Episode 23 - Scaling Axon, Uber Eats, and AI

Hosts Mike Wagers and Rick Smith interview Amir Elichai, Israeli-born co-founder of Carbyne, about how a beach mugging in Tel Aviv exposed the “broken telephone game” of emergency response and inspired a modern, cloud-based 911 platform. Elichai recounts growing up in Ashdod, his father’s work on Iron Dome, and how five years in the IDF’s Egoz special forces shaped his leadership. After serving in Israeli security roles in New York, he built Sky Project (later Sky Holdings), a pre-LinkedIn deal-flow network that evolved into early cybersecurity investing, before incubating Carbyne. He explains how legacy 911 systems lacked location, text, video, and data sharing, why Carbyne initially layered on top of legacy systems, and how COVID accelerated cloud adoption. Carbyne’s major U.S. breakthrough was New Orleans, proving cloud reliability and enabling rapid growth across U.S. and global agencies. The discussion closes on Carbyne’s acquisition by Axon, the fit with Prepared, and a shared vision to redesign 911 around outcomes, AI, and faster time-to-dispatch.(00:00) Welcome to the Podcast & Guest Introduction(00:03) Why 911 Systems Are Failing Today(01:33) Axon Acquires Carbyne: The Story Behind the Deal(02:32) Growing Up in Israel(03:28) Leadership Lessons from IDF Special Forces(06:58) Iron Dome, National Service & Family Pride(09:11) How Modern Combat Has Changed(12:16) From Military Service to Startup Founder(14:26) Building a First Startup: Sky Project(18:16) Startup Investing, Venture Capital & Deal Flow(19:34) The Beach Robbery That Inspired Carbyne(23:20) Founding Carbyne: Building the Future of 911(24:41) Naming Carbyne & Winning Early Customers(26:04) Why Legacy 911 Technology Is Broken(28:11) Breaking Into the U.S. Emergency Response Market(31:34) How COVID Accelerated Cloud Adoption(33:05) Why Public Safety Must Move to the Cloud(36:34) Winning the New Orleans 911 Contract(37:58) Launch Day: Going Live on Schedule(39:46) The Power of Cloud-Based Updates(40:52) The High-Stakes 911 System Cutover(42:44) Eliminating Legacy Hardware in Public Safety(44:22) Customer Success as a Competitive Advantage(48:00) Axon + Prepared + Carbyne: The Future of Emergency Response(51:33) Measuring Outcomes Instead of Features(56:22) Founder Mindset, Focus & Scaling a Company(58:56) Why Joining Axon Made Sense(01:02:20) Company Culture, Talent & Acquisitions(01:11:30) Inside Carbyne’s Gotham-Inspired Headquarters(01:13:23) Legacy, Impact & Looking Back

Recorded live in front of 3,000 attendees at Axon Week in Nashville, hosts Mike Wagers and Rick Smith sit down with Harvard cognitive psychologist Dr. Steven Pinker — author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.Pinker has spent decades arguing what the headlines rarely tell you: violence has been declining for centuries, and policing has played a central role in making it happen. He traces the long arc from medieval Europe — where disputes were settled with steel — to the rise of the modern state's "monopoly on the legitimate use of force," and explains why homicide rates in major U.S. cities just hit historic lows in 2025, even as academia resists giving police credit. His message to leaders is simple: build your understanding of crime on data, not headlines.The conversation also turns to technology and accountability. Drawing on his latest book, Pinker explains "common knowledge" — the moment everyone knows that everyone else knows — and how body cameras, doorbell cameras, and bystander video have transformed policing by turning private knowledge into shared, public knowledge. Rick Smith also reflects on how Pinker's research inspired his own book, The End of Killing.A rare, evidence-driven look at why the world is safer than it feels — and the indispensable role policing plays in keeping it that way.

When you call 911, everything depends on what happens next. But behind the scenes, many dispatch centers are still running on decades-old systems—forcing operators to manage life-and-death moments with tools that weren’t built for today’s world.Michael Chime walked away from Yale University as a Thiel Fellowship recipient to build a school safety app. That path led him somewhere unexpected: inside the 911 call center—where he found a critical gap almost no one in tech was solving.What he and his co-founders built became Prepared—a platform now powering dispatch centers across the country with live video, real-time AI translation, and automated call handling that’s already changing outcomes in real emergencies—including translating Mandarin in real time to help coordinate a shooting response.In this episode, Michael shares multiple stories from the field—moments where better information changed decisions when seconds mattered most. Rick Smith explains why Axon acquired Prepared, what set it apart from every other deal, and why real-world adoption—not slideware—sealed it.And yes…why Mike still gets to keep his email address.

