Life+ Meets: Noga from Reflect (1/3)
How a textile designer turned neuroscientist built a tech startup
This is the first of a three-part interview with Noga from Reflect Innovations. Join us as we learn about the inspiration behind her first product, Reflect, her thoughts on how wellness works and whether tech can be a help or a hindrance when managing stress.
This is an excerpt from our interview, but you also listen to the full interview our Podcast!
— Hi Noga!
Hi! First of all, thank you so much for inviting me, this is actually the first podcast that I’ve ever done!
— Exciting! Tell us where you are joining us from today.
Me? Well, I’m in my apartment, which I haven’t left in a while. I do leave to take my dog out, which is a blessing. We’re in the middle of Tel Aviv, which is really nice. I guess I got used to the lockdown mentality, and actually enjoy working from home. It blurs the boundaries work/life and life/life. But I think because I’ve been living that anyway because I’m a founder.
— Can you describe Reflect for us?
Reflect is a soft and inviting orb that doubles as a biofeedback device. When you hold it, it measures things that are going on in your body, like heart rate, temperature, things like that. We measure those things, and we present them to the user through light. So the purpose is to sit down with the orb, see what colour it is, breathe and focus on the light and try to get it to become the white light, which is the calmest.You can do this through taking deep calming breaths. As the light changes you can start to see that you can influence your body and calm it down.
We measure two things to indicate stress. Using electrocardiography, we measure heart rate, and we also measure skin conductivity, which is something that changes very rapidly. It goes up and down all the time! When you’re stressed, it goes way up, and when you’re calm it goes down.
— Can we rewind the clock to where you started…how did you come to build Reflect?
So actually, Reflect came out of a mash-up of everything that defines me. First of all, I can be an anxious person and like, most people, I really feel stress. And I was always looking for solutions for that stress.
I’m also a textile designer. So thinking about things like texture and feel and using design to communicate with people and to give them something of comfort was very important to me.
Before working as a designer, I studied neuroscience as my degree. When I finished that degree, I felt like I wanted to do something for myself
When I thought about things that I really love doing and how I love expressing myself, textile design was a natural thing to explore. I’ve been knitting from a very young age, but I didn’t know there were degrees in textile design and I didn’t understand that I could make a career out of it!
For a while, I put my whole science background behind me and then in the final year, I had to choose a theme for my final project.At that point, I was thinking, how can I use textile in a way that really gives value to people, not just a static value, that can really influence people’s lives?
And I thought about smart textiles and how we can use technology and textiles together. Thinking about applications for that, I reconnected back to my neuroscience degree and thought about biofeedback.
Biofeedback is a very interesting therapy method that is in the middle of between the body and the mind. It’s how the body influences the mind and the mind influences the body. Thinking about stress, if we think about something stressful, it will immediately — or with a one or two second delay —be measurable through your fingertips. That’s amazing. If you start to control your body, you can actually calm your mind.
In my final project, I wanted to explore how I could use biofeedback and textiles to measure people’s physiological parameters. I worked on that in school for a year and along the way, I learned about things like DIY electronics.
I created a series of knitted arms, and they were lit with conductive materials in them and then dry electronics inside, plus an Arduino board. The idea was that the LED lights embedded inside would show how stressed the user was. And it was kind of magical.
When I finished the final project, I was so happy. I’d created something that is nice to look at and pleasing to touch. It was very comforting and warm.
When people pick it up, and realise what the device does, it’s a moment of magic. I really love to see people interacting with it. I went to a few exhibitions and competitions and it was very interesting to see how kids interacted with it.
I think when we went to Austria together, we had five days and tonnes of people came. I thought of it as a very personal experience, but some people interacted with their families or couples. It was very very nice to see people using something I had dreamed up in my mind.
Once I finished my school project, I just knew I wanted to keep working on it. Then I was very lucky to come across a VC, Joy Ventures, who invest in exactly in the area I was operating in and loved my product. They are interested in well-being solutions that have some sort of science behind them. And it was a great fit. So suddenly I became this accidental CEO and founder.
— Was science-backed well-being, a popular investment theme in Israel?
Not at all, Israel is very B2B centred, solutions for corporates solving cybersecurity issues and stuff like that. Consumer products are a very niche market and secondly, doing hardware is even more niche. The Israeli market is just starting to wake up to the fact that wellness is this huge opportunity and people are crying out for solutions. That being said, I’m not sure Joy imagined textile designer walking into their office.
We had a very unique connection, and it was fun to take this leap, and push forward.
