Spokane-based tech startup Protogetic is expanding the digital marketplace it created for the security industry, says CEO and co-founder Matt Morgan.
Founded in late 2021, the company plans to launch five new resources next month that are expected to propel the company to reach double-digit growth this year, compared with 2022, Morgan says.
He says he’s passionate about providing a digital marketplace to a niche industry that’s struggled to maintain an online presence.
“The security industry has never been online. It’s always been a very traditional industry,” Morgan asserts.
He adds, laughing, “I’m pulling these guys kicking and screaming into the 21st century.”
Protogetic works with manufacturers to list their building security and safety products on the company’s website. Architects, engineers, law enforcement, and other building professionals use the website to find and compare security elements and features all in one place, he says.
“The site has some very exciting product features that are really helpful to the security industry,” Morgan says. “Right now, … we’re more of an aggregator. We take the user and we put them in touch with the manufacturer.”
An e-commerce element will launch next month, through which users will be able to purchase the security features directly on Protogetic’s website, and Protogetic will collect a commission from the sales.
“You won’t get any marked-up prices. It’s just allowing for a straightforward purchase,” he adds.
Some of the products available on Protogetic’s marketplace include vehicle barriers, windows and doors, wall panels, blast resistant structures, and security entrances, gates, and fences.
Also this September, Protogetic will market and launch a new monthly industry report, a searchable list of vehicle barriers, a blast test calculator, an industry event calendar, and a worldwide security threat map.
Morgan says the new resources will drive traffic to the website and help users discover security and safety products, learn about industry trends and events, and gauge global threats to their businesses.
For example, the blast calculator will operate similarly to a mortgage calculator, however, instead of inputting financial information to estimate housing costs, users can calculate an explosion’s impact on a building. Then, depending on the calculator’s results, designers can search for security elements that can withstand serious damage from a blast.
Another new resource is dubbed the DoD Anti-Ram Vehicle Barrier List. The list allows users to search by rating criteria, barrier type, or by manufacturer, in addition to product comparisons and direct links to manufacturer’s product pages.
“We have the only searchable, actionable DoD list for vehicle barriers on the internet,” claims Morgan.
He says prior to creating Protogetic’s digital list of vehicle barriers, users of the Department of Defense vehicle barrier list had difficulty navigating and locating information.
“We just overhauled the design, we remodeled it, we refashioned it, and now it’s a usable tool.”
The company also hosts Proto-Talks, which are 70-minute programs featuring guest speakers who share expert industry knowledge. Morgan says that Proto-Talks are similar to TED Talks, but for the security industry.
Protogetic is incorporated as M&H-RSF LLC. Morgan says the Protogetic name is a blend of words associated with positive energy and synergy, such as protective and proactive.
“All these words kind of lumped into a new word, protogetic, which is really just about protective design,” he says.
In addition to its current revenue streams, the company will begin earning additional income from the e-commerce site, as well as from monthly data and analytics reports derived from website traffic and use.
“The analytics and the tracking give us the ability to really understand the security community as a whole, and (to) be able to create the kind of intelligence and information that users and manufacturers alike find useful,” he says.
For the first year in business, Morgan says the company was focused on growing manufacturing partnerships and expanding the offering of building security products on the digital marketplace.
“We did spectacularly well, as far as I was concerned,” he adds. “We had great growth numbers and 2023 is stacking up to look like we’re going to double our numbers versus last year.”
Morgan declines to disclose Protogetic’s annual revenue due to ongoing talks with potential new investors.
Protogetic has four employees, including new chief operating officer Todd Stump, who was hired last year, says Morgan.
“We are a small team, but growing quickly,” he says.
He says that by early next year, Protogetic expects to expand to Europe, where security and safety needs are similar to those in the U.S.
Morgan already has ties to Europe where he worked before co-founding Protogetic. Morgan helped develop and launch major cosmetics brands in markets in Eastern Europe.
He describes himself as an entrepreneur and a corporate start-up specialist. He gives credit for the idea and concepts behind the company to his longtime friend and co-founder, Holly Stone, who’s a blast engineer and consultant based in New York state.
“For years when I was over in Europe, … she’d always tell me about this idea and the Protogetic concept. As I started to build it, I got exposed to what exactly we were doing and all the implications it had and the absence of anything like this in the security industry.”
He says Protogetic is beginning to see positive results with manufacturing companies that have a better understanding of the digital marketplace and the growth opportunities it presents.
He says Protogetic has 78 manufacturing partners offering over 1,000 products online now and there have been over 300,000 page visits to the website this year.
Morgan says he expects traffic to explode after the new resources launch this fall, adding that a 30% to 40% uptick in website traffic is expected.
“The most significant thing is our focus on the traffic and the way you generate traffic is to have content on your site. We hired a new digital agency to help us with the fall launch and we expect traffic to go through the roof.”
