Blake Togerson is a junior Business Management major who is breaking into the San Diego business world with his incredible innovations in school safety.
Togerson grew up in El Cajon, San Diego, but he was born in Arizona. He currently lives on campus, but during the summers, he lives with his mom and two siblings.
Ever since middle school, Togerson has been drawn to the business world and has been working towards his goal of becoming a business owner. He never expected to be doing business at this scale at this age, however.
“I know I’ve wanted to do business in some capacity since I was in middle school,” Togerson said. “I didn’t expect to be doing it at this calibur this young, so that’s exciting.”
During high school, he studied hard to get into the University of North Carolina, but once he received his acceptance letter and toured the school, he declined the offer because of financial reasons.
Everything happens for a reason, though. Togerson ended up at PLNU and soon realized it was the best place for him.Togerson was a member of the Speech and Debate Team during his freshman and sophomore year which helped him grow comfortable speaking on the fly and being in front of a microphone. He also started the Cycling Club here at PLNU with one of his friends, and the club is currently training for the Oceanside Iron Man in April 2025. Their cycling suits even received a sponsorship recently.
The San Diego StartUp Competition is a competitive pitch contest for prospective business projects; Point Loma is one of the sponsors for this competition. Togerson is the first Loma student to have a project in the contest altogether, and he went on to win first place.
Prior to this contest, Togerson had done a lot of elevator pitches and had raised funding for his startup company. However, this competition was much larger than anything he had ever experienced before — there were over 500 people in the audience. Togerson described presenting in front of a crowd of that size as a “unique challenge.”
The structure of the event was very similar to a debate tournament, which ended up working to Togerson’s advantage. There were tournament style brackets with a certain number of projects being eliminated in each of the three rounds.
The first round is a one-minute pitch to quickly describe the project to the judges. After the first minute, five out of the ten projects are eliminated.
“I went up, I knew my one minute [pitch] and I killed it. That was great because I was super nervous about it.”
During the second round, each company gives a five minute pitch deck presentation which is much closer to what Togerson has been used to with previous pitches. Three out of the remaining five projects are eliminated. Finally, the third round is a head-to-head three minute judge Q&A and a thirty second mic drop — essentially the final two companies’ last chance to convince the judges that their project deserves to win.
Togerson made it through all three of these rounds, and came out victorious at the end. There were lots of people from PLNU that had been supporting Togerson throughout the entire process, which is something he is very grateful for.
“We ended up winning the whole thing,” Togerson said excitedly. “The Dean of the Business Department was there, different professors were there. And that was super cool because they had been helping me through this whole process.”
Starting out, Togerson’s business was just him, his mom, and a very big dream. Now, they have a full team of people that are working to help them achieve their goals.
The vision started out as a peer-to-peer communication bracelet. Togerson and his mom originally came up with this idea because his grandfather, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, had fallen outside of their house. Unfortunately, his Apple Watch was not able to detect the fall.
Togerson wanted to come up with a product that his grandfather could press and the alert would go straight to his family instead of a call center. This would eliminate the time it would take for 9/11 to be directed to his house and eliminate extra complications because of this additional time.
This product was first pitched to a family friend who then introduced them to a former Intel worker doing business consulting currently. The first pitches for the initial product were not as successful as they would have hoped because of the limited capital it offered — the one-time payment structure was not as promising as a subscription-based service.
The group decided to file a utility patent on point-to-point transmission and redirected their vision to school safety, which is where their current prospects lie.
The product is currently past the prototype stage, they have an app completely built, and the prototypes — also called alpha units — are being pushed into a school with whom they have Letters of intent (LOI) to purchase. This essentially means that the school is a co-development partner with the company, and the school just so happens to be Christian Unified High School, Togerson’s alma mater.
With this model, the teachers would be able to wear a wristband with two buttons — one that communicates with campus security and one that directly sends their location to and dispatches 9/11. This second alert would put the whole school on lockdown and notify all other teachers of the threat, all without having to make a call.
“I think right now we have the vision to make these products with a business model that is equitable and not predatory. I want to lead that and grow this company in a way that is going to be a net benefit not just for the United States, but for the world.”
The alerts are connected to the app that the teachers would download on their phone. This app allows them to see the direct location of the threat without the administration having to announce anything over loudspeakers. The product would immensely increase safety during an emergency because it eliminates the sound it takes to make a call or make an announcement.
“Initially the thing we want to do is school safety, and it is a massive issue that we want to solve the complex system solutions problem that is in use right now,” Togerson stated. “We want to simplify this, we want to make it affordable, we want to make it accessible.”
Togerson’s company eventually wants to launch different pilot programs building on the school safety model. One pilot program involves a driver to boat alert product, which could tell the captain of the boat exactly where the diver is at all times. Another pilot program would be in nursing homes which would simplify immediate care during emergencies.
There are a lot of people that are currently involved with this project; it definitely takes a village to accomplish something like this. Within the company, there are a group of people who are in charge of software development. The front end software is being done by a Ukrainian company with a mission to help orphans — the children can come in and learn from the software developers.
There is a person doing industrial design which is the look and feel of the product. A different person is in charge of electrical engineering which has to do with the internal electrical architecture of the product.
At the current stage of production, the company is able to 3D print in house, but large scale production would mean generating a lot of funding for molding and tools at an Original Domestic Manufacturer (ODM). Togerson’s team is currently looking to partner with an ODM that is based in San Diego. The actual production would take place in Taiwan, but with American Labor Laws set in place. Their vision heavily stands on ethically sourced labor.
As the company continues to grow, Togerson and his team want to continue managing the business in a way that benefits the nation. He believes that he and his team have the most socially ethical vision for their goal.
“I think our team will run it, manage it, deploy it until we’re no longer the best to do it,” Togerson said. “I think right now we have the vision to make these products with a business model that is equitable and not predatory. I want to lead that and grow this company in a way that is going to be a net benefit not just for the United States, but for the world.”
Togerson is currently working with people who have decades of industry experience that are invested not only in the company but also in him and his mom. He definitely takes advantage of their business knowledge to guide the company wisely.
Amid his success, Togerson credits PLNU for helping connect him with the resources and guidance to succeed. He has had access to brilliant business professors and countless helpful people; here at Loma, students have access to personal connections that would be rarer at a larger college. And of course, he thanks God above all else for opening doors for him. “I want to give credit to the people at Point Loma and definitely give credit to God.”
“I want to give credit to the people at Point Loma and definitely give credit to God.”
