00:00hello we are here on the a 16z podcast
00:04with the writers and makers of the 500 a
00:09p-- with us i have three awesome
00:13american teenagers and they unlike most
00:19of us when they watched what was
00:20happening in Ferguson most people like
00:23me sat there read about it got really
00:26upset got frustrated and then did
00:28nothing but these kids watched it saw
00:35what was going on and said look we can
00:37do something we're going to build an app
00:39that allows citizens to review police
00:43officers and in this way make the whole
00:46policing process much more transparent
00:48and much more like something that will
00:52work well in the future and so we're
00:54very excited to have Caleb
00:56EEMA and Asha here and will it get
01:00started so Emma what made you wanna
01:09build 500k well we started developing
01:13this app about six months ago and what
01:16really made us decide to start
01:18developing it was you know it was more
01:20so culmination of everything that was
01:22going on in the media at the time and
01:25also we had some family members who'd
01:27also had some negative interactions with
01:30law enforcement and that's something
01:31that had always been on our minds we
01:33talked to our parents often about these
01:35issues and they try to put everything
01:37into context for us and one of the
01:39things they really tried to focus and
01:41tell us was to focus on finding
01:43solutions and from there that's how we
01:46decided to develop an app we just roll
01:49of ideas on the whiteboard and we
01:51started thinking about every component
01:52that could go into an app like this and
01:54that's how we came up with five oh wow
01:56and so Asha when you you know normally
02:01if a family member has a run-in with the
02:03police that's negative that's gonna
02:06cause more rage than kind of
02:08constructive thinking so how did you get
02:11to the point where you
02:13look let's take a systematic approach
02:15and you know try and fix the whole
02:18system as opposed to just get mad at a
02:20police officer right so our family will
02:24all three of us we've been working on
02:26coding and we've been involved in text
02:29since we are in middle school so we've
02:30had a little bit of background in that
02:31we also have close family friends who
02:33are police officers so we know for a
02:35fact that all of them aren't too corrupt
02:36and we don't believe that we don't hate
02:38all fleets officers and we don't believe
02:39that they're all on bad so we we think
02:43of ourselves as problem solvers and we
02:44use tech as our medium to solve that
02:46problem we just we we just felt like it
02:50was a great problem that was going on
02:51throughout the community and instead of
02:53becoming mad like you said we just felt
02:55that was great for us to channel that
02:56into an app and really settle that into
02:59determination to get the app out great
03:02so we have a real tech audience here on
03:06the a 16z podcast so Caleb can you take
03:08us through a little bit of how you
03:11architected the application what the
03:12components are what tools you used well
03:16we used a cloud-based sdk program called
03:19a prio and some features in the app we
03:22have an incident report where you
03:24basically go through and you log the
03:26what what happened and things like that
03:28and then we have Austin knows a lot of
03:31functions but um we also have a message
03:33board where you can post um things that
03:35you want to go out to your community and
03:36you can also review cops by their own
03:40badge number and things like that
03:41so yeah right and on the application we
03:46also have features where anyone who is
03:48will actually you don't have to live in
03:49that community but anyone can go and
03:51search up the reviews that have been
03:53made based on county zip code and state
03:56and you can look at all the review
03:58descriptions and you can um read about
04:00the rating that that county has and just
04:02basically get an idea of what the
04:03interactions with law enforcement within
04:05that area have been and we also have a
04:07function that's GPS so let's say you're
04:10traveling and you don't know where you
04:11are and it's the middle of the night and
04:12you could just open up the phone and
04:14click it and you automatically get your
04:16address the address of where you are and
04:18you also see it on a map so yeah
04:20also we have a no you're right section
04:23of the app and that's for whenever
04:25you're in a situation and you're not
04:26exactly how to handle yourself or you're
04:28dealing with law enforcement and you
04:30don't know what steps you can take or
04:31what rights you have we have a know your
04:33rights section so you really just have
04:35that information which is provided from
04:36the ACLU at your fingertips
04:39Wow so we have a special guest here the
04:45greatest lyricist of all times now has
04:47just walked into the podcast environment
04:49and now is what do you think about these
04:51kids I think these kids are great and
04:55they are coming up with solutions to
04:58problems that we don't know what to do
05:01you know it's like we do I do also you
05:05know have experiences with police you
05:08know that weren't so great coming up so
05:10you know but then like they say that
05:12there's some good cops out there too I
05:14know some police men who are really good
05:16and I think they should even support
05:18this I think the police should know that
05:21this is something that's positive and
05:23this is something that's good for the
05:25whole community it just makes everything
05:29so why you kids have been out here now
05:33in Silicon Valley for a day you had some
05:37interesting visits so I said why don't
05:40you tell us about some of the places
05:42that you went and what you think one of
05:45the major places we went to today is
05:47Facebook and we just absolutely loved
05:50the environment it was great just just
05:53the way everyone treated us and the way
05:54they treated each other and just it was
05:57there's some with the energy the whole
05:59vibe at Facebook was just very welcoming
06:01and happy and we just loved it I mean I
06:03can learn I can see myself in that space
06:05yeah it's like Facebook for real not
06:11just on the internet yeah um when we
06:14went there we we didn't get to see Mark
06:16Zuckerberg but I mean if that was then
06:21but we were just it was amazing the
06:23whole atmosphere like what all she said
