
Bannerman (YC S14) Delivers Bouncers On Demand - antoinec
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/16/bannerman-lets-you-get-a-bouncer-for-your-events-on-demand/
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VikingCoder
> $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.

~~~
jmccree
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.

~~~
steven2012
"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.

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fblp
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.

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narfquat
>The guards are exactly who you want in case of an emergency. Many are former
military that have honorably served our country.

Nice that they could potentially provide an employment opportunity/avenue for
returning service men/women.

~~~
MichaelGG
Is military training (especially after a combat deployment) a good
qualification for peaceably keeping order at a party?

~~~
pkfrank
They'd generally be more disciplined and physically fit / trained for combat.
As long as they're screened otherwise, it seems like a great pool to draw from
-- plus it helps out veterans.

~~~
MichaelGG
> trained for combat

That was my point. Combat training in a military environment is not what you
want on most civilian "bouncer" jobs. I'd imagine, anyways.

~~~
nikatwork
The military are well drilled in rules of engagement and waiting for fire
orders. Far more so than your average bouncer or off-duty police officer. I
heartily wish the police force were trained and disciplined like the military,
it would remove a lot of the individual variation in responses.

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rdl
Wow, this is something which really increases the size of the market.

I wonder if they could get into the related but differently-licensed valet
parking market.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
It sure would be nice to have some reviews associated with all of the fly by
night valet services out there.

When I went to retrieve my keys from the Valet at a friend's wedding recently,
I was told that they were unsure of where exactly my keys were.

"O.K." I thought as I stood on the street corner of an unfamiliar city, "this
stinks".

So after following the Valet manager around while she searched for my keys
over the radio and by rifling threw employees pockets... the manager gets into
a fight with an employee right in front of me where the employee ends up
quitting on the spot and says "I didn't sign up for this crap, I just wanted
to make some money this summer, that's it.". That was the employee that the
manager who lost my keys chose to hire. "Great!" I thought now, "hopefully
that employee isn't holding my key out of spite!"

After walking around for another couple of minutes and having no luck finding
my key, the manager looks in her right palm, and wouldn't you know it... there
it was the entire time.

Weddings are tough to plan, and when my buddy was racing around getting
everything together in the months prior, he probably just picked the valet
with the best look and lowest price. It sure would have been helpful for him
to have a reliable review service for that sort of thing.

At least it saved me a few bucks in her lost tip. The entire situation is
kindof humorous now when you think about it in hindsight ;)

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philip1209
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.

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.

~~~
pbreit
But this isn't really an Uberization. The main reason you feel comfortable
with this security provider is because it's affiliated with a group (YC) that
you trust. There are likely dozens of good security providers out there that
make it easy and reliable to hire security guards but have been unable to
break through the noise to reach you.

Also, most of the Uber-wannabes are missing a huge component: an industry with
lots of existing rules and regulations that can be finessed around.

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damian2000
Sorry for being negative, but how is this innovative? Won't an existing
security guard service be able to provide the same service, assuming they have
a website booking form?

~~~
jonnathanson
How many security guard services do you know of, or do you think most people
know of? My guess is that the market is opaque, fragmented, highly variable,
and prohibitively expensive for many needs and use cases. This service
probably doesn't kill off high-end security guard businesses, so much as it
puts more security guards (or other, similar personnel down the line --
valets, caterers, etc.) within reach of customers who wouldn't otherwise have
considered them an option until now. It's pushing out one demand curve, while
creating options for others.

Bouncers look like a pretty small niche right now, but there seem to be lots
of extensible paths. This isn't a cure for cancer, but it's an interesting
approach to a non-obvious market. How many people have private parties every
year? How many of those parties could potentially use this service? Even a
fraction of that is a pretty enormous potential TAM if you think about it.

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nbarry
_> 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._

Here'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/good provided 2\. Some very rough
quantification of its value (NOT its cost) 3\. The ease with which customers
can obtain those services/goods; this includes how long it takes for the
customer to obtain the services/goods.

Then, identify large gaps - places where there aren't many options at a
certain price, or at a certain level of value, or where the ease of obtaining
the services/goods is very high.

Sell subscriptions to this data to entrepreneurs looking to start or pivot
companies.

~~~
didgeoridoo
I used to do this as a job; it's a form of market research. Usually you focus
on a single vertical (mine was pharma) — getting the numbers right is HARD.

~~~
nbarry
Yeah, even as I was writing the idea, I was thinking that it must be really
hard to do well.

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

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

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pushkargaikwad
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.

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joezydeco
As a Blackhawks fan I was _really_ hoping the name was a reference to our
beloved goalie Murray[1], but it seems it's also a Game of Thrones reference.
Oh well...

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bannerman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Bannerman)

~~~
mmcnickle
I imagine they're actually alluding to a Bannerman, the standard bearer in an
army.

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okonomiyaki3000
What could possibly go wrong?

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VSpike
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.

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ing33k
I remember reading in newspapers few years ago ( Bangalore / India ) that a
company had hired bouncers when they had to downsize .

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alexro
This looks more like escort services, not Uber

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C--C
Cocaine and Hookers

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bjourne
_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._

Isn't that discrimination? "physical presence for visual deterrence" also
translates to "we don't hire females" or small males either for that matter.
Where I live, bouncers always work in pairs to offset the size and the
"female" problem and for increased security.

