The Exchanges

Q You won a grant, um, in 2014, a 50,000 dollar grant. I mean, you were still in high school in Colorado and, and Really start to pursue this. I mean, with, with 50,000 bucks, I guess you could like buy a three D printer maybe. Um, so, so what was your plan? Like, what did you do next?

A Yeah, basically I ended up receiving that 50,000 dollar grant from a group called the smart tech challenges foundation, where, uh, basically a group of folks in Silicon Valley came together to say, Hey, we should be investing into innovation and technology. There's no real investable companies in this space. Let's try to basically kind of like kickstart some, right. To foster some innovation in this space. I had just turned 18 by this point as well, which was quite convenient. Um, Because I was able to ask my parents to buy a handgun for me and transfer it to me legally, uh, and use that as a platform. And so I basically ended up building kind of a, a Glock 22, which is a full-sized handgun, uh, based kind of proof of concept prototype that had all this technology built into it. It was fingerprint only. It was a better version, a newer version of the fingerprint, because by that point there was starting to be more, a lot more commercial investment into fingerprint technology. Um, lots of improvements across the board, but it was still based around Kind of this fundamental concept of, of using an electromechanical actuator to inhibit the functionality of the gun, right? What I mean by that is you take a normal mechanical gun and then you electromechanically prevent it from working in some way, right? You disconnect a piece of it, you put a linkage, a pin in some linkage, somethi…

AI assessment note: “I basically ended up building kind of a, a Glock 22... proof of concept prototype”

Q So initially, I mean, this is, we're going back to 2012. What, how did you start to do that as a, as a 15 year old? What tools did you use to build a prototype?

A Yeah, it's, I would say in a lot of ways, just like any other engineering problem, you, you know, you define your problem state, you define your hypothesis, then you start breaking it down to pieces. And so I, I ended up actually, long story short, winning First place in engineering at the Intel International Science Fair that year, which is sort of the top of that kind of competition. Um, but they have all sorts of the science technology society that puts on these competitions. That's all sorts of rules and regulations. And, you know, one of them obviously is, you know, you can't work on weapons. It's also would have been illegal for me to have possession of a firearm at the time. And so what I did was I actually went and bought a starter pistol, something that's not considered to be a firearm. I took it apart and started to look at it. Like, how does it work internally? How does it work? Um, and then basically designed my own version of this, this prototype that Lots of three printed plastics and metal, lots of circuit boards, things like that, uh, with this little actuator that basically locked and unlocked the system based on the input of whether or not your fingerprint matched. Um, went through, you know, over the course of that project, a couple of hundred different generations and iterations. Again, lots of three printing, lots of iteration to, you know, get to the point…

AI assessment note: “bought a starter pistol... Lots of three printed plastics and metal, lots of circuit boards”

Q it almost destroyed the company. I think the NRA was at the time was like, if you guys do this, we're going to tell all of our members not to buy Smith and Wesson. And I think it, it forced the CEO at the time to step down. So are those and other reasons, I mean, what are the reasons why in your view, smart guns have never taken off?

A It's a good question. Uh, There's a couple different factors here. So as you point out, the concept of a smart gun is by no means a new one, right? James Bond has one. Judge Judd has one. It's been a popular science fiction topic for, for many years. Uh, it's something that there have been a previous attempts at building by both startups as well as incumbents like Smith and Wesson. Uh, nobody prior to BioFire has ever sold a commercial smart gun. And what I mean by that, and this is true for every previous attempt at a smart gun, nobody has ever actually solved the fundamental technical challenges required to make something that anybody would want to buy. And that, that includes me. I'm a gun owner myself. I own a lot of firearms at this point. And, you know, I would certainly not purchase any of the previous smart gun attempts. And you'll hear this.

AI assessment note: “nobody has ever actually solved the fundamental technical challenges required to make something”

Q are thinking about personal safety. I mean, how do you think you're going to be able to kind of get to a tipping point where skeptics who are going to be like, there's no way I'm putting my life in the hands of a facial recognition system. How do you think you can kind of create a tipping point where they're going to be like, huh? Okay. I trust this.

A Uh, first step is you have to make it reliable. And I know I've said that before, but like, I think it all really, I am an engineer and it does really come back to, this is not a space or an industry or a product where, you know, we could, we could go do some really amazing job on the marketing perspective and, and sell people kind of a, an okay product, right? You have to start off with a really great product and then you still have the challenge of, of how do you actually build that trust with your customers? Um, It's really hands-on experiences, right? And what that means is we want to have as many smart guns, you know, available out to our customers. Our customers tend to show them to their friends and to other people. That also includes getting it in the hands of, of trusted experts and reviewers on, on YouTube and podcasts and things like that. And additionally, you know, I would say we have a lot more orders than we can fulfill. Uh, you know, we, we have a ton of demand and our focus right now is, is fulfilling that demand. And I think as more and more of those get out in the wild, it'll also mean more and more opportunities for people to have hands-on experiences and, and to build that trust with our customers.

AI assessment note: “It's really hands-on experiences, right? And what that means is we want to have as many smart guns”

Q you know, Um, people in urban settings, it's still, it's iPhone users, right? Technology people. Um, You know, and I, I would imagine, at least for now, your product is going to appeal to those people, too, but down the road, do you feel like you need the, you know, the hunters and people in rural areas, and do you need those customers, too, to make this a successful product?

A I think, yes, not necessarily because of the, the number of people there, but because anybody who's thinking about buying a firearm, right, whether they're super experienced, or especially if they're not super experienced, is going to go ask You know, people that they know about, you know, whether or not this is a good product, right? And this is a big part of how we think about this. I don't, again, I'm not expecting that every gun enthusiast or every person who owns a firearm in the United States is going to buy a smart gun, right? Because a lot of them, you know, don't, don't see the use case. They don't see the value. It's not the right fit for them. Uh, it's too expensive. That's great. And like, whatever their decision is, that's why that choice aspect really matters. What I do want, you know, every gun expert enthusiast to say is, you Yeah, like, that's a high quality firearm, right? Like, you know, I, I would trust that, right? Um, I, I don't think I personally need one, but I would trust that. And that's why, you know, we've invested just as much time, energy, and capital into building a really good gun as we have into building a smart gun.

AI assessment note: “I think, yes, not necessarily because of the, the number of people there”

Q The overwhelming evidence shows that most people who actually use a handgun in a self-defense situation, the benefits are outweighed by the risk. So what's your take on it? I mean, do you, do you believe that There are significant examples every year in which people are using handguns to defend themselves, you know, and, and protect their lives, and, and had they not had them, they wouldn't be alive.

A My short answer is, um, yes, I do think there are real environments on a, you know, regular basis where people are using firearms as a, either, you know, as a deterrent or as an actual way to prevent, you know, threats to their personal health, safety, and their family's health and safety. Do I think that is anywhere near as common as, as most people think it is? Absolutely not. I think it's a very unlikely event. Um, but at the same time, I think that kind of even independent of that, people are going to continue to buy firearms for home defense, right? And, and that is something that I, I is only increasing rapidly year over year. In fact, it is rapidly becoming the primary reason why people buy firearms. And sure, some of this is, you know, COVID, uh, and, and other sort of, uh, you know, major political and cultural things that have happened, you know, in the United States over the past couple of years. But also, there's just a lot of reasons why people, you know, see that as a potential way to protect themselves and their family.

AI assessment note: “My short answer is, um, yes, I do think there are real environments”