In a video from Tiktok, with over 3 million viewers, a woman in a fluffy, biggest coat, sits in the back seat of a gorgeous SUV, parked in the middle of a street in New York City. Above the six-second video, a line of text reads, “Our bodyguard got us matcha.” The camera zooms in on two intimidating men in full suits with red ties, each carrying an iced matcha latte back to the car.
In a similar video, a young woman films a sophisticated Chevrolet suburb being pulled up in front of her home. The man in a suit opens the door for her before she bubbles. They moved her aircraft-sized luggage as they entered the airport, she freely took her on flight, and she appeared freely, “You ordered security POV to take her to the airport.”
These posts strategically coincided with the launch of a new app called Protector, which debuted in Los Angeles and New York City last week, allowing ordinary people to order security details like the Secret Service. However, the video was not organic.
“14 pieces of content have been posted [Protector] The women from Fuzz and Fuzz of Matcha Video wrote that they revealed they were hired to make these videos.
Protector spokesman also found that other creator Camille Hovsepian didn't organically promote the app. Creator's boyfriend, serial entrepreneur and growth hacker Nikita Beer is an advisor to protectors.
With Bier's Playbook, which won the acquisition of his own app by Discord and Facebook, Rage Bait is part of the fun.
“If you create eight numbers, don't waste the rest of your life gradually increasing your B2B SaaS startup. I wrote in a recent post about X.
Bier's growth strategy is artificial, but it has proven to be successful in generating buzzes. He recently advised the AI-powered health app to change its name to death clock for most days, then told the app to add a survey that accurately predicts when and how users will die. Sure enough, the app shot number 6 on the iOS App Store health chart and screamed at a late show with Stephen Colbert.
“I'm telling you to rename the app: $24,000/month,” Bier writes to X:
But for the protectors Bier describes as “Uber with a gun,” the idea is less tenuous than adding gimmick AI capabilities to the health app.
Parental security guards are active or recently retired law enforcement agencies, each with government-issued permission to carry firearms and serve as security guards. Adopting the security details of the protector will result in users having an annual membership fee of at least $1,000 for at least five hours, plus $129.
App Intelligence Company AppFigures estimates it was downloaded about 97,000 times by US-based iOS users in the first week after its launch on February 17th. Approximately a third of these downloads were on release date as they rose to number three on the App Store travel chart. However, this initial curiosity about the app has slowed down. As of February 27th, it is located at number 70 on the travel chart.
People are downloading the app, but perhaps out of pure curiosity – these installations do not guarantee that people will actually pay to use it.
With the target customers of protectors unclear, it is difficult to imagine what kind of person will be on board by paying more than $1,000 for such exaggerated and unnecessary services. Perhaps another tactic to boost engagement, protectors appeal to a very specific audience. A business executive who is concerned about the safety of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson (who will have access to corporate security anyway) after the assassination.
“If a protector is present [when Thompson was killed]The company claims in X's video. The video guards carry out three possible scenarios that claim they can prevent the killer from committing a murder.
What if tragedy didn't have to attack? We revisit the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare and find out how protectors changed the outcome. pic.twitter.com/xa2plnadis
– Protectors (@bookProtectors) January 6, 2025
With such a minimal potential customer base, it is not clear how protectors can sustain themselves.
But for now, the app is backed by Angel Investors, including Balaji Srinivasan. The former A16Z general partner is known for losing the public bet that Bitcoin prices will reach $1 million and has a special interest in supporting “startup society” and “network states” like Prospera, Honduras. Last year he promoted this goal by renting an island near Singapore and holding a 90-day “network school.” It describes it as a “technocapitalist university town” for “all who don't feel part of the facility,” and believes that “Bitcoin will take over the Federal Reserve.”
“Uber with Guns” is less extreme than adopting the island as a larger and part of the Bitcoin-based revolution, but apps like “Protector” can have a more direct effect on average.
Protectors are not the first company to pursue this concept. Black Wolf, an app that provides armed ride-share drivers, operates in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. AppFigures estimates that Blackwolf has been downloaded about 256,000 times since its launch in 2023.
Like the Protector, Black Wolf relies on luxury social media marketing and horror riots to tap into the news that unmanned Waymo cars are being destroyed. Kerry Kingbrown, founder of Blackwolf, urges viewers to use the service instead of taking Waymo, as if there were no other, more reasonable alternatives like Uber and Lyft.
These tactics recall Citall, a community-provided crime reporting app that offers a $20/month service that allows users to connect with security agents in emergencies.
If these new apps can learn something from the public, that means there is no mix of public safety and startup growth incentives. This was especially clear when Civic Founder and CEO Andrew Frame promoted the app's livestream feature by broadcasting a seven-hour manhunt for a suspicious arsonist, providing $30,000 for information that led to the arrest of the man. However, after exploding notifications to all Los Angeles users to join the tracking, it turns out they had the wrong guy. Los Angeles police have arrested an innocent suspect.
The citizens are still operating, but the frame remains CEO, but the mistakes are looming heavily as the protector prepares for his next announcement. Protectors are not just working on “Uber for Guns.” We plan to launch an app called “Patrol.” Here users can research their neighborhoods and crowdfund security guards. The more money users donate, the higher the level of security that includes robots and drones, and the area is monitored.
It's a controversial business move from an era when Americans' trust in law enforcement was shaking after the famous police killing.
“We are not mall police,” the security guard said in a promotional video for the patrol. “We're real police officers.”