Good Vibrations with Amira Radovic

Amira Radovic CEO and Founder of TheraV

She raised about half a million dollars of non-dilutive funding to develop and launch her product into the market. Amira enjoys using her talents and skills to develop products that help people live better. During her downtime, Amira enjoys spending time with her husband, Dr. Matija Radovic, and her daughters Jasna and Ivana.

If you would like to purchase a TheraV ELIX device for a military Veteran who needs it, visit www.therav.me. When you checkout, add a note that you are gifting the device to a military veteran.

Register for the wearables tech ecosystem at www.WearableTechVentures.org

Transcript

00:05.42
wearabletakeover
Well welcome to another amazing episode of the wearable takeover podcast. Yes, folks can you believe we are in season three I am coach l also known as lakeishia greenwayite your host and I'm so excited to tell you about our amazing guest amirra radovich. But before I do that I just have to recap the amazing summer we had. Yes, we also produced our wearable tech hackathon and that's where we brought people from around the world. Some of the major leader experts from bitbid and deloyd and under armor and boeing and so many other companies. To assess your ideas as well as to assess our youth and we had some amazing winners. So if you've missed that opportunity to participate with us this year I encourage you to go to the website wearabletechbenters.org and make sure you sign up for our mailing list. So you don't miss any of those opportunities next year I can tell you that some of our youth winners are super excited based off of the gifts that they received as well as the opportunities they've received to actually share their pitches with some of our corporate sponsors as well as our partners such as under armor and the and Nih and they have really cool bow sunglasses all right? So that's all I'm going to share about that from. This year but let's get into our guest of the day now folks if you follow me or if you follow the wearable tech ventures page on Linkedin. You might have seen this amazing scientist on our page recently she and I were featured for Hashtag we wednesday.

01:39.93
wearabletakeover
Which is a series sponsored by the uspto and her story was just absolutely amazing. So I want you to welcome Aira Radavich who is the Ceo and founder of therapy am I saying that correctly therapy be yes, there be to our platform and you want.

01:54.00
Amira Radovic 
Ah, yes.

01:58.75
wearabletakeover
Make sure you're paying attention because in seasons one is season 2 we talked about how you can fundraise. We also discussed some of the things that you should keep in mind when you are fundraising and that some that advice came from our accountant but let me tell you amirra has raised about a half a million dollars of non-dilluted funding. Yes, folks I just said half a million dollars okay and so she raised that to develop and to launch her product into the marketplace so who is she she again. Emira is the Ceo and founder of therapy a company developing wearable devices to help manage amputation and nerve pain. She's a social entrepreneur with a passion for positively impacting lives and she has a master's degree in entrepreneurship and design from the University Of Delaware and a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering aren't you excited about all these amazing women that we brought onto this platform from biomedical engineering so dope. Okay, but let me tell you something else about her. So while she was pursuing both of her degrees. She was a full scholarship student athlete for the university of Delaware women's track and field division as she holds the university's record for the long and triple jump. So we're gonna talk to see about you know her olympic aspirations because. We went to the olympics and so we want to see you know what might she be there in the future. But but let me just tell you a little bit about how she came to this field so as a child she was inspired by her father a civil engineer and she also was inspired by sci-fi movies such as like roboop you guys remember that? Oh yeah.

03:35.70
wearabletakeover
And so that helped her to become a biomedical engineer and so her fascination with using technology to give humans super abilities led her work to um, led her to work in a prosthetic clinic during her junior years undergraduate student at the University Of Delaware so um let me just tell you that. Airra she developed Therapy Elis is a patent pending drug-free wearable device that uses vibration therapy to manage phantom limb pain therapy e elix works by applying customized vibrations to the residual limb to disrupt the pain signals. That are relate to the brain providing comfort during phantom limb paying attacks folks. You want to stay tuned. You want to hear about how this works how she came up with this idea. But for now let's give a virtual round of applause for a mirror a mirror welcome to wearable takeover.

04:27.70
Amira Radovic 
Thank you for having me I'm excited to be here.

04:30.60
wearabletakeover
You are so impressive and I'm I foresee that you could be on our wall of fame in in the near future. Our our virtual ah wall of fame metavers wall of fame. Okay, so so tell me this. Let's let's talk about these numbers first half a million dollars it is we're still in a phase of time where females raising a million dollars is a major major feed right Um, and to raise what you've done being in this field. How do you feel. About that number one. Do you realize that what you're doing is historic. Um, and do do you realize impact of that.

05:16.51
Amira Radovic 
I Mean sometimes like I look back and I have to like look in numbers again. I'm like Wow I really came far but my goal is to try raise a million I still haven't hit that Yet. Of course it's like the challenges that that come with that. But. I Mean to get this far non diative funding and to go from idea to product into the market I'm very proud of myself I really am.

