As CFO of Protos Security, Anthony Escamilla oversees the financial infrastructure that supports one of the nation's largest security services networks.
Its responsibilities go far beyond traditional accounting and reporting to include provider performance, operational management, and technology investments. Rather than directly employing all of its security personnel, Protos Security manages and coordinates thousands of local owner-operator security vendors, adding to the workforce volatility of a highly distributed workforce.
In a conversation with CFO leadership, Escamilla discusses hidden cost drivers, the metrics that matter most in a third-party provider network, and how he thinks about Protos' financial readiness as it continues to expand under private equity ownership.
From a CFO's perspective, where do companies in this industry most often miscalculate the true cost of delivering these programs at scale?
I think this complexity comes from the fact that the cost of providing these programs is not limited to the post's hourly rate. At scale, profits are often eroded by miscalculated overhead and variable costs that quickly deteriorate across thousands of shifts and locations.
The most common pressure points include workforce instability due to overtime, replenishment, and last-minute layoffs, compliance and qualification costs, regional pay disparities, and the operational overhead required to recruit, onboard, schedule, and supervise a highly distributed workforce. Additionally, many carriers underestimate the cost of service failures due to open posts, inconsistent performance, provider churn, etc. Failure to take these into account often leads to rework, client dissatisfaction, and ultimately margin leakage.
Additionally, programs that rely on large fixed infrastructure often struggle to remain profitable as client demand varies by geography, time of day, and risk profile. Without the ability to change capacity efficiently, costs can quickly exceed revenues. Maintaining profitability in security and off-duty services requires disciplined cost visibility, a scalable operating model, and the ability to quickly adapt to evolving client needs without sacrificing quality of service.
Rather than employing a single single employee, Protos coordinates a vast network of third-party security providers. What financial controls and performance metrics are essential to making that model sustainable?
A decentralized third-party managed services model only works when strong financial and operational discipline is combined with an uncompromising focus on client experience. Sustainability is not driven solely by control, but by providing reliable, compliant, and high-quality services at scale.
From my perspective as Protos' CFO, this means we have clear visibility into pricing, fulfillment, and true service level economics while ensuring our provider network matches the results our clients expect. That being said, cost is only part of the equation. Metrics such as on-time fulfillment, network compliance, billing accuracy, and problem resolution directly impact retention, pricing power, and long-term value.
We want high performance, so we've invested heavily in data quality and transparent reporting. This visibility allows vendor partners to understand their performance in real time and make adjustments before problems escalate. The result is fewer open posts, more consistent service, less confusion for clients, and at the same time greater revenue for Protoss.
Ultimately, our model is sustainable because the incentives are aligned. Providers are rewarded not just for efficiency, but for consistently delivering the best-in-class client experience that defines Protoss. That means alignment allows you to scale responsibly while protecting quality, trust, and profitability.
As Protos grows under private equity ownership, what will the company's “financial readiness” be for the next steps, such as expansion, acquisition, or future liquidity events?
Financial readiness at Protos means being able to scale, trade, and exit without fundamentally changing the way your business operates. In my experience, under private equity ownership, it starts with having a financial organization and infrastructure in place that produces timely, accurate, decision-ready information not just at quarter-end or during the deal process, but weekly and monthly.
I worked closely with our funding sponsors during the investment thesis stage, before Protos became the platform on which we built our business. This early collaboration shaped my thinking about scale, integration, and value creation from the beginning. From day one after our sponsor's initial investment, everything we've done within our finance organization has been intentionally designed to support shareholder success.
Talent is important in that preparation. I focus on hiring and retaining the right people, not just with the technical ability, but with the right mindset and personality. The finance, accounting, information technology, legal, real estate and facilities, data intelligence, mergers and acquisitions, and enterprise risk management teams I lead are the strongest teams I have worked with in my career. They think like owners, act quickly, and always understand how their decisions impact clients, risks, colleagues, and long-term company value.
In practice, financial preparedness also means strong service level economics, disciplined forecasting, and a clear understanding of customers, services, types of interactions, and what drives profits, cash flow, and revenue across markets. That means clean books, well-documented processes and controls that stand up to diligence, whether evaluating buy-side opportunities, integrating or deploying new platforms, or preparing for future liquidity events.
At the end of the day, I've always believed that financial preparation creates options. In my current role, I am positioned to enable Protos to pursue essential expansion, execute our acquisition strategy, and enter the liquidity process from a vantage point with credibility, transparency and confidence in our underlying business.
Protos oversees the largest off-duty law enforcement network in the U.S. From your CFO standpoint, what are the biggest financial and operational risks in scaling that up, and how do you design controls without slowing down your business?
At Protos, our third-party and off-duty law enforcement networks and proprietary technology stack are the foundation of our business and a key differentiator. The biggest risks at this scale are loss of visibility, inconsistent execution, and exposure of compliance across jurisdictions.
From where I sit, the solution is not more bureaucracy, but better design. We invest heavily in provider selection and ongoing vetting, embedding financial, operational and compliance controls directly into our technology and workflows. This gives you real-time visibility into performance, fulfillment, and profits without slowing down your business.
By combining disciplined provider management with data-driven decision-making, we can scale our highly distributed network, maintain and protect competitive margins, and deliver consistent outcomes for our clients. My goal has always been to make control an enabler of growth rather than a constraint.
