We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patrick Bertagna. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patrick below.

Patrick , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

Instilled an appreciation for travel, culture, food and a general sense of living your best life. They also pushed for excellence! For me to be the best at whatever I did and to have a very strong work ethic. My parents travelled all over the world and took me with them starting at the age of 6 months. By the time I was 2 I had already lived in 3 different countries on 3 different continents. That opened my eyes to different cultures and different ways of life, basically taking the taboo out of things or people that were different. By the time I was 6 my parents pushed on academic achievement and strong work ethics. I started working at my father’s gas station pumping gas and washing windshields at the age of 7. I did house chores for my weekly allowance. I baby sat, had a paper route, I worked all the way through college.
At the age of 21 I started my first company and went on to become a serial entrepreneur, creating, growing, acquiring and exiting over a dozen companies since then.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I run a for Profit with Purpose Company that believes success is making ourselves useful in the world, valuable to society, and helping in the lifting of humanity.

When I am asked what do you do for a living, my answer is – we build technology that helps save lives providing smart wearables, tracking and recovery technology, and NFC/Blockchain logistic solutions. Most of our products are patented, unique, and niche-specific and used in over 35 countries across the globe. We are best known for our award-winning patented GPS SmartSole®, the world’s first invisible and innovative wearable technology tracking device for those afflicted with Alzheimer’s, dementia or autism, who may get lost and disoriented. Think Dr. Scholl’s meets LoJack. We also just launched a firearms recovery device called my gun alert, designed to let someone know if their firearm is touched, moved or stolen.

As a serial entrepreneur, C level executive, inventor and thought leader in the wearable technology industry with 40+ years in building technology and consumer product companies, I am currently the Chairman and CEO of MetAlert, Inc. (MLRT) a pioneer in the wearable technology industry. I am responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company, from vision to product commercialization, go to market strategies, distribution, funding, M&A, IP licensing, military contract negotiations and corporate governance of a publicly traded company, and over the years I have been the inventor and co-inventor of over 2 dozen Patents in GPS, Footwear technology and wireless communication protocols. Back in 2020, at the start of the pandemic, I chaired the SoCalBio countermeasure pandemic taskforce, and also was a board member of the JBF Foundation, which engages in philanthropic initiatives around the world, empowering women and children living in impoverished and underdeveloped communities by enabling food security; promoting access to education and cultural exchanges; assisting in medical aid and disaster relief, while building and promoting peace.

I was born in the South of France, grew up in Beverly Hills California, attended Cal State University Northridge and currently living in Los Angeles with my wife who is an RN at UCLA Hospital.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Several years ago I received a call from a friend who was in Washington DC meeting with some lobbyist, and he asked if I was interested in looking at a military request for proposal (RFP) whereby the Air Force was looking for a vendor to supply them with a GPS tracking technology. I replied with “sure why not’ but I would like to speak to whomever is in charge of putting the RFP out so I can get a good understanding of the requirements. One week later the lobbyist sent me the contact information and I scheduled a phone call. On the call I was told the RFP was closing in 1 week and that 9 other companies, a few of them being highly reputable defense contractors, had already submitted their proposals, basically I didn’t have a chance. With that said I asked if they would leave it open 2 more weeks being that this was Dec 23rd and that I would need a little more time to prepare. All they could say was no, but they reluctantly agreed and gave me 2 weeks to submit a detailed proposal, which other companies had months to work on. Before submitting the proposal, I asked if I could come to the military base and hand deliver the proposal, again they reluctantly agreed. The following week, after having to get a security clearance to enter the base, I went in person and submitted the proposal. Three months went by and then I received the phone call that we were awarded the contract. Besides offering the best technology at the best price, I was told no other vendor, again some of them are household name defense contractors ever offered to come to the base in person, but we did, hence we won the contract.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During Covid, like so many other businesses we were faced with the complete unknown, but we took a risk, pivoted, and it paid. In February of 2020, right before the lockdowns I was on the phone with several of our suppliers in China and they were all telling me they cannot ship us any products because they were too busy making masks. After a few days of being very frustrated, between not knowing how this virus was going to impact business on the sales side, now I had to deal with not having suppliers and product to sell. Instead of running away from the problem we leaned in and decided to place an order for masks. We sold out of our first shipment in hours and went on to sell millions of masks. Then when we noticed there was a sanitizer shortage, we started making sanitizer in Los Angeles, and that became one of our best-selling products. We then ended up getting the distribution rights for covid anti body test kits and that became a huge success as well. If we had not made that one initial decision to place a small order for masks right before the pandemic and then go all in to become a major PPE provider, our business would probably not have survived.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.metalert.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metalert/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metalertinc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/metalertinc/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/metalertinc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlYP1WQoLdKkDzwhGkx40Q