05:38.83
wearabletakeover
We are proud of you too and 1 of the the pathways that we advocate for with our founders is that of nondilluted funding and for those of you that have listened to our podcast in the past we've actually highlighted some of those pathways so mayor let's break down nondillu of funding. How did you get introduced to it and then who. Did you call on to help you or did you do this by yourself.

06:00.79
Amira Radovic 
Yeah that's a good question when I started out I knew nothing about funding whatsoever. Um I was very fortunate that my very first introduction to um, entrepreneurship pitching and funding was from a pitch competition through the University Of Delaware and it was called the first step grand challenge where they basically challenge students to come up with idea for no meant need come up with a solution. You didn't have to build anything present it and if you made it pass the semifinals you get $500 to do whatever you want with it I use mine to build a product prototype.

06:29.62
wearabletakeover
Nice.

06:35.87
Amira Radovic 
Um I didn't use the whole 500 but use part of its but but type and then if you get first place at that time. The first place price was $2000 second place was fifteen hundred and third place was 500 and to my surprise and everybody's surprise I came in third place so I had an additional $500 and that was really my first step. Ah, funding of like wow people are giving me money for this idea. What and that's really how I started learning about entrepreneurship fundraising pitch competitions as a major way to get these fundings that I need and that's really what started my journey with non diluted funding trying to get funding that. No one is taking part of your company or equity from you. Um, they're just giving you grants. Um to do what you want with and all of that I was very fortunate to put towards developing my my product and my company.

07:25.12
wearabletakeover
I love it. Okay, so folks she just broke it down for you on what non dilutal funding is okay so why don't you tell us from that first time you raised that $500 to the benchmark you're at now. How long did that take.

07:40.80
Amira Radovic 
That's a very good question so that pitch happened in the winter of 2015 and actually after that pitch I was not planning to do anything I just like got well I got this I approved this as something that somebody shipper pursue and then the horn entrepreneurship at University Of Dulare They 're the ones and Dan Friman were the ones that say hey you're out. There's this thing called entrepreneurship you should check it out. We have pitch competitions that we hold for students. Um, you should try that out as well and so from then because of that program I started doing pitch competition true that program and through other. Um, competitions that he told me about that were for university students. So from then till the last time I got funding was I believe 2022 Twenty Two I think 2021 this up. 2021 when I got $100000 from the state of Delaware um through their edge grant. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah about exactly about that. Exactly.

08:39.90
wearabletakeover
I love it. So it's about 6 years right is that fair to say about 6 years I love it and reason I wanted to point that out is because there are so many stories that are coming out in the media and on social media that highlight founders that have embraced a significant amount of funding. However. Very few times does it record the journey of you know how long it takes and so for those of you that may be in your first or second year and you might be frustrated I want you to know it took her about 6 years to get to this particular point we are working very hard at wearable tech ventures.

09:00.16
Amira Radovic 
In us.

09:10.43
Amira Radovic 
Um.

09:17.88
wearabletakeover
Founders like all of you to fast-track some of that process but 1 of the things I always tell founders is that if you cannot give your venture or your idea at least 7 years don't even get started because just off a personal experience I know it can take some time.

09:29.89
Amira Radovic 
Um, and.

09:34.50
wearabletakeover
So throughout your journey. You started off with some major highs at $500 and I got to talk about that prototype how you did that right? But what kept you going in this like um, you you had this idea but did you ever want to give up during that 6 year process

09:49.27
Amira Radovic 
Oh yes, most definitely especially starting out without a co-founder I did try to find people to become co-founders with me but really couldn't find people that were as passionate as I was about this space. Um, a lot of people just wanted to make money.

10:02.56
wearabletakeover
You have.

10:04.25
Amira Radovic 
Which is completely understandable like I wanted to make money to that would have been great. Um, but just knowing that because this was something I was really passionate about and I saw the impact just like speaking to people about what I was trying to do taking my prototypes to different mp support groups, different conferences going to people's homes their offices and meeting them. And seeing their eyes light up like yeah, this might work or no you getting need to like they were really participating with me and very welcoming to me and I knew this was something that they were desperate looking for a solution for so that really was what kept me going. It was really hard because. Again with limited funding as I said it took me what 6 years to raise that much money and he started with like small inccuments of money one Thousand five thousand here five hundred here like little bits of money coming in me applying to different competitions fill out all those forms that took forever to do and I didn't even think I was going to get in in surprise here you are is like oh great running out of money.

10:52.32
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

10:58.53
Amira Radovic 
And then getting a grin it comes out. It's like oh Wow Ok perfect I guess I'm going to keep going then um I was just very fortunate. It's like God was really really just showing me like this is what you need to do I didn't want to take this path. It was not something I planned it literally fell on my lap and I couldn't go left or right It's like a mirror This is this where you're going go.

11:14.65
wearabletakeover
Yes.

11:16.62
Amira Radovic 
And so I I did so I was very fortunate to have also a great support system for my den boyfriend at that time. So when I started I started dating my husband who I'm married to now um from my my parents. My parents didn't really understand my mom especially didn't really know what entrepreneurship but like what's that like you got a degree by medical engineering and go get a job. My dad goodness was he was an entrepreneur.

