As the wave of digital transformation is converging countless sectors to outcast the conventional ideologies of business, health care is one such domain that has witnessed the maximum progression. The growing demand by the aging population, higher prevalence of chronic diseases, unstable lifestyles is now catered by disruptive technologies, the advent of start-up culture, and viable funding mechanisms.
Alertgy is a prime example of one such self-diagnostic start-up that has evolved as a global solution provider offering non-invasive early detection monitoring wearable technology for diabetic patients. The US-based company has grabbed the eyeballs of the global healthcare fraternity by developing DOD applications that have never been done before for measuring ‘DEEP-Glucose’ levels. That’s not all – it also sends alerts to notify patient, relatives, caregivers, or others if blood sugar levels go too low or too high. Alertgy uses advanced materials and sensor technologies enabled by an application on a smartphone. Furthermore, it has designed an inert non-invasive sensor system embedded in a comfortable wrist band. These technologies eliminate the need for implanted sensors, patches or devices that use chemical reactions or fluid transfer through the skin, clamped devices that use lasers or other intrusive measurement techniques.
Headquartered at Melbourne, Florida – USA, it was founded in the year 2016 and has a proficient pool of professionals. While the majority of the market continues to measure either interstitial or surface blood glucose levels from capillaries, Alertgy has embraced cutting-edge technologies to explore infinite possibilities that aim to solve diabetic issues. This potent technology will have a lasting impact within the healthcare domain as it effectively monitors the progress of the disease in an individual.
Why Alertgy is Addressing a Growing Health Challenge?
- Diabetes is one of the top health issues facing the world today – 8.5% of the total population
- Diabetes is associated with significant economic costs
- Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the US and accounts for significant morbidity
Journey fostering Creativity and Innovation
This cover story edition brings Marc Rippen in the spotlight who has transformed as a prolific professional and a visionary leader over the years. Education has played a dominant role in helping Marc to outperform his own milestones over his long illustrious career. A continual-learning mindset has enabled him to think of out-of-the-box and discover new strategies that have always helped him climb the success ladders while being associated with different platforms. A commissioned US Army officer, a rocket scientist, a skilled engineer, a marketing professional – he has donned the hat of multiple professions with utmost ease and success!
As the Founder and CEO of Alertgy, he has been at the forefront in raising venture and angel capital, strategic planning/sales management, business capture, and execution management. These skill sets have empowered Marc to support the transition of technology from the lab into startup businesses, and then to a corporation in the past. In his mission to simplify the on-going problems related to diabetes, he always carries a pragmatic approach to identify the viable solutions instead of just echoing the problems around.
The Inception Story
‘Home is where it all starts’ aptly complements the inception saga of Alertgy. With a strong feeling that his life is always driven by fate, Alertgy is the result of the real-life on-job training that he has received throughout his life. He asserts, “With Alertgy I have experienced dozens of impossible coincidences and things that have happened that each one itself would be considered extremely unlikely”. The fact that he lost his father Edward and uncle Carl due to diabetic complexities, the unicorn moment was the period when he saved his wife Susan from slipping into a diabetic coma. It was an absolute shocker for Marc to know that he was diabetic and was amongst the 9 million diabetic patients across the US! Finding out with his own device that his blood sugar levels went over 600 mg/dl (anything over 160 is not good) during the glucose spike tests used to calibrate his system he was shocked to find out that he was hyperglycemic, this was confirmed with an alc reading of 12.8 (anything over 7 is bad) was another defining moment that fuelled Marc’s determination in designing a self-diagnostic platform. This was the turning point of his life that triggered his inner-self to do something more for the society and he founded Alertgy. Facing the hardest realities of life, soon Marc had the realization that developing Alertgy is the ultimate purpose of his life, and then it was never looking back!
Childhood Memories
His childhood days have a prominent say in his present life. In his early teen days, Marc was a part of a voluntary peace corps program that worked on vaccinating infants of coffee plantations in Guatemala, that were situated far away from the mainland. Climbing mountain ridges with backpacks filled with vaccines, syringes, droppers, medical stuff and more, it was a first-hand experience of saving the lives of many children. His Father had a prosperous career in the advertising and publishing business, his Mother was a very ‘organized’ housewife that also acted as the office manager for his father. Inheriting the creative skills from his father and honing the business discipline from his mother, this lethal blend of creativity and having a structured approach to every issue had an ever-lasting effect on Marc’s life. “the discipline not to give up and the mindset of everything is mind over matter, if you don’t mind it don’t matter have made it possible for me to overcome what some would consider to be impossible challenges” – says Marc.
Pursuing Excellence by Overcoming Obstacles
The day when Alertgy would be catering at least one-third of the world’s borderline diabetic population by empowering them with innovative devices would be the most significant day in Marc’s life. He also opines to develop applications using Alertgy’s technology to diagnose and manage other diseases. However, the path to success is not that easy and Marc needs to overcome every obstacle that comes midway!
The biggest hindrance is the ignorance, arrogance, and aversion to risk among the medical organizations that make it difficult to move forward. Mark strongly feels that its high time people – both at the individual level and at the corporate level need to explore new opportunities and shed the practice of sticking to age-old solutions. He believes “Attitude is critical, flexibility and ability to recognize when you make mistakes and then to solve them is also important”.
Passion
With a plethora of life experiences under his belt, Marc has a crystal clear thought when it comes to sharing his passion, aims, and goals. Working for humanity drives Marc every day to work as he is quite passionate about this whole process and accomplishing his wish. He looks forward to setting up a foundation to fund the development of other applications under the umbrella of Alertgy technology alongside innovating other technologies. In the past, Marc has successfully developed technologies related to reducing food waste and improving energy storage.
The Roadmap Ahead
Marc has an optimistic and forward-looking personality that assists him to transform ideas, thoughts, and viable propositions into business solutions. Though he is an ideal professional, a leader, and now a successful entrepreneur, he thinks honesty, transparency, honor, open-mindedness, humility, good judgment, and ability to work well with very diverse cultures and disciplines makes a perfect leader! As parting words, Marc exclaims – “Alertgy can very easily become a billion-dollar company is a short time frame. We can use the core technology for many other medical applications, something unique to us”.