#lassyproject

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“Technology moves so quickly, we’re going to rely on something 3 years from now that’s not even available today.”

-- John Guydon, @lassyproject

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Meet John Guydon from LassyProject

We’re connecting communities in such a way that they’re safer as a result.

What is Lassy Project?

Lassy Project gives parents the ability to notify a community about missing children within seconds. We’re connecting communities in such a way that they’re safer as a result. Amber alerts take 3 minutes to be issued. Lassy Alerts happen in seconds and improve the chances of finding a lost child.

What’s your company’s mission?

Find lost children faster. It’s very straightforward. We want kids to come home from school. We want kids to be able to feel comfortable living their lives. Give parents piece of mind and go from point A to point B, without being worried. Every 40 seconds somebody calls the police about a missing child. The problem is Law Enforcement can’t tell the difference between what’s emergency and what’s not. Parents don’t want to wait to find that child. Prevent it from happening in the first place.

Think about the network and the places people could possibly be – what do you do? You get the phone tree out – it’s too much time. Flip the phone open, hit the people up. You could then take it to next level, 1600 people. This works on a smaller local level. 

When did you see the need for this company:

October 5 & 10th 2012. A girl named Jessica Ridgeway abducted. She left her house, the plan was to go 6 houses away to her friend’s house. She said goodbye to her mom for the last time. We discovered she had been murdered – it haunted me. How did it take so long from one event to another? As a father, this was terrifying to see how long it took to reunite a child and parent. We knew we had to create a new standard. At a minimum, you should be able to just get out your phone and escalate. Program routes and know if they go off course.

What motivates you?

I want to leave this world better than when I came. That’s why I’m here. I had the feeling and the thought – I’ve got to take action. What drives me is the passion to protect my children. I wouldn’t want that to happen to any child. I know I’m not alone. We can find a coffee shop faster than we can find a missing kid. So much technology we use today, in every space. But what we realized was, it’s the people who will actually make an impact – built with technology, powered by people.

What are technological needs of Lassy Project?

Connectivity. We’re a distributed team. We’ve got people everywhere — DC, Utah, Little Rock, Santa Montica, Colorado. It’s important for us to be connected, hangouts, skype, we need a high quality conferencing solution. Bridging personal communication gaps. Technology is so fragmented right now. It’s growing fast, there’s more data collected now than ever before.