Ep 8 Nathan Klarer: Preventing Mining Accidents with Wearables

Welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the people who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America.

Last week, I talked with Nora Leary Co-Founder and Head of Marketing and Business Development at Launchway Media, about how to get press in the US and what it’s like starting up with three female cofounders in Latin America.

My guest today is Nathan Klarer, founder of Bridgecrest Medical, a wearable that helps mining and oil companies around the world track employee performance to avoid accidents and keep employees safe.

Nathan was working on some technology while at university and saw the coming wearable wave and realized that he could use the technology he was working for good. After raising more than $1.3m from venture capitalists in the Bay Area, Nathan continued to build his business, selling to some of the largest multinational mining companies in the world. This journey took him to Latin America, where he signed about half of his clients, including his first one, high up in the Argentine Andes Mountains.

We talk about the challenges of doing business in Latin America as a US company, how investors looked at having half of his clients in Latin America, support systems from Latam governments, opportunities he saw, technical challenges he over came and how he led his business to be acquired by ability wearables.

We’ll also talk about where Nathan sees wearables going in the future and whether he would do business in Latin America in the future. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nathan Klarer.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Nathan Klarer. If you do, please subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, leave a rating and tell your friends!

If you have questions, think there’s something I should improve or have recommendations for guests you’d like me to interview, please let me know in the comments!