First Arriving Breaks Off Digital Signage Services As Standalone Business

March 15, 2022 by Dave Haynes

The Virginia digital signage company focused on solutions for first responders – like police and fire departments – has taken the interesting step of spinning out its SaaS-based services as a standalone business.

First Arriving IO will focus on rapidly scaling its existing dashboard and data infrastructure services while the parent company, First Arriving LLC, concentrates on the marketing and business management needs of clients, like video production, website development and branding.

The company started out focused on those marketing services, but has evolved to a level that the main business is now data dashboard-driven visual communications at fire halls, and police and EMS stations. So, somewhat clearly distinguishing the two makes sense, albeit with the challenge of both having the same handle, with IO or LLC at the end.

First Arriving’s digital signage, dashboards, agency intranet tools & mobile app, and dynamic websites, says PR, serve “all segments of public safety, local government, and industry from small police and fire departments to some of the largest agencies in North America with customers in 48 states and provinces.”

The PR continues:

First Arriving IO will be led by First Arriving Founder, Dave Iannone. Iannone is a lifelong technology and media veteran who created firehouse.com and led officer.com. Alex Ford, founder and CEO of Praetorian Digital and creator of sites like Police1.com, FireRescue1.com and EMS1.com as well as the former CEO of Lexipol, led the seed funding round and will serve as Chairman of the new company. Nate Davis formerly of Aladtec will serve as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer. 

“With the rapid adoption of SaaS tools and software across public safety and local government, from scheduling to incident response to inventory management to training, public safety is awash with alerts, dashboards, and information feeds,” says Alex Ford, Chairman, First Arriving IO. “It’s painful for agencies to sort out what matters most, leading to miscommunication and increasing public safety risk. First Arriving IO was designed in response to agency requests for help in cutting through the noise created by increasingly complex technical environments.”

“The development of First Arriving IO will allow us to scale our business and address the growing complexity resulting from rapid adoption of software and technology within public safety and local government,” says Dave Iannone, CEO, First Arriving. “This exciting new chapter will allow First Arriving IO to focus on rapid product innovation and solving the technology challenges our customers face, while First Arriving LLC concentrates on the marketing and business management needs of our customers.”

First Arriving IO will function as a standalone business, but will leverage the marketing and services capabilities of First Arriving LLC. First Arriving LLC, which offers strategic marketing and business operations services to public safety organizations nationwide, will be led by Chief Operating Officer Shannon Gilliland. For customers, the experience of working with First Arriving will not change as the two businesses will work hand in hand to provide a seamless experience and full suite of services.

Big fan of what these guys – my reference case for a digital signage software company finding a niche, tuning its products to that market, and then dominating it. Most digital signage software companies are generalists, which means a lot of competition and ceaseless pricing pressures.

I did a podcast recently with First Arriving …