In a city full of brilliant men and women with the potential to change the world, Tami Fitzpatrick, chief executive officer of Tampa’s Entropy Technology Design, stands out as a star.
Fitzpatrick’s professional background includes 25 years of experience in small corporate management, international trade, advanced technology development, product conceptualization and global business. She has served on state advisory boards and has been featured in local, and national, media as a leader to watch. Her current company, Entropy Technology Design, is a Florida-certified woman-owned small business.
However, her rise to being one of the most accomplished female entrepreneurs in the Tampa Bay area wasn’t an easy trajectory. As Lauren Brown, from Swaay magazine said after she interviewed Fitzpatrick, “Tami Fitzpatrick’s story is so intense, fascinating and astonishing that you’ll surely wonder if you’re reading a movie script. But the story of this entrepreneur is real and incredibly true. …”
Like all great stories, it has a beginning, some conflict and uncertainty, tremendous wins and a few setbacks with a culmination of success that ensures a brilliant future.
In late 2014, Fitzpatrick founded Entropy Technology Design to develop and patent the world’s most advanced, very low frequency magnetic field detection sensor technology for severe weather, lightning and tornadoes. Like many entrepreneurs, she felt a calling and became dedicated to this niche early in her career. Her previous company sold more than $3 million in handheld lighting detection products to more than 22 countries. Entropy was the next opportunity for Fitzpatrick to disrupt this niche space on a larger scale.
“Entropy’s new technology pioneered the use of VLF magnetic fields to detect key information from storm formations to provide real-time, actionable weather data within a 1,000-plus kilometer radius of the user, to detect location, speed and directionality of up to 50 storms, squall lines, lightning and pre-tornado conditions,” Fitzpatrick says. “Prior to the weather product launch however, this niche took a new direction when we broadened our core technology and analytics to magnify what we had once considered ‘noise.’ ”
In 2019, Fitzpatrick and her team submitted a broad-agency-announcement technical whitepaper, and the Pentagon awarded Entropy a contract to develop undetectable detection and interdiction of the increasing threats from counter unmanned aerial systems. This put Entropy on the national map, she says.
“We combined our technology patents with proprietary software to deliver a monitoring, detection and artificial intelligence platform working in this very low frequency range. Our technology can also be integrated into a variety of existing technologies and industries,” she says. “These capabilities are immediately important to the defense industry, since all existing detection systems rely on the detection of high-frequency operator communications. Our Nimbus Triad technology is a risk mitigator for nearly all of these companies since we bypass these communications to passively detect, and track, the threat even if no communication exists.”
As a female entrepreneur, Fitzpatrick was prepared to handle the magnitude of her success and sustain momentum, thanks to her incredible life experience.
Now a resident of Tampa, she spent 15 years living in the Middle East.
“My personal story travels through love, lies, isolation, attempted suicide, miracles and new beginnings after evacuating in the back of a military chopper with my children during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. There were years when I thought I would never step on our precious soil again,” Fitzpatrick says. “But here I am. Resilient, focused and undeterred by any challenge. I have let go of the past by focusing forward with honesty, integrity and respect.”
Fitzpatrick hopes that her accomplishments inspire the next generation of women entrepreneurs.
“So often our setbacks are setups,” she says. “Trust your inner voice.”
She adds that the right mindset can be a savior when dealing with doubt, fear, bullying and limitations. As an entrepreneur, she says she is dedicated to her vision for Entropy and believes that those who are lucky enough to hit it big rarely have an easy climb.
Entropy, she says, is currently positioned for rapid growth over the next 12 to 24 months.
“The technology we are developing for the government to provide passive detection and non-kinetic impairment provides a new solution to a crowded space and focuses on the threat itself, rather than the communication between the mechanical threat and the controller/pilot. The strength and uniqueness are partially due to our patented weather detection which pioneered the use of VLF magnetic fields to detect key information from storm formations. These same detection frequencies can be used to detect a range of new security threats,” she says. “Our proprietary sensors utilize custom materials and designs that will eventually become the basis for a new class of military and commercial sensors for a wide range of applications.” ♦
