The CareBand team poses with Startup Weekend Bloomington facilitator Jamie Bass.
Informatics student Adam Sobol and a team of Indiana University students won first place at Startup Weekend Bloomington, a 54 -hour event where developers, designers, marketers, and product managers came together to share innovative business and product ideas.
Sobol’s idea, CareBand,is a wander management solution for individuals with dementia. It is an innovative, patent-pending product that provides a safe solution for individuals with dementia who wish to continue living in their own home.
CareBand provides caregivers with the ability to track and monitor the location of their loved ones by having them wear a technology-enhanced wristband.
CareBand improves the traditional caregiving model because it allows for a reduction in the need of constant physical supervision, making it is a more cost-effective approach than other options for individuals with dementia, such as residential facilities or in-home caregivers.
Sobol pitched CareBand at last year’s Startup Weekend, and only one person joined his team.
“At that point, I knew it was a good idea and that if I didn't push hard to develop it into a business, then in six months someone else would jump onto the opportunity,” said Sobol.
So he spent the last year refining his idea, researching, talking to several SoIC professors, and filing a provisional patent. All of his hard work paid off during Startup Weekend Bloomington this year, where five other team members joined the project.
The CareBand team includes School of Informatics and Computing students Andrew Jones, Scott Trepper, Vince Rowold, and Kelley School of Business students Chris Chu and Claudia Maria.
During the competition, the team created a working prototype, which they used in their final presentation to the judges. With their first-place finish, the team advances to the regional Startup Weekend competing against other winning ideas from the other 38 cities in the U.S Central & East region. Two teams will advance from each region to the Global Startup Battle, as determined by votes and judges. Voting runs through December 3. Vote now!
Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams, and communities to share ideas, build projects, and launch startup companies.