Empathy with Empath Labs CEO: Aaron Horowitz
1. What inspired you to start Empath Labs?
When Aaron was 13 years old he was diagnosed with human hormone growth deficiency. This meant that his body wasn’t growing as fast as it should be. As a kid he didn’t understand what was going on with his body. This experience and over time he developed a passion to improve young children’s health. In college, he got involved with a program called Design of America. This program helps with using creative problem solving to figure out solutions for social issues. One specific project that Aaron did was with kids who had type 1 diabetes. He saw that a lot of kids were injecting their stuffed animals similarly to how they are normally giving themselves insulin. Seeing what the kids were doing Aaron created a teddy bear for kids with type 1 diabetes. This led him to start Empath Labs.
2. On your website I read that you create toys for specific medical conditions. How does each medical toy help with the specific conditions that the child is facing? What is the design process?
Aaron first explained the design process to me. In the beginning some of his co-workers go to the hospital to talk with the kids and their parents. This allows them to empathize with the problem. The information allows Aaron and his team to create a prototype of the toy. Then, they go back to the hospital with the prototype. If the kids like playing with the toy, his team starts to manufacture the toy and sells them to hospitals. Aaron then explained to me how each toy works for every medical condition. He specifically told me about the toy designed for kids with type 1 diabetes. With this toy you can feed food to the teddy bear and monitor its blood sugar through an app. In the same way that the child is taking care of the bear, their parents are doing the same. I really thought that this product was really cool. Aaron also showed me how the app worked. Once you click on the app there is a virtual hospital where you can choose a character and perform almost any medical procedure. Aaron and his team create these products to help kids who are undergoing health issues and don’t have an understanding of what’s going on with their bodies. From this, I learnt the importance of empathizing with the problem before building a solution.
3. Do you have to have a medical degree, or some knowledge in order to create the toys? What technical skills did you need to build?
Nobody on Aaron’s team, including himself, has a medical degree. However, they work with medical experts for information and expertise to develop the toys. Aaron’s team is very diverse with their skillsets. His background is engineering, many other team members' backgrounds are design and software development. Having different skills can change the way people think about a certain problem. One of the many technical skills that Aaron has used for building his business is to talk to people. He talks to kids, parents and doctors in order to help them have a better understanding of creating a product that could benefit many lives.
4. What kind of questions do you ask your customers or potential customers to help get feedback to build and sell your product?
Aaron and his team are constantly looking for ways to get better in the way they seek information. Two focus areas of questions are around understanding the struggle points of the customers and the second is how are the customers solving the problem today. This helps him get insights that allows them to build their products and the business, taking it to the next level.
5. What are the biggest challenges you faced while building your business?
Aaron mentioned that in the beginning he was trying to figure out where he could find the money to take his idea and execute on it. That was one of the hardest struggles for him. I can imagine that would be a struggle for any entrepreneur who is ready to start executing. He also mentioned that, ideally, he wanted to sell his products directly to the hospital but selling to the hospital as a new and young company is very hard so they had to use 3rd parties such as pharmacies to get their product in the hands of the end user. Over time, he mentioned he was able to directly sell to hospitals. This was a very important insight for me that selling any product or idea is not easy and one has to keep working on it.
6. What are some of the most valuable lessons you have learnt while building your business?
One of the most important lessons Aaron learnt was to always follow the fundamentals of business. When he was in college he got involved with a business program. One of his tasks was to build a product and sell it. Aaron told me that he was previously raising money to build the product. One of the most important rules of business is to make money. It sounds really obvious Aaron told me, but it has a deeper meaning. This was an important learning moment for me.
7. What advice would you give to your 11 year old self with what you now know and have learnt?
Aaron strongly advised to keep expanding your learning horizons. When he was around my age he thought that once you had a major you could only have a job related to your major. Over time, he has learnt that is definitely not true. His major is in engineering, but most of the work he does involves design. His key message was always learning opens up opportunities we never thought about before.
I had such an awesome conversation with Aaron. He has taught me to always keep asking questions and exploring. I would like to thank him for his time and I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed interviewing him and writing this blog!
You can reach out to Aaron on his website: https://aaronjhorowitz.com or through his company Empath Labs: https://www.empathlabs.com
I would really love to hear your feedback and comments. Please reach out to me@hanikachhajer.com.
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