Rancho Santa Margarita-based DNA lifestyle company launched its first app. Exploragen’s SlumberType provides insights on the way sleep is influenced by genetics. It’s available exclusively on Helix.com, an online marketplace of DNA-powered products that offer understanding on nutrition, fitness, health, ancestry, family and entertainment.
When someone orders the SlumberType app for $24.99, they’re required to purchase Helix’ DNA kit for $80. Users swab their cheek and return the kit to enable their DNA to be sequenced. It’s submitted in their profile on the Helix platform. The app uses the information to provide insights, along with other information provided by the user, including sleep quality and duration. The app also contains tools and trackers to monitor everyday behaviors that affect sleep, such as exercise and alcohol intake.
A team of veterans from the medical genetics market founded Exploragen last year, including Ron Andrews, who serves as chief executive; Shannon Kieran, head of operations; Sara Riordan, head of science; and Josh Riggs. The company has been “well-funded by a group of well-known investors from the personal genomics market,” Andrews said, declining to disclose how much funding it’s received.
Two other local companies that have already begun mining the sleep market are Irvine-based Bodymatter, whose app monitors sleeping habits for the purpose of general well-being, and Laguna Niguel-based biometric assessment company Snore Metrics LLC, which monitors snoring via the iPhone. There’s also a Garden Grove-based mobile nap service called Nappify that rents trailer “nap pods” to sleep-starved students, professionals and others on the go.
Watching Amazon
An Irvine-based company launched to watch items on Amazon.com and place orders when the price drops below a desired price. Rediron LLC, doing business as Waatcher, developed a website and plans to build out a complete set of tools so moms, students and others can easily access its service, founder and Chief Executive Nicolas Nguyen said.
The website targets moms and students after receiving feedback that moms do most of the shopping for their families and are price conscious. Students don’t have a lot of money, so they have to make every dollar count, Nguyen said.
The service is valuable, he said, because Amazon changes prices on its items millions of times every day depending on the season, product category, seller and brand. While there are many competing services that provide price alerts, many charge a fee. Waatcher is free and buys the product for the user. It generates revenue by getting commissions on qualified sales from Amazon. It stores users’ credit cards with a third-party company that securely protects the card information, Nguyen said.
He’s self-funded the company with $16,000, he said.
Deal Flow
Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels announced an initiative that shares its deals with accredited investors across the country. A subset of the angel network’s best deals will be syndicated over the online investment platform AngelList. In addition to giving private investors an opportunity to participate in deals alongside seasoned angel investors, the initiative also benefits entrepreneurs who want more capital and a broader pool of investors to pitch to.
Since its founding in 1997, the angel group has invested about $200 million in more than 345 companies and has helped attract more than $1.5 billion in additional capital/follow-on rounds, mostly from venture capital firms. Tech Coast Angels has more than 300 members in the five regions it serves in Southern California. It funds mostly emerging technology and life science companies. The most recent Halo Report rated it No. 2 nationally by number of funded deals.
Empowering Young Girls
A Costa Mesa-based nonprofit that empowers girls with entrepreneurship and life skills wrapped up its four-week summer session for girls ages 8 to 11 last month. Girls Inc. of Orange County presented its first summer session ever at a university—Chapman University’s incubator, Launch Labs. The experience gave 50 girls the chance to form a “society,” complete with currency. The girls split into 14 groups, with each group creating a product or service. The “society” culminated by opening to approximately 150 “investors”—adults with real money—who attended a marketplace where the young entrepreneurs sold their wares and could negotiate prices. Another Launch Lab startup, Siëo, lent its consulting services, free of charge, to the entrepreneurs.
Bits & Pieces
Eighty-five high school students from around the world participated in Concordia University Irvine’s School of Business sixth annual Teen Entrepreneur Academy July 23 to 29. The capstone was the Citi Business Plan Competition. The final part of it featured the top three teams of high school students out of 20 teams vying for a first place cash prize of $1,500. … Engage Factors is moving out of the FastStart Studio incubator in Irvine and into its own office space in Anaheim. It’s taking just under 4,000 square feet for its corporate headquarters.
