Engineering the Safe City: Conviction, Scrutiny, and the Fight to Make Crime Obsolete w/ Garrett Langley, Founder & CEO, Flock Safety

Host Ian Hathaway interviews Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of Flock Safety, about building public safety technology with a mission to eliminate crime. Langley traces his Atlanta upbringing, his early computer repair business, lessons from his father's relationship-driven sales approach, and his early career successes, including the acquisitions of Firethorn and Experience. After a post-exit identity crisis, he prioritized building with the right team and launched Flock after neighborhood break-ins revealed law enforcement needed actionable license plate data. He describes early traction, Y Combinator struggles, near-pivot moments, media-driven go-to-market, and a difficult fundraise amid skepticism about Atlanta, hardware, and law enforcement. They cover rapid scaling, new products, privacy and regulation debates, immigration-enforcement concerns, Atlanta ecosystem advantages, the Thriving Cities Fund, explicit culture-building, and the personal support system sustaining his leadership.     Show Notes:   (02:28) Burden of Responsibility (06:47) Atlanta Roots and Early Hustle (12:19) Two Big Exits and Crisis (15:35) Flock Origin Story (20:59) YC Breakthrough and Media (23:19) Series B Near Miss (26:23) Scaling Innovation and Vision (29:45) Fatherhood and What Matters (30:36) Safety As A Right (31:31) Scrutiny And Tradeoffs (38:13 Building In Atlanta (40:18) Diamonds In The Rough (42:13) Thriving Cities Fund (44:50) Writing Culture Down (51:12) Legacy And Safe Cities (53:22) Beyond The Bio with Garrett Langley     ✅ Host: Ian Hathway - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, FOVC ✅ Guests: Garrett Langley - Founder & CEO, Flock   Produced by Spellbinder Media. Executive Produced by Bridge Five Ventures. Copyright ©️2026, Bridge Five Ventures, LLC, All rights reserved.   Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or at outsiderinc.substack.com.