11:33.34
wearabletakeover
Um.

11:36.14
Amira Radovic 
So he understood. He's like you I mean like give it a shot see what happens um and just the support system from the horn entrepreneurship programs I mentioned they really were supporting me all every step of the way I had mentors like Mary as it's gonna be hard even if you fail let me let you know like I think I forgot what number was I think it was like 90% I can't honestly I'm making that number up. Of like companies fill within the first five years and that's perfectly fine. That's where he might give it a shot try see what happens and if it doesn't work out at least you learn something along the way that can help you to your future career and I was like you know what? that's the mindset I'm gonna go with like no matter what happens it's gonna be good. Yeah.

11:55.84
wearabletakeover
And in if.

12:13.10
wearabletakeover
I love it and 1 of the the beautiful things about being in this segment of wearable technology number 1 we understand what it is right? and so I often tell our founders we get to even if the world doesn't get you. That's a beautiful thing about our ecosystem and you um. Face some of that as well from your immediate family and I know that that could be a huge discouragement factor for our founders. Not only did I face that but a number of our founders have as well. But the other thing I want to point out is your unique perspective and that's one of the beautiful things about being in wearable technology is that we have some amazing people that have an eye that are looking at problems from. Ah. Entirely different vantage point that nobody else has even attempted to solve and here you could go and make you can raise funding and make a product so folks it is possible Emira right here. She's ah she's definitely proof of that. So let's backtrack a little bit to this first prototype. So you raised $500 from your first pitch competition. Um, and so we got to talk about that pitch as well. But let's let's focus on this prototype for right now. What did you do? How did what? how did you or how did you distribute that money and what did that first prototype look like.

13:20.46
Amira Radovic 
So I sign up for this pitch competition and the first um, part of the pitch competition was obviously summoning the paperwork and then they invite you to do a presentation. Um, you do a presentation. There were a lot of teams that also had applied I also had my senior design team apply and we made it to the. To the next step as well and then I had I started a prosthetic and orthotic club at my university and so we applied with another idea and then we also made it to the to the next step so I had 3 companies I was jumping from poster to posted a poster this for um, what? what.

13:50.32
wearabletakeover
I Love it.

13:54.84
Amira Radovic 
That first competition after that I was surprised that I my idea I made it to the next step I was like this is such a simple idea I mean simple ideas that I can I couldn't build I mean it was simple in concept we're building it I didn't know what I was going to do and so when I got that $500 it was a visa gift card.

14:02.86
wearabletakeover
Right.

14:10.70
Amira Radovic 
I remembered it and I was like did it really just give me $500 to do what I want with this idea that came out of my head for me. It was just like mind blowing that I just couldn't believe it. Um, and so what I did with that money is I knew for the final competition I really wanted people to get a visual of what I was trying to do. 1 I didn't think and I was a junior undergraduate student at that time when I came up with the idea and was pitching it and I I think no I was a senior when I pitched the final um but when I came up with the idea I was a Junior undergrad. Um, and so I wanted to for them to have a visual of what I was trying to do and I was like okay. I Don't feel confident in my product development knowledge and skills. Um I haven't graduated yet I didn't really see myself as an engineer yet I feel like I didn't know much but I knew what I can do is I was like the idea is to basically vibrate the limb. How can I create something. That people can have an understanding of what I'm trying to do I initially came up with the idea of using a vibrating platform that was what I designed in a 3 D autocad model that I presented at a symposium when I initially came up with the idea before I sheved the idea for like a year and then did this pitch and so I was like so how can I take that into just.

15:14.77
wearabletakeover
Okay.

15:26.71
Amira Radovic 
So people have a concept and then it hit me about maybe I can do like some kind of sock that someone can put like their fist into and it would vibrate and they'll have an idea of what I was trying to do like vibrating the whim and so I went on Amazon found a nil battery.

15:38.17
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

15:44.93
Amira Radovic 
Found a counterweight motor. Um I got like a vibrating belt and I took the vibraing vibrating belt apart um cut some wires connected the motors that were in the belt to a naive little battery and then my goal was to sew pockets into a sock to just put those motors in there which is vibrating and wearing.

16:04.12
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

16:05.90
Amira Radovic 
Wearable vibration that was the I um but I didn't consider myself a seamstress that yeah I knew how to sew and use it use a soy mission but I needed something clean looking So I asked around there was a fashion student in my university and I was like hey can you like? do you know someone I can help me I'm trying to prototype for this competition. Blah Blah blah.

16:12.15
wearabletakeover
E a.

