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No Tricks for Local Homeowner Associations Just TreatsFirst Siren, Inc. announced today in an effort to keep our communities and streets safe the company will provide their FirstSiren™ product, an alert notification system, free of charge for one year, to 100 local Homeowner's Associations that contact them before the October 31st deadline. Co-founder Chris Fricke, said "When it comes to protecting communities, one of the best resources you can have is an engaged community." The FirstSiren™ system enables dedicated associates to immediately send alerts directly to home owner's cell phones or email accounts. Associations are also provided with a community bulletin board where they can post and distribute information about community events, missing persons, unusual activity, and neighborhood concerns. About First Siren, Inc. First Siren, Inc. provides a web-based tool that allows your administrators to broadcast critical public service announcements quickly to the citizens of your community. Alerts are delivered free to the citizens. FirstSiren™ come complete with four message delivery options: Mobile Alert; Email Alerts, Desktop Alerts*; and Website Alerts*. For more information please visit us at www.firstsireninc.com or email us at sales@firstsireninc.com. First Siren Inc. "In Touch With Your Community" *features are coming soon Labels: No Tricks for Local Homeowner Associations Just Treats
What’s in a name?I was asked the other day: "What’s wrong with you guys that you can’t be consistent with your spelling?". Our attorney told us we need consistency. We have it – but most people don’t see it. First Siren, Inc. is the name of our company. FirstSiren™ is the name of our first product. That’s right, I said our first product. Henry, Ruben and I are very ambitious. We aren’t going to stop at FirstSiren™. Henry alluded to great things to come in 2006 and he’s not the only one with high hopes. We have grand plans. New markets to discover: new ideas to spread. But first and foremost, we need want to make our first endeavor the best possible product on the market. We want to hear from everyone about their experience with FirstSiren™. Did the Alert about a street closing cause you to alter your route allowing you to make your appointment? Did the hazardous material warning you received cause you to call your family and warn them of the danger? Whatever your story – we want to hear about it. Why not share it in the FirstSiren™ forum? We also want to hear about how you would like us to improve FirstSiren™. Yes, we’ve put months of thought and careful planning into it, but I’m sure we can improve upon it. What else would you like to see? How can we help you keep in touch with your community? Looking forward to hearing from you all. Chris
A little history Why FirstSiren™? After Katrina, I was horrified to see the lack of communication available to the public: starting with the evacuation notices all the way to families not having a central place to communicate after the devastation. During an evacuation it is not always easy to get the word out. People panic, everywhere you go, there is another do-gooder telling you information that is not always correct. Local law enforcement, try as they may, find it hard to reach every household so, the need for a service was born, that would allow the trusted word of the local law enforcement agency to be delivered directly to the panic stricken citizens. With the help of Henry and Ruben, we developed FirstSiren™ to fill that need. But the problems of disaster don’t stop at the notification stage. There is also a lack of post disaster communication. Certainly there were many people and organizations that rose to the occasion and provided centralized hubs in the aftermath. To them, we are all thankful. It occurred to us that every person in every community should have a familiar place to connect after disaster hits. Similar to the way most families have a designated place to congregate in case they have to flee their house when fire strikes. So not only did we build an alert system, we also provide a place for communities to connect on a daily basis, before, during and after a disaster. Please take some time to familiarize yourself and your family with our forum sections – think of them as your safety net. Tell family members from out of town about this service too. They don’t have to live in an area covered by FirstSiren™ to sign up for the service. They can have peace of mind knowing that there is place they can come knowing they can find you there. I hope you find this service as helpful as it was intended to be – remember it’s always wise to be prepared.
Chris
What's Next?... Anticipation, that is what's next! Chris, Ruben and I are anxiously awaiting an upcoming press release and look forward to seeing what type of response we are going to get. Yes, this will be our first official press release and we are pretty darn excited. We are talking about three local news channels, two newspapers and possibly the mayor. Pretty big deal we think. This will help with getting our name out there for sure. Ruben has been working hard to fullfill all Chris' and my requests to make sure that the site is in tip top shape and any new features requested we can get our hands on before we are officially announced. Thank you Ruben for all your hard work!
We will be monitoring our site pretty closely to see how and where we can improve our site after this announcement so keep reading for updates.
Thanks for your interests, Henry
To entertain or not to entertain possible funding avenues...
Well folks it has been the topic of discussion between Chris, Ruben and myself for some time now whether to go for Venture Capital, Grants or Traditional loans. I say that it is too soon for us to be even considered for any type of Venture Capital. Plus (here comes my excuse) we have been so wrapped up in the development, "other" features and vertical products that we have not had enough time in the day to finish our most important asset the Business Plan. (which I might add that is about 90% complete).
I will admit that I do fall victim to the entrepreneur that likes to start companies but doesn't like the risks that go along with it. Don't get me wrong I like the risk just not the one that is tied to possible financial windfall. There was a perfect example in the December 2005 Inc. Magazine's issue that pretty much sums it up by Norm Bradsky "How Much Risk Can You Take?".
So the question we keep asking ourselves over and over is do we bite the bullet and just go for the grant, loan or venture capital? (This means more time in researching funding possibilities, filling out applications, and or writing grants and less time to continue on building and marketing our product) Yeah what do we have to lose right? But the question that comes to my mind does our product have what it takes? I think that there is a possible trend here for public communication awareness software that is growing at an alarming rate. And we are here at the right time with the right product! We all three believe in our product whole heartily and in our company First Siren, Inc. and have no doubt that when we pass this initial stage of building First Siren, Inc. That we are going to be a major player in the public awareness software industry.
Thanks for listening Henry
It's Alive...As of December 17, 2005 First Siren, Inc. ( www.firstsireninc.com) is open for business. Who, you may ask, is First Siren, Inc.? Well, we are a small start-up company offering a public communication tool to law enforcement agencies. We call this web-based tool, funnily enough, FirstSiren. Say what? Ok, so instead of trying to describe it, I'll explain it. Say something happens in your community and the local law enforcement officers would like to keep you informed of it. Take for instance; there is a water main break on Main Street. Well, as you know, that would mean that Main Street would have to be closed to traffic. But how do the agencies get this news out to the public? Simple, that's where FirstSiren comes in. A dispatcher sends an alert - it's that simple. But how do the citizens get this alert? All they do is register at www.firstsiren.com and choose which types of alerts they want to receive, how they would like to receive them and from which agencies . Then every time the agencies they signed up for send an alert, they get an email, or text message on their phone, or an alert pops up on their desktop.
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