# Andrew Frame

> Andrew Frame is the New York-based founder and CEO of Citizen, the real-time safety app that grew from the deliberately provocative Vigilante launch. A teenage internet-service-provider founder and unusually young dual Cisco CCIE, he later founded Ooma, advised Facebook in its early period, studied screenwriting, and returned to startups with a mission to put public emergency information in ordinary people's hands. His career combines network engineering, consumer-product storytelling, civic ambition, and a recurring argument over whether knowing more about nearby danger makes a city safer or simply more afraid.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Citizen
- **Organizations:** Citizen, sp0n, Ooma, Cisco Systems, Procket Networks, Facebook
- **From:** Las Vegas, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Became the youngest person at the time to earn Cisco's CCIE certification and earned a second CCIE in the same year., Founded Ooma in 2004; the communications company later went public on the New York Stock Exchange., Built Citizen from a New York launch into a safety platform operating across dozens of U.S. cities.

## Career timeline

- **Mid-1990s** — Co-founded an internet service provider in Las Vegas at age 15.
- **1997** — Joined Cisco Systems as a support engineer at 17 and earned two CCIE certifications during his first year.
- **Late 1990s** — Moved to Cisco's Global Center of Expertise, working on routing problems for service providers in the Pacific Rim and Latin America.
- **Early 2000s** — Worked as an engineer at core-router startup Procket Networks.
- **2004** — Founded internet-telephony company Ooma.
- **2009** — Stepped down as Ooma CEO and later studied story structure in a Los Angeles screenwriting intensive.
- **2015** — Formed technology incubator sp0n to identify and build his next company.
- **2016** — Launched the real-time incident app Vigilante in New York; Apple removed it from the App Store amid safety concerns.
- **2017** — Relaunched the product as Citizen with explicit guidance not to interfere with incidents or first responders.
- **2021** — Citizen raised approximately $73 million in new financing, including a recent convertible note.
- **2022** — Citizen acquired disaster-preparedness startup Harbor in its first acquisition.
- **2023-2024** — Testified and submitted written testimony to the New York City Council against NYPD radio encryption, arguing for continued public access to safety information.

## Achievements

- Became the youngest person at the time to earn Cisco's CCIE certification and earned a second CCIE in the same year.
- Founded Ooma in 2004; the communications company later went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Built Citizen from a New York launch into a safety platform operating across dozens of U.S. cities.
- Citizen completed its first acquisition, Harbor, in 2022.
- Businessweek editors named him among the entrepreneurs under 30 they expected to shape the digital future.

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Submitted written testimony to the New York City Council Public Safety Committee opposing NYPD radio encryption and stating that 38% of New Yorkers had downloaded Citizen.
- **2023-11** — Testified at a joint New York City Council oversight hearing about police-radio transparency and encryption.
- **2022-01** — Announced Citizen's acquisition of disaster-preparedness app Harbor, the company's first acquisition.

## Links

- Website: https://citizen.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewframe
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/andrewframe01
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/andrewrframe

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/andrew-frame
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27