I’m On a Mission to Make Your Eyes Smile: Here’s Why

Take it from me: “severe corneal hypoxia” is not a phrase you want to hear from your ophthalmologist. It means that the cornea — the little lens responsible for about two-thirds of your vision — isn’t getting enough oxygen. It’s a serious condition.

And yet here I was, sitting in my ophthalmologist’s office listening as he told me that my eyes weren’t breathing properly. The problem? I’d been wearing monthly contact lenses for years — and, being a student, I tried to get the most bang for my buck by wearing them a little longer than advised. I would even sometimes fall asleep still wearing my contacts (pro tip: do not fall asleep wearing contacts).

Sure, my eyes were uncomfortable, but I assumed that was part of the deal when wearing contact lenses. As it turns out, I also had an allergy to contact lens cleaning solution, leading to bumps on the inside of my eyelids.

I needed to immediately stop wearing contact lenses to alleviate my symptoms. I ended up getting refractive surgery to correct my vision.

This episode got me thinking — were there other millennials out there who were undergoing a similar experience? Daily disposable contact lenses (the healthiest and most hygienic option) have traditionally been expensive. And it’s a pain to trek to a doctor’s office every year just to renew a prescription. The old-school contact lens industry just isn’t keeping up with the needs of today’s consumers. We’re online, we want to ensure our dollars are being spent wisely, and we don’t have time to sit around and wait in someone’s office in order to get our contact lenses. We also want them delivered directly to our home.

I knew we could do better.

I quit my day job as an investment consultant, went to business school, and dedicated myself to changing the way we wear contacts. If you’ve ever been at a dinner party with that one friend who is launching a new project, you’ll have an idea of what it was like to be around me — my entire social circle is now well-versed in eye health and contact lens manufacturing specifications (if you’re as obsessed as I am, you’ll like this: our contacts are made with premium omafilcon A with 58% water content, and they’re made in a fully automated facility by the world’s most advanced robots).

In April 2018, it was time to pull the trigger. We launched Aveo lenses in the United States with a splashy new website and a small (but eager!) team of people who shared one goal: to make your eyes smile.

I’m not a traditional CEO. To start with, I’m 30 years old. I’m hands-on, extremely data-driven, and strive to understand every aspect of the business — from the back-end code of our website to the shipping process from our LEED-certified facility just outside of Chicago. I assembled a team of marketing and operations experts and gave them the tools they need to do their jobs. I have also been known to answer our customers’ questions on Instagram at midnight from my phone.

Six months since we launched, Aveo Vision is going strong. Proudly headquartered in San Francisco (we’re so millennial that we rent a co-working space in SoMa), we’re taking on the major brands with our digital outreach, superior product, and best-in-class customer service. We’re getting press in major publications. I’m proud to say we’re changing the way people experience contact lenses. In short: it’s working.

I launched Aveo Vision because I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through. We’re making better eye health accessible through premium daily disposable lenses. We’re making a better product with advanced technology that’s more sustainable than our competitors’.

And we’re trying to have a little fun along the way.

Originally published at moneyinc.com on November 1, 2018.