter, network, or cyber security services.

Mutualink’s emergency response communications technology offers interoperability across multiple Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource (CIKR) entities. They enable communities to share voice, video, text, and data securely to keep stakeholders safe.

Mutualink creates networks of interoperable communities that are, at an instant, capable of sharing radio, voice, text, video, data files and telephone communications in a secure environment. The combination of affordability and the elegant simplicity of our offering changes the way communities across the country communicate.

A+ Technology & Security Solutions, Inc. is the provider-of-choice for customers seeking integrated, state-of-the-art technology, including a wide range of Security, IT Infrastructure, LED Lighting and Audio/Video solutions.

Their expertise is in “technology convergence,” leveraging the power of the network to bring together independent systems into powerful, innovative solutions that deliver far more value than the sum of their parts.

Johnson Controls is a global leader creating a safe, comfortable and sustainable world. Their 105,000 employees create intelligent buildings, efficient energy solutions and integrated infrastructure that work seamlessly together to deliver on the promise of smart cities and communities in 150 countries. Johnson Controls’ commitment to sustainability dates back to their roots in 1885, with the invention of the first electric room thermostat. They are committed to helping their customers win everywhere, every day and creating greater value for stakeholders through strategic focus on buildings and energy growth platforms.

Rise Vision believes everyone should be able to use digital signage to communicate visually. It should be simple, reliable, and affordable. Since 1992 they’ve helped thousands of organizations around the world create great looking electronic displays & digital signs.

As a team, Rise Vision is passionate and fearless about new technology and the ways in which they can work together. They encourage valuing the truth of an idea more than whose idea it is, and foster that exploration by beginning their sentences with please, ending with thank you, and starting with questions rather than jumping to conclusions.