Today's Entrepreneur: Pavan Kumar
No. 1 Mistake: Not concentrating on their product market fit
Today's Entrepreneur is Pavan Kumar, Co-founder and CTO at Cocoon Cam. Cocoon Cam is a patent pending non-invasive video monitor and phone application duo that provides parents information about the baby's sleeping position, skin temperature, and respiration patterns. Key benefits parents will receive visual and measured reassurance that their baby is safe and well.
Kumar is a graduate of ComSci at University of California, San Diego last 2015 and he got his degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering at MSRIT last 2012. He is most interested in UbiComp, HealthTech, Computer Vision, and Data Engineering.
Cocoon Cam self-categorizes in these areas: Applications (Apps), Mobile apps, Social Applications.
Here's a little about Kumar:
Companies I work or worked for: Apple Computer, NetApp, University of California, San Diego
Achievements (products built, personal awards won):
• Technical Reviewer for the book, ‘OpenCV with Python By Example’ for PACKT Publishing 2015
• Received NSF Innovation Corps Award (#1542255) to commercialize project ‘Cocoon Cam’ 2015
• Winner, ‘Zahn Prize’ by The Moxie Center, University of California, San Diego 2015
• ‘Most Practical Solution Award’, MedHack, San Francisco (30+ judges from Technology and Medical domain) 2014
• Best Paper Award, International Conference on Electrical, Communication and Information Technology, India 2012
• Co Organized TEDx MSRIT and Received delegate scholarship to participate in world TEDx Summit, Doha, Qatar 2012
• 5th Place in Design Group, Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, Oakland University, Michigan 2012
• Received INR 300,000 project grant from Karnataka Knowledge Commission, IEEE AIYEHUM and MSR foundation 2010 • 1st Prize – Website Design Competition, VITM, India 2007
• Awarded ‘Intel Fellowship’ and interned under Prof. Soumitra Das at Indian Institute of Science, India 2006
• ‘Best of Subject Category Award’ for project ‘Mastitis Treatment Supporting Formula’, Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair 2005
If you are an entrepreneur, why? I want to change the world.
My favorite startups: GoPro, Uber
What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make? Most entrepreneurs assume that their product has a market and don't concentrate on evaluating their product-market fit.
What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
It is important for startup founders to talk to as many potential customers as possible to understand the real customer need for your product or service.
Full bio
Pavan is currently working as a Chief Technology Officer at Wearless Tech Inc., a startup based in San Francisco, California. At the startup, Pavan has been leading the development of ‘Cocoon Cam’, a non-contact, computer vision based camera system to reliably monitor the heart rate, temperature and breathing of infant patients. The product has received multiple awards including the US National Science Foundation Innovation Corps award, Zahn Prize by The Moxie Foundation and the Most Practical Solution award in San Francisco.
Pavan has a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication from MSRIT, India. He has worked as a software programmer at Apple headquarters, in Cupertino, California and as a Technical Marketing Engineer at NetApp Inc., in Bangalore, India. He has technical experience in the fields of computer vision, and machine learning, having published works in both areas.
*Want to be included in our Today's Entrepreneur series? Email me: mitos@vator.tv
Mitos Suson
I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!
All author postsRelated Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Cocoon Cam (Wearless Tech Inc.)
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
PRODUCT
Cocoon Cam is a patent pending non-invasive video monitor and phone application duo that provides parents information about the baby's sleeping position, skin temperature, and respiration patterns as well as education on ways to reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Key benefits parents will receive visual and measured reassurance that their baby is safe and well. Customizable alerts for a better night's rest.
INNOVATION
Cocoon Cam uses machine vision to measure heart and respiratory rate, plus infrared sensors to detect skin temperature. Parents can view video and receive custom notifications via their smartphone - without compromising safety. Our "secret sauce" includes computer vision and machine learning algorithms which detects vitals without contact.
Cocoon Cam only the beginning. Besides leading our technology efforts, our R&D team will continuously work on developing techniques to monitor other vital signs including blood oxygen levels, blood pressure improving our software and building which can help us expand our product portfolio and provide more value for our current and future customers.
Our vision is to use our amazing technology to completely redefine the limitations in the consumer caregiver monitoring, ICU monitoring, telehealth monitoring, security, and surveillance spaces! We're currently exploring an interest by Stanford and UCSD to partner for clinical trials.
Benefits of "wearless" technology include:
- Safety: No wires or small parts
- Convenience: Maintenance of the wearable
- No False Alarms (Device falling off)
MARKET ANALYSIS
Despite owning conventional baby monitors, most parents still fear the unpredictability of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) - which is the leading cause of unexpected deaths among infants in the United States. Conventional audio/video monitors can’t monitor a baby’s temperature and overall condition. Wearable monitors have been known to cause irritation issues, create false alarms, and are unable to determine unsafe sleeping positions.
Our initial target market is parents and caregivers. 4.2 million babies are born in the US yearly, a total addressable market of $1.47B. 2.5M baby monitors are sold every year in the US, making it a serviceable addressable market of $368M. Based on research, selling up to 200K monitors a year is reasonable. This preliminary analysis would suggest an serviceable obtainable market of $70M ($350 x 200k). Our goal is to start with the US market and build partnerships with distributors in other large markets: Europe, Australia and Asia.
Detailed market analysis and business plan will be shared upon request.
TEAM
Siva Nattamai: CEO
EECS, Rutgers University. Siva has hardware, firmware, and mobile software experience at companies such as Tesla Motors, Garmin International, and Motorola. He has developed embedded software for consumer products, as well as hardware and system design for larger control systems. Sivakumar is responsible for hardware design and will lead the manufacturing process. Sivakumar will also contribute to development of digital signal processing algorithms and testing of the camera system.
Pavan Kumar: CTO
M.S., Computer Science, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has has worked as a Staff Researcher at UCSD, Software Programmer at Apple headquarters, in Cupertino, CA and as a Technical Marketing Engineer at NetApp Inc., in Bangalore, India. He has technical experience in the fields of computer vision, and machine learning, having published works in both areas. Pavan participated as an entrepreneur lead in two I-Corps site programs at UCSD and recently completed the National I-Corps program, hosted by the I-Corps Washington DC node. Pavan is responsible for the technical development, programming for the Cocoon Cam image processing software and data analysis.
AWARDS
- Zahn Prize by the Moxie Foundation, May 2015.
- National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Award, April 2015.
- Most Practical Solution Award at MedHack (28 judges) in San Francisco, September 2014.
Pavan Kumar
Joined Vator on
Founder/ CTO, @Cocoon Cam | Past: @Apple , @NetApp | University of California, San Diego | Interests: UbiComp, HealthTech, Computer Vision, Data Engineering.