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Wireless Research and Development One (WRAD One), Inc. was founded to address the senseless violence occurring in our K-12 schools, providing a solution that is designed to dramatically reduce the response time to active shooter events, saving lives.
The business model is comprised of two key revenue streams: the hardware and the recurring subscription.
Despite the affordable price point, the gross margins on the hardware and installation remains healthy for the business. The margins will increase as scale improves with higher volumes of manufacturing.
After installation, customers pay a recurring subscription fee for the database management and software licensing. The recurring services deliver a growing and lasting revenue stream beyond the transactional nature of a manufacturer.
Protecting schools
In early 2019, Texas Governor Greg Abbott approved $100 million in funding for school districts to install security upgrades, specifically targeted at new violence prevention and after-incident care. A very small percentage of the funding has been allocated and distributed to date (we estimate <1%).
Other states have issued similar commitments, as the scale of the problem has only increased over time.
Within Texas K-12 schools alone, WRAD One’s total addressable market includes nearly 9,000 schools. With an estimated installation of 75 units per school, the market size is over $50 million in hardware and $4 million in annual recurring revenue.
Expanded across all US public schools (130k+), the market size expands to $736M+ and $58M+ in annual recurring revenue.
By our estimation, less than 8% of the market is currently being addressed by competitive solutions because of high price points and the inaccessibility of tech compatibility.
Momentum and distribution plans
The business achieved significant momentum in the second half of 2019 and early 2020. WRAD One filed its first patent, created working prototypes for demonstrations, and conducted several preliminary discussions with interested schools, school districts, private schools and state and federal government officials.
Prior to the pandemic, WRAD One participated in numerous meetings and discussions with local and state officials, schools, and school districts. Since then, discussion have also begun directly with US Representatives. The response has been excellent, and has confirmed that the Vigilant solution would qualify for both state and federal grants specifically targeted at limiting school violence and to save lives.
In the wake of the pandemic and shutdowns throughout the U.S., market-level momentum slowed significantly. However, the team leveraged the available time to further enhance its product design, adding a number of performance enhancements. Additionally, the team developed a go-to-market program that resulted in a strategic partnership with Woolpert and a number of manufacturers’ representatives.
Woolpert is a 109-year-old Architectural, Engineering, and Geospatial company that plans designs, new construction and remodel projects for municipalities, airports, lodging, healthcare, and many other large campus and development projects. As part of an initial partnership agreement, Woolpert is signed on for a $3 million purchase commitment over the next two years. Their team of 200 strategic sales directors throughout the country expand WRAD One’s sales reach significantly, offering the Vigilant Response System as part of new and existing projects Woolpert is working on nationwide. In fiscal year 2019, the budgets for Woolpert clients on new developments and project updates exceeded $365 Billion.
Further, several manufacturer representative organizations have committed to purchasing a volume of sensors that exceeds WRAD One’s 2021 and early 2022 volume forecasts.