We’re here to prevent school shootings
Origin
Every week students are dying. Over the last decade there has been a 10x rise in school shootings in the U.S.
Cover is an AI security company developing concealed weapon detection systems. Cover’s imaging technology scans students for concealed weapons in K-12 schools in the United States. Our goal is to identify concealed weapons inside of bags and underneath clothing.
Through our research, we’ve found that 97% of shootings are unplanned and students are bringing guns to school repeatedly before actually using them. If we can determine whether an individual is carrying a weapon concealed within a backpack or pocket, we can make major strides towards ensuring that guns never enter or get used in schools.
Here, you will find Cover’s culture, as laid out in our Mission, Vision, and Values. The culture we build will make or break our company given the technical difficulty of designing an imaging system such as this. The following values and beliefs define our identity as a company—how we work, make decisions, treat each other, and operate every day. We will hire, recognize, reward, and fire based on these cultural values. It’s important for me to disclose that our culture is not for everyone. If you believe in what you read below, then you are likely to thrive here. If you do not, Cover is not for you.
Mission
Cover’s mission is to prevent school shootings.
Cover is a mission-focused company. We are all making personal time sacrifices towards this mission as every day our product is not deployed successfully, is another day a student is killed.
Vision
Cover's vision is a future where kids are no longer scared of being shot at school.
To get there, we strongly believe that we need a perception-based solution that can identify concealed weapons, so we can prevent them from ever entering our schools.
Values
We have a unique culture at Cover. In order to make a real difference in stopping school shootings, we must deliver a product that’s never been commercialized before. This has pushed us to hire people who are willing to work hard, put in the extra hours, and have exceptional technical abilities. A hard-core intensity does not happen without deadlines and hard work. We are not looking for the mercenaries who want a high paying, cushy job—this is not what we stand for. Our culture has been deliberately cultivated to amplify high performance and push the organization to achieve the impossible under tight timeframes.
As we scale, we will do everything possible to remain nimble and fast-paced, and maintain a smaller headcount. If we ever become too bureaucratic, the business will bloat and slow to a point of no return. The company will always act in the best interest of humanity, behave ethically, and treat others fairly. We will not support social activism, assume negative intent, treat others unfairly, or take on causes outside of our core mission. We are all here to do one job and that is to bring an impactful, useful product to market.
Here are the 5 core values that we live by every day:
Move Fast & Be Technically Fearless Guns are brought into schools every day. It’s mandatory we move into the market quickly and take calculated risks to embrace the unknown without fear of failure.
Product First, Mission Focused Our product and our mission are one in the same: bring a solution to the market that can prevent school shootings. We are united in this mission while avoiding distraction and unrelated activities to remain laser-focused on shipping a safe, high quality product.
Aggressively Optimistic Building Cover won’t be an easy win; it will require decades of commitment and ingenuity. We’re humbled by our mission, and aspire to remain optimistic even in the face of enormous hurdles.
Maximize Future Impact We believe in a better tomorrow for our children. Our mission won’t happen overnight; we have to be steadfast over the long term and impatient in the near term.
Championship Mindset To address the extraordinary demands of our work, we believe in operating as a winning team. We are in the trenches together, collaborating in-person, and pushing each other to the highest levels of performance.
Conclusion
My goal with this document was to be direct in our intent for the culture. Having clarity around our culture will empower the team to make the highest impact decisions so we can ultimately achieve our mission.
To us, saving just one life would be monumental. If you share our commitment to preventing school shootings, please apply on our careers page.
