How Axon Enterprise Became a Software Giant

In 1993, Rick and Tom Smith founded TASER International in a garage in Tucson, Arizona.

30 years later, that company generates $1.6 billion in revenue and counts 95% of US law enforcement agencies as customers.

Here's the wild story behind Axon Enterprise.

Founding - The original "TASER" was created in 1969 by a NASA researcher named Jack Cover. After failing to drive any significant commercial success, Cover eventually teamed up with Rick and Tom Smith to help bring tasers into the mainstream.

The first several years were difficult including several failed product launches and a near bankruptcy experience, but it finally found success with a unique marketing strategy.

TASER International began paying police officers to train others on their products, and before they knew it, their customers became their best salesmen.

With this newfound growth, TASER International joined the public markets in 2001 under the ticker TASR. Since its IPO, the stock is up 55,483% making it one of the 10 best performing stocks of the last 20 years.

Expanding the TAM - 4 years after its IPO, the company began selling a camera accessory for its namesake Tasers. This TASER Cam, as it would be known, was designed to automatically turn on when a Taser's safety was disengaged.

With some success here, they followed up with a second camera product called the Axon Pro which was worn by officers and would upload video footage to their online storage system, Evidence dot com.

This camera and digital evidence business found rapid growth after Axon Pro footage was used to exonerate a Fort Smith police officer during prosecution.

The modern business - Today, Axon offers more than 20 different products and services. From training and incident response to reporting and video editing, they have products covering almost all of law enforcement's needs.

Axon buckets its products into 3 revenue segments:

Today, 95% of revenue is earned through subscriptions.

Growth - Over the last 15 years, Axon's revenue is up more than 16-fold. Thanks to the company now having a foot in the door with nearly all US law enforcement agencies, much of the growth has come from up-selling existing customers.

This is evident in Axon's ~120% net revenue retention rate.

To learn more about Axon's business model, check out all their Segment and KPI data on FinChat.io.