Industry: Medical Device

We Hear You

Origin: Peoria, IL |

Grant Awarded: 2023 | Status: Active

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What is We Hear You?

We Hear You® is a startup company that creates accessible technology for those who are often not placed at the forefront of innovation. We Hear You® is currently working on two inventions that are focused on inclusivity and accessibility. The first is a two-way sign language translation software that is able to translate ASL through hand recognition and then translate speech to ASL. The second invention, Push™ , is a revolutionary solution for transforming ADA doors into automatic doors. With a simple press of a personal button, individuals with mobility exceptionalities can easily access public spaces, improving their independence and ease of mobility. This device is versatile; it can be worn as a wristband, attached to a wheelchair, or clipped to a keychain. The low-cost assistive devices empower businesses to accommodate their customers, ensuring a more accessible and inclusive environment. By prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion as the foundation of innovation, We Hear You® strives to create a world where everyone can navigate their everyday lives with ease and dignity.

Company Leadership

Pierre Paul

FOUNDER & CEO

Pierre Paul was born in Brazil, grew up shortly in Guyana, and then landed in Ohio. At a young age, he faced extreme poverty, xenophobia and racism for simply being different. Armed with these experiences, he grew up with an unwavering determination to ensure that others who fell outside the “status quo” did not feel unwelcome in the world. Motivated by a vision for change and a burning desire to address the concerns of individuals whose voices often go unheard, Pierre embarked on a mission to establish We Hear You®.

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BETHANY COURI

Co-founder

Bethany is a young, driven Ed.D. student and professional. She works at Bradley University overseeing campus Residential Living. In addition, she serves as the Chief Operating Officer for We Hear You, LLC to ensure that we as a society are proactive with inclusivity and accessibility instead of being reactive to others’ needs.

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Peppermint

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2022 | Status: Active

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What is Peppermint?

Peppermint is a consumer healthcare brand that designs beautiful products for those with mobility challenges. Its first product is a walker unlike any other.

For the first time in US history, those over 65 years of age will out number those under 18. These are known as the “baby boomers” and they are very different than the generation before them. Among the many differences is their interest in “embracing” as opposed to “accepting” their age, and their focus on health and wellness.

The healthcare equipment category is filled with brands that force a feeling of being a patient instead of a person, and products that look like hospital furniture.

By reinventing what a brand and its products can look like for those with mobility challenges, Peppermint can help encourage people to embrace their season of life and better connect them with their loved ones, communities, and their health and wellness.

Company Leadership

Scott Bernstein

founder & cEO

Scott has dedicated much of his career to innovative businesses on both the investor and operator sides. Prior to founding Peppermint, Scott sat on the leadership teams of several startups including Freely Pet and Stix Golf.

Scott was also on the investment team at Lewis & Clark Ventures, a Series A stage VC firm, and managed operations for Capital Innovators.

Scott has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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HIVE

Origin: IL | Grant Awarded: 2022 | Status: Active

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What is HIVE?

HIVE is a remote patient monitoring company devoted to improving medication adherence and reducing unplanned readmissions for the 3 million patients on home infusion therapies. These patients self-administer long-term IV medication under the remote supervision of their clinician. The problem is that clinicians don’t have good options for monitoring their patients to make sure they take their medication safely and correctly. For example, of the 3 million patients prescribed at-home IV antibiotics, 20% are readmitted, and each readmission costs $80,000. Clinicians currently call every patient, a process that is time-consuming, subjective, and ineffective. HIVE has developed the only device to solve this problem. Our patent-pending IVsight smart catheter leverages a simple mechanoelectrical sensor that wirelessly reports objective medication administration data in real-time, so clinicians can make informed treatment decisions to prevent costly and dangerous readmissions

Company Leadership

Joe Beggs

cEO

Joe Beggs is a St. Louis-based entrepreneur with expertise in the development and commercialization of medical devices and regenerative medical products. While a biomedical engineering student at Washington University, Joe founded two medical device companies, HIVE and GenAssist, gave a TED Talk on the science of business, and completed internships in venture capital, neuroengineering innovation, and laboratory research. Joe has been named a Top Innovator under 25 by the St. Louis Business Journal, won the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award from WashU, and raised over $600,000 for both HIVE and GenAssist.

