Watch Duty

What Watch Duty does

Watch Duty is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (legally Sherwood Forestry Service, Inc.) that operates a real-time emergency alerting platform delivering verified wildfire and flood intelligence to consumers, first responders, utilities, and government agencies across all 50 U.S. states. Founded in 2021 by CEO John Mills after he experienced inadequate official alerts during a Northern California wildfire, the company began with 7 volunteer reporters covering 4 California counties and has scaled to 16.8 million yearly active users, 135,223 paid members (111,124 basic and 24,099 professional), 48 paid staff, and a 292-person volunteer reporter network. Its core mobile and web application aggregates fragmented emergency data streams — radio scanners (Broadcastify), satellites (ALERTCalifornia, ALERTWest, Satellites on Fire), weather services (NWS, NOAA, USGS), cameras, aircraft tracking (ADS-B Exchange), air quality sensors (PurpleAir), power outages (PowerOutage.us), and user-generated reports — and applies computer vision, speech-to-text transcription (developed with Google.org Fellows), and NLP parsing of official documents before human verification by trained reporters. The platform maintained 100% uptime while sustaining 100,000 requests per second during the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, a moment that catalyzed national recognition and accelerated growth.

Watch Duty operates a blended funding model: a freemium consumer app monetized through $5/month basic memberships ($5.58MM in 2025), enterprise Professional Teams subscriptions for utilities, telecoms, railways, and fire departments ($1MM ARR achieved within the first six months of launch with $1.4MM pipeline), and philanthropic grants and donations ($5.63MM in 2025, including a $2MM Google.org grant and a $1MM Ring donation). Total 2025 revenue was $11.4MM, with management forecasting $8MM ARR and $9MM donations for 2026. Distribution is digital-first through iOS, Android, and web, supplemented by an OEM integration with the Ring Neighbors app and a growing network of strategic partnerships (Tablet Command for incident management, Direct Relief for humanitarian coordination, GoFundMe for community fundraising, Overstory for utility vegetation data, and UC San Diego WIFIRE/Pyregence for fire behavior modeling). The organization expanded from wildfire monitoring in 22 states to all 50 states in December 2025 and launched nationwide flood monitoring in June 2026, marking its first major product-line extension.

Name

Watch Duty

Legal name

Sherwood Forestry Service, Inc.

Website

https://watchduty.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Watch Duty is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating a real-time, human-verified emergency alerting platform delivering wildfire and flood intelligence to 16.8 million yearly active users, 135,000 paying members, first responders, and enterprise customers across all 50 U.S. states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Emergency Alerting Software

NAICS

Security Systems Services (56162)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Emergency Communications, Alerting & Public Warning Systems (HLAJAGAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

System Monitoring & Dispatch Services (Fire/CO Alarm Monitoring) (HSAHAFAF)

Keywords

• Wildfire alerts
• Emergency notifications
• Disaster intelligence
• Flood monitoring
• Emergency management

Headquarters

HQ city

Sonoma

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consumer Memberships: Basic and premium app memberships for individual consumers. Free tier available to all users. 111,124 basic members, 24,099 professional memberships as of end of 2025. $5.58MM revenue from memberships in 2025.
2. Professional Teams Enterprise: B2B enterprise tier for teams and businesses (utilities, fire departments, emergency managers). Customers can overlay their own data into Watch Duty's platform. Launched 6 months prior to report, closing $1MM ARR with $1.4MM pipeline.
3. Donations and Grants: Nonprofit funding from individual donors and institutional grants (Google.org $2M grant, Ring $1M donation, other foundation grants). Received nearly $6M in grants and donations in 2025. Total 2025 funding $11.4MM.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Watch Duty operates a free, ad-free real-time emergency alerting mobile and web application that delivers verified wildfire and flood alerts to consumers, plus a paid Professional Teams tier for enterprise customers in utilities, telecommunications, railways, and emergency services. The platform aggregates radio scanner audio, satellite imagery, camera feeds, weather services, and government agency data into a unified map interface, with every alert written and verified by trained human reporters (many of whom are active or retired firefighters, dispatchers, and emergency managers) supported by AI for fire detection, speech-to-text transcription, and document parsing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Watch Duty Mobile and Web App Free, ad-free nonprofit real-time emergency tracking application (iOS, Android, and web at app.watchduty.org) providing verified wildfire perimeter alerts, evacuation updates, prescribed burn notifications, firefighting aircraft tracking, river gauge readings, air quality, and shelter information across all 50 U.S. states. Aggregates data from radio scanners, satellites, weather services (NWS, NOAA, USGS), cameras, government agencies, and user-generated content, with every alert written and verified by human reporters and delivered in five languages. Maintained 100% uptime during the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires while serving 8 million users.
• Professional Solutions (Professional Teams Enterprise Tier) Enterprise offering for first responders, utilities (PG&E, Xcel Energy), telecommunications (Verizon), railways (BNSF Railway), and government agencies (Orange County Fire, LA County Sheriff). Provides bulk membership management, data overlay capabilities that allow organizations to integrate their own operational layers into the Watch Duty platform, priority access, and dedicated account management with quote-based annual pricing. Accounts for 11,970 of the 24,099 total professional memberships.
• Flood Tracking and Monitoring Service Nationwide flood monitoring and alerting service covering flash flooding, dam and levee failures, and downstream flooding. Free to all users with no ads, leveraging Watch Duty's existing network of approximately 300 volunteer reporters (including first responders and dispatchers) for live verification and on-the-ground context. Translates fragmented National Weather Service, FEMA, and NOAA data into community-level plain-language alerts.

