In a tap video with more than 3 million views, a woman is in a downy, maximalistic jacket in the rear seat of a luxury SUV, parked in the middle of a street in New York City. On top of the Video of 6 secondsA line of text is: “Our bodyguards have received our matcha.” The camera zooms in on two intimidating men in full suits with red ties, each wearing an iced matcha latte while they walk back to the car.
In a similar video, a young woman films a slender Chevrolet performances while he pulls up in front of her house. A man in a suit opens the door before she is taken away, surrounded in the car by other stoic, professionally dressed men. They keep her hand luggage when she enters the airport and guides her safely to her flight while she brags in the text on the video: “POV, you order security to take you to the airport.”
These messages were strategically timed with the launch of a new app called Protectorwho debuted in Los Angeles and New York City last week, so that ordinary people can order a secret service -like security detail. But the videos were not organic.
“We have posted 14 pieces of content for [Protector] which resulted in 15 million views and more than 30,000 downloads, ”the women of the Matcha Video, Fuzz and Fuzz, written In a tap, revealing that they were hired to make these videos.
The other CreatorCamille Hovsepian, also does not promote the app organically, a spokesperson for the protector told Techcrunch. The friend of the maker, serial entrepreneur and growth hacker Nikita beer, is one adviser To protector.
In Bier’s Playbook, which earned his own apps acquisitions from Discord and Facebook, Rage Bait is part of the pleasure.
“Once you have made 8 digits, you shouldn’t waste the rest of your life after On X. “Instead, you should think of ways to piss millions of people on the internet every day by launching controversial app concepts, for pure love for the game.”
Although the growth strategy of beer is artificial, it has proved successful in generating Buzz. He recently advised an AI-driven health app Change the name From most days to death clock, the app then told to add a survey that predicts exactly how and when users will die. And yes, the app shot number 6 on the health graphs in the iOS App Store and received a shout at the late show with Stephen Colbert.
“I tell you that you have to rename your app: $ 24,000/mo,” beer written On X. “Your app in a joke about jacket: Priceless.”
But for the protector, who describes beer as ‘uber with weapons’, the idea is to add a gimmicky ai function to a health app.
The protector guards are active service or recently retired law enforcement, each of which has issued permits issued by the government to wear firearms and to work as guards. Hiring a security detail on protector costs users at least $ 1,000 for at least five hours, plus an annual membership costs of $ 129.
According to estimates of App figuresAn app intelligence company, Protector was downloaded by the American iOS users about 97,000 times in the first week after the launch of 17 February. About a third of those downloads came on the launch day, because it climbed to no. 3 in the travel charts of the App Store. However, this first curiosity about the app has been delayed; From 27 February it is number 70 on the travel chart.
Although people download the app – perhaps out of pure curiosity – these installations do not guarantee that people will actually pay to use it.
The target customer of Protector is unclear, because it is difficult to imagine what kind of person on board would be with paying more than $ 1,000 for such a flashy, unnecessary service. Perhaps if another tactic to stimulate involvement, Protector has appealed to a very specific audience: business leaders who are concerned about their safety after the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson (who would probably have access to company security).
“If a protector was present [when Thompson was killed]crisis could have been averted, “the company claims In a video on X. The guard in the video then runs through three possible scenarios in which he claims that he could have scare the attacker to commit murder.
With such a minimal potential customer base, it is not clear how protector can maintain itself.
But for now the app is supported by Engel investors, including Balaji Srinivasan. The former A16Z General Partner is known for losing them A public bet that the Bitcoin price would reach $ 1 million, and he has a special interest in back “Startup society” and “Network States” such as Prospéra, Honduras. Last year he promoted this goal by renting an island near Singapore to organize a 90-day “Network School”, which he described as “A techno capitalist university city“For” everyone who is not part of the establishment “and believes that” Bitcoin follows the Federal Reserve. “
Although “Uber with Guns” is less extreme than accepting islands to be part of a larger Bitcoin -based revolution, apps such as “Protector” can have a more direct effect on average people.
The protector is not the first company to continue this concept. Blackwolf, an app that also offers armed ride duration programs, is active in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas; App figures estimates that Blackwolf was downloaded around 256,000 times since the launch in 2023.
Just like protector, Blackwolf leaned on extravagant social media marketing and FrightenCapitalize on news about Waymo cars without a driver destroyed. Blackwolf -founder Kerry Kingbrown is urging viewers to use his service instead of taking a waymo, as if other, more reasonable alternatives such as Uber and Lyft do not exist.
These tactics remind us of Citizen, the crime report app of the community that offers a service of $ 20 a month where users can make contact with a security agent in an emergency.
If these new apps can learn something from Citizen, it is that the stimuli of public safety and the startup growth do not mix. This was especially clear in a serious incident when the founder and CEO of the Burger Andrew Frame promoted the live stream function of the app by a Seven -hour manjacht For a suspected arsonist, who offers $ 30,000 for information that leads to the man’s arrest. But after they had notified reports to all Los Angeles users to participate in the chase, it turned out that they had the wrong guy – the Los Angeles police arrested an innocent suspect.
Although Citizen still operates – and frame remains CEO – the mistakes are large as a protector prepares his next announcement. Protector does not only work on ‘uber for weapons’. It plans to launch an app called “Patrol”, where users can be guards crowdfund to investigate their neighborhoods. The more money users donate, the higher the level of security they can unlock, including robots and drones to check the area.
It is a controversial company at a time when Americans’ Trust in law enforcement is staggered after the aftermath controversial police killings.
“We are not a police officer,” said a guard in a promotional video for Patrol. “We are real police.”
