Episode 5 | Garrett Langley

The Atlanta Story

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Garrett Langley, CEO & Founder of Flock Safety.

Garrett and his co-Founder Matt Feury started Flock Safety over three years ago with a mission to eliminate crime. They do this with their leading edge neighborhood license plate reader that provides police evidence to solve crime. Today, they have 65 employees, raised over $40 million dollars, and currently create 65 hot hits per hour for the good guys to take action on. In this episode, we talk about leading through the corona virus crisis, how Flock Safety got into the esteemed Y Combinator program, and of course why and how he’s building his scaling business in Atlanta.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

1. What’s life like NOW during a Coronavirus world? (2:08)
2. How has Garrett’s leadership shifted during this season for Flock Safety. (6:20)
3. Garrett shares the value of the Flock Safety product and customer base. (8:56)
4. Garrett discusses the Flock Safety experience at Y Combinator. (13:17)
5. How did Garrett get customers before he had a product? (14:38)
6. Was authentic demand before YC or after? (16:41)
7. What’s the secret to getting into YC? (17:55)
8. What did Demo Day look like at YC? (18:50)
9. Garrett talks about the decision process of choosing investors. (22:36)
10. Life after YC in Atlanta. (24:44)
11. How does Garrett view the transition from small startup to big tech. (27:49)
12. What does growth look like to Flock Safety. (30:48)
13. Fundraising updates about Flock Safety. (33:36)
14. Did Garrett always know he wanted to start a company? (37:55)
15. Early learnings to prepare for founding companies. (39:50)
16. Key learnings from the early days that Garrett brought to Flock Safety. (42:08)
17. How does Garrett weigh ideas and find customers quickly? (43:50)
18. What’s it like being the CEO of a rapidly growing company and father? (46:00)
19. Why Atlanta and what has Atlanta done for you? (47:42)

Resources discussed in this episode:

The Founder of Front’s thoughts on fundraising

Flock Safety’s most recent raise

How you can get involved:

Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.

Where you can find us:

Website: www.atlstory.com

Twitter: @theatlantastory

Instagram: @theatlantastory

YouTube: Here

Subscribe to the newsletter here.