16:24.92
Amira Radovic 
And then she told me like yeah we have a fashion department I like we have a what she's like we have a fashion department at university I can do yes, we have fashion department our university she's like yeah I was like I didn't even know if we had I'm an engineering student I didn't even know we had a fashion department at our university um, and so long story short she introduced me to a professor there at that time. And I told her what I was trying to do she goes? Okay, yeah, you could put pockets here I can sew out for you. She was so kind to give me her time. She sold the pockets for me put the little newer print thing that I wanted to put on the inside and gave it to me and all I had to do was put my motors into the pockets and I had my teammates. Be my experimental guinea pigs but I had them I'll try like a lot of them try I was like hey come out to my apartment I have something for you guys to try and prototype for me I took it to practice and then they would like put their fist and they're like oh this is interesting. This is really cool I like Ray as like you get what I'm trying to do like vibrating the limb like a nice massage and they were give me their feedback.

17:17.72
wearabletakeover
E.

17:19.76
Amira Radovic 
And that was what I took to the competition I made it as simple as possible with the skills I had because the idea was in my head I knew what I was trying to communicate and I knew how limited or the extent of my skills. So I I was able to at least build something. That most people look and be like yeah I could have done that. So.

17:41.63
wearabletakeover
I wish I would have known you back then because I went to south by southwest and at the time I had done a little exhibit with Omi Bell um from black girl ventures for you and women and so I actually had a massager that I mean brought. Plenty of people to our table as we were trying to explain wearable technology and it was I mean everybody was stopping there to get their little therapy and I was you know telling we don't would have been really cool to have your device there as well. So but keep head in mind for the future. So so from your first prototype to where you are now. Um.

18:06.93
Amira Radovic 
Um.

18:08.65
Amira Radovic 
Who is the.

18:15.41
wearabletakeover
What did that process look like and how did you find resources to help you develop that and the reason I'm asking this is because so often founders feel overwhelmed when they think about developing their prototype finding resources finding folks to help them on the technical side if they have multiple components and. They can feel like they want to give up because when you look at supply chain of course during the pandemic. There were supplying chain challenges supply chain challenges excuse me. But then we know that there's a lot of things that are changing here in the states. As for our resources to help folks with that full development. So from that first prototype to where you are now. Um, what did that process look like and then what resources did you use to help you get to that that product that you see today.

19:01.53
Amira Radovic 
Yeah, so it was definitely a long journey I was told before I started that you know it can take it usually takes like up to ten seven to 10 years to launch a product into the market and I was able to do that in the beta we launch in 2018 from like pitching from 2015 um, and so that was very surprising to a lot of people. Um one I was like very small company was just my me myself and I so of course I'm going to move fast if we were with the resources I had um but what what I did is that I sta as I mentioned I started doing a lot of pitch competitions taking that prototype with me to other pitch competitions. Having just something that I can show people even if there's a sketch or drawing whatever it is ah ah animation. Whatever it was that it can have a visual or even touch what I was trying to do I think that really helped me with a lot of competitions that I won and of course I was doing ah my my company was focused on social impact we were trying to change the lives of.

19:50.24
wearabletakeover
A.

19:57.70
Amira Radovic 
Of individuals who are suffering from this pain that was affecting their life. Um, and I think and people usually tell me I'm a good storyteller. Um, and so I think that also helped and doing those pitch competitions I would always have somebody. It was always someone 1 2 3 people that would come to me like a mirror.

19:58.88
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

20:13.76
Amira Radovic 
Love what you're trying to do I love what you're doing I would love to help you even if it's to connect you to this person that person. Um the person who the horn entrepreneurship is named after Charlie Horn um he heard about me and what I was doing I went to a symposium for one of the pitch competitions that he have at Ud. Um, they had like an exhibition for companies that didn't make it to the finals of the pitch competition which I made the following year so that was when I won it? Um, but he was there and he introduced me to an engineer named Chris Wells so Cruz Welles owns a product ah product prototyping and product development company.

20:39.80
wearabletakeover
Um, great.

20:51.22
Amira Radovic 
And he introduced us I told Chris what I was trying to do I showed him my prototypes he goes I can help you with that. Um, at that time I was very fortunate to have him give me a discount um a good discount to help me kind of start prototyping and building my product so I can have some form of a.

20:59.68
wearabletakeover
Nice.

21:09.30
Amira Radovic 
Not a finished product but a more refined product to take to um these amputee support groups I was going to because at first I I was using I was learning about Arduino Um, and so at first I was using an arduino board getting all different motors wherever I can get them like just test different type of vibration, intensity patterns, etc.

21:13.68
wearabletakeover
You believe.

21:27.95
Amira Radovic 
I hate programming but I had to do it. Um, and so I would have like wires sticking out of things like everywhere. Everything was just a mess I would just carry boxes to think people like you know you could be more i's like I try I'm trying you know I'm so I knew I had to carry something that was more compact like without wire sticking out and so with Chris. I was able to like really develop different prototypes that were more refined than what I had um that I can take to an apt support group and how someone actually wear around their residual and um, because initially what I had was a soft that you would put your fist over and I need to test the different type of vibrating motors and such.

21:59.11
wearabletakeover
Right.

