✔️Went public without raising VC
✔️Started as a penny stock
✔️Now worth $50B+
Rick Smith (CEO, Axon) is behind the TASER, police body cameras used by over a million officers worldwide, and now AI tools that power the police force. In our conversation, Rick breaks down how he turned controversy into momentum, evolved the company into a software and AI leader, and stayed focused on his long-term mission: making the bullet obsolete.
Read the transcript here
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➡️ What almost destroyed Axon…
Until Axon went public, Rick Smith was draining his parents’ retirement fund to keep the company alive. In 2005, short sellers came after him hard - planting a mole inside the company - while lawsuits against the TASER created controversey. That’s when Axon created police body cameras, originally to monitor TASER use and shield officers from wild allegations. Ironically, the controversies that nearly killed the company led to a huge breakout when body cams finally hit product-market fit.
➡️ Why he nearly quit - and what pulled him back in
Early on, Rick Smith saw hiring as a chore. He’d just “get someone in the seat” and try to solve all the hard problems himself. That mindset turned him into a chronic micromanager and eventually led him to tell the board he wanted to retire from burnout. While prepping for a year abroad with his kids, he was forced to delegate everything. Letting go of 2am busywork made life manageable. He fell back in love with the job and now focuses on vision and storytelling, while his COO (““head coach”) runs the team. The takeaway: get someone obsessed with human capital in the room early.
➡️ Rick’s opinion on investors
Rick never built Axon to impress investors. “If we’re doing things to please the investors, that’s just focusing in the wrong area.” While messaging matters, he warns that over-spinning a story can lead to decisions that don’t move the fundamentals forward. His approach: focus on building a real, sustainable business—and the investors will take care of themselves.
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