Three UTHSC College of Pharmacy students, Ryan Meacham, Kevin Darko and Jake Spurlock, founded a startup to help people with smoking cessation by giving them control.
GiiD, Inc. (pronounced as guide), focuses on a Bluetooth enabled e-cigarette paired with a mobile app to track and regulate the amount of nicotine provided through the e-cigarette.
Meacham said he and Spurlock conceptualized the product one night while discussing their own struggles to stop smoking e-cigarettes. He said they felt like they had lost control, and this product is designed to help people regain that.
“We’re trying to offer people using nicotine products a sense of control over their habits,” Meacham said. “They can set their personal goals and limit their nicotine.”
The device the team has designed will operate similarly to other e-cigarettes but will include a locking mechanism that allows users to set limits on the amount of nicotine they can use each day or when they can smoke.
The Giid, Inc. team is currently raising capital to complete their initial buildout for research and development. Eventually, they would like to expand the product to include an algorithm that can compare the data and give guidance to help users quit smoking or help them better understand their habits, patterns, or tendencies.
Darko said developing Giid goes hand-in-hand with the students’ training as pharmacists.
“Pharmacists are trained to be problem-solvers,” he said. “In this case, we’re bringing in the entrepreneurship side and showing how, as the drug experts in health care, pharmacists can be so much more versatile than people imagine.”
Read more about the startup at www.mygiid.com.