In this episode of the Boldly Go Podcast, Axon co-founder Tom Smith shares the untold stories behind Taser’s early days. Alongside his brother Rick Smith, Tom reflects on the scrappy startup years—testing prototypes on themselves, chasing their first big break with Sharper Image, surviving near bankruptcy, and being forced to move production to Mexico after regulatory barriers made it impossible to operate as a U.S. company. The conversation dives into the wild risks, unconventional branding, and relentless perseverance that transformed an underdog startup into a global company reshaping modern policing. It’s a candid look at the chaos, grit, and mission-driven passion that fueled Axon’s journey from kitchen-table idea to world-changing technology.

What does it take to turn a struggling startup into a global force for public safety?For Max Nerheim — Axon’s first electrical engineer — it started with a $20,000 fixed-price contract, a lab in a literal broom closet, and the guts to tell the founders their original design was “a piece of junk.”In this episode of the Boldly Go Podcast, Rick Smith and Mike Wagers sit down with the man who holds more TASER patents than anyone on the planet. Max shares the untold “Wild West” history behind the M26 and X26 — from testing prototypes in his garage to out-innovating PhDs who thought they knew more.You’ll hear the story of a parking-lot confrontation with a patent lawyer trying to shake the company down — and why TASER 7 remains one of Max’s favorite designs.Oh — and since the statute of limitations has passed, you’ll also hear about a roadside encounter with a deer.

In this episode of the Boldly Go Podcast, Rick Smith and Mike Wagers sit down with Jason Droege, a key architect behind Axon’s transformation from a hardware-focused weapons company into a leading software, cloud, and AI platform. Jason reflects on the chaotic early days of Evidence.com, the cultural and technical challenges of scaling software inside a legacy organization, and pivotal moments that nearly derailed—or ultimately saved—the company. The conversation spans leadership under pressure, grit versus pedigree, lessons from Uber and founding Uber Eats, and Jason’s current role leading Scale AI, offering an insider’s perspective on where AI is headed, why talent matters more than ever, and how perseverance shapes enduring companies.

In this episode of Boldly Go, hosts Rick Smith and Mike Wagers sit down with Hadi Partovi—founder and CEO of Code.org, early investor in companies like Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb, and longtime Axon board member—for a wide-ranging conversation on technology, leadership, and values. Partovi shares how he helped steer Axon through pivotal moments: rescuing its early cloud strategy, rebuilding its software team, helping shape its ethical approach to AI, and even influencing the company’s name change from Taser to Axon. Along the way, the episode explores founder-led growth, talent culture, AI ethics, and the long-term bets that transformed Axon into a global public-safety technology leader.

In this emotional and historically rich episode, Rick and Mike sit down in London with longtime friend and former UK Taser distributor Kevin Coles to recount the remarkable—and ultimately tragic—story behind bringing the TASER device to the United Kingdom. Kevin shares how he and the late Peter Boatman fought through years of restrictive regulations, political hurdles, and media scrutiny to introduce a lifesaving tool to UK policing. Together, they revisit Peter’s extraordinary bravery and the pivotal role he played in UK officer safety. This rare, candid conversation honors a pioneer whose impact still shapes policing today.

In this episode of Boldly Go, hosts Rick Smith and Mike Wagers sit down with Piotr Baczynski, founder and CEO of Immersion Labs, for a deep dive into the past, present, and fast-approaching future of VR and AR. Piotr shares the unlikely origin of his company, lessons from the early days of Oculus, why VR training boosts real-world performance, how Axon and Immersion Labs partnered to build groundbreaking VR training experiences, and what the next wave of spatial computing will mean for public safety, the military, and everyday work. From motion-sickness breakthroughs to AR battlefield overlays to walking through virtual worlds inside an Axon Training Pod, this episode explores how immersive tech is rapidly reshaping human learning, communication, and safety.

In this lively episode of Boldly Go, former Axon president Luke Larson and current president Josh Isner join for a candid, hilarious, and heartfelt conversation about Axon’s evolution, culture, and leadership lessons learned along the way. From stuffed-animal giveaways that turned into marketing gold, to the origins of the Axon watermark, to stories of mentorship, risk-taking, and rewarding employees in memorable ways, this episode captures the bold spirit that built a true mission-driven company. Listen in for takes on authenticity, fun at work, and what it takes to keep innovating while staying true to Axon’s fearless values.