An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t worry about your competition. Worry about your customers.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken Dalley Jr.
Ken Dalley Jr. is Founder, Chairman, and Chief Warrior of GUARDIAN RFID. He has pioneered inmate tracking technologies for U.S. correctional facilities for nearly twenty years, focusing on leveraging technology to protect the 480,000 correctional officers who defend our nation’s jails and prisons.
Since its founding, Dalley has transformed GUARDIAN RFID into a premiere public safety technology company, recognized by Inc. 5000 as the 396th fastest growing software company in the U.S. in 2021, and as a 2021 U.S. Technology Innovator by KPMG. Dalley was a finalist for the 2021 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Technologists in the late 1990s predicted that mobile computing would be one of the fastest growing technology vectors since the personal computer. Mobile devices would be more prevalent than PCs by an order of magnitude, and forever alter the way people interacted with information and each other.
I was an English major and my senior college capstone project was to create a business around publishing. Electronic publishing (e-book devices) was an emerging device category at that time, as were Pocket PCs, which began to compete against Palm Pilots. So, I created a business plan around a mock company called Codex Corp., in homage to ancient manuscripts, which was focused on creating mobile devices, applications, and content.
After graduation, I started my job as a stockbroker, but found myself focusing more on building prototypes of an e-book reader. With my dad’s encouragement, I decided to bring Codex Corp. to life, and formally incorporated the company on September 7, 2001.
Three years after founding Codex Corp., we began piloting some of our technology centered around mobile computing and RFID technology for jails. That’s when we deployed our first beta version of our platform, now known as GUARDIAN RFID, at the Hardin Co. Jail in Eldora, Iowa.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
We’ve had the distinct pleasure of deploying specialized applications for projects that are or were confidential. One of the most interesting deployments of our technology was for the U.S. Army, in which we helped to enroll and track Americans and green card holders from Kabul, Afghanistan in August 2021. In one weekend, we customized and deployed a specialized platform for the Army, complete with 100,000 RFID wristbands and mobile devices, as well as helped track the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghans from the Kabul Airbase.
I worked with our software development managers and certain members of our development team for 48 hours straight over the weekend — basically not sleeping Friday or Saturday — except for short breaks. What we needed to do wasn’t particularly complex, but what we lacked, was time. So, we built, tested, and shipped software that would’ve ordinarily taken two weeks in one weekend while remotely training members of the 10th Mountain Division on how to utilize this specialized platform.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
Our team recently announced Command Cloud, a first-of-its-kind officer experience platform (OXP) designed to equip correctional officers with all the tools required to create safe and secure environments. Command Cloud is an integrated suite of applications and services that deliver a common operating picture (COP) — a consolidated display of relevant information designed to improve awareness, collaboration, insight and discoverability among corrections officers in any facility. It leverages new and existing cameras, RFID and vision systems, and will integrate with more than 80 different applications currently in use today in correctional facilities, including offender management, jail management, and case management systems.
Based on the most sophisticated computer vision, RFID, facial recognition, machine learning/AI, and mobile technologies on the market, Command Cloud enables real-time situational awareness, a term used in public safety to refer to complete visibility into operational data and context that leads to fast decision-making.
Historically, correctional facilities — which employ more than 480,000 individuals in the United States — have relied on paper reporting and siloed technology systems for operational awareness. This has left them with critical blind spots, some of which can be a matter of life and death.
This technology has the power to put critical information in the hands of officers to address those blind spots. Using Command Cloud, officers can use real-time surveillance and insights to enable safer facilities for all.
How do you think this might change the world?
Correctional professionals have one the highest rates of non-fatal, work-related injuries of any profession in the United States. Labor shortages and safety concerns have left the U.S. correctional system with a deadly mental health crisis. As these brave men and women work to keep their facilities and themselves safe, their mental health has suffered. Command Cloud can enable teams to streamline tasks and ensure officers are using their time efficiently, allowing them to spend the appropriate amount of time on the critical tasks that keep their facility safe. By using cameras and machine learning, officers can feel a sense of relief knowing they have a complex surveillance system supporting and notifying them of any critical safety concern that may have been missed.
There is no single solution that will solve this mental health crisis, but we feel confident that Command Cloud can enable officers to feel supported and equipped on the job with the only officer experience platform tailored to their specific needs as correctional officers.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Fotis, we would like to skip this question. Thank you.
Was there a tipping point that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
In October of 2017, four correctional officers were murdered by inmates who were attempting to escape the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in North Carolina. Veronica Darden, Justin Smith, Wendy Shannon, and Geoff Howe all brutally lost their lives. Eight other jail employees also were injured. The inmates were able to follow through with the attack using tools they had collected from the workshop in the facility over time. Due to understaffing and growing inmate populations, only one officer was typically responsible for overseeing 30 inmates in the workshop, which allowed inmates to discreetly stash tools for days leading up to the attack.
