In Depth From dorm room to life-saving AI | Prepared’s story | Michael Chime (Co-founder & CEO of Prepared)
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Oct 1, 2025 
Michael Chime, co-founder and CEO of Prepared, shares his journey from a Yale startup to a life-saving AI platform for 911 call centers, now acquired by Axon. He discusses how personal experiences with school shootings inspired their initial safety app. Michael reveals the challenges of navigating government procurement and the bold strategy of offering their product for free to gain traction. He emphasizes the importance of mission-driven values, customer engagement, and evolving product features, all while monitoring real-life impact on emergency responses.
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Diagnose Before You Sell
- Don’t sell; diagnose first by asking deep questions and understanding real problems before proposing solutions.
- If your product works, let customers run both options and prove value; let usage close the sale.
Usage Revealed New Product Priorities
- High engagement exposed a new problem: noisy or untranslated inputs can be worse than none.
- That pushed Prepared to embed translation and synthesis features as core paid capabilities.
Let Problems Drive AI, Not Hype
- Focus on customer problems first, then apply technology like AI to solve them—not the other way around.
- Prioritize data collection and follow usage to discover valuable product lines.