Guess who I met at SXSW - Impact Edition
I had the honor of meeting several health tech entrepreneurs during the Impact Pediatric event at SXSW’17. From a 17 year old empowering healthier teens to a pair of engineers disrupting the orthopedic cast space, these innovators are ushering-in the next generation of healthcare.
Wow 😳 is Right!
…It’s the same thought I had when I heard Alexandra Reeves’ pitch (and at the time I wasn’t even aware she’s only 17 years young). What impressed me more than anything was that her company emojihealth is not asking their customer/user to adopt a new platform. Instead, they chose to engage users where they are (by way of an intelligent bot within FB messenger, or Kik).
emojihealth offers easy to digest content in form of education, reminders, and tracker messages — for both healthy teens, and teens living with a medical condition. It’s truly an ingenious model and it’s no wonder with a smart person like Alexandra running the team. I’m thrilled by what they’ve developed and am looking forward to seeing what’s to come.
More on EmojiHealth: Web, FB Messenger, Kik
A Better Designed Cast
The first thing I noticed about Ashley Moy was the exo-skeleton like cast she had on her arm during her pitch. It looks like science fiction, except when you hear Ashley talk bout why her and co-founder Jason Troutner created this second-gen fracture orthotic, you realize this is actual science. Turns out Jason has seen his fair share of casts and can attest to all that is wrong with the current state of cast technology, or lack thereof.
Hearing Ashley describe the problems with today’s tech versus their waterproof and quite stunning fracture orthopedic, it’s obvious they’re ahead of the game. In fact, their company, Cast21 has done quite well winning award after award for their new tech. These two are not only smart but they have hustle and will absolutely change the face of this vertical in health if not healthcare as a whole someday.
Lasting Impact
2017 marks my 4th year at SXSW and the 2nd year I have been asked to help with Impact Pedicatrics. While my focus during the event was ensuring everyone’s slides worked properly (Yes, I was the official slide DJ for the event) I also took time to listen to each speaker. I wanted to understand the problem as they see it. I want to see the world as they know it can be, with their solution in place. Because that world, is the future of healthcare. That future is what I have devoted my life to as well.
I write about these amazing people, in hopes that you share a similar interest in helping them succeed. While I was only able to connect one-on-one with a few of these companies, this year was absolutely a banner year for Impact Pediatrics. I invite you to connect with all the companies that pitched: @AstarteVentures, @CareDox, @Cast21Official, @emojihealth, @EpiBiome, @FITGUARD1, @Metamason3D, @Neuroelectrics and of course the winners of this year’s the Impact Pediatric pitch; @KeritonInc & @luminopia.
Guess Who Else I Met
Please checkout these other great interactions from SXSW’17:
Guess who I met at SXSW — Moonshot Edition
Guess who I met at SXSW — Madison Edition
