Model and Strategy
Smart Tech supports innovation to build a market for new gun safety technologies that will save lives. We identify new technologies and invest in innovators, supporting the development of promising solutions. This funding will accelerate innovator traction, getting the most promising products to prototype and to market. Our research and marketing support will raise awareness and acceptance of these technologies and attract additional capital, further stimulating the market for safer firearms. Battery Powered’s support of this work is analogous to buying early shares in gun violence prevention. Unlike traditional grant funding, this project provides start-up funding to technology products developed to reduce firearm accidents, teen suicides, and disrupt the market for stolen guns. Providing a market-driven solution to reduce the frequency of these tragedies would make Battery Powered a successful shareholder.
Impact
Smart Tech Challenges Foundation supports technological solutions in the free market, and engages responsible gun owners to drive demand for those safer firearms, all while informing the public sector on pathways toward a market solution for addressing preventable gun injuries and deaths. Innovation has been used to address consumer safety for a range of products, from automobiles to children’s cribs. Similarly, there’s a need for innovation in firearm safety and market-driven solutions to address those concerns. This is especially critical in this political environment when other solutions are stalled. There has not been innovation around safety in the gun industry in the last 100 years. Smart Tech is uniquely positioned to change that through our innovators, but not through innovation alone. Smart Tech believes change comes where advancements in technology meet a burgeoning consumer demand that intersects with public sector incentives and guidelines for product development.
Leadership
-
Margot Hirsch
Executive Director