Ilangovan Arunachalam

Ilangovan Arunachalam is the founder and creator of FledgeNow. He spent 28 years in the technology industry — including years at Intel — building and shipping products at scale before setting out on his own to make something more personal: a family-safety app grounded in one belief — safety shouldn't require surveillance.

Those years taught him how much of modern technology quietly leans on tracking, and how rarely that tracking actually makes anyone safer. He wanted to prove there was a different path — one where a family could stay connected and reachable without a live map following everyone all day, and where the data an app keeps is the minimum a family truly needs.

He's also a lifelong hiker and camper. Many of his weekends are spent on trails and near rivers — including the canyons and creeks of the American Southwest — time that shapes how he thinks about being prepared, connected, and reachable when conditions change fast. When a flash flood makes the news, it isn't distant to him; he knows what it's like to pitch a tent near moving water and trust that tomorrow will look like today.

That perspective is built into the product. FledgeNow doesn't just show where someone is — it surfaces what's happening around them: flood, rainfall, nearby river conditions, wildfire, severe weather, and road incidents, so families can make informed decisions and follow official guidance.

Above all, he built FledgeNow as a parent, for parents and families: know where the people you love are, understand what's happening around them, and reach them the moment it counts — without turning everyday family life into constant tracking.

Why I built FledgeNow

Family safety, not surveillance. That principle runs through every part of FledgeNow — from storing only a loved one's most recent location instead of a detailed travel history, to emergency alerts that break through silent mode when something is truly urgent, to a Safety Check that relays what official agencies report rather than passing judgment of its own. The goal isn't to watch the people you love. It's to know they're safe, and to be there when they need you.