Unfortunately, stories like this aren’t rare. Correctional officers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States, exposing themselves to extreme situations where they are vulnerable and without weapons to defend themselves. We knew we had to develop a tool that can provide officers with the situational awareness that can prevent these types of attacks.
Command Cloud’s computer vision capabilities include the ability to monitor and track workshop tools as inmates are using them. The camera can capture who is removing a tool from storage using face recognition, what tool it is they are taking, and alert officers if the tool is not returned in the appropriate amount of time. This advanced AI technology can help facilities avoid tragedies like the one at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution.
We feel so proud that our technology has the power to save lives, but we know our work is not done. The sacrifices that Officer Darden, Officer Smith, Officer Shannon, and Officer Howe made in 2017 continue to fuel our passion to create safer correctional facilities for all.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
Technological adoption has the potential to upset the status quo in every industry, but it can be a larger hurdle for industries that are used to manual reporting, like corrections.
For us to lead this technology into widespread adoption, we work with facility leaders to ensure their teams feel comfortable and confident using our tech. Helping facilities understand the value the technology has in addressing officer mental health, labor shortages, growing prison populations, and increased safety concerns is our job. And it is a job we take very seriously.
We have been so fortunate to work with amazing customers across the country who have adopted our technology in their facilities and proven how successful getting outside of the industry norm can be. I have a feeling it won’t be long until Command Cloud is the new industry norm as facilities continue to adopt technology in order to improve their safety and security.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
When deciding how to launch our Command Cloud product, we knew we wanted to bring industry leaders together to not only discuss the exciting technological developments but also celebrate all the work they do daily to keep America’s correctional facilities safe for all.
We hosted a large-scale, heavily produced virtual event in April, VISION 22. The event featured exciting presentations from the GUARDIAN RFID team followed by breakout sessions where attendees could chat directly with our team and ask questions. It was extremely successful. We were able to connect with customers, prospects, and media to discuss this first-of-its-kind technology and how it will change the corrections industry for good. Now we can focus on VISION 23, making it even stronger and more exciting.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Without hesitation, my dad was the biggest champion of my starting GUARDIAN RFID. He was entrepreneurial himself. Earlier in my dad’s career, he was the vice president of Comserv, which was the first publicly traded software company in Minnesota. After five years, he acquired the mainframe computing division and ran this company for 30 years. My dad understood the tenacity and resolve it takes to start a company. While I’m not sure that I would’ve had the same confidence in myself that my dad had, he at least saw that I would take the opportunity seriously, and provided some of the early capital and guidance in the first few years of the company’s existence.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Correctional officers face the highest rate of non-fatal work-related injuries of any profession in the United States. Corrections is also one of the most litigious, and indeed highest risk departments in any local or state government. Our technology works to protect the 480,000+ correctional officers who work in our nation’s jails and prisons.
When you’re arrested and go to jail, you lose many rights, and you gain others. Our technology serves correctional officers by enabling them to execute better coordinated and efficient oversight of the entire inmate population. At the same time, we’re able to ensure that inmates gain access to essential care and services required by law, whether that’s access to medicine, medical care, nutrition, or program activities.
GUARDIAN RFID supports stakeholders on all sides. We strengthen the safety and defensibility of correctional officers while ensuring that essential services and care are delivered to inmates. We create the transparency that Americans are increasingly demanding of its government agencies.
As part of our success, we also created a 501(c)(3) called the Warrior Foundation, whose mission is to support the men and women of America’s Thin Gray Line through scholarships and financial aid.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
1. Interweaving your culture and mission is one of the most important and powerful competitive advantages you can create.
It took us nearly 15 years to figure this out, and while we might not have mastered it today, we’re in the deep end of this. Folding your mission, vision and values into our culture and brand was a definite watershed moment.
A few years back, we looked more closely at our industry, specifically our end users. Nearly 40% had military experience. We needed an aspirational rallying cry around our software. It had to be empowering and ambitious, conveying strength combined with courage. It couldn’t be sterile. It had to be authentic. And it couldn’t simply describe what we do. So we created a tagline called “Warrior Technology” and we decided to call our end users “Warriors,” not just “customers,” “clients,” or “end users.”
We created specially branded “Warrior” hoodies and gave away at least 500 in the first year to our VIP users.
To this day, we believe interweaving “Warrior” with our mission to protect America’s Thin Gray Line — an emblem that represents corrections professionals — has created more of a movement than us simply leading with uninspiring talk about best-in-class products or features, which fails to motivate.
2. Place greater emphasis on your company’s values and what you stand for, and less on features and functions.
Every industry has its own needs beyond the problems that your products or services may address. You need to figure out what these are and focus on them as much as the problems your products help solve. This helps accelerate your thought leadership development.
