Why we built Herd.
Inspired by Jimmy
Jimmy Gracey was a dearly loved college student at the University of Alabama. He was a cherished older brother to four siblings and an adored son, nephew, cousin, and grandson.
In March of 2026, Jimmy lost his life in a tragedy that could’ve been prevented. Jimmy was a close family friend of Herd’s creator, and the Herd safety app was developed so that others are able to reach the people they need in critical moments.
The Herd elephant was chosen in honor of Jimmy — an elephant is the University of Alabama’s mascot and crimson is their school color.
A message from Jimmy Gracey’s parents
We want you to know a little bit about Jimmy.
Jimmy wasn’t just a jock and fraternity brother, although he was those things. He was a young man who, just last summer, rescued three tiny birds after their nest had fallen out of a tree. They were nestlings—barely feathered and completely helpless. They freaked him out, but Jimmy couldn’t just leave them there. He kept thinking about the mama bird and how sad she would be if she couldn’t find her babies. So he gathered up all three featherless birds, put them back in their nest, found worms to feed them, and put the nest back from where it had fallen.
That was Jimmy. He cared.
Jimmy’s faith was also a very important part of his life. He was a Christian, and wanted that for his friends, too. He rounded up his fraternity pledge class to go to church every Sunday and started a Bible study within his fraternity. His journal has an entry describing Jesus as a bouncer at a rival frat house, but instead of turning Jimmy away when he tried to get into the party, Jesus puts his arm around him and says, “Come on in. Let me show you around and introduce you to everyone. Have a great time.” Only Jimmy would liken Jesus to a frat boy! Jimmy wasn’t perfect, and he certainly wasn’t trying to be. He was just a young man who genuinely wanted to live his faith and share something that meant so much to him with the people he loved. And he loved people.
And then there was his sense of humor.
The night before Jimmy left for college, he filled the car his sister was going to inherit with toilet paper. Not just a roll or two. He filled the entire car, floor to ceiling, stuffing toilet paper into every nook and cranny. She was still finding it six months later. Jimmy was howling with laughter the entire time he was doing it and for years afterward.
Jimmy was playful and kind and joyfully mischievous. He loved his friends. He loved his family. He loved his life.
He was pure happiness in human form.
Jimmy was also twenty years old. Like so many that age, he sometimes made choices that involved risk. On the night he died, he had been at a well-known, alcohol-serving club in a foreign country. The only thing we know for sure is that he was robbed. He had no way of reaching the friends who were with him or his family. That’s when a risky situation became deadly. His body was recovered from the Mediterranean Sea three days later.
If we had known he was in trouble, we would have come for him. There would have been no judgment, no lecture, no question about whether he had made good choices. We would simply have wanted to find him and bring him home.
Because that’s what you do for someone you love. You find them.
Herd was born out of the unbearable knowledge that Jimmy was separated from his phone when he needed to be found. We can’t change what happened to him. But we can try to make sure that the next person who gets lost, separated from their phone, makes a bad decision, or simply finds themselves in a situation they can’t get out of has a way to reach someone who cares.
Someone who can find them.
Jimmy’s life was cut far too short. We are still learning how to live in a world without him. But if something good can come from losing him, we hope it’s this: that Jimmy’s story might help another person reach their people so they can be found before tragedy strikes.