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Glen Kleinschmidt

c0O

Glen is a Dual-Degree Engineering graduate who holds a BS in Biophysics from Elon University, and both a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering from Wash U. ​He has extensive prototyping and product design experience and has worked with a variety of medical device companies and their products. Glen leads product development and project management at HIVE, collaborating with people across many disciplines to ensure HIVE not only meets its milestones, but actively creates oportunity for growth.

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Sai Dodda

cmO

Sai Dodda is a PharmD graduate from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy (STLCOP) and he received a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences from STLCOP. Sai has clinical experience with home infusion therapy patients as well as knowledge of drugs and therapeutics. Sai also has publications in infectious disease centered on health outcomes and market research. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy with a concentration in Applied Pharmacoeconomics. At HIVE, Sai works on planning, implementing, and maintaining business operations and clinical development activities.

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Jake Eshelman

computer engineer

Jake is a Dual-Degree graduate with a BS in biochemistry and biomedical engineering from WashU. His focus is on bringing innovation into the med-tech field through software and hardware solutions. Jake took a leave of absence from a MS of computer engineering program at WashU to join HIVE as a full time embedded software engineer and tech lead. Since joining he has lead development of HIVE’s technology platform in conjunction with key contractors in preparation for an upcoming clinical trial at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

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Buck Surgical

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Buck Surgical?

Buck Surgical LLC is at the forefront of medical device innovation; developing cutting-edge surgical solutions that improve outcomes and expand patient access to care. Dedicated to modernizing life-and-limb-preservation treatments in vascular and gastrointestinal surgery, Buck Surgical’s premier device, The Buckle™, solves anastomotic failure with its novel and efficient method of performing anastomoses.

Company Leadership

Donald w. buck II, MD FACS

Founder & PResident

Dr. Buck is a board-certified plastic & reconstructive surgeon, fellowship-trained reconstructive microsurgeon and founder of Buck Surgical. Dr. Buck is a key opinion leader in plastic surgery, author of over 250 publications, abstracts, book chapters and presentations in plastic surgery, and editor of 5 textbooks. He is a physician executive at UnitedHealthcare, MTF Biologics and ETS Wound Care. Prior to this, he was a surgeon at Washington University St. Louis.

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jennifer buck

director of business strategy

Jennifer has nearly 20 years of marketing and communications experience, with the majority of her career spent in healthcare. She has served as the enterprise performance marketing lead for a patient engagement startup, population health management company, a healthcare supply chain technology company, EHR company, med device company, non-profits and more. Her work with four healthcare start-ups resulted in substantial sales growth and subsequent acquisitions.

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Preventogen

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Preventogen?

Prevent-Plus has just recently launched a groundbreaking technology into the medical and retail segments. Developed by a NASA Polymer Scientist and a world renowned Dermatologist from NYU, this new advanced infection prevention technology is a non-antibiotic, microbicidal liquid polymer that forms a protective film barrier over the skin. The microbicidal agent in the polymer kills microbes (bacteria, fungi and viruses) on contact, and then forms a flexible, organic, odorless and biodegradable barrier that protects the wound from harmful elements, such as water, dirt and germs. This flexible protective barrier also prevents oxygen entering the wound, lowering the pH and creating an optimal healing environment. This polymer contains NO antibiotics, which puts this technology in a whole new class of advanced infection prevention and wound healing. In a recently published prospective, randomized clinical study, the results were outstanding in the reduction of pin site infections in orthopedic trauma applications: – For patient-level analysis, 33.3% of patients in the control group experienced infection, while none of the patients in the PREVENTOGEN group experienced infection (0%) – For pin-level analysis, 23.3% were infected in the control group, while none (0%) were infected in the PREVENTOGEN group – The application of the PREVENTOGEN liquid polymer has shown its effectiveness in dramatically reducing the rate of pin-tract infections related to external fixation procedure With these new data, Prevent Plus is continuing to build evidence of this polymer’s potential as a new class of transformative therapeutic to prevent infection in areas with high un-met clinical need. Prevent Plus currently has two brands in the marketplace: PREVENTOGEN www.preventogen.com and DuraDerm SPORT www.duradermsport.com and are looking to expand their portfolio into animal health, acne treatment and environmental sterilization and decontamination.