In late February 2020, the American Jail Association was circulating a slide deck by Dr. Anne Spaulding, an infectious disease specialist from Emory University in Atlanta, about the potential spread of COVID-19 to jails. Since we have a video production team, we thought it would be an ideal way to use their talent to create timely educational content about a topic of emerging concern.
I called Dr. Spaulding and asked if she would be willing to shoot a video about her slide content at one of our customer sites on the east coast. She agreed. Our customer, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland, volunteered the use of their jail for the production. Within 72 hours, Dr. Spaulding and our team were on a flight to Reagan National Airport, filming on March 12. The video quickly went into post production and was promptly uploaded to our YouTube channel on March 16. Many states went into shelter-in-place orders the following week.
It was a good example of seeing and acting on something that benefited jails nationally but had nothing to do with our products or services.
3. Hire employees who bring energy and clarity.
Be on the lookout for really smart employees who make complex tasks become simple. Identify those who don’t just radiate positive energy, but who see things others don’t and can actually deliver on their outside-the-box thinking. These people are transformative contributors who are competitive advantages unto themselves.
4. Don’t worry about your competition. Worry about your customers.
There can be an inclination to focus more on your competition in the early days of any new company. Don’t. One of the most important stakeholders you can obsess about is your customer base (the other includes your employees). Know your customers like the back of your hand. Focus obsessively on their needs, fears, and frustrations. This is what we call being “Warrior-Led,” which is our number one core value.
Get to product/market fit as soon as possible. Don’t worry about what your competition is doing or saying. Don’t imitate them. Being customer-obsessed ensures you’re investing your time and energy where value can be created.
5. Your life experiences will teach you if you listen.
Some of our best learning opportunities are unintended discoveries. Take time to self-reflect. Leaders and entrepreneurs can be hard-charging characters. Slow down. Synthesize data. Reset or regroup and try again.
I remember visiting a jail in rural Wisconsin in 2007 for training. On the day we showed up, neither the staff nor the supervisors had been told we were coming, what they were deploying, or how our software was going to be used. We looked like complete fools. We were treated even worse. The first day of training resulted in more justification about why the product existed than curiosity about the product itself and how it worked.
Needless to say, that training experience made for a long, four-day effort. However, it resulted in one of the best breakthrough process changes we still use to this day.
To avoid challenges like this, we schedule what’s called a “pre-training meeting” for each new customer. We virtually walk through our software platform with every supervisor and select power user, and review the policies and procedures that will be impacted by our software.
By the time we come on-site for training, virtually every member of line staff is now familiar with why we’re there, what changes they should expect to policy and procedure, and why they’re using GUARDIAN RFID. This makes for a far-improved, streamlined learning experience for our training team. It also builds buy-in at all levels for using our software.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
While it’s well known that our military service members have high rates of post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI). What’s less well known is that correctional officers suffer PTSIs at rates equal to those with military experience. An average of three correctional officers commit suicide each week in the United States.
Corrections professionals serve a unique and crucial role in American law enforcement. They are first responders, caregivers, and counselors, while managing safety and security. Every correctional officer is equipped only with their resourcefulness, self-discipline and interpersonal skills. They have no weapon to rely on and are generally outnumbered four to one.
Americans, in general, have little understanding of, and certainly a limited appreciation for, the role correctional officers play in the safety of our communities. Correctional officers lack tremendously in the mental health support they need.
Can you please give us your favorite VC “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.”
Arnold Henry Glasow, a successful American businessman.
It has taken our team 7,571 days to get where we are today. Some markets take longer to mature than others. We jokingly say that the fictional TV company Dunder Mifflin is our biggest competitor, because corrections isn’t known for its trailblazing reputation.
GUARDIAN RFID was the first company in law enforcement to combine radio frequency identification, mobile, and Cloud computing as standard technologies. Seventeen years ago, we had to explain how an RFID tag worked, because the technology was mystifying then.
In the early 2000s, mobile devices were historically clunky, not particularly durable and expensive. Today, it’s a completely different world with low-cost, highly capable devices surrounding us. There’s very little in our lives that isn’t touched in some way by digital technology.
Trying to persuade the government to store their data on someone else’s server, accessible only through a Web browser, was a conversation that was a lot more challenging in 2005. Today, there’s an expectation of the cloud, and we see a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of cloud computing and security than ever before.
You need to have the patience to allow the market, and sometimes certain technology vectors, to mature at a pace that you can’t control. You cannot outrun the market. Patience will always be as important as tenacity.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
There are 480,000 correctional officers responsible for tracking nearly two million inmates every day, yet the predominant technology systems they rely on are analog and paper-based. GUARDIAN RFID is a public safety technology company that maximizes the safety and security of those who are responsible for enforcing the law, and those who are in their custody through a fusion of data from traditionally disparate systems, powered by AI.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
YouTube: GUARDIAN RFID
LinkedIn: @Guardianrfid
Facebook: @Guardianrfid
Twitter: @Guardianrfid
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
The Future Is Now: Ken Dalley Jr On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
