Early Adoption Community
Letter from the Director
Dear Campus Community Members,
The most vibrant, and enlightening place to be, is in an American college or high school. We have the BEST educators, the most FREEDOM to learn and opportunities to make society better. However, our country is far from number one when it comes to campus security, so there’s no peace of mind.
Public safety has been deteriorating, while adversaries are gaining in sophistication. Campuses that don’t have a unified and unifying system to synchronize preparedness and response across public and private sectors, will remain vulnerable. Emergencies, disasters and other low frequency/high impact challenges put lives and business continuity in peril.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Infrastructure Report Card gives U.S. Critical Infrastructure and schools a grade of “D+”. This rating is based on metrics such as: public safety, capacity, condition, funding, operations and maintenance, resilience, and innovation. The inability to meet future educational needs, in a secure and safe environment, is a dark cloud our otherwise brilliant learning institutions cannot leave hanging. The willpower and self-sufficiency of campus stakeholders as true first responders, as well as their instincts and insights, are the strongest defense against threats.
Campus Risk Solutions® has developed the first, end-to-end campus safety solution to inform, train, unite and protect these valuable boots-on-the-ground. The Campus Incident Management System™ (CIMS™) levels the playing field by infusing the best educational facilities on the planet, with the most comprehensive and reliable security advantage!
Elissa-Beth Gross
Founder & C.E.O., Campus Risk Solutions®, LLC
Executive Director, The Art of Prevention Corporation
Get involved to show your full commitment to safer schools and more resilient communities!
Winning Software Solutions
If you’re leafing through software startups for a potential investment, how will you find a winner? The first question to ask is whether the product solves a major problem that no one else has successfully addressed. This speaks to it being breakthrough technology. Next, I’d want to know if the product is cloud-hosted, and with which provider. Startups that pay the price to be with a global CRM, AI, and data infrastructure company will have a huge advantage. The language the code is written in will be familiar to many software engineers, and the user interface will be familiar to many businesses. The host should also be compliant and transparent.
Look for a product that’s cost-effective to scale. With the right host, the task of updating and patching the software is seamless across the subscriber base, unlike performing these tasks across disparate firewalls and accounts associated with on-premise servers or hybrid hosting environments. When the startup’s clients want to add users, they shouldn’t have to think twice about the price of a new seat. Cloud services allow software providers to assign some of their cyber risk. Also, the end-product should be equally accessible remotely.
Good software is intuitive, scalable, and an excellent investment for both speculators and subscribers. Photo by Christina Morillo.
It goes without saying, the software the startup is offering must be highly available, meaning it has little downtime. The host should make enhancing and scaling the software relatively easy. This is accomplished by offering a robust code toolkit and graphic user interface (GUI) elements that are easily integrated and adapted. Customizations built on top of existing architecture make for efficient programming, which is inherently cost containing. The designer and architect introducing the software should be emphasizing R&D, and clean, quality code above speed to market. Today, the end-product really should be AI-friendly.
If you’re still not sure which software startup is a good fit for your investment dollars, find an ETF with some of your favorites. Perhaps even better, look for a startup that stayed privately-held longer, with a clean cap table. Good software must be flexible; adapting to market conditions and business demands. Many software giants are short on customer service, but a solid IT startup can provide customized installations; and on-site trainings for enterprise-level packages -- preferably, included in the annual licensing fee.
The product delivered to subscribers must be from a secure supply chain. If the startup’s product is built on a third-party network, and that platform is compromised, the software’s end users can be exposed to pass through attacks and ransomware threats. Remember, software is labor intensive, making odds longer than for most investments, but in a sector primarily untethered by physical inventories, the rewards are superior as evidenced by the composition of Fortune’s Future 50.
©2025, Campus Risk Solutions
Education Software Market; a Somewhat Hidden Gem
Tampa, Florida, September 2021, CRS. EdTech startups collected $13.3B in global venture funding in 2020, surpassing the 2018 record by nearly 50%. Some strength has been attributed to the need for distance learning during the pandemic. However, there was already a pre-COVID market, sweetened by considerable exits, such as the 2015 purchase of Lynda.com by LinkedIn. Going forward, an even greater number of Ed software IPOs and acquisitions are expected. Valuations are impressive with several in the billion dollar range. “The global Education Software market size is projected to reach $6735.9M by 2026, from $3244.4M in 2019, at a CAGR of 11.0% during 2021-2026.”
EdTech is thriving in part because the majority of U.S.-based students now have access to broadband, tablets and smart phones. Campus Risk Solutions®’ SaaS is designed to mobilize and connect the sizeable pool of untapped resources (college and high school student stakeholders) to make their campuses safer, more profitable and resilient. Campus Risk Solutions® “CRS” expects to benefit from notable buoyancy in the EdTech market, supported by broader accessibility. Also, special purpose acquisition companies “SPACs” are raising funds to shop the privately-held online education market. As a result of their special business structure, SPACs can accelerate the process of seeing acquisitions go public.
CRS is enthusiastic about the current business and social climate that embraces lifelong, e- learning and civic responsibility. We anticipate more attention being given to security investments as well, and a growing respect for consensus standards. Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) companies focus on helping clients comply with legal, emergency management, security and/or business continuity standards. CRS goes a step further by incorporating these requirements to assist clients in evolving a cohesive, customized “reasonable care standard” fitted to their organization’s unique needs. In addition, we enable clients to measure and track the strength of risk-resistant infrastructure (RRI) over time, and in comparison to peer campuses. CRS is well-positioned to participate in the growing education software market, and looks forward to bringing its novel approach to incident management to a variety of campus types.
Temkin, M.; EdTech (2021) | Wan, T.; EdSurge (2021) | Cision® PR Newswire & Valuates Reports® (2021)
Contact us
CampusRiskSolutions@gmail.com
(813) 370-0028