If you want to get a good sense of Patrick Soo’s approach to the security business, ask him about his first experience.
In 1991, Soo heard about a job opening for a commercial sales rep at Chubb through an employment agency. The agency, however, advised against applying because they felt he didn’t have the necessary experience. Soo, who was working as an office supplies salesman at the time, had a different take on the situation. “I called Chubb directly, got the interview and got hired on the spot,” he says.
Soo has spent the last 30-plus years in the security industry, approaching every interaction and opportunity with the same tenacity.
Based in Vancouver, he spent five years with Chubb, working on its monitoring business as Western Region manager before taking positions with Honeywell, ADT then Monitronics.
In 2002, Soo moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, to set up a Monitronics dealership. He says that experience gave him a true appreciation of what it takes to build an alarm business. “I understand their perspectives, their challenges,” he says. “I know what keeps them up at night. I have a lot of respect for guys that can do this well, because it’s not easy.”
He returned to Canada five years later, as director of Canadian operations for Monitronics. In 2010, he accepted a role with 2GIG as a Canadian manufacturer’s representative (2GIG subsequently became part of Nortek, which was acquired by Nice in 2021).
In 2014, Soo moved over to Alarm.com, and is now approaching his 10th anniversary with the company. As director of national sales, Canada, Soo was Alarm.com’s first Canadian employee — the company now employs seven people with responsibilities in the Canadian market.
Soo says there is a “phenomenal culture” at Alarm.com and he considers the company to be a leader in technology. “We’ve got a lot of momentum and we offer a very high level of support,” he says.
Soo had a serious health set-back last year when he received a cancer diagnosis and took a leave of absence to pursue treatment. Time away from work was also a period of reflection and reassessment of life goals and he credits his employer with supporting him throughout the treatment process.
“I feel that they put me ahead of the business, and that’s something that I’ll never forget,” he says.
“I have a lot of friends in this industry, and it’s something I’m really proud of. Something that I learned from having cancer, it’s not what you have, it’s who you have. Those relationships, to me, are more valuable than anything else that I own.”
Soo is now back at work full-time and fully enthusiastic about the future of the security industry.
“I read a long time ago, the best way to predict the future is to create it,” he says, referencing some of the recent major advancements in security such as artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and proactive video monitoring.
“Seeing crimes and preventing crimes before they happen is something that we could never conceptualize before now…. I think that’s something that’s really going to be at the forefront of where we take video analytics,” he says, adding that this level of technology will be available to commercial businesses first, but will eventually be accessible to the residential market as well.
The technology will also help to address one of the major pain points for security, he says — false alarm rates. Another issue the industry needs to address head-on is cybersecurity — protection of customer data should be a paramount concern, says Soo.
Overall, he predicts great things ahead and lots of opportunity for growth, particularly through international markets. “There’s lot of potential out there,” says Soo.
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