Tomorrow, Skara & Co., an all-woman, high school team will pitch their concussion testing app, TimeOut, to a group of investors at Boston TechJam.
The ladies, student-athletes themselves, got the idea for the app in Feb. 2014 at the start of spring sports season when the school was announcing the concussion testing schedule. They realized there wasn’t an efficient way to test for concussions, so they decided to do something about it.
So far, they have piloted TimeOut for free with a handful of athletes at their own school (Winchester High School) and, within five years, plan to expand to 40 schools (at $1.50 per athlete).
The team answered our “Getting Glam With…” Q&A. See what they have to say about the ups and downs of starting a business:
NAMES: Sarah Luettgen, Kiara Wahnschafft, Alexandra Martirosian, Akshitha Ramachandran, Rebecca Hao
AGES: 16, 15, 15, 15, 15 (respectively)
COMPANY: SKARA & Co.
How did you come up with the idea for your company?
Originally, our app TimeOut was created for a competition in which young women build a business around a mobile application. At the time we were trying to come up with ideas for our application, concussion-testing was going on at our school. We then realized that inaccurate and inconvenient concussion testing was a problem that transcended our school and was universally prevalent. As we are all athletes ourselves, we have experienced the exasperating process of baseline concussion testing. Therefore, we set out to improve this issue in our community.
What is the hardest part of running a business?
One of the hardest parts of running our business is trying to find the time to meet and work together while attending school. All the members of SKARA & Co. like to challenge themselves academically, which means we must dedicate a lot of our time to homework and studying. In addition, we all participate in extracurricular activities. Our busy schedules limit the amount of time that we are all able to meet as a team.
Who inspires you?
We have always been inspired by our two dedicated mentors, Mr. Petty and Dr. Geyer. They have been a constant source of information and inspiration throughout our project. Having started several companies himself, Mr. Petty has been an extremely valuable resource and model for us. Dr. Geyer’s background in neuroscience complimented by her experience in neurophysiological and neurocognitive assessment has guided us in the medical aspect of TimeOut.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
When Sarah grows up, she would like to have an occupation that combines her love for art with her fascination with astronomy. Kiara would like to have a career that involves both her passion for technological development and her love for business management. Akshitha would like to be a technology entrepreneur involved in developing applications that reside at the intersection of life science, math and societal progress. In the future, Rebecca would like to research or teach in areas on the bridge between language and the brain. Alexandra would like to explore a career that combines her passion for music with her fervor for computer science.
Good Luck tomorrow, Ladies!!! It’s inspiring for us to see young people like yourselves doing such creative and challenging work. We think working together on a project like this must be wonderfully rewarding and a great bonding experience. Love how you came up with a name for your company. (Finally figured it out!)