Danny has suffered from GI disorders including Crohn’s disease and IBS since his early teens. He was motivated to create change because of his experience in knowing how painful and disruptive IBD can be. His personal IBD experience and drive, together with his diverse background in architecture, children’s computer game design, management of consumer-oriented software projects, and entrepreneurship made him well-qualified to lead a digital therapeutic company. He is the founder and CEO of metaMe Health, a company that develops and delivers digital therapeutics to manage and treat IBD symptoms.
Jen Horonjeff, PhD is a patient advocate and founder & CEO of Savvy Cooperative. Savvy is a patient co-op that provides an online marketplace for savvy patients to share their insights with healthcare innovators in order to co-create better patient-centered solutions. Savvy grew out of a need that Jen saw as both a patient with multiple chronic illnesses and as an researcher and industry consultant. She noticed that professionals talk about patients–not with actual patients. Patient insights are invaluable, because many patients, like herself, have multiple conditions and co-morbidities they are trying to manage, and their priorities may be different than their care teams’. Jen got her PhD in Environmental Medicine at NYU, is a patient-centered outcomes researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, a Consumer Representative for the FDA, a speaker on the importance of patient engagement, and a longtime non-profit volunteer. In 2015, Jen and her husband rode a tandem bicycle from NYC to Florida to raise awareness and funds for one of the patient charities she supports.
Steve has led teams delivering numerous best in class systems in both medical devices and industrial automation. Some examples are nuclear basis weight, x-ray and infrared absorption sensors, and a unique miniature therapeutic x-ray radiation source. He worked as a director at Measurex- Honeywell for 15 years and in 2003 entered the medical device field.
Steve became CEO of G-Tech Medical in November 2011. This work combines his experience leading high performance R&D teams and expertise in creating sophisticated measurement systems. G-Tech Medical is developing an “EKG for the gut,” a wireless, wearable patch-based system that reads electrical signals from the digestive tract. His enduring passion for the work comes from his daughter Lindsay, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age 13.
Cindy is an innovative and entrepreneurial leader with almost 25 years of business management experience, spanning digital marketing, television production and internet services. Cindy helped raise almost $10 million dollars in venture capital and founded a digital media firm, How2TV.
Inspired by her son Caleb who has Crohn’s disease, Caleb’s Cooking Company creates frozen meals for children based on The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which has helped millions of people with various forms of inflammatory bowl disease. Their products are all grain, gluten, sugar and preservative-free.
PJ has held executive management positions for over 20 years in sales, IT and health care with prestigious companies. Following her entrepreneurial spirit, she began her career by founding Computer Resource International, Inc. which sold hardware and software solutions to the federal government.
Her experience with her son, Dane, and his fight with Crohn’s disease convinced her to combine her business skills with her passion to help others. She began the Crohn’s & Colitis Nutrition Foundation to help heal chronic disease using financial technology. The foundation provides matching tax-exempt donations for patients who desire to utilize alternative medical options to fight chronic disease.
Jon Margalit, a startup entrepreneur, is one of millions who suffers from IBD. Jon set out to discover a convenient, nutritious solution made from real food that would both fill and settle his stomach. Jon is leveraging his expertise in business and sales, along with his success from prior startups to share his discovery with the world. Complete Start was founded in 2017 and is experiencing ongoing growth.
Prior to founding Complete Start, Jon launched and sold a multi-million dollar finance company, invented and patented a sport towel line, and revived a software company.
Kishore is CEO and Founder of OstoBuddy, a simple but powerful and convenient mobile platform for managing ostomy supplies, usage, output and health. Kishore was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 20 years ago and was unimpressed with the lack of technology solutions available to help ostomates manage their condition.
As a result, he devoted his time to develop OstoBuddy, an app that is being used globally to empower patients after life-changing surgery. OstoBuddy is designed to help manage clinical supplies, track item use, and receive reminders to use specific items customized to patients’ clinical needs and schedule.
Scott was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2009. He struggled with the related dietary issues and food intolerances from IBD, which drove him to found Nima. Nima is the world’s first portable gluten sensor, allowing people to test their food for gluten and determine if is contaminated. Designed to give everyone the ability to understand and control their health through diet and to provide peace of mind at mealtime, Nima has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions. It will launch a peanut sensor in 2018, and will expand to other contaminants and allergens, ike pesticides and dairy in the future. Scott was awarded Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 award for his work with Nima.
Brett Tripp is the owner of Tripp Design, a design and 3D printing company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Brett was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at a young age and has been a patient advocate ever since. Frustrated with the lack of customizable options when it came to wearable medical devices to manage IBD, Brett created his own medical device using his design expertise. Using the small space in his garage, he started 3D printing custom ostomy wafers. He took this initial prototype to his physician and the idea launched from there. Brett now makes custom 3D printed wearable medical products for patients at the University of Michigan Hospital.
Marc is a biomedical engineer with a 23-year career in medical device R&D. He has led multiple product development programs at both large companies and startups including stents, stent grafts, cerebrovascular coils, synthetic heart valves, and laparoscopic surgical devices, among others.
Marc’s immediate and extended family suffer from IBD, including his father, his son, and himself. He invented Regentys’ core technology and founded the company in an effort to leverage an existing, proven technology to the treatment of IBD. Marc founded Regentys to commercialize ExtraCellular Matrix Hydrogel, a product that creates a favorable environment for the body to grow new tissue in place of diseased or damaged tissue. He has eight US patents, including one for Regentys’ core technology, several publications, and a history of speaking engagements at conferences and universities.