by Mark Lannaman August 23, 2024 11:26 am
Jamine Moton, founder and CEO of Atlanta- based security agency Skylar Security, is on a mission to make sure Atlantans feel safe and secure — and launched a new app to compliment her security force.
Moton was named one of Inc’s 250 Female Founders of 2024, an annual list that highlights female founders all across the U.S. making waves in their respective industries.
The company adopted the ethos “security is an emotion” and has sought to embed that within the fabric of the workplace. Launched in 2019, it has quickly garnered contracts from top clients in Atlanta, including Atlanta Tech Village, Mercedes Benz Stadium and the City of Atlanta.
When it was originally launched — right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was launched alongside an app designed to streamline operations for managing a security team. Since then, Moton worked in-house to essentially rebuild the app, which she calls V2; this second incarnation of the app officially launched earlier this month after getting preliminary feedback from early app-users for the better part of this year.
Originally, Moton hoped to introduce the security agency to the world as Argus, the Greek word for “guardian.” Unfortunately, Argus was already trademarked — but Moton realized it was the male version of guardian; the female version of the word, as it would be named, was “Skylar.”
“I like to say that Atlanta has no clue that it’s being protected by a girl — and it’s me,” Moton joked. “It’s my concept of how we treat people; it’s the attentiveness that I have all wrapped up in one, and we built it as a security company.”
Moton said she’s hoping her company can help change narratives of security guards — often portrayed as lazy or easily fooled in movies and TV.
“I was a police officer for a local police department, and I realized that we need some help,” Moton said.
Skylar Security is Moton’s way of bringing that help, albeit from the private sector. With a strong security force, Moton argues, police resources can be better used for more pressing matters. She credits her time there as helping her shape her concepts of security.
“When I was there, I learned the concept of security being an emotion and not a business — and that everyone deserves to be safe,” Moton said. “I say it all the time because it’s at the heart of who we are.”
Her time as a local police officer allowed her to engage her community, and that feedback went into Skylar Security.
“When you have the right ear, you can hear the needs of the community — and I did. When I was a police officer, I realized that the [stereotypical] sleeping security guard is the standard by which the community sees security, “Moton said. “I would ask people, “Do you feel safe with security guards?” If you could see their faces, it would be like safety, and security guards just don’t go in the same sentence.”
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