There is no better learning than through experience. 

I learned this lesson firsthand in the 2022 Big Bang! Business Competition. Even with my background as an MBA student, I felt that I had to push past my comfort zone to perform in ways I’d never done before.

It’s one thing to hear or learn about an executive summary, customer call or investor pitch presentation. It’s quite another to try to do it well on the first try.

I first met my business partner, Kourosh Vali, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering, in the fall of 2021 at the UC Entrepreneurship Academy. It was there that he told us about the transabdominal fetal pulse oximeter. He said that the TFO device would cut down on unnecessary C-sections. It would also save the lives of babies from fetal acidosis when oxygen can get cut off from a baby’s brain and organs. This leads to mental and physical disabilities in children like cerebral palsy or epilepsy. 

For Kourosh, the value of this project was evident from the very beginning of his time at UC Davis. “Prof. Soheil Ghiasi, my Ph.D. advisor, introduced me to the idea of fetal oximetry when I wanted to join UC Davis as a new doctoral student. This idea is interdisciplinary, and it is at the intersection of human health, biophotonics, machine learning, and computer system design. During my graduate studies, I designed multiple prototypes and advanced the TFO system. The potential of this project was evident to me as there aren't any alternatives on the market."

With my background as an educator, I’m passionate about the health and well-being of children. Immediately, I knew I wanted to get involved with this breakthrough life-saving project. This was the start of our involvement with Storx Technologies.

 

Over 30% of births involve C-sections. But only a fraction of those is needed. Doctors usually perform a C-section if they aren’t sure how a baby is doing in utero—it’s better to err on the side of caution. Yet, this cautionary move can pose risks for the mother and baby. Blood clots, infections, inflammation of the uterus, risks to future pregnancies and even death are all possible.

Our device allows doctors to non-invasively and directly assess a fetus’s health. We can avoid those unnecessary C-sections. We can also catch situations when babies need to be delivered right away and be spared from a life-altering disability.

It's All About the Network

After we entered the Big Bang!, one main competition requirement—talking to potential customers—showed us the power of networking. Initially, the task was daunting. We didn’t need to just talk to regular customers off the street. We needed to talk to busy doctors, scientists and entrepreneurs who would potentially use our medical device in a hospital setting. A few cold calls we made to local hospitals and individuals resulted in nothing—except unreturned messages!

When we spoke to a mentor with the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, we soon received a couple of leads. Those conversations led to more and more referrals. Soon, it was a positive snowball effect when our contacts were excited after hearing about our innovation, and they enthusiastically shared with us the numbers for other colleagues we could call. We got the 30 calls that we needed as one of the key deliverables in the competition.

We spoke to many notable professionals: Dr. Diana Farmer, the president of the American Surgical Association, only the third female to ever hold that post; Dr. Nam Tran, who was part of the COVID-19 testing Task Force for Gov. Gavin Newsom; and Dr. Jim Kovach, CIO and founder of Aggie Square. He said that our medical innovation is a “triple win, which is rare in healthcare. It benefits moms, babies and providers. It will increase the quality of patient care with fewer costs.” 

Encouraged by the validation of our medical device from these healthcare professionals, we continued with the competition rounds.  

Speaking to potential customers and those In the healthcare profession brought an idea born in academia to life.

This device will be used in hospital delivery rooms with the most at-risk patients. In a recent visit to UC Davis Medical Center’s labor and delivery ward, it dawned on me how real this innovation had become. One of the nurse managers there anxiously awaits the device’s use in the hospital. She gave us a “wish list” of product features that she needs, that would make daily use of our medical device practical.

Similarly, Dr. Farmer shared with us: “There is an enormous cost to society for disabilities, like cerebral palsy. This could be game-changing technology and would protect children. It could save lives and make for safer deliveries.”

Golden Opportunities and Critical Lessons Learned

Kourosh and I were both Keller Pathway Fellows in the 2021/22 academic year. The fellowship provided networking opportunities for this interdisciplinary venture. Our paths probably would have never crossed had it not been our work in the program. We both benefited from the relationship: I added to my network top electrical engineers and medical doctors from UC Davis, a world-class research institution. In turn, I was able to share this technical innovation with laypeople and those in the business world. This is our chance to bring this device to market.

Despite initial doubts and challenges, we kept plugging away. We learned how important it is to believe in the entrepreneurial process and in one’s own training. Being willing to be vulnerable in not knowing, and leveraging available resources.

Our team Storx Technologies ended up winning first place in the 2022 Big Bang! competition. However, we felt that win or lose, we achieved our learning goals. We joined the Big Bang! to learn the process and skills needed for careers in innovation. We feel satisfaction from reaching significant experiential milestones that will help us move Storx forward.

In this past year, we have participated in the Berkeley SkyDeck Incubator, NSF I-Corps program, and worked to refine product design with the Stanford and UCSF Pediatric Device Consortium. The underlying research of our technology, spearheaded by Dr. Ghiasi, was also recently awarded a National Science Foundation $1M STTR Phase II grant. 

Our next goals are to obtain VC funding, conduct more market research, and further validate our product with human patients in intrapartum studies at UC Davis Medical Center. We are extremely grateful for our experience with the Big Bang!, which gave us the step up toward making Storx a viable startup.

Meet all the 2022 Big Bang! winners