22:05.85
Amira Radovic 
And so with Chris every prototype that we did I'll go back to him and let him know like ok, we need to change this like this is what they said he's like okay, yeah, yeah and he would like ok we can do it this way we can do it that way and then will sit there like sketching and making different sketches and drawing things and men when I think about that that was those were the days but the days are just grinding trying to figure things out. But it was also very exciting because like you can see like the progress of this thing that you had in your head. Um, and so I had different iteration I can't even count how many iterations I have a lot probably like more than I think I had more than like 8.

22:30.50
wearabletakeover
Right.

22:41.73
Amira Radovic 
Iterations of my device before I got to the Beta version that I launched into the into market and it went from initially it went from a vibrating sock to a vibrating band so I initially started out with a sock but after doing a lot of customer interviews and speaking to actually end users and telling them like oh this What I'm trying to do.

22:50.16
wearabletakeover
Wow.

22:59.35
Amira Radovic 
The feedback I got at that time was we don't want to wear another sock like our lim is hot at sweaty. We don't want to wear another sock and so because of that I kind of worked with them and took their feedback into account and then ended up creating a vibrating band. So the iteration went from sock to sock to sock to velcro strap to fabric.

23:03.67
wearabletakeover
And.

23:19.36
Amira Radovic 
Like Neo print material to another material to what it is right now. Um, and so that is kind of what the iteration looked like from cables sticking out to like a cardboard box to three d printed enclosures to um, over the counter shelf. Um, plastic enclosures that we cut out with looking ah weird and stuff to actual um, um, ah molded enclosures that we currently have to the final product so it was because of people like Chris that I met along the way that was able to put a type my product to get to where it was right now. Also working with the engineering teams. Um at different universities like getting their feedback like hey this is what I'm trying to do um and this was towards after like the beta version trying to develop other versions of the device working with engineering senior design teams from the university of Delaware um or business schools.

24:09.89
wearabletakeover
In 8

24:14.73
Amira Radovic 
From you know, maybe you pen or wherever it is and getting those students to actually really get involved in a real life situation of a company I was trying to build and I think that that really helped I wasn't afraid to share my idea of course I had like a patent pending at that time due to the advice that I got from my mentors and advisors. Um, but I I shared my idea with anyone and everyone that would listen I pitched it in any event that was thrown my way and that helped me really find the help that I needed and sometimes I didnt know I needed that help until someone brought it to my attention I'm like oh yeah, okay, we give that a shot and then it ends up turning out to be something that I needed down to road. Yeah.

24:51.14
wearabletakeover
I Love it. So there was a lot to unpack there. But what I love is that there are multiple iterations of the product and the importance of that customer Discovery process and oftentimes when I'm talking to founders whether it be within our wearable tech ecosystem or if I'm coaching founders in other programs. Um.

24:55.26
Amira Radovic 
Yes, sir.

25:08.40
wearabletakeover
There They'll be surprised when I say you need to go back and do more as early as a customer discovery and some of them will say what do you mean and like you didn't get it right yet like you're you're not there yet, You're almost there. So I Love that you've had some success there I want to kind of touch on the team before we transition to the Inspiration. So. When you're starting out, you are by yourself. You encounter people that only wanted money and again these are things that we often hear from all of our founders that who can they trust who can they go to and when they don't have a check to give someone what how do they move? Beyond You know that particular phase what does your team look like now. Um, and what advice would you give to our listeners as well as to our other ecosystem until our other founders in the ecosystem as relates to building a real good team.

25:55.90
Amira Radovic 
Yeah, so our our team is still really small. Um, a lot of our team consists of contractors that work with us because right now we're in the phase of just selling our product and collecting feedback and data from our customers for the next iteration. Um, we don't have a big team. It's mostly me, um, a contractor Chris Wells he's. Um, he's mostly off now but he he was like on and off so after it got to a point where I had I had no money to pay Anymore. He goes I'm here. Don't worry about it like I'm going to help you I believe in what you're doing and he really gave me his time and help um throughout the the years to get the product to where it is right Now. So.

26:19.19
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

26:29.81
Amira Radovic 
Now I see ah as un rest period. But if I need his help like he's there for me. Um, ah and so like I have him I know I can always turn to him and then we have students that usually work for us during like the different um seasons like summer interns winter. Um, when. Interns um, spring interns and I've been very fortunate that because I can't afford to have a team that's on staff 24 on staff 9 to five forty hours a week. Whatever it is um, we work. We mostly be contractors. Which is perfectly fine for the stage. Um that we're in with our company. Um we work with student interns as I mentioned um and then we also have like mentors and advisors that give us their time. Um I have so like 1 or 2 mentors that actually roll up their sleeve and be like okay me this way you need to do hey here's how here's how we're gonna do it.

27:04.96
wearabletakeover
Andy.

27:13.85
wearabletakeover
A.