Company Leadership

brad chartrand

ceo

Brad Chartrand is the Chief Executive Officer for parent company Prevent Plus and is responsible for Global growth of the Preventogen and DuraDerm SPORT. Mr. Chartrand has over 15 years of Medical Device experience in various Sales and Marketing leadership roles with Applied Medical, CR BARD and AngioDynamics. Prior to Mr. Chartrand’s Medical Device career, he played 8 years of professional hockey, spending five seasons with the Los Angeles Kings (NHL).

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joe thomure

Chairman

Joe Thomure is the Chairman and Managing Member of Prevent Plus and stepped out of retirement in 2018 due to his passion and earnest belief in Preventogen. A graduate of the U.S Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, Mr. Thomure was called to active duty in the U.S. Navy, during which time he was promoted twice in three years, and eventually received his honorable discharge, pending LCDR in 1977.

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Julie Morris

vice president of clinical research and product development

Julie Morris is the Vice President of Clinical Research and Product Development for Preventogen. Her responsibilities include KOL development and clinical studies. Julie has over 19 years of medical device experience including positions with Covidien, Medtronic, Smith & Nephew and various early stage start-ups where she demonstrated success in several commercial roles. Julie works with our KOL team on the advancement of Preventogen’s clinical research and data and has been a key driver for the advancement of infection prevention in wound care.

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Imanyco

Origin: FL | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Imanyco?

A real-time speaker diarisation and transcription app that transcribes and color-codes each speaker’s dialogue separately to help deaf people enjoy group conversation without wondering who is saying what.

Company Leadership

SaÏda Florexil

ceo & Founder

Saïda Florexil is profoundly deaf. She uses American Sign Language and lip-reading to communicate with others. Saïda is a deaf advocate who focuses on improving communication accessibility for the deaf community. Saïda received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Supervision Management from Palm Beach State College and a Master of Science in Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Management from Lynn University.

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SentiAR

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2017 | Status: Active

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What is SentiAR?

SentiAR is a venture-backed software device spinout developing a 3D visualization platform for interventional surgeries. Spun out of WashU in 2017, the company’s holographic platform will initially be used in catheter ablation procedures treating cardiac arrhythmia. SentiAR intends to submit a 510(k) application in 2018.

Company Leadership

Jon Silva

Co-Founder & CTO

Jon created the SentiAR visualization platform and has oversight for the
overall technical design and development to meet current and future
clinical applications. It was his original work that secured over
$500,000 in grants to build the initial prototype on the Microsoft
Hololens platform for in-human engineering trials. As an Asst. Professor
of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, his
research laboratory specializes in applying computational approaches to
address problems in cardiac electrophysiology. Jonathan is part of the
Cardiac Bioelectricity and Arrhythmia Center, and his academic
preparation includes a BS from Johns Hopkins University, an MS from Case
Western Reserve University, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering,
Washington University.

Jennifer Avari Silva

Co-Founder & CMO

Jennifer Avari Silva is responsible for the clinical application of the
SentiAR technology for patient use. She is an Asst. Professor of
Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis and Director of
Pediatric Cardiac Electrophysiology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital,
where she leads the largest pediatric electrophysiology program in the
Midwest. Dr. Avari Silva has published numerous papers bringing new
technologies to pediatric patients, allowing her to develop an extensive
industrial network with companies that include, St. Jude Medical,
Medtronic, Biotronik, and Biosense Webster.

