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Jerry is not your average Teddy. Born out of personal experiences with managing chronic illness, Jerry the Bear is aimed to ‪change‬ the way children experience their ‪#‎healthcare‬. http://www.630wpro.com/2015/06/22/630-under-30-sproutels-jerry-the-bear-helps-kids-manage-diabetes/

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Congrats to Sproutel who won the New Way To Startup competition! They will receive expert mentoring, as well as a trip to #TEDatIBM this fall. Sproutel continues to provide health education and wellness to children to help them learn about diabetes. Great to see the social good of their mission.

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I'm not asking what's in your wallet. I'm asking, "what's in your heart?” -Charity Charge CEO Stephen Garten

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“Our ‪motivation‬ is about maximizing good and helping people give back in a simple, easy, everyday kind of way to ‪charities‬ that matter to YOU.” -Stephen Garten, Charity Charge CEO

Read More: http://friedmansocialmedia.com/blog/2015/04/14/charity-charge-a-disruptive-idea-whose-time-has-come/

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Recently there has been a surge of stories surrounding the rise of millennial-led startups dedicated towards social good. Join Bryan Kramer in the H2HChat as he discusses with Amber Armstrong (IBM Social), Sarah Covey (Verb), and Larissa Rhodes (Unreasonable Media) how through a webisode series, they were able to highlight the stories of some amazing social entrepreneurs.

Registration: http://bryankramer.com/h2hchat_register0622

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Something very primal happens to your brain when you have a child. It’s like your heart is pulled apart and put back together again. See how Owlet Baby Monitors helps parents achieve greater peace of mind when it comes to their little ones by leveraging big data.

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“Make something that helps people. All you you [startups] are doing that.”  -- Mayor Steve Adler, @mayorsteveadler

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“Technology moves so quickly, we’re going to rely on something 3 years from now that’s not even available today.”

-- John Guydon, @lassyproject

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Charity Charge appears to me to be a tremendous idea that’s going to catch on quickly, be a huge success and make a lot of people feel good about using their charge card to purchase the things they need. When you use the Charity Charge card 1% of your purchases will be directed to the charity of your choice.

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The company aims to be the only wireless baby monitor that will come home with almost every child at birth. Because it is engineered to be light, easily washable, and comfortable, the bootie will allow parents to ensure their kids are still breathing and, more importantly, offer important insight to researchers on the first few months of life.

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No one is more concerned with health than the mother of an infant, and with the rising availability of wrist-worn fitness tracking devices, it only makes sense that a baby-sized health tracker would pop up.

Meet Owlet, one of our hardware battlefield companies.

Owlet is an ankle-worn health tracking device for your baby, with an accompanying app that gives you a readout on your little bundle of joy’s health at any time.

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SXSW 2015 has officially come to a close, but we’re still riding high after last week’s big win at the IBM New Way to Startup competition. At the event, Stretch Recipes placed in the top five and was also named a fan favorite. We’re so pumped for what’s next!

Lauren gave a fast, three-minute pitch on Stretch Recipes in front of a packed room and five judges at IBM’s New Way to Startup competition. Her hard work paid off because we came out on top!

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This year at SXSW, IBM held a contest that gave 10 startups the chance to raise their profiles, win IBM software, and snag an invitation to an exclusive TED@IBM event. 

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Meet Aaron Horowitz from Sproutel

We’re building the Sesame Street of healthcare.

What is Sproutel?

We make learning about chronic illness incredibly fun for little kids.

Why are you passionate about Sproutel?

I was terminally ill as a kid. I had to get an injection every day. In college, I started thinking about how it impacted me. I got involved in a program called Design For America. It’s all about using design thinking to solve problems in your community. We focused on Type 1 diabetes. When we talked to patients, we saw something interesting: children were taking care of animals like they had type 1 diabetes. Using imaginative play to do things they couldn’t do to their own bodies. They could control what their stuffed animals are dong. I started thinking, could we do that in ways that are fun? Could we give them a stuffed animal? Kids take care of their animals – Jerry (the stuffed animal) is a way of making complex things they need to learn and the complicated experience they’re dealing with through playful experiences.

How does it work?

Kids feed jerry foods, check his glucose levels. In his belly there are 21 animated storybooks. All-star story books – each story teaches about a different aspect of health. Helping take care of Jerry helps them win the Olympics. It helps the kids develop empathy and understand what it means to take care of somebody else.

How was Jerry developed?

We tested 29 iterations with over 350 families. Before, it was a teddy bear who was robotic and could do all these things. We surrounded ourselves with experts … With professors who could guide us and mentor us.

We said “hey, we’re a team of 4, we’re going to make a prototype and test it with a kid.” The first version was super creepy and buggy but we were so proud of it. The first test the kid was so excited, he later tore it apart. But he was so excited when we first saw it – we learned a lot in that process but we knew it was a great idea from the get-go.

We work with toy designers to help us understand how to design for kids. How do we engage kids, and maintain their engagements. 6 months after getting a bear, they’re still playing with him for an hour a week. He becomes almost another sibling.

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Meet Sam from Addicaid

Tell us about your experience with Addicaid:

I have been working on Addicaid the past 2 years. It takes a long time to find the right team, and figure out what it is I need to do – I enjoyed the product and thought it was good – I built something and realized nobody wanted it. Took a year and a half to find the right people. Participated in a bio health tech accelerator, piloting with local clinics in NY area … And from there launching a personal coaching platform.

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Meet Jordan from Owlet

It’s a must-have to have a health monitor  

What is Owlet?

Owlet is a sock that goes on infant and protects their heartrate and oxygen levels. It sounds an alarm if something happens.

What inspires you?

Vision of ideas that change behavior – stuff where you could look at the child and say, “when you were born, this didn’t exist.” World changing.

How the idea was born:

First we wanted to create a patch for hospitals, and it pivoted into a friend having a child – saw that she was physically sick from stress. Monitors were antiquated.

Future plans for Owlet:

The company has 10 full time employees, 4 part time employees. The plan: get the units out. In manufacturing mode for close to a year now, just shipped 50 units. 1,000+ more to fulfill between now and May, you have to be so careful with children. Long term dream: Owlet’s something similar to car seats – it’s a must-have to have a health monitor.