Quantifiable outcome

• 16.8M yearly active users reached (up 2.3x from 7.2M)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

39 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and strategic.

• RingflagshipTechnology or Integration · 7 January 2026Ring and Watch Duty partnered for Fire Watch feature using AI to detect wildfire smoke/flames from Ring cameras. Ring donated $1M to Watch Duty to expand fire reporting across all 50 states. Ring users can opt-in to share camera footage with Watch Duty for street-level emergency visibility.
• Amazon AWScoreTechnology or IntegrationAmazon Web Services provides cloud infrastructure supporting Watch Duty's platform. Partnership ensured 100,000 requests per second capacity during LA wildfires with 100% uptime.
• FastlycoreTechnology or IntegrationFastly provides edge computing and content delivery network services supporting Watch Duty's real-time alerting infrastructure.
• HerokucoreTechnology or IntegrationHeroku provides platform-as-a-service infrastructure supporting Watch Duty's application platform and deployment.
• MapboxcoreTechnology or IntegrationMapbox provides mapping technology enabling Watch Duty's real-time wildfire/flood tracking maps and visualization.
• GoFundMeflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerWatch Duty and GoFundMe partnered linking disaster alerts with fundraising platform. During January 2025 LA wildfires, facilitated significant community aid with GoFundMe delivering over $265 million in aid while Watch Duty experienced surge to 8 million users.
• Tablet CommandflagshipTechnology or IntegrationStrategic integration combining Watch Duty's real-time emergency information with Tablet Command's incident management platform. Agencies using Tablet Command can send updates directly to Watch Duty operations team for faster public notification. Integration available spring 2026.
• Direct ReliefstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerDirect Relief and Watch Duty partnership integrates health services and relief resource information into Watch Duty app. Collaboration expands access to real-time emergency information across all 50 states and enables Direct Relief to share updates on evacuation centers, healthcare facilities, and community aid distributions.
• Satellites on FirestrategicTechnology or IntegrationAI-powered wildfire detection platform aggregating satellite data from NASA, NOAA, and European Space Agency. Partnership with Watch Duty provides early fire detection (35 minutes ahead of NASA's FIRMS) and integration with Watch Duty's reporting network.
• SlackcoreTechnology or IntegrationSlack provides team communication platform supporting Watch Duty's internal operations and reporter coordination.
• Red CrossstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Red Cross for disaster response coordination, helping displaced communities with food, medical supplies, and shelter during crises.
• World Central KitchenstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Jose Andres-founded World Central Kitchen for disaster response coordination, providing food relief during emergencies.
• OverstorystrategicTechnology or IntegrationOverstory monitors vegetation encroachment over power lines via satellite. Partnership allows their utility customers to consume vegetation data directly in Watch Duty platform.
• UC San Diego WIFIRE / PyregencestrategicTechnology or IntegrationPartnership displaying fire progression models from UC San Diego's WIFIRE program and Pyregence to first responders using Watch Duty.
• PulsePointstrategicTechnology or IntegrationPartnership with PulsePoint strengthens cross-platform emergency alerting, enabling their nationwide network of responders and app users to access Watch Duty's real-time vegetation fire intelligence.
• ALERTCaliforniacoreTechnology or IntegrationALERTCalifornia provides camera network data integrated into Watch Duty for wildfire monitoring and verification.
• BroadcastifycoreTechnology or IntegrationBroadcastify provides radio scanner audio feeds used by Watch Duty's reporter network for real-time emergency monitoring.
• PurpleAircoreTechnology or IntegrationPurpleAir provides air quality sensor data (AQI) integrated into Watch Duty for environmental monitoring during fires.
• ADS-B ExchangecoreTechnology or IntegrationADS-B Exchange provides aircraft tracking data enabling Watch Duty's firefighting aircraft tracker showing live flight paths as crews work from the sky.
• PagerDutycoreTechnology or IntegrationPagerDuty provides incident management platform supporting Watch Duty's internal alerting and response coordination.
• SentrycoreTechnology or IntegrationSentry provides error monitoring and application performance monitoring for Watch Duty's platform reliability.
• New ReliccoreTechnology or IntegrationNew Relic provides application performance monitoring supporting Watch Duty's infrastructure reliability during high-traffic emergencies.
• PostHogcoreTechnology or IntegrationPostHog provides product analytics helping Watch Duty understand user engagement and feature usage.
• PowerOutage.uscoreTechnology or IntegrationPowerOutage.us provides power outage data integrated into Watch Duty's emergency monitoring.
• California Fire Safe CouncilstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with California Fire Safe Council for wildfire prevention and community safety initiatives.
• Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research CenterstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with academic research center for wildfire science and interdisciplinary research collaboration.
• 211LAstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with 211LA for connecting communities with emergency resources and information during disasters.
• All Hands EcologystrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with environmental organization for ecological monitoring and conservation during wildfire events.
• Sonoma County Regional ParksstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with local parks department for wildfire monitoring and emergency coordination in Sonoma County.
• Wet Dog WeathercoreTechnology or IntegrationWet Dog Weather provides weather data services supporting Watch Duty's meteorological monitoring.
• SynopticcoreTechnology or IntegrationSynoptic provides weather data integration supporting Watch Duty's environmental monitoring capabilities.
• RegridcoreTechnology or IntegrationRegrid provides parcel and property data supporting Watch Duty's geographic information capabilities.
• Bright DatacoreTechnology or IntegrationBright Data provides web data infrastructure supporting Watch Duty's data collection capabilities.
• ALERTWestcoreTechnology or IntegrationALERTWest provides wildfire camera network data for the western United States integrated into Watch Duty.
• LocizecoreTechnology or IntegrationLocize provides internationalization/localization services supporting Watch Duty's five-language alert delivery.
• MendercoreTechnology or IntegrationMender provides OTA update infrastructure supporting Watch Duty's mobile application updates.
• PyrecastcoreTechnology or IntegrationPyrecast provides fire behavior prediction and forecasting integrated into Watch Duty for first responder intelligence.
• Sixieme SoncoreTechnology or IntegrationSixieme Son provides audio/sound design services for Watch Duty's alert sounds and user experience.
• Fire NotificationscoreTechnology or IntegrationFire Notifications provides fire detection and notification services integrated into Watch Duty's monitoring network.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• PulsePoint: Nonprofit mobile app that crowdsources CPR-trained citizens and broadcasts cardiac and emergency alerts to first responders. Directly comparable to Watch Duty in mission, nonprofit structure, and crowdsourced emergency intelligence model serving both consumers and professional responders.
• Citizen: Consumer safety app providing real-time incident alerts (crime, fires, emergencies) with location-based push notifications. Directly comparable to Watch Duty's core mobile app experience, freemium membership model, and professional tier, though Citizen focuses on crime/incidents rather than natural disasters.
• ALERTCalifornia / ALERTWest: University of California and partner-operated wildfire camera networks providing AI-detected fire alerts. A direct peer and current data partner of Watch Duty — both provide real-time verified fire intelligence, though ALERTCalifornia is camera-network-first rather than reporter-network-first.
• Tablet Command: Incident command and management platform used by 1,500+ fire and EMS agencies. A current strategic integration partner of Watch Duty serving the same first-responder buyer with complementary incident management vs. real-time public intelligence functionality.