27:23.66
Amira Radovic 
And that's just been so helpful So I would consider them as part of my team even though they're not getting paid for the the work and effort I Just been so fortunate to find people that believe in what I'm doing sometimes even more than I do like more than I Do they really truly believe in what I'm doing. They can see like where I can go and they're really trying to help me get there. And I am just so grateful to to all those people. Yeah.

27:47.90
wearabletakeover
I'm so grateful that you are able to pull back the curtain on the operation piece because again, it's important for our listeners and for other founders going through this journey. Oftentimes they think that they need to have this full time staff in order to get results. And it's a process. So Thank you for confirming the notion of contractors and interns and having really good advisors and mentors who do things Pro Bono and that's the wonderful thing about again I always have to plug our ecosystem. We vetted a number of professionals that are in this space that can help it so many different areas that believe in wearable tag that absolutely believe. Okay, so when did youbilee where did this inspiration come from because you have some unique experiences From. Um, work as well as being a student athlete.

28:39.52
Amira Radovic 
Oh yeah, so that's a good question. Um, so I actually came up with this idea in 2014 so I was ah undergraduate study university studio Delaware studying bimedical engineering. And it was winter session and during our so winter break the track and foot athletes. Don't go home most athletes you can't go home because you're still in season. Um, or you have to practice and so I knew I really didn't want to just do practice all winter I wanted to get some kind of hands experience and so.

29:00.41
wearabletakeover
Being.

29:12.50
Amira Radovic 
My department had that time had a course called clinical immersion. Where basically you you would sign up and if you're Chosen. You'll be placed in um, different clinics. Um, depending on what you're interested in some people were interested in like things that have do with like surgery. Some people were interested in things they had to do with physical therapy I was interested in things that do with prosthetics and that was the first year they actually had a prosthetic um clinic partner and so I was one of though I think.

29:36.69
wearabletakeover
Wow.

29:41.70
Amira Radovic 
4 um I have that number wrong like students that were picked to rotate at the four or five clinics that that clinic had around Delaware and so I spent winter session going to practice and going to this internship. Um and competing of course and. While doing this clinical immersion. The goal was to find clinical unmet needs write a list of them each week talk about what your solution would be for them. We weren't tasked to create anything or invent anything just come up with solutions that you think could help um and I had like a list of like different unmet needs.

30:10.83
wearabletakeover
Giving.

30:16.41
Amira Radovic 
But what really stuck out to me that I wanted to present at the end of this course which we had a symposium to present at at a hospital um was the issue of Phantom Pain management it just stuck to me because when I think about the prosthetic space when I was in my research about the prosthetic field. It was the glamour of that space that really caught my attention right? You have the paralympic blade runners. You just search prosthetic and you see like all these cool gadgets and everybody looks like a sidebboard. It was the coolest thing ever I was like this is what I want to do? This is the future robocops of the world that I want to build ah and participate in and that was really what got me in the field. And yes, while I was working at the clinic I got to see that but the issue of phantom pain that really was a non-g glamorous aspect of this space just kept coming up like people were talking about pain in the part of their limb that wasn't there like oh my leg feels like it's on fire. My arm feels like it's getting re-amputated.

31:02.22
wearabletakeover
Meaning Im gonna.

31:08.17
Amira Radovic 
I Feel like someone has taken an axe and like going through my cat like like very graphic descriptions and my mind was just like confused. Um I was like um, you don't have your limb like how are you still feeling that pain so that curiosity really got me.

31:09.61
wearabletakeover
How.

31:23.88
Amira Radovic 
Thinking about it speaking to the individuals who spoke to me about it asking people who didn't speak to me about it if this was a problem for them and them tell me like yes, but I don't talk about it because people think I'm crazy right? So for me that was just like okay they has to be a way You can't be suffering and silent like what is being done. How is it helping You is it not helping you learn that medication.

31:31.55
wearabletakeover
E.

31:43.63
Amira Radovic 
Was number 1 method to treat the span and it wasn't really solving the problem for a lot of people because again, there's the whole opioid epidemic and all these other side effects that you get in medication and so at that time when I started speaking to individuals about drug free solutions. They were using. They would tell them like oh what I would just I'll massage my limb I would tap my limb. And they didn't mean nicely tapped there li they mean like I would be my limb to like the pain went away like you know I was like much. It's like yeah I wake up at three o'clock in the morning just like wahacking my limb to let the pain goes away I was like for how long they're like it depends like sometimes it could be for seconds. It could be for minutes. It could be for hours. You know. And then the end of the the day or whenever you're done if the pain goes away. You're exhausted. You know you can't go back to sleep you know and so my goal was to figure out a way to automate that process for them. This drug free alternative. They were speaking about and by chance at that time I was also practicing and making up my workout. For my um lyft workout and I ran into a vibrating platform really? That's where I got my inspiration There was a whole vibrating platform I was sitting in the gym and I was just walking by and I see and like oh what's this and I was just kind of playing with it like I step on I was playing with it and I got to experience like the vibrations and how it works. And I just I had a light bub moment there I was like oh that's how you know I was so thinking about this flow I was now and doing work and I just had this light bulb moments like oh my goodness vibration vibration therapy might be the solution and I thought I coined that term vibration therapy lo and behold that term has been around for very long time. Ah.