06:24and then in my perspective it was just
06:27like everyone seems very happy and it
06:28seemed like a very nice environment and
06:30when you think about coding you don't
06:32really think about it like how people
06:33like how it looks at Facebook you think
06:35about it like someone's slaving away at
06:36a computer but it's not that at all it
06:38really isn't it's it's a very fun thing
06:40to do and when you can when you learn it
06:43and when you wrap your mind around it
06:44it's a great thing right it seems as if
06:46Facebook is bringing the fun yeah yeah
06:49it's the environments very fun so now
06:53the app has gotten a lot of press
06:55attention and how have you found that
06:59you all are actually quite skilled at
07:02dealing with the press I must say even
07:04not being an actual press person myself
07:06but you have great answers how did you
07:10how long did it take your what how did
07:13you go about figuring out how to answer
07:14some of these kinds of questions and not
07:16have people get you riled up against the
07:19police and things like that well I would
07:22say before right before our first
07:25interview and Austin came over both at
07:27school so I had to talk to them on the
07:29phone in the car and but before right
07:32before the interview I was like right we
07:34were writing down possible questions my
07:36mom helped me strategize how best to
07:38respond to like certain questions and
07:40also I guess after the first two
07:42interviews we were getting some of the
07:44same questions so it was easy for us to
07:46you know well we're probably gonna hear
07:48these questions so we should probably
07:49just make responses that we're all
07:51comfortable with and we know exactly
07:53like concisely how to answer them so I
07:55guess just practice at first and then
07:57planning pretty awesome I know
08:01executives that aren't that good at
08:06yeah we're learning this is good so
08:11where do you think the app can go from
08:14here so you've kind of got it out there
08:17people can report on issues you know if
08:21you kind of go far into the future what
08:25does the you know what will the world
08:28look like when there's a right amount of
08:31communication and transparency between
08:34police and citizens well I feel like
08:38ultimately five-o is definitely an app
08:42that we want all people to be able to
08:44use we definitely feel like it's got a
08:47utility that that any any person from
08:49any age group can take advantage of just
08:52giving a voice in bringing customer
08:54service to interactions with law
08:55enforcement in terms of the future we
08:58have gotten emails from people in the UK
09:00Brazil and the UK Brazil and Canada is
09:05saying that this app would be useful
09:07where they live so we definitely from
09:10there we've been thinking about
09:11expanding globally because we feel like
09:13there's a global utility to this to the
09:15type of app and all people really want
09:17to be able to take charge of their
09:18interactions with law enforcement right
09:20and we know that um some countries and
09:22around the world they don't have
09:23smartphones so we're also trying to get
09:25it that function so it can work with SMS
09:27and they can submit their interaction
09:30reports through text messaging so who
09:33came up with the name five-o well our
09:36mom she was a big she was a big fan of
09:41the show Hawaii five-o and then when we
09:43when we presented her with the idea she
09:45was like well why don't we just call it
09:46500 and then that's where that happened
09:48so yeah but you could now you're playing
09:51a little coy and that you know that
09:54five-o is also like the street term so
10:04we all just jumped on to that name after
10:06you know yeah very good very good you're
10:13all in high school now so and this is
10:17really a public service application this
10:19is you know one of the great things
10:20about it is you did do it to make money
10:22or you didn't do it to you know be the
10:25next Mark Zuckerberg you did it to make
10:27the world better so how far do you go
10:32with the five-o app before you know and
10:34and where do you think life takes you
10:36with college about everything in front
10:38of you and how do you see it evolving
10:42over time with just with your own time
10:44and and what you're gonna be able to do
10:47well I feel like in terms of because I'm
10:51about I'm a senior so I'm about to go
10:53off to college but we try to split our
10:56time when we get home to working on the
10:57app but we definitely feel like I mean
10:59we've had offers from people who say
11:01that they're willing to help us on
11:02specific portions of the app people who
11:04say you know we're willing to help you
11:05work on this and we're willing to offer
11:07help on this and we know that there are
11:09people who are um a lot more skilled
11:12than we are in certain areas that could
11:14so we're thinking of expanding just
11:17expanding the number of people who could
11:19help us work on it like it when we go to
11:21school and um when you go off to college
11:23I mean we're hoping that the app can
11:25that we can continue progress with the
11:27Apple and add other people to our group
11:29and have them to work on and rebuild it
11:31on the native the native platforms and
11:34change the UI and things like we have a
11:36lot of updates for the application that
11:38we can use with them with the proper
11:40funding and so we just really we just
11:43really want to get the app up and
11:44running to the highest possible a solid
11:47product right we want to make it solid
11:49yeah we do have a fund me from five-o so
11:52yeah go ahead go ahead pitch the fund me
11:57if anyone wants to fund us you can go
12:00there yeah go fund me here there that's
12:05500 fund me and just search for that and
12:09you will be able to help and we're
12:11looking for it also seeing the I guess
12:14open-source project 5 oh you guys can
12:17put that on github yeah we're gonna we
12:19were just told about github yesterday we
12:20didn't really use it before but we
12:21really plan on we know those guys if you
12:23need any help - jump in yeah so so for
12:30all your developers out there look for
12:335oa and github and baby together we can
12:37all make the world a much safer place
12:40thanks for listening this has been a 16z
12:43podcast special thanks to the five-o
12:46asha Caleb and our special guest Naz one
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