While stress is often a normal part of life, the intensity and frequency of today’s stressors are causing many people to experience frustrating (and even debilitating) levels of anxiety and depression.
As of 2024, the American Psychiatric Association reported that 43% of adults in the United States felt as if their anxiousness was increasing, leading to negative impacts on both their sleep and mental wellness. And while there are over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs that can help those seeking relief from the symptoms of high stress, many people are interested in natural, non-drug solutions to help them better deal with stressors.
Enter Healium, an innovative tech company incubated at the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) and quickly gaining international recognition and success.
A new way of leveraging brainwave data
As noted by Sarah Hill, Healium’s founder and CEO, the company is best described as an immersive mental wellness solution uniquely powered by biometric data delivered to wearables. Through the interpretation of this data, Healium essentially allows users to interpret their real time physiological vectors so they can learn to self-regulate their physical and mental responses to stress and trauma.
Validated in 10 peer-reviewed journals, Healium enables individuals to downshift their nervous systems through immersive relaxation practices. This ingenious approach leverages the latest neuroscience to induce calm. In fact, Healium has garnered so much public attention that it is trusted today by organizations including the Mayo Clinic, NFL teams, and major airlines.
How did Healium get to this point? Hill credits the MIC for providing a launching pad that allowed her vision to come to fruition — and her startup to gain traction.
More than a touchdown space
In 2016, Hill was looking for office space for her emerging company. During her search for the ideal workspace, she was introduced to the MIC. Feeling it would be the right fit, she set up shop and quickly discovered it was more than just a location.
“We got so much more,” Hill recalls. From mentorship, investment opportunities, and networking, she notes that the MIC proved to be a comprehensively supportive incubator in the early days before Healium was an actual product.
Over time, Hill was able to evolve her concept into a product, thanks to several key advantages that her company experienced by being part of the MIC. These crucial advantages highlight the supportive role the MIC played in Healium’s early development.
1. Regular mentoring
One of the biggest benefits of being part of the MIC for Hill was having access to mentors. They were the company’s first informal board of directors before she had a real board. She appreciated that they would take the time to sit down with her, enabling her to better define and refine her goals.
“The mentors at the MIC were incredibly helpful to us,” says Hill. They helped her reimagine her product and unit economics, as well as scale up after the pandemic. After all, Healium was well-suited to meet the societal needs of the stressful pandemic and post-pandemic world. Yet, Hill needed some guidance to determine how to navigate her company toward success.
For example, Healium started as a consumer product. But Hill says it became clear that selling just to consumers was not going to be as lucrative. Accordingly, she had to pivot her thinking to embrace the idea of selling to corporate entities as well.
“The unit economics for consumers are harder to attain than selling it [Healium] to the enterprise market,” notes Hill. “It costs a lot to acquire consumers in mass.” With the assistance of her MIC mentors, she discovered that she could boost her startup’s performance metrics (e.g., customer acquisition rates, customer lifetime value) if she worked on a package that would entice larger companies to purchase enterprise-level subscriptions. It was a helpful learning process for Hill as she crunched the numbers to understand where to best take her sales and marketing for maximum returns.
2. Protection of the product
Being at the MIC wasn’t just valuable from an economic standpoint for Healium. It also offered important protections, particularly concerning intellectual property.
Upon consulting a patent attorney, Hill was originally told by one firm that securing a patent for content that was powered by biometric inputs was “not patentable. ” Surprised but undaunted, Hill decided to get a second opinion with her MIC coaches.
The experts at MIC introduced her to Missouri Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic that worked exclusively with clients who were entrepreneurs in Missouri. It was the ideal match. Hill wound up being able to secure multiple patents for her technology and protect her company’s intellectual property, thanks to what she calls a “great strategic partnership.”
3. Investor introductions and feedback
To scale her product and hire a world-class team, Hill needed to find investors, as well as be able to engage them with her pitch, showcasing the value of her company as a compelling investment opportunity. The MIC gave her constant feedback on her pitch so she could attract potential sales channel partners and firms.
Hill’s investment pitch was effective, leading to the successful acquisition of seed funding that set her company on a strong trajectory. “We’ve generated millions in investment and millions in revenue.” And Healium isn’t finished growing yet.
Advice for fellow entrepreneurs
The collaborative atmosphere and assistance provided at the MIC made the difference for Hill and her company. Today, she is not just a proud founder but an advocate who recommends entrepreneurs seek out resources within their communities, particularly incubators like the MIC. “It’s not just office space they’re offering, but something far more valuable.”With Healium now enjoying a solid reputation and upward trajectory, Hill credits MIC with her company’s growth.. For startups or early-stage ventures in life sciences or biotech industries, the MIC offers the tools, connections, and guidance necessary to move from idea to successful product. Interested parties should contact the MIC to discuss how it can help their company become another success story like Healium.