20251216

Tue Dec 16 10:00:01 UTC 2025 ======================================== Slept from eleven to six-thirty. Woke briefly around four. Partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 30s. South winds 5 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the late afternoon. # Work * 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM GrowHub daily standup * 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM GrowHub requirements with Olivia Fraser Went into the office. Half-hour walk in the afternoon to clear my head (after capturing nearly 1,000 NMIS screenshots). Sunny and not bitterly cold. # Home * [x] buy food for Cynerge food drive * [ ] Ask if Dr. Lipson takes my new health insurance. If so, schedule appointment? * [ ] set 401K contribution (As of Dec 4, the Vanguard website suggest my first contribution will be Dec 10.) * [ ] schedule COVID vaccine * [ ] schedule flu vaccine Read more of Player Piano. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/fire-department-software-private-equity.html > The Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department operates on an annual budget of $132,000, barely enough to sustain its aging rigs, train unpaid crews and keep the lights on at the station in the hills of northern Connecticut. > > Not long ago, it faced a different kind of emergency: The software system it relied on to track detailed incident information was no longer going to be usable. A company backed by private equity investors, ESO Solutions, had acquired the platform and planned to shut it down. The alternative software it was offering would raise the community’s costs from $795 per year to more than $5,000. > > Urgently looking for an alternative, the department found a cheaper system, but then ESO bought up the other brand. > [...] > ESO is presently serving about 20,000 of the 30,000 fire departments in the country, company officials said, and some of the departments it does not supply do not use software at all. The two other leading software suppliers in the industry — ImageTrend and First Due — are also funded by private equity. > > The three brands have been pushing to win contracts to facilitate not only basic fire department data but also fire station scheduling, inventory tracking, hydrant management, inspections and medical information on people treated for injuries. Linking these software streams, company officials say, could give departments the ability to analyze coordinated data all the way from the initial 911 call to dispatch to on-scene treatment and finally hospital admission. > [...] > In 2016, new backing from the private equity firm Accel-KKR helped the company finance an acquisition spree. It scooped up trauma data vendors such as Digital Innovation, Clinical Data Management and Lancet Technology. It also acquired Station Check, which helped fire departments track their equipment; eCore, which helped departments manage firefighter schedules; and FIREHOUSE Software, a brand used by some 11,000 departments — including Norfolk — to manage everything from incident tracking to fire truck maintenance records. > > Then, in 2021, another private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, invested in ESO. [...] With the support of Vista, ESO’s acquisitions continued, including perhaps the most important brand for volunteer fire departments: Emergency Reporting, which was serving some 7,500 fire and E.M.S. agencies in North America, including Norfolk. > > Adrian Mintz, one of the co-founders of Emergency Reporting, was a longtime firefighter and emergency medical technician. When he started the business, he said, departments needed better tools to report incident data to the federal government; he said his company could fill that need while keeping costs down for agencies with tight budgets. > > “We were all aware that volunteer organizations were not going to have a lot of money to spend,” said Mr. Mintz, who still serves at a volunteer fire department in Skagit County, Wash. “We deliberately kept prices down.” > > The company’s software suite expanded over the years to include tools to manage fire hydrants, maintain equipment, and assist with staff training and scheduling. Mr. Mintz and his partner brought in a venture capital firm to invest in the company in 2019, leaving them with a minority stake. The venture firm later sold the company to ESO. > > After the acquisition, ESO decided to shut down Emergency Reporting. Servings: grains 2/4, vegetables+fruit 3/5, dairy+meat 3/4, nuts+beans 0/0.5 Breakfast: strawberries, breakfast burrito Lunch: turkey wrap, carrots, coffee Afternoon snack: Dinner:

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