— You mentioned that you didn’t see yourself as a CEO, and founder? What is the difference between when you were doing this as a textile design project?
That’s a great question. Well, when you study design in general, it’s taboo to talk about the business aspect of it. You don’t really get taught about how to make a successful business out of being in design, which would be very interesting to hear about, because it’s a very difficult field to succeed in.
What we learn is how to produce one-off items that can’t really be mass produced. So when I was at school, I think my dream was to start a textile studio to be able to knit items and find consumers who would want to buy directly from me.
Even when I thin about Reflect, I wasn’t thinking of Reflect as a technology company, for me, it was a craft company. However, part of the uniqueness of Reflect as a consumer product is really the technology side.
From my perspective, I have been really insistent on the textile and the softness being part of the experience. If you want to mass-produce something, every product designer will tell you that the best thing you can do is use plastic. But when you come from where I come from, texture and the softness is part of the experience. It is something that we are starting to see if you look at Amazon Echo and how they’re creating a softer, more appealing fabric because they know it’s something that you want to place in your home.
— I think the hardest part is to make the consumer feel the benefits of the product instantl. I think you’re in the trial marketing in the United States, how’s that coming along?
Oh, it’s amazing. We had been doing some rounds of consumer study in Israel before we went to the US. So I’ve had the pleasure of getting to talk to people directly and listening to them after they experienced the product in their home.
We give them the prototype, and we give them an explanation on how to work it. And there’s an app that comes with it, which they use to report to us during the study, but then we get to see them use Reflect in their home environment when they want to, and how they want to. I would get to meet up with them as well.
Listening to people talk about the product was amazing. No one conversation was the same as the one before it, people really connected with the product and projected their personality onto the experience. Once we finished with the Israeli studies, we started to look at the US market, which is where we’re going to officially launch. I was supposed to go there myself, but unfortunately, that couldn’t happen. So we’re working on the trial remotely right now.
We have 32 participants, and they get the product shipped to take home for a month. At the end of that month, we meet up with them for a video interview, and we hear their experience.
I can definitely say we can see the difference from before COVID-19 time. People are now very open to trying new things. They’re already in that space where obviously everyone is so stressed and you’re stuck at home. Especially in the beginning when it was a novelty where everyone’s taking up new hobbies and making promises like “I’m going to do yoga every day or meditate every day”. When in reality being at home was actually very hard.
— Are there any interesting findings from the studies so far?
One of the main things we found was that people who have some sort of wellness background in practising yoga or meditation understand the value of the product. Those are the people that respond best to reflect, as opposed to people who have no background, who I could tell them about biofeedback and the science of it.
They would still say “okay, but this is not for me. I’m not a spiritual person”. Some aspect of mindfulness and paying attention and just sitting down for a while, is not for everyone and I totally get that. Some people just want to busy themselves while being stressed. So we focused on people who understand the value of trying to stop and listen to your body already.
Some people have already finished the trial, and it’s heartwarming for me to read their interviews. Something that I thought of as a final project for school is now in the hands of people who live on the other side of the planet. And they’re saying that it’s really helping them with stress. Hearing that Reflect is helping them sleep better, or helping them take a break during their day is really special. Particularly when you consider how stressful this time has been so far.
I wish we had it ready for the market already because I think people would really benefit from it. We’re working on mass producing it and to launch by the end of next year.
— What category would you say Reflect fits into?
I try not to influence people’s opinions too much by giving Reflect a label. People find their own purpose in what we’ve created. One of the things that we ask people at the end is “what did you think this orb was for?” and it’s helping us to understand how to communicate with others. It’s also helping me understand that there can be several use cases.
One of the main ways people use it is as a solution for transitioning between stressed and relaxed. Before a meeting or before an interview to lower stress. In other words, going from point A to B.
But there was another group that didn’t use it as a tool for relaxation. Those are the kind of people who think that Reflect helps you to connect to yourself and to understand what’s going on in your body. They’re not trying to get to any point. They are simply in a state of mindfulness, being aware of what’s going on, and gently letting go of judgements. I think those people really get what Reflect is about on a deeper level. I’m not sure it’s marketable that way, but I think that’s the hidden benefit behind relaxation.
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If you enjoyed this, check out:
Part 2: Life+ Meets Noga… A suggestion for Social Dilemmas
Part 3: Life+ Meets Noga How can a wellness company work… well?
And if you’re interested in meeting more founders like Noga and exploring or contributing to Life+ check us out on our Website / IG / Podcast
