Now, facing investigations from both the FTC and the SEC, Evolv refuses to address these statements.
Evolv CEO Lies in Forbes Interview
On February 15, 2024, Forbes senior writer Jabari Young sat down with Evolv CEO Peter George for a 24-minute interview, the full interview is embedded below:
Key quotes from Evolv's CEO in that interview:
unless you have a weapon on you, being able to walk right in is an amazing experience for people....
And they walk right in from the street to their seat without taking out anything. It's game-changing....
It's not a metal detector. It's a weapons detector. And unless you're looking for, unless you're carrying a weapon, you get to walk right in....
There are places now that say, wow, now I can create a frictionless experience, put systems in, people walk right in without breaking stride and know when they get in, there's no weapon there. [emphasis added]
Evolv knows this is wrong in two fundamental ways:
Regarding "walk right in," Evolv has sizeable false alert problems, and a significant percentage of people, even with benign objects such as eyeglass cases, water bottles, binders, laptops, umbrellas, etc., are alarmed. Evolv struggles to tell the difference between weapons and innocuous items, contrary to George's claim that people "walk right in...without taking out anything," with significant false alarm rates documented at various Evolv users (e.g., 1, 2, 3).
Evolv often justifies this through its Orwellian "transparency" policy, where it claims that it can hide its weaknesses to prevent "bad guys" from knowing how to get weapons past Evolv's systems.
In practice, this supports Evolv's executives in making sweeping false statements that excite investors, buyers, and public officials, such as school administrators, enticing them to view Evolv as far more effective than it actually is.
Misleading Investors
Peter George's statements in the Forbes interview are of particular note given the interview's focus on Evolv's business prospects and stock; Evolv is a publicly traded company, now under SEC investigation.
Forbes is a business publication that is particularly likely to reach investors. At one point, George is even directly asked why investors should buy Evolv's stock, which the Forbes interviewer highlighted in promoting the interview:
Reversal Of Improvements
Last year, Evolv at least somewhat reigned in its false claims as evidence against them emerged, shifting its key marketing slogan from "weapons free-zones" to "safer zones," and admitting Evolv may have "generalize[d its] capabilities."
Evolv No Comment
While we previewed our concerns that Evolv's CEO lied to Forbes five days prior to publishing this, Evolv never responded.
Defiant Statement After SEC Investigation
However, Evolv issued a defiant statement after the SEC investigation was announced posting a series of eight "claims" that it considers misinformation. The statement does not explicitly address Evolv's CEO's comments on the Forbes interview but broadly dismisses claims that "Evolv says it can catch all weapons" and that "Evolv misleads the public."
Outlook
Unfortunately, Evolv's CEO's comments and Evolv's defiant statement after the SEC investigation indicate that the company does not intend to rectify these problems.
Consider Evolv CEO's statement as it relates to active shooters and school shootings:
unless you're carrying a weapon, you get to walk right in
Now, consider a parallel statement for the pandemic:
unless you have COVID, you get to walk right in
These are extraordinarily powerful statements that provide significant sales advantages but are radically overstated.
The challenge for consumers (FTC) and investors (SEC) is that it is hard to know what technology claims are lies versus reality. A few years ago, virtually no one thought we would have intelligent chatbots like those that have emerged over the past 15 months. Lots of people hearing a publicly traded company CEO say, "Unless you're carrying a weapon, you get to walk right in," will reasonably be excited that this is some sort of breakthrough, even though Evolv knows their problems and why this is very misleading.
From our ongoing tracking of Evolv over the past few years, the problems are organizational, but Peter George exacerbates them with these false statements from the top. It will be interesting to see if George survives the FTC and SEC investigations. Industry chatter is that the new CCO Jay Muelhoefer (announced in October 2023) is a possible successor as CEO. Muelhoefer has been far more cautious and constrained in his remarks about Evolv to date, though the longer he is in this position with Evolv's issues continuing, the more he will be part of or at least be perceived as part of the problem.
Full disclosure I work for a competitor to Evolv, but the deception that gets my goat is one you didn't highlight (directly) from Peter's quote:
It's not a metal detector.
It totally is a metal detector. I understand Evolv wanting to separate from the pack and highlight their focus on identifying weapons, but it's incredibly misleading that they act like they are some new, mysterious technology. They can make the claim that they aren't a metal detector as soon as they can detect threats that aren't metal. There are other companies out there in the "weapons detection" space that don't use metal detection. They can make that statement. When Evolv says that, they aren't being honest.
