John and Manya Clark started the company in 2020 with their daughters, Juliette, Alleanna and Lyla, so that couples and friends could share moments to remember in the surf together.
The Tandem Boogie is an inflatable bodyboard made with high-density PVC material that resists corrosion and scratching. It’s the material in Zodiac boats used by the U.S. Military and Greenpeace, the company said.
The board, which retails for $459, also incorporates patent-pending Dynamic Air Design technology that gives the product a unique stiffness and response to waves, Tandem said.
“At a time when kids are often alone looking at their screens, the Tandem Boogie board can get families outside having fun together,” Lubetzky said.
“But it’s not just for families—I am energized about reaching all of the people like me who used to think that water sports weren’t for them.”
Tandem said it will work with Lubetzky and Herjavec, as well as boogie board creator and board adviser Tom Morey, to scale its direct-to-consumer business this year.
The product is a “screen-free, educational entertainment solution to engage children while on the go,” and comes with STEM toys for children ages 3 to 7. It also includes a healthy snack and reusable antibacterial wipe.
“This is a totally new concept. Families are very pleasantly surprised to see something like this available to them right at the restaurant and put their iPads away,” said The Bizzy Bag co-founder Lauren Radie.
“Our restaurant owners and GMs have been loving the novel leg up on competition during these times, and of course larger sales checks and happy customers. Bizzy Bag definitely creates a buzz for these places so it's a major win-win-win.”
The Bizzy Bag is currently available at Five Crowns in Corona del Mar and Trevor’s At The Tracks in San Juan Capistrano, among other locations.
The company, founded by Radie and business partner Heather Rzepiennik, aims to scale nationwide as the “Happy Meal” for full-service independent restaurants, it said.
Genomic Testing Cooperative of Irvine has launched a molecular profiling testing program for underserved patients.
Ethnic, racial and gender minorities, as well as impoverished people, are typically affected more negatively with cancer because there is a disparity in access to precision medicine and clinical studies that evaluate differences in the biology of their cancer, according to GTC.
Patients with cancer who lack medical insurance or specific testing coverage are eligible to participate in the program, which will help physicians determine a diagnosis and guide therapy selection and treatment strategy.
GTC will also generate data that will be de-identified and made available to academic and scientific groups focused on developing more personalized cancer treatments for minority populations.
“Minority patients are not adequately represented in the process for developing innovative medicine nor in the implementation of state-of-the-art medicine,” said Maher Albitar, chief executive of GTC.
“As a diagnostic company, we are doing our part by defining the precise molecular abnormalities that can be targeted. We are hoping that pharmaceutical companies will join our effort and do their part in providing the appropriate drugs to these patients and will develop a mechanism to recruit them in their clinical trials.”
Albitar launched GTC in November 2018 and has since expanded access to the company’s offerings to the East Coast through a partnership with Hackensack Meridian Health, a New Jersey-based health system with 17 hospitals and three academic medical centers.
PARTNERSHIPS
Athena Music and Wellness Therapy of Newport Beach said last week it is working with Intiva Health to provide musical therapy courses to doctors, nurses and medical providers, for use with their patients.
Austin, Texas-based Intiva is the developer of Ready Doc, a medical credentialing, clinical education and HIPAA-compliant communications platform used by hospitals and health systems.
“Intiva Health is one of the six key players operating in the Global Health Credentialing Software market,” said Roz Huang, chief executive of Athena, who is also an adviser to Intiva.
Athena said music therapy triggers new neural pathways in the brain to promote healing and healthy behaviors. It has been shown to help patients with a wide range of conditions such as addiction, anxiety, autism, brain injuries, memory disorders and PTSD.
The company, founded in 2019, is also the developer of consumer-facing music therapy app WellTune.
NEW HIRES
Orbee Auto, an Irvine-based marketing and analytics provider to the auto industry, has named Atul Patel its chief executive.
Patel is a co-founder of Orbee and previously served as chief operations officer. He has more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing and has led several startups to acquisition including Philadelphia-based data service firm Jornaya and video conferencing software maker OneScreen in San Diego.
Patel “has made such a significant impact on the company with his hands-on approach of really working closely with employees to help strategize the next steps to ensure the success of Orbee,” said Peter Fong, who was named chief revenue officer of Orbee in September.
Fong and Patel said they plan to scale Orbee’s digital offerings in 2020 with a new digital marketing platform, TierX, that offers users analytics, shopper profiles, email marketing, and lead prioritization features.
Fintech Happy Money recently named Sadira Furlow its chief marketing executive.
Furlow joins the Tustin-based firm from PepsiCo, where she was vice president of marketing for the Frito-Lay portfolio and chief marketing officer of its nutrition bands.
“Throughout my career, I've had a hunger for growth fueled by a love of the consumer and a passion for purpose. That sense of purpose drew me to Happy Money and its mission-driven approach to fintech,” Furlow said.
“By leveraging behavioral science and a deep understanding of our consumers as well as our partners, we are shifting the financial services paradigm and creating an entirely new category at the intersection of finance and human happiness that Happy Money will own.”
Happy Money generates revenue from membership-based subscriptions for its loan products and smartphone apps, which help users consolidate, reduce and eliminate high-interest credit card debt through partnerships with credit unions and other financial institutions.
