Creating ChillBand®
As will all great products, it started with a personal need. One of our founders was asked to be the best man for a friend and colleague. Faced with the prospective of having to give the best man speech, he wanted to test an idea of blocking stress. He mocked up our first version of the acustimulator and it worked! He could relax and think clearly while practicing his speech.
Even at the reception when the DJ told him that he was up in ten minutes, he was relaxed and even a bit eager to give the speech. The speech went better than hoped. Seeing the maid of honor struggling to get through her speech he vowed to create and bring ChillBand to market. Our mission was clear.
Our second use case came when a friends’ daughter needed to pass a math equivalency test to get into UC Berkeley. The stress to pass was so great she could hardly study. She even threw up worrying about it. Using our early ChillBand, she was able to block out enough stress to pass. Happily, she got into Cal, graduated with honors and is now taking graduate classes at Santa Clara University.
Other early successes with ChillBand helped keep folks relaxed and calm with a clear mind during:
- job interviews – blocking out the stress of that situation allowed for clear thinking with a confident demeanor
- high stake presentations to executives – being relaxed conveyed confidence and clear thinking allowed giving the best answers to tough questions
- stuck in traffic on the freeway, late for an NBA finals playoff game – the stress of that situation was made worse knowing others were waiting
- setting up and painting on scaffolding – the stress from heights can trigger the freeze response, not good when one has a job to do
- portraying Saint Nicholas in front of the entire congregation – wanted to perform the best for the children’s sake
Where we are today
Our first goal is to help dentist with their stressed patients who impact their practice by needed to be calmed down. This time delay often puts them behind schedule, inducing stress in the dental office staff. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed our plans enough to start on our second goal of helping veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD induced nightmares. The suicide rate of over twenty a day makes it more likely to die from suicide than being killed in the line of duty. Our team is working with veteran and first responder organizations to get their early feedback. Once we get test results, we can move forward with obtaining FDA clearance to market ChillBand.
Sign up for news and updates on our progress
It will help if you mention how a device like this can help you or a loved one. Sign up for news and updates on our progress
Our Story doesn’t end with ChillBand
We want to build a community to make our intellectual property available to others so they can quickly develop solutions based on other acupoints. Hardware reference designs, software, firmware and access to our design, regulatory and manufacturing partners can create a whole ecosystem of support and cross-learning.
As a startup in stealth mode, we have probably revealed too much already. But our goal is to help as many people as possible with our technology. We think of new uses every day and everyone we talk with is excited about the potential for this company and its products.
Our Team
We are growing as we are building our first fully functional prototypes. Besides design and developing ChillBand, we are building the foundations for our company, MindFramers. So far we have nine team members and sixteen advisors ranging from industrial design, patent attorneys, startup finance and marketing. We have tier 1 contract manufacturers advising on manufacturing and quoting to be our manufacturing partner. ChillBand are and will continue to be assembled and tested exclusively in factories in North America.