MIT 100K Pitch Interview with Moshion, the 2021 Audience Choice Winner!
Written by Jack Sweeney
Moshion is a MIT startup founded by three Integrated Design Management graduate students creating an IoT system to reduce pressure ulcers with particular use cases in elderlycare and health care settings. The team recently competed at the MIT 100K Pitch, and received the Audience Choice award.
About The Team
Kate Tyshchenko has a background in economics, and completing her master’s degree in Economics at University of Regina (Canada). Afterwards, Kate worked as a management consultant for a few years before realizing her passion for entrepreneurship. She pivoted, left her job at Deloitte and is now a second year Integrated Design Management student, studying system engineering focused on product design.
Jonathan Zhou has a background in consumer products, and spent the last five years at iRobot working on the latest Roombas. He has developed many consumer products, and built familiarity with aspects of product development: engineering, development and production in factories. He is currently a second year Integrated Design Management student pursuing entrepreneurship.
Hannah Oh has a professional background in design, with work experience in the fashion industry. She wanted to move into a sector is less focused on consumerism, and pursue a career with a higher positive impact in society. She is currently a second year IDM student with a focus on human centered design.
Our Interview with Moshion
Can you tell me a bit more about Moshion?
K: Moshion is a system to reduce the risk of pressure ulcers. It is a technology system that sits between a user’s body and a wheelchair cushion or mattress. It takes measurements including pressure shear and moisture existence since many of the intended users are incontinent. The system then can alert caregivers that a patient needs assistance or needs to be repositioned.
J: The product is essentially a tool to transform the current manual approach of a caregiver regularly checking in and rotating patients into a digital, smart solution.
How did you all meet, how did Moshion come to be?
K: The three of us are Integrated Design Management students at MIT Sloan, and were on the same project team last year. We had a great working relationship and became friends. We decided to start working together over the course of the summer, and started exploring different problems — not ideas. Eventually after several discussions, we found pressure ulcers to be a big problem with underserved solutions. My mom is a doctor and she mentioned they were a big issue, and they are actually the reason my grandfather passed away. So, we thought we could explore that.
When we started talking to doctors in the United States, we realized there hasn’t been much innovation in that space since it is not something that entrepreneurs typically talk about or focus on. The current solution for the bedridden who suffer most from pressure ulcers is caregivers who rotate patients every two hours. This seemed very inefficient and imprecise, and we thought the treatment could be improved with a technological approach.
As the “Audience Choice” winner for 100K’s Pitch competition, how did participating in the competition help you all further develop Moshion?
K: It helped us organize better — the thing with entrepreneurship is you have your own goals, and you report to yourself at the end of the day, but milestones like the 100K competition help you push a lot harder towards a concrete deadline. Even if you say “by April I want to do X,” those are flexible goals. Competitions and deadlines help you stay organized.
J: It is also a great opportunity for us to get feedback from various sources. During preparation we got feedback from our cohort, professors and advisors on nailing down the business model and technology. During and after the presentation, we also received a lot of feedback from the judges and other attendees who listened to our pitch. This feedback was helpful to get confirmation on pursuing this meaningful problem that needs a solution, has a large market, and l make the world a better place.
What is next for Moshion? Will you participate in 100K’s accelerate phase in March?
K: We are currently applying for National Science Foundation seed funding, which is a big milestone for the team. We also want to participate in the next two phases of 100K in the Spring. The feedback and mentorship from the program is invaluable to the development of the idea, the pitch, and the business model. We’re also part of a few accelerators at MIT, including Sandbox and Fuse. There are a lot of resources in the community that keep you going including check ins, advisory from other entrepreneurs, legal advice and more.
J: In terms of prototyping, we want to utilize Sandbox and Fuse to develop a second-generation prototype over the next few months. This will be a huge step forward compared to the first generation, and with the help of the Media lab and other universities we will aim to develop a smart fabric prototype. Next semester, with our increased exposure, we plan to expand our team and utilize more resources from the Martin Trust Center (MTC), Sloan and, and MIT engineering to develop an effective go-to-market strategy and prototyping strategy.
What progress have you made thus far on commercialization?
K: We actually take a different approach to entrepreneurship — we work closely with long term care facilities, since they are very close to the problem and it is very prevalent among their residents. We’ve partnered and aligned with them in the design phase to get their input and feedback, which we hope will translate into more streamlined sales. In a way, as long as you listen to your customers the only innovation you have to do is incorporate their feedback.
J: I would add that we started everything from a problem- finding perspective: first defining the problem that we want to solve, then immediately jumping to customer interviews. Over the summer, we interviewed one hundred physicians and nurses, patients, and people close to the problem. We totaled about eighty pages of interview notes. From there, we converted these into user need profiles and began developing prototypes. This ensured that we are developing technology to serve exactly what is needed in the community.
With how much more effort is required for a hardware solution, is there any advice you have for others who decide to pursue a similar space?
J: In our mind, a lot of software solutions tend to be for younger consumers whereas hardware can help the older community disproportionately. The hardware technologies can really benefit their lives, and as IDM students we want to help the people who need it most. Because of this, we wanted to not abandon the hardware barriers due to the level of impact it can have on the senior community.
H: I would just add that for us to solve our problem, it made sense to have the hardware direction, we didn’t force anything. Being at MIT, we’re able to take advantage of all of the resources here such as the Voxel Lab at iHQ. There are so many people you can speak to about this and we’ve encountered so many experts along the way who have guided us and helped us throughout our journey so far.
With a founding team that is 2/3rds female, do you have any advice for Female founders?
K: That’s a wonderful question — generally, when I have been to entrepreneurial events even within MIT there is 10–20% female representation. We see so much supporting research that women do amazing in entrepreneurship, and the community at MIT will be so supportive behind you. My advice is to not be afraid to try. There is so much funding right now for female founders, and this is the best time to be in that space with the added attention and support.
H: It is definitely a non-discriminatory environment at MIT, so if there is an idea you want to try to test out, don’t be afraid to enter the scene!
J: As a male I received many questions and concerns from friends and family on embarking on this journey. However, MIT as a community is very supportive of entrepreneurship. You can talk to professors, students or MTC to get support and seek out female entrepreneurs to have community and mentorship.
Follow Moshion here, and stay tuned for 100K events beginning again in early 2022!
