Safe & the City is the only street-smart app helping you get to your destination not just the fastest way, but the safer one. They combine official police and crowdsourced incidents to inform people along with their journeys, while building data-driven geospatial intelligence across private and public sectors in order to safer, more inclusive spaces to walk, study, shop, work and live. On International Women’s Day 2020, the app will celebrate its second birthday. In this blog, founder and CEO of Safe & the City, Jillian Kowalchuk talks to us about their journey so far, plans for the future and why she joined Women in Transport.
Tell us a bit about Safe & The City and your journey so far.
One of my key motivations in shaping Safe & the City was the inclusion of the experiences of invisible women and other minorities. Currently, data is biased to create a world that is designed for men. I recognised that there was a need for a tech product that was diverse and representative of the people that were using that product. Simply hearing the numerous stories of sexual harassment of various women allowed me to recognise that navigation apps were not tailored to the needs of all. This recognition led me to shape my vision and plan for Safe & the City.
What inspired you to start the business and why did you choose London?
I had recently moved to London and was using navigation-apps to assist me in travelling around the city. It was one of these apps that led me the fastest route, down an alley where I was subject to sexual harassment from two kitchen staff. I mitigated the situation, physically unharmed but was left concerned that another person would be led down that same alley with that experience otherwise remaining invisible. Speaking with hundreds of women who had been in a similar situation; following what felt like an unsafe route and subject to sexual harassment that we didn’t feel we could tell police about was what motivated me to create the Safe & the City app. I shared more about this in my recent Tedx talks 'Equality By design’ below about how I got started in London and what we've been able to accomplish to date in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
What challenges did you face as a female founder of a tech start up?
There are fairly apparent challenges we know about, in terms of venture capital’s lack of investment into female-led companies, unconscious biases from people limiting what you know or can do or other experiences like sexual harassment which can be even more difficult to navigate in workplaces and business. It can be difficult to appreciate what you don’t know, what you don’t have compared to men and/or other groups, however I’m lucky to be living in a time and a country that is actively finding solutions to change things.
What are you most proud of?
Taking Safe & the City from an idea to growing a team and product and being able to hear the impact it’s had from our people who use the app and website.
What’s next for Safe & The City and for you?
We are thrilled to be working with larger companies in the transportation sector, like Uber, to find data-driven technological solutions to appreciate the diversity of safety experiences, detect incidents and crimes earlier and find better ways to support victims.
Why did you join Women in Transport?
I’ve been wanting to join Women in Transport for some time now, but wanted to make sure I had the capacity to make the most of the membership. I heard about WiT from a friend, attended one of their Christmas parties as a guest and truly saw the value of having a community of women in transport to support each other, share solutions and chip away at the larger industry-wide barriers we can only address together.
Join our #EachforEqual IWD 2020 campaign
Safe & the City will be celebrating our second birthday since launch on March 8th. We have a social media campaign planned then, building on the International Women’s Day theme #eachforequal. We’d like to invite you to join from your personal accounts. It can be done in 3 easy steps
1) Take the “Each for Equal” pose with Safe & the City’s instagram in shot
2) Write your message around one more action you will take to reach gender parity and use 4 hashtags #eachforequal #iwd2020 #safeandthecity #womenintransport
3) Tag 4 friends and be ready to post for March 8th. We hope to see your poses, pledges and posts this Sunday and looking forward to getting more involved with the community
Connect and follow Safe & the City
Website: safeandthecity.com
Facebook: safeandthecity
Instagram: @safeandthecity
Twitter: @safeandthecity
LinkedIn: safe&thecity
Annual membership of Women in Transport is £60 per year providing access to monthly events including unique site visits, professional development and networking opportunities. Find out more and join today.
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