Mike Southworth

lead developer & Co-founder

Michael is responsible for the company’s holographic platform
validation, software planning, and team execution. Prior to joining the
project, he developed 3D computer vision exploitation of sensor data for
use in airborne platforms as an electrophysics scientist at Boeing
Research and Technology. From 2007-2015 at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), Michael specialized in the rapid
development of embedded systems for direct deployment to the Department
of Defense end users, primarily focused on the technical integration of
wireless embedded systems with emerging microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS) sensor technology, navigation, electro-optical sensor development
and 3D sensor exploitation. Michael earned his BS from UC Berkeley and a
dual MS from Johns Hopkins University.

Berk Tas

CEO & President

Berk Tas serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of SentiAR.
Berk has led development of emerging technologies and companies in
Fortune 500, private equity, venture capital funded and privately held
organizations. Prior to joining SentiAR he led the development of a
novel Trans-aortic Valve Replacement technology into CE Mark studies at
HLT Medical. In 2016, he played an integral role in the acquisition of
Sensium, Oxford UK, a novel wireless monitoring technology. Prior to
that he served in various leadership roles at Sunshine Heart developing
a first of its kind, heart failure therapy and at Boston Scientific
developing several novel therapies and technologies focused in Cardiac
Rhythm Management. He holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Business
at the University of Minnesota and a BS in Electrical Engineering and
Physics from the School of Engineering at St Thomas University.

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Babyation

Origin: CT | Grant Awarded: 2015 | Status: Active

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What is Babyation?

Babyation creates bold solutions at the intersection of healthcare, data and technology. We are thoughtfully improving products for the most intimate areas of the body so that women can live their best life as they work, play, parent, and age

Company Leadership

Samantha Rudolph

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Samantha excels at designing innovative strategies for startups, nascent businesses and cutting-edge product launches. Sam spent nine years as a serial entrepreneur within ESPN, where she founded the pre-game area of ESPN’s Stats & Analysis team, the group responsible for live scores and stats across platforms. She ran lines of business for emerging television technologies. She also produced ESPN’s creative staging for three days of live television from the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show, focusing on the company’s big picture and brand. Sam graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received dual concentrations in Operations and Information Management (Decision Processes) and Management (Strategic Focus). She specializes in project management and budgetary oversight, as well as strategic/creative thinking. Since 2013, Sam has operated a consulting company that advises startups, private equity firms and management consulting companies.

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Jared Miller

Co-Founder and Chief Technology & Operations Officer

Jared is an expert in the implementation of emerging technologies. With a background in system integration, IT engineering, and software development, his skillset encompasses all phases of high-tech project implementation, from proposal development through conceptual and detailed design, to project management and execution. He has also been responsible for implementing quality systems and change-management practices at multiple organizations. Jared is adept at building anything electronic or involving computers. He has developed the circuitry, microcontroller firmware and related software behind Babyation’s pump. Jared received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a concentration in Computer and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He has owned a software and technology consulting firm since 2007. His client list includes the Olympics Host Broadcaster, and he has participated in the broadcast of the last seven summer and winter Olympic Games.

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Sparo

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2013 | Status: Acquired

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What is Sparo?

Sparo Labs developed Wing, a smartphone-connected, pocket-size device that uses innovative technology to accurately measure lung function. Their product empowers patients to better understand, track, and proactively manage their asthma so they can discover what most of us take for granted – a simple breath.

Sparo Labs was acquired by Wellinks in 2022.

Company Leadership

Abby Cohen

Co-Chief Executive Officer

Abby earned her degree in Biomedical/Medical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013, and brings experience working with Barnes Jewish Hospital to her position with Sparo.

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Andrew Brimer

cto

Andrew earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. Before founding Sparo, Andrew worked as a researcher with the Washington University in St. Louis on nanomaterials and biogeochemistry.

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Involved Industries

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We champion extraordinary entrepreneurs to create positive change – for St. Louis and for the world. Join us by applying to our Global Startup Competition, becoming a financial supporter, volunteering your time or amplifying our message.

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