33:00.79
wearabletakeover
Yes.

33:17.31
Amira Radovic 
but but I started doing research about that and learned that Nasa was using vibrations to help their ah astronauts increase bone density and their people using it for women with ostoporosis and people were using to study blood flows like oh my gosh. There are all this really cool research about vibration therapy. But there was none I can find about phantom pain and amputation pain. Um.

33:33.62
wearabletakeover
A.

33:36.89
Amira Radovic 
And so that really started my journey with digging and trying to find um a so find really literature on that. But why I decide that I was going to venture into that as a solution and I found 2 papers from a researcher in I think Sweden or something but it was in english it was great. So I was able to at least caught that and I was like he had 10

33:44.60
wearabletakeover
Wow.

33:55.20
Amira Radovic 
And this is what it said. So yeah, that's really what started my journey and it really gave me the confidence to actually show some kind of data and evidence that vibration could help with this as well as evidence I had collected from my customer um research that patients were telling me they were hitting their limb tapping their limb.

34:00.68
wearabletakeover
Right.

34:13.40
Amira Radovic 
Really traumatizing their limb to their pain went away and my goal was to automate that that process. So yeah, that's that's really where the idea came from.

34:19.73
wearabletakeover
I love it and it's so interesting because 1 of our other companies that we support one of the co-founders is a para olympian so we're definitely going to match you up with him as you continue to go to your next level. So with that big extent. What's next.

34:29.21
Amira Radovic 
Um, Break North Lets symbol.

34:38.33
Amira Radovic 
Yeah, that's good I mean right now our goal is really to sell our inventory. Um and really start collecting as much data as we can on how our customers are using our our our product So we're collecting deidentified data right now.

34:38.42
wearabletakeover
For you and the company. What's next.

34:56.18
Amira Radovic 
Just to see if we can see some kind of correlation on how frequently Phantom pain occur occurs for an individual off or a group as a whole um and seeing what could be affecting their pain and their pain frequency and that's currently data. That's not available anywhere.

35:00.75
wearabletakeover
Giving.

35:12.45
Amira Radovic 
Um, and so we're currently working on collecting that data as we believe that data will also be helpful in developing future products improving on our products and hopefully helping us raise money from investors in the future. Um, and our goal is to be able to raise funding to grow our team and to really build a team that can take therapy to the next level right now we're still in the baby phase where. We've built a product launched a product into the Market. We're selling the product right now and it's just this big leap that we still have to make um but it takes a team of people to do it. Yeah I can't do it by myself. Um, and so that's really where we're we're at right now.

35:45.17
wearabletakeover
Okay I Love it. I Love it and so one of the things we we have in common is making sure we're discussing accessibility and how innovators should be thinking about what does accessibility mean. Ah, what tips do you have for those that may be listening or those that may participate in our future hackathons or may be ideating for another pitch competition in the near Future. Um, ah based off of your experience. What advice can you give those folks as far as. Making things accessible or or thinking with a different mindset.

36:22.18
Amira Radovic 
Yeah I mean would could consider I'm in the space where accessibility is very important. Um, it's funny because everything now that I see in regards to what can be done. What can be was always around that helping people um, helping people have more access to things right. And I'm all about social impact if you can find a way to Improve. People's lives in some way I see that as the best route to take in entrepreneurship because entrepreneurship is really hard is a lonely journey a lot of times. Um, very Stressful. You must be willing to not make money for a couple of years and still be fine with that. Be broke for a long time. Um and still be fine with that So you need something to motivate you and I think when you know you're doing something that is positively impacting people's life and changing their lives for the better.

36:57.47
wearabletakeover
Yes.

37:10.71
Amira Radovic 
It really keeps you going and motivates you through your your very low lows right? when you feel like giving up. Um so trying to make sure that you're finding unmet needs you know and accessibility is one of it and is and the thing is not even about finding people with disabilities and trying to solve a problem that they have it could have been.

37:29.70
Amira Radovic 
A village in some way in Africa then is access to water is some kind of resources or an irrigation system like this accessibility can mean a lot of things um in regard even regards to where will tag it can mean a lot of things. Um, but.

37:41.92
wearabletakeover
And.

37:45.15
Amira Radovic 
As long as you're doing something that is improving. People's lives in some form of manner. Not only is it going to be rewarding for you. You're also changing. People's lives and eventually you might make money from it as long as's solving a problem right? eventually.

37:58.15
wearabletakeover
Um, absolutely keep that focus on solving the problem keep that focus on solving a problem and keep yourself happy in the process right? Community is key Community is key.