Broad incumbents

• Everbridge: Publicly-traded critical event management and mass notification platform serving enterprises and governments. Comparable to Watch Duty's Professional Teams enterprise tier — both sell alerting and situational awareness to utilities, telecoms, and public safety agencies, though Everbridge is a much broader incumbent with PE ownership history.
• FEMA IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System): Federal government emergency alerting system delivering Wireless Emergency Alerts, EAS, and IPAWS-OPEN messages. The incumbent public-warning infrastructure that Watch Duty effectively complements and competes with for life-safety alerting during disasters like LA wildfires and Texas floods.
• NOAA / National Weather Service: Federal source of official weather, hydrologic, and flood warnings that Watch Duty aggregates and re-presents in plain-language alerts. A key data supplier and adjacent incumbent whose alert latency and fragmentation Watch Duty's human-verified overlay addresses.
• The Weather Channel (Weather Underground): Mainstream consumer weather alerting platform with severe weather push notifications. Comparable to Watch Duty's consumer alerting experience, though it is a broad-incumbent commercial weather media company rather than a disaster-intelligence specialist.

Emerging players

• Nextdoor: Neighborhood social network that surfaces local emergency and safety alerts to residents. Comparable to Watch Duty's community-level alerting use case for residents, with broader social functionality but less specialized real-time verification.
• Overstory: Satellite-based vegetation intelligence platform for utilities to monitor encroachment near power lines. A current strategic partner of Watch Duty and adjacent peer — both serve the utility wildfire-risk vertical, with Overstory focused on predictive vegetation analytics and Watch Duty on real-time incident alerting.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat7 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/watchdutyapp
• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=KEIxR3X-SqU
• Facebookfacebook.com/watchdutyapp

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Watch Duty