U-M spin-out Brio Device wins Best of Entrepreneur Boot Camp

The journey to create Brio Device started with University of Michigan researchers working on a post-graduate fellowship in the U-M Medical Innovation Center. The bio-tech start-up's most recent stop comes with winning "Best of Boot Camp" in Ann Arbor SPARK's Entrepreneur's Boot Camp competition.

Hannah Hensel, Laura Walz, Douglas Mullen and Dr. Sabina Siddiqui started last year by creating an extensive list of things that needed to be improved in the health-care industry and came up with the SmartAirway, a new tool that improves the efficacy and safety of emergency intubation.

"This is something we felt compelled to pursue," Hensel says. "It was there from a clinical need and market size. This is something we can really make some advancement with."

Brio Device's team of four is in the early stages of developing a prototype. Hensel expects to have a couple more engineers working on the project within a year and use the prototype to help raise seed capital. Commercialization could come as soon as 2013.

Brio Device won "Best of Boot Camp" based on the quality of its elevator pitch and business plan. It won in-kind services from Ann Arbor SPARK and the educational experience of working at Entrepreneur's Boot Camp.

"It was very worthwhile," Hensel says. "They were prepared for people who were in varying stages of development. They were able to tailor the experience to each start-up."

Source: Hannah Hensel, co-founder of Brio Device
Writer: Jon Zemke