Bannerman (YC S14) Delivers Bouncers On Demand

&gt; $35 per-hour, per-guard flat rate<p>Maximum of $70,000 a year, if they work 40 hours a week. That&#x27;s not bad, but it&#x27;s definitely not great.<p>They have not designed security in to your event. They don&#x27;t have contingencies. They don&#x27;t know floor plans and vulnerabilities. They maybe haven&#x27;t met each other before. They don&#x27;t know the difference between you and a look-alike. They don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s routine and what&#x27;s out of the ordinary. They&#x27;re probably not deputized, meaning they don&#x27;t necessarily integrate well with law-enforcement. You&#x27;re probably liable for everything they do.<p>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.

We hired a bannerman guard for a party in downtown San Francisco on the weekend. The guy arrived half an hour early and was courteous and effective. Highlights included him preventing people standing outside our place on the streets with open drinks (which the police had previously warned us for) and him keeping someone we had to eject from the party out. We used to DIY security which was unreliable and risky as hosts became more drunk.

&gt;The guards are exactly who you want in case of an emergency. Many are former military that have honorably served our country.<p>Nice that they could potentially provide an employment opportunity&#x2F;avenue for returning service men&#x2F;women.

Wow, this is something which really increases the size of the market.<p>I wonder if they could get into the related but differently-licensed valet parking market.

I realize that there is skepticism about extending the Uber model to other areas, but this is one of those applications where it makes a previously-confusing market accessible to consumers. When I have thrown parties in the past, I never considered hiring a security guard because of the difficulty in obtaining one. Time, not cost, was my limiting factor. I could justify hiring a guard through Bannerman for future events.<p>The difficulty is expanding to the corporate market. Recurring security services lack opacity - for instance, a night guard at an office. The main opportunity for Bannerman is targeting non-recurring security needs - the current service does not hit that sweet spot of the Uber model between consumer and business markets. The inefficiency they solve is making pooled resources available to those who would previously only have access on an recurring basis.

Sorry for being negative, but how is this innovative? Won&#x27;t an existing security guard service be able to provide the same service, assuming they have a website booking form?

<i>&gt; With its $35 per-hour, per-guard flat rate (paid after an event has gone on without a hitch), Bannerman is shooting right for the middle of those two markets.</i><p>Here&#x27;s an interesting business idea for lovers of analysis and market research: Create a database of various industries, measuring especially these variables: 1. Cost of the service&#x2F;good provided 2. Some very rough quantification of its value (NOT its cost) 3. The ease with which customers can obtain those services&#x2F;goods; this includes how long it takes for the customer to obtain the services&#x2F;goods.<p>Then, identify large gaps - places where there aren&#x27;t many options at a certain price, or at a certain level of value, or where the ease of obtaining the services&#x2F;goods is very high.<p>Sell subscriptions to this data to entrepreneurs looking to start or pivot companies.

Way to go, Bannerman! Have used them for an event and had a great experience.

This is an awesome project, congratulation on being promoted on TC!

Interesting concept but there are no entry barriers for such businesses, right ? expect 10 similar sites to start targeting local markets. I thought sevicemagic and similar sites in US already offer this. Anyway it looks to be a good business model so at least the base is strong and they will make money.

As a Blackhawks fan I was <i>really</i> hoping the name was a reference to our beloved goalie Murray[1], but it seems it&#x27;s also a Game of Thrones reference. Oh well...<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bannerman" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Murray_Bannerman</a>

What could possibly go wrong?

The headline made me think they were offering IRC bouncers (e.g. ZNC) as a service which might have been slightly interesting. Sadly, the reality was much less fun.

I remember reading in newspapers few years ago ( Bangalore &#x2F; India ) that a company had hired bouncers when they had to downsize .

This looks more like escort services, not Uber

Cocaine and Hookers

<i>Oh, and of course Bannerman promises that guards will have “physical presence for visual deterrence.” Translation: these guys are huge. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as co-founder Johnny Chin told me last week that most of the guards that Bannerman has recruited are veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq.</i><p>Isn&#x27;t that discrimination? &quot;physical presence for visual deterrence&quot; also translates to &quot;we don&#x27;t hire females&quot; or small males either for that matter. Where I live, bouncers always work in pairs to offset the size and the &quot;female&quot; problem and for increased security.