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Comment by VikingCoder | Hacker News Reader

> $35 per-hour, per-guard flat rate

Maximum of $70,000 a year, if they work 40 hours a week. That's not bad, but it's definitely not great.

They have not designed security in to your event. They don't have contingencies. They don't know floor plans and vulnerabilities. They maybe haven't met each other before. They don't know the difference between you and a look-alike. They don't know what's routine and what's out of the ordinary. They're probably not deputized, meaning they don't necessarily integrate well with law-enforcement. You're probably liable for everything they do.

There are parts of this idea that make it awesome. There are parts of this idea that should scare the crap out of anyone who actually cares about security.

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This is most likely for things like house parties and large gatherings of people. You decide you want to throw a New Years pash at your condo? You're probably not worried about small things getting stolen, since you can lock up your main room, but rather people getting drunk and getting into fights.

The presence of one or two large bouncers will probably make someone think twice.

Furthermore, the company is probably taking a decent cut, I'd (random guess) say between 10-20/hour, giving the bouncer about $20/hr. These events most likely run at night, on Fridays and Saturdays, for 4-8 hours max. That means that most likely, bouncers are doing this for some extra cash, not necessarily as their primary source of income.

I think the key wording was "uber for bouncers" and "per guard". We're not talking executive protection or major event security. An average armed guard in my city would be lucky to make $15/hr. For $35/hr you can hire an off duty police officer. A quick google shows the mean security guard salary is ~32k in SF and 75% of $36k, so even with a 50/50 split a guard working 40hrs would be making normal wages and bringing home $35k a year.

There's a ton of small events (think a 100 attendee unconference) that may be required to hire security for legal/insurance/contract reasons. Many event spaces require you to hire security whenever alcohol is served. Small events like that where showing up an hour ahead of time is plenty to figure out where the exits are, who's in charge, etc. I could see this being useful for smaller restaurants/clubs/bars that don't have an established relationship with a security provider and could use this to call in security only on the busy nights.

Of course, I also see people using this for parties at their house/office just for the image of having a party so 'exclusive' there was a bouncer. People who need real actual security will look elsewhere and pay much more.

"The company sent me an eye-popping estimate for the size of the global security market in 2016: $244 billion."

This is in their pitch to Techcrunch. I'm pretty sure they mean executive protection and major event security if not more. Otherwise, how are you possibly going to turn this into a huge "opportunity"?

Personally, it seems like this company is one lawsuit away from complete shutdown. If a bouncer gets into a fight at an event and a person is hospitalized or worse, it seems like it's going to be lawsuit-hell for everyone involved.

I recently needed armed security for a 3 hour funeral, on 24-hour notice. This was in Central America. $350 for 2 guards for that time. So $35/hr, in the US, seems very reasonable indeed.

That's a middlebrow dismissal - honestly for $35/hr do you really think the target market is political VIPs.

I've hosted plenty of club nights were the venue didn't have bouncers, so security was me and a pool cue. This service would be perfect for that scenario.

I'm sure that this isn't for events that need serious security. This is for smaller gatherings where there just needs to be a few security guards present in case there's a fight.

If you need real security, you would probably use a much more expensive service.

Plus, you know, if you want a couple of big guys a long to impress a date. "Yeah, since I got my 2nd round the VCs insist on it."

Like most "Uber for X" companies, there will certainly be details to sort out in the short term, but a service that efficiently connects two sides of an otherwise obscure market has a strong chance of succeeding.

If you're worried about the possibility of "look-alikes" you probably need an expensive security team or possibly even actual law enforcement.

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