Skip to content

Title: Apple's Watch Duty Tops App Store Charts Amidst California's Raging Wildfires

Here's a fresh, original version of the article, keeping the provided guidelines in mind:

Title: Apple's Watch Duty Tops App Store Charts Amidst California's Raging Wildfires

In the midst of SoCal's wildfire chaos on Wednesday, Watch Duty surged to the top of the Apple App Store, drawing approximately half a million downloads in just a day. The tragic events saw at least five lives lost and thousands forced to flee their homes as blazes wreaked havoc. This app has become a lifeline for millions in the western U.S., providing real-time alerts about nearby fires. On that fateful Wednesday, Watch Duty recorded over 360,000 unique visits between 8:00 and 8:30 am local time. Moreover, the creator of this crucial service promises that Watch Duty will never become another OpenAI, transforming into a profit-seeking enterprise.

Mastermind John Mills, founder and CEO of Watch Duty, was inspired to build this app following harrowing wildfires in 2019 and 2020 near his Sonoma County, California home. Mills, an entrepreneur behind successful tech startup Zenput, found the information he needed scarce. During the Walbridge Fire in 2020, he evacuated his property, prompting him to act. Speaking about his experience, Mills shared, "I spent day and night for eight days just up all night listening to radios, digging through the internet, and I realized this was a broken, broken problem... And a lot of the people who got me through that fire are actually now employees of my company."

Transforming Watch Duty from concept to reality was no walk in the park. Mills explained, "Surprisingly, it only took us about 80 days to get [Watch Duty] off the ground. The key was really the reporters themselves, the radio operators, right?" The technology behind the app may appear lightweight, but the driving force behind its success is its dedicated team of 15 full-time staff – seven of whom act as reporters, delivering live updates on the app, and a host of volunteers.

Mills launched Watch Duty in a modest presence, serving just three California counties in August 2021. Within weeks, it gained a loyal user base of 50,000, and the app's user base skyrocketed to 7.2 million in 2022, up from 1.9 million the preceding year.

During a chat with Gizmodo, Mills shed light on his motivation, saying, "Engineering taught me to engineer, but then as I got older, you realize that like, if you build it, they won’t come, right? Like why are you building it? Why does this matter, right? How do you get this to market? How do you really leverage technology to be able to make a difference in the world?"

Mills articulated his mission, focusing on getting real-time information from emergency radio monitors and pushing it onto an app. He strictly adhered to transparency and ethical principles, ensuring Watch Duty operated as a nonprofit and striving to keep the app free for users. With additional features such as alerts for multiple counties and a firefighting flight tracker available for a subscription, the app brought in $2 million in revenue last year from 65,500 paying members. Donations from individual supporters and grants from Google and an anonymous donor brought the total revenue to $3 million.

Titled

In line with a sustainable nonprofit model, Mills aims to avoid the chaotic fundraising norms that impact many charitable ventures individual donations and grants. As of October 2024, Watch Duty boasts 22 state coverage and a vast network of volunteers, marking remarkable growth for this essential nonprofit.

Mills' past endeavors in tech include the 2012 founding of Zenput, a restaurant inventory and scheduling platform, which he sold in 2022. His upbringing in a multidisciplinary environment – working side by side with his woodworking father and tinkering with computers – impelled Mills to create Watch Duty, a powerful instrument for community safety and emergency preparedness.

Critical acclaim and recognition followed Watch Duty, with local Californian and national acknowledgment. An invitation to a White House Innovation Roundtable in October 2024 further solidified the app's presence in the field of emergency preparedness. Plans for expanding the app's purview to flood-prone areas and other natural disasters are in motion, putting Watch Duty at the forefront of community-driven safety solutions.

Mills remains steadfast in his commitment to the nonprofit model, distancing Watch Duty from OpenAI's controversial shift towards profitability. "Unlike OpenAI, we're not changing. We're not for sale. That's nonsense behavior," Mills declared, emphasizing the values of integrity, transparency, and community service that drive Watch Duty's mission.

[1] "Watch Duty App: Emergency Alerts and Wildfire Updates" - TechCrunch, December 1, 2023. [2] "How Watch Duty is keeping wildfire-prone communities informed during disasters" - Gizmodo, November 1, 2024. [5] "Watch Duty" - Wikipedia, last updated December 1, 2024.

Title: Meet John Mills, the Visionary Behind Watch Duty App

This tech solution, Watch Duty, has garnered significant attention and usage in the face of wildfires, promising to provide real-time alerts about nearby fires. Mills, the tech entrepreneur behind Watch Duty, envisions a future where technology serves to make a difference in people's lives and prioritizes community safety.

Read also:

    Comments

    Latest