38:02.99
Amira Radovic 
You're so Happy. Um, exactly exactly community its Community is very very important and make sure that and I think it's just one of the best advice I got and I think it was really the leading thing with the entrepreneurship program I was in was that get out of the building.

38:22.50
wearabletakeover
Mess.

38:23.85
Amira Radovic 
Get out. Go speak to the people you're trying to solve a problem for or the customer you're trying to sell to go speak to them and see do do we even want it. You know sometimes some people build things spend money time effort and something nobody wants at the market never needed didn't need at all and now you're trying to make sure that they. Buy your products and you're wondering like why are and they buying your products like you never spoke to Them. You never asked them what you needed and if your solution can actually it's something they actually want right? Um, so really getting out of the building speaking to people. Um and don't be scared when people tell your baby's ugly. It's Fine. You know right? It gives you it gives you feedback.

38:45.73
wearabletakeover
Exactly.

39:02.80
Amira Radovic 
It makes you you know feel like okay I might not be going down this route but now I know what to turn my energy to and I'm not wasting time and resources. So I think that was like 1 of the saving grace for me as well.

39:11.10
wearabletakeover
I Love it and that's wisdom. There. So again, a community is key folks. We have community for you here where it we'll take Ventures. We have a number of different Programs. So you might hear it in our pre-show or maybe post show those opportunities that you could take advantage of or even check out the show notes. But. We have to talk about this because you're doing something incredibly special for military vets and so thank you for supporting those that have served our country tell us a little bit about what that looks like and how can our audience assist you in that endeavor.

39:45.43
Amira Radovic 
Yeah, um, so we when we launched our a beta a lot of the first set of group of people that we gave devices to were military veterans who had lost their limb. They were suffering from phantom limp pain. Um, and we initially tried to go to the v a but we just weren't educated on how to go through that route. And so what we did is that we raised crowdfunding from our family and friends that allowed us to actually build this product and give them to the military veterans that that got them. Um and we're hoping to do more of this. Um this year next year, but it all comes down to funding. Unfortunately, everything comes down to money.

40:19.54
wearabletakeover
Yes.

40:21.72
Amira Radovic 
You need money for bill product. Um, and so if you are interested in supporting a military veteran. Um, that has phantom limpinge that would benefit from using our device. You can go to our website and purchase a device and just put in a note that you're donated to a military veteran. We have a list of military veterans that have signed up to receive a device. We are still working down the V Route we're still working on that. So our goal is to eventually get to the v a ah so the va can provide this for their veterans. But while we're working that route. We're working on fulfilling.

40:40.27
wearabletakeover
I love.

40:54.87
Amira Radovic 
Um, the list of veterans that we have right now.

40:55.80
wearabletakeover
I Love it So there you have it folks. You need to go to our website. What's the website a mirror.

41:00.30
Amira Radovic 
It is therapy dot me so WWWDotTHERAVDotME.

41:11.20
wearabletakeover
Make sure you go to that website and I love your dual approach to make sure that the books that need it can actually obtain it and there's a gift and so now we're about to head into the holiday season. Um, and if you happen to listen to this episode even after the holidays still go to the website and see how you can assist Emira. Because 1 thing we do here is we help one another. So even if you can't do it. Maybe your business can sponsor or somebody else can um because she's doing something amazing and we want to help her gain some traction. So Amir we know that real life happens where real people. And know you got some little ones that I absolutely adore saw them in person and so I think they might want their mama right now. But I also love that you are so multidimensional in that. Um you are showing all of us that it's possible. It's possible to be a bounder is possibly.

41:50.40
Amira Radovic 
Um.

42:02.23
wearabletakeover
Possible to be a founder that had no clue about entrepreneurship that stumbled onto a problem developed a solution while you were in school and you beat the odds in so many different arenas while developing yourself going to school and building a family at the same time. Kudos to you, you are or she wrote. And I know sometimes it can be difficult managing and juggling all of that. But you have our support. We are incredibly proud of you I know the University Of Delaware and newhoran entrepreneurship is too I've met many of them. They're just amazing. Amazing group of people. So I look forward to going back on campus and and talking with the folks there but before we close out. Is there anything else you want to share with our folks and then also please make sure you share where they can find you on social media as well as your website.

42:49.70
Amira Radovic 
Yeah, of course so our website is wherether dot com or therapy dot me also our handle for social media is at Therapy Dot me Um, but yeah, just support us. Get a device for a veteran if you know anyway for us to get into the V a quicker please contact me info Ed wherether dot com or just find our contact information on our website.

43:12.69
wearabletakeover
And we'll have that information in our show notes as well. So folks. This is just the beginning if you have never heard of Aira or perhaps you haven't watched the hashtag we wednesdayis episode with us together with the undersecretary of commerce and a director of uspto Kathy Badal um you will continue to hear her name. She's doing amazing work. so we're so excited thank you so much for sharing our time and folks make sure you listen to the announcements coming up next. We look forward to you listening and sharing this episode of wearable takeover.