Chris McDonald has taken his expertise in scaling up businesses in the tech sphere to the world of fire safety at Watch Fire Alarms.
McDonald worked in the tech space at companies such as Yahoo, Indeed.com and News Corporation.
He tells Azzet that his senior roles at these companies helped shape his skills in operational scaling and market expansion as he moved from “commercial industries” to what he describes as a “human industry”.
“It really comes down to the philosophies that those companies have when it comes to taking products to market,” McDonald tells Azzet.
“Both industries are about impact, where I've worked before, there's always been a very clear purpose with the products we've got.”
Compliance-led growth
The Australian fire market system was valued at around A$1.4 billion in 2025 and is only expected to grow.
McDonald, who has been the general manager of Watch Fire Alarms for around a year, says the company’s growth rate year-over-year is over 100%, despite being one of the smaller players in the industry.
“We just have to keep bringing talent into our business, ensure that we're focused on the right stuff,” he says.
“We’re also being really thoughtful about how we generate investment.”
Growth in the industry is mostly compliance-led, due to stringent fire safety regulations implemented by the Australian government.
“People are acting because they're forced to act right and install certain fire safety systems in their homes, apartments or businesses,” McDonald says.
However, McDonald says the market is also quite fragmented due to different legislation in each state.
Because of this, Queensland has become Watch Fire Alarms' highest growth market, due to having the most stringent regulations in Australia.
“Our business is primarily based in Queensland, and that’s been a real high tailwind market for the industry in general,” he says.
Recently, Queensland introduced new legislation that requires all private homes, townhouses and units to have interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms by 1 January 2027.
“One of the biggest innovations a few years ago was around the interconnectivity,” McDonald says.
“That means if one alarm goes off in, say, your kids' bedroom, every alarm in the home goes off because they're frequency connected.”
Simplifying fire safety
McDonald also says Watch Smoke Alarms stands out from the competition by making the process as simple as possible for consumers.
“There are a lot of commercial products in the marketplace that are going to be unaffordable effectively for a typical family home in Australia,” he says.
“What we're doing is making that technology simple so that people can take advantage at a practical level.”
“We work very much in a B to B space with electrical contractors and installers and property professionals as well.”
Innovation to stand out
This comes as technological advancements have become one of the biggest growth drivers in the fire safety industry.
The market for smart fire safety solutions is estimated to reach $1.5 billion.
Watch Smoke Alarms has leaned into this by experimenting with the sounds of alarms.
The sounds of the new smoke alarms were created based on research from Victoria University.
Traditional smoke alarms usually use a high-frequency tone of around 3000Hz.
Studies by Australian sleep scientist Professor Dorothy Bruck found that using a 520 Hz low-frequency square-wave signal wakes a far higher percentage of sleeping people, particularly those in deeper stages of sleep.
“Traditional smoke alarms failed to wake 77% of children, 56% of hearing-impaired individuals and 62% of young adults with even moderate blood alcohol levels (0.05 BAC),” Bruck said.
McDonald says no other company has done this, helping Watch Smoke Alarms further stand out from the competition.
“The real difference between Watch and market is that we're very much focused on the waking effectiveness,” he says.
“We’ve got a new product, which effectively has a different smoke alarm signal, which is actually proven to wake people up eight to 10 times more effectively than typical smoke alarms you see in homes today.”
While the company plans to look beyond the markets it's in today, McDonald says its current focus is in Australia right now.
“International is still a way down the track for us,” he says.
“Really, it's about scalability, moving into every state within Australia, and ensuring that they've all got the safest smoke alarms.”
McDonald says that making sure the company puts out quality products is of utmost importance in the fire safety industry.
This is mainly made possible by the culture and people in the business.
“We have high performing teams that are very much built on, you know, not just accountability, but clarity and making sure they've got the right managerial support, because they're all learning as well in a high growth market,” he says.
“In some industries, you can maybe be a bit risky; this isn’t one of them.”
