#227: CEO & Founder Axon, Rick Smith: Push Risk

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Jan 27, 2025

Rick Smith, the Founder and CEO of Axon, is known for his innovative approach to non-lethal weaponry. He discusses his unique perspective as a founder-CEO, emphasizing the importance of pushing risk within organizations. Rick recounts the evolution of Axon from a Taser-centric company to a broad tech solution for law enforcement, including body cameras and AI tools. He shares his experiences with product failures, the significance of risk-taking, and balancing family life amidst entrepreneurial challenges.

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ANECDOTE

Origin of Axon

Rick Smith was inspired to start Axon (Taser) after two high school friends died in a road rage incident.
His mom's attempt to buy a Taser, and being told they were illegal, further fueled his interest.

ANECDOTE

Partnership with Jack Cover

Smith partnered with Jack Cover, Taser's inventor, who was a retired Apollo project scientist.
They built the first legal Taser prototype in 30 days and received federal approval in 15.

ANECDOTE

Failed Consumer Launch

Axon's initial consumer launch with Sharper Image was a failure, receiving only one call, from Smith's mother.
This led to a two-year struggle to sell Tasers, reaching only $2 million in revenue.

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Guest: Rick Smith, CEO & Founder of Axon (formerly TASER)

Being a founder-CEO is a “unique superpower,” says Axon’s Rick Smith: People like him get a longer leash from the board to try things that outside CEOs might not.

“My job is to push risk into the organization,” Rick says. “If there's a project with a 50 percent chance of success, a 50 percent chance of failure, but it's going to pay 100 to 1, any finance person will tell you, you should take that bet all day long.”

One of those bets was the transition from running a weapons company called TASER into a broader public safety firm called Axon, which makes cloud-supported body cameras fro police, tactical drones, AI records management software and more. “If we never have a product failure, then we're not taking risks anymore and we're going to end up getting disrupted,” Rick says.

Chapters:

(01:09) - Tasers vs. guns
(03:35) - Axon’s growth
(07:09) - Biggest surprises
(09:33) - How TASER got started
(13:11) - Reinventing the taser
(17:24) - A humiliating launch
(23:33) - Rick’s family
(26:14) - The Auto Taser failure
(30:21) - The darkest days
(34:26) - Hans Marrero
(37:25) - Family and burnout
(42:49) - Rick’s family
(45:49) - Pivoting the business
(51:37) - Axon body cameras
(53:46) - Axon’s current products
(58:08) - Re-educating the cops
(01:02:09) - Pushing risk
(01:05:44) - Competing with the gun
(01:10:16) - Exponential stock plans
(01:14:17) - Who Axon is hiring
(01:14:46) - What “grit” means to Rick

Mentioned in this episode: UnitedHealthcare and Brian Thompson, Harvard University, human-machine interfaces, Star Wars, Timecop, Star Trek, Jack Cover, Project Apollo, Ed Owen; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Tom Smith, Rodney King, the Sharper Image, Steve Filmer, Phil Smith, Silicon Valley Bank, Emil Michael, Bob Kagle, Benchmark, Norwest Ventures, Molly Wuthrich, Josh Isner, The Terminator, Ferrari, Richard Branson, Burning Man, Steve Jobs, Brenda Smith, Hadi Partovi, Amazon AWS, Microsoft, DraftOne, Ambience Health, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Brown, Computer Aided Dispatch, Elon Musk and SpaceX, and Luke Larson.

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This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm