Our Story
Three people who looked at a problem that had killed hundreds and decided that was reason enough to act.
Ian Ostrowski wasn't looking to build a company. He was looking for a gap.
With a background built across cybersecurity, emergency management software, and systems development, Ian had spent years working inside the technology that keeps communities safe. One day, while reviewing a fire detection platform, something stopped him. The detection was there. The technology existed to know, almost instantly, when and where a fire had started.
But the warning wasn't getting out.
He went back through the records. Camp Fire, 2018, 85 people dead, and a gap of one hour and thirty-nine minutes between ignition and evacuation order. Lahaina, 2023, 101 lives lost, and in some areas, no warning at all. Disaster after disaster, the same failure point appeared not in the sky, not in the sensors, but in the critical minutes between detection and the moment a family got a message telling them to run.
Ian sat down at his computer and started building.
What began as a rough demo, a proof of concept sketched out in the early hours to answer a question that wouldn't let him sleep, became something none of us expected. It became a platform designed, from its first line of code, around a single purpose: to make sure that what happened in Paradise, in Lahaina, in every community that burned while the clock ran down, never had to happen again.
There is a person in Ian's life who shaped how he approaches every hard problem. A longtime mentor in cybersecurity, someone who pushed him past every boundary he thought was his limit, who showed him that the most important work happens exactly where comfort ends. Frank Angiolelli passed away recently, and his absence is felt every day. But the people who loved him carry something he left behind. They always said the same thing: "Live Like Frank". Ian took those words seriously. He built FireBridge the way Frank would have wanted, not to impress anyone, not to chase a market, but to matter. To do something real in a world where real differences are hard to find.
He brought the idea to his closest friends, Cody Clews and Kyle Worsley. He laid it out. The problem, the platform, the mission. He didn't ask them to join a startup. He asked them if they believed it was worth doing.
Not one of them hesitated. There was no deliberation, no negotiation. The answer from all three was the same: Where do we begin?
That was the moment FireBridge was born, not in a boardroom, not from a business plan, but from three people who looked at a problem that had killed hundreds of people and decided that was reason enough.
We are still those three people. And we are still asking the same question.
Meet the Team
Ian Ostrowski
Co-Founder & CEO
Grew up in Severna Park, Maryland. At 27, Ian has built a career spanning firefighting, cybersecurity, and emergency management software, not by chasing titles, but by following one instinct: go where you can help. That instinct is what built FireBridge. Not ambition. Not opportunity. The simple belief that if you can see a problem and you have the skills to do something about it, doing nothing isn't really an option.
Kyle Worsley
Co-Founder & COO
Mt. Airy, Maryland. At 27, Kyle has built a career in security and threat monitoring by doing one thing consistently, staying calm where others panic and finding the answer where others stop looking. He is driven by the technical side of the work, the pressure, and the problems that aren't supposed to have solutions. That mindset is exactly what FireBridge needed. Fire behavior is unpredictable, the stakes are absolute, and the margin for error is zero. For Kyle, that's not a warning. That's the job.
Cody Clews
Co-Founder & CTO
Grew up in Pasadena, Maryland. Cody has built a career as a software engineer specializing in emergency response and environmental technology, not by chasing the next framework or the flashiest project, but by following one standard: build systems that cannot afford to fail. That standard is what brought him to FireBridge. Not a career move. The simple belief that the right code, written the right way, is the difference between a warning that reaches someone in time and one that doesn't.