It is only half way through the year, but a company founded by SFU students has already claimed the top place in a number of entrepreneurship competitions — racking up more than $40,000 in prizes.
Orello Hearing Technologies, a startup working to create affordable hearing aids, took first place at the Hong Kong-Canada Investment Pitch Competition last month. A total of three out of the six teams in the national finals were from the university, and Orello won $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in legal assistance.
The company CEO and alumnus from the Beedie School of Business William Brenner told The Peak that the money will be used to enhance their latest hearing aid prototype, which is in its fifth generation.
Earlier this year, the company also won the university’s $30,000 best overall Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize.
Last year’s first place prizes at both competitions were also seized by an SFU student-run startup that develops electrochemical applications.
Orello was born out of the technology entrepreneurship program at the university and is working on the only hearing aid available that doesn’t require that the fit and tuning be done by a specialist.
“What we’re trying to do is we’re really trying to create new ways for people to access hearing health care,” explained Brenner.
According to their website, “360 million people around the world suffer from debilitating hearing loss but only 10% of this demand is being met by the current global hearing aid market.”
“We just think that’s unacceptable and that there is a lot that we can do in that area,” Brenner said. “We all know someone who is wearing a hearing aid or should be wearing a hearing aid.”
Hearing aids are currently expensive for most people without medical coverage, averaging around $2,400 US, according to Brenner.
“There are not that many hearing aid companies out there [which means there is] not a ton of competition,” Brenner said. As a result, consumers don’t have a lot of options when it comes to choosing from where to get their product. Orello is trying to change that by offering a “hearing healthcare solution that is more accessible and affordable.”
The company is aiming to sell their product for around $400 US dollars.
“We don’t just view ourselves as a hearing-aid company, we view ourselves as a hearing health-care company [. . .] In that way, we are always looking for ways that we will be able to provide more value to our users and a big part of that is in education,” he added.
Originally, the students created the company with clients in developing countries in mind. “But what we found was, being a young start-up located in North America is really hard to validate those connections that you need, [especially] if your customers are going to be halfway around the world,” said Brenner. “Right now, we’re focused on [the] North American market.”
“We’re always looking for ways and looking for partners to help us get the distribution we’re looking for into those areas of the world where we feel that our device can have the largest impact,” he added.
The first prototype was developed by the company last year, though the device was in need of some fine-tuning. “The latest [model] it is by far the most discrete and we really think it is something close to what we want to bring to market,” said Brenner.
Two of Orello’s founders will fly out to Hong Kong this December to participate in the flagship forum for the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association.
