Progress Henderson ’99 and Copenhaver ’99: “We Could Not Have Done This Alone” By Molly Rolon, Associate Editor Patrick Henderson ’99 and Chris Copenhaver ’99 are brother rats, best friends—and business partners. They started Protos Security in 2006, quit their day jobs in 2011, and two years ago, they sold part of the multimillion-dollar company. “It’s been a blessing,” Henderson said. “It doesn’t get much better than that ... to be brother rats, but also best friends and to be able to build something.” Their business, Protos Security, through disruption and bringing about needed internal change, turned an industry on its ear. It’s a tech enabled managed services model company—the Uber of the security guard industry, Henderson explained. The company didn’t begin—or become successful—overnight. The idea came during church league bowling in 2006. Between frames, a friend who worked for Advance Auto Parts relayed some issues with retail security guards at his stores. “They needed a better solution ... a better mousetrap,” Henderson said. “Chris quickly did some homework and studied the industry.” The two presented a plan to Advance Auto Parts, and “they gave us an area to test a pilot program.”
The business came together in short order. The brother rats give a lot of credit to the “speed of trust” and their shared background. The entire “fabric” of their business was based on VMI tenets—including the Honor Code. In the early days, the two had to make snap decisions and sometimes take risks with little time for pauses. “If you don’t have that trust, you can’t do that,” Copenhaver said. VMI also teaches that “no matter how bad the day is, for the most part, you realize that ... not only will you survive it, but you’ll be better for it. You can find ways to kind of laugh about it ... it keeps you running lean and keeps you running forward instead of miring down in that ‘would have, could have’ and self-pity.” Fifteen years ago, the retail security industry was not very transparent. Before Protos, industry norms were dominated by large companies. Many smaller, regional security companies followed the lead of the giants in their operations. Security companies scheduled officers and billed retailers—whether or not the officers showed up or showed up on time. If officers reported an incident, the report went to the security company. Local managers sometimes saw these reports, but the information rarely trickled up to national managers.
Brother Rats Patrick Henderson and Chris Copenhaver, both Class of 1999, are partners in Protos Security. The business revolutionized the security guard industry. Both brother rats and their wives have worked with Ramon Williams ’90, VMI Alumni Agencies major gift officer, to endow scholarships for future cadets.—Photo courtesy Protos Security.
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VMI Alumni Review
