This week marked the four-year anniversary of the firing of Joel Matlin from AlarmForce, the home alarm company he founded in 1988. Over the 25 years Joel was at AlarmForce, he grew it to be one of the largest home alarm companies in North America. The brand was known throughout Canada, with Matlin being the public face of the company with over $100 million dollars spent on marketing, all of which Joel would be featured in.
Over the past 4 years, much has happened with both Joel and his former company. In 2015, Joel reentered the home alarm space by starting Think Protection with his son Adam (who was also fired along with Joel). Think Protection differs from AlarmForce, as there’s no annual contract, a lower monthly monitoring rate and an award-winning system that can be installed anywhere in North America. With this new technology and strong value proposition, Think Protection has become North America’s fastest growing alarm company.
AlarmForce, however, hasn’t been as successful since the firing of Joel. The CEO that replaced Joel (former CFO Anthony Pizzonia) subsequently stepped down after less than a year on the job. He was replaced by Graham Badun, an individual with no experience in the alarm industry. Furthermore, the Board of Directors responsible for the firing have all since been replaced as well. This has coincided with significant head office turnover plus numerous layoffs. With significant attrition, AlarmForce has suffered net subscriber loss (which at no point occurred during any point of Joel’s tenure at the company). The AlarmForce stock has gone sideways and the company has sold off their US assets.
When asked about the past 4 years, Joel Matlin commented “The firing was a blessing in disguise. I loved AlarmForce, but the Board of Directors at the time fired me. They thought they had a better plan and time has shown they didn’t. The silver lining is that I was able to start Think Protection with my son Adam”.
Joel continued “Over the past 2 years since we launched hundreds of AlarmForce customers have switched to Think since our value proposition includes better technology at a far lower price. With our $12.99/month monthly monitoring rate and with no contract, our value is impossible to beat. And it’s amazing how many former AlarmForce customers have said they switched to Think Protection because they didn’t like how I was fired. It’s a great comeback. We’re able to give these new Think Protection customers a better value and customer service.”
