Vaultryn

The Problem I Couldn't Ignore

I grew up in Nigeria. I know what it feels like to walk somewhere and mentally calculate the risk. I know women who have been harassed, attacked, or worse — and in almost every case, the story includes the same detail: there was no way to call for help in time.

Existing safety apps assume you can reach your phone. They assume you have data. They assume you have time to press a button. For women facing real danger, none of those assumptions hold.

That's what Vaultryn is built to fix.

What Vaultryn Does

Vaultryn is a personal safety platform built specifically to protect women — with tools that work even in the worst-case scenario.

• Dead Man's Switch — our most critical feature. If you become unresponsive or unreachable, Vaultryn fires an alert automatically. No button press required.
• One-tap SOS — instantly notifies your trusted contacts with your location
• IVR Call Detection — detects distress through incoming call patterns
• Crisis Guides — offline-accessible safety information when you need it most
• Nigerian Helplines Directory — verified, up-to-date emergency contacts
• ICE Card — your critical information, accessible to first responders

Available on Web, Android, and iOS.

How We Built It

Vaultryn is built on a Python/Django backend with a Flutter mobile client for Android and iOS, and a responsive web interface. The architecture is designed to be offline-capable and lightweight — because the women who need this most are not always on fast connections or flagship devices.

The dead man's switch required solving a non-trivial engineering problem: how do you reliably detect absence rather than action, across varied network conditions, without draining battery or generating false positives? That took multiple iterations to get right.

Challenges

• Google Play compliance — restricted permissions (READ_CALL_LOG) required a full architecture rethink for call detection, replacing it with PhoneStateListener to meet Play Store policy without sacrificing functionality
• Trust in low-digital-literacy communities — technology alone doesn't create adoption; we've learned that partnerships with NGOs and university gender desks matter more than any marketing channel
• Building solo — every layer of this product, from backend infrastructure to mobile UI to editorial content, has been built by one person

What I Learned

The dead man's switch taught me something beyond engineering: the most important safety feature is the one that works when the user has already lost control of the situation. That principle now drives every product decision we make.

We launched with 200+ users across web, Android, and iOS — without institutional funding, without a team, and without compromising on the features that actually matter.

What's Next

Vaultryn is expanding into B2B partnerships with Nigerian universities and corporations with duty-of-care obligations, and building toward a B2G pipeline targeting state-level GBV response infrastructure.

The goal is simple: no woman should face danger alone because the technology wasn't good enough.

Built With

• android
• dart
• django
• flutter
• ios
• python
• rest-api
• web