# From dorm room to life-saving AI | Prepared’s story | Michael Chime (Co-founder & CEO of Prepared)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/from-dorm-room-to-life-saving-ai-prepared-s-story-michael-chime-co-founder-ceo-of-prepared
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/from-dorm-room-to-life-saving-ai-prepared-s-story-michael-chime-co-founder-ceo-of-prepared.md
Podcast: [In Depth](https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680)
Published: 2025-10-01T16:24:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH9208182321.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH9208182321.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-depth-1318680/episodes/from-dorm-room-to-life-saving-ai-prepared-s-story-michael-chime-co-founder-ceo-of-prepared
Duration seconds: 4147

## Resource

Michael is the co-founder and CEO of Prepared, the AI assistant for 911 calls that helps dispatchers capture information faster, translate emergency calls in real time, and deliver lifesaving context to first responders. Founded out of Yale in 2019, Prepared grew from a school safety app into a critical platform for emergency communications, disrupting a notoriously tough market. This mission-driven journey just reached a major milestone: Prepared was acquired by Axon, the global public safety technology company. In this conversation, Michael joins Meka to share the inside story of building in a tough market, the counterintuitive strategies used to crack government procurement, and why their mission is a competitive moat. In today’s episode, we discuss: Why school shootings were the catalyst for building safety software Navigating the most challenging customer base: government and public safety agencies Why Prepared gave away its first product for free — for years Lessons from evolving a wedge product into an AI-driven suite How Michael balanced conviction with customer feedback Building long-term investor relationships Staying true to the mission through headwinds and tailwinds And much more… Where to find Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchime/ Where to find Meka: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekaasonye/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/bigmekastyle Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast References: Axon: https://www.axon.com/ Dylan Gleicher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-gleicher/ March for Our Lives:…

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