The Future of Home Medical Devices: StethoMe’s Journey with Paweł Elbanowski

Ayush: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Health Tech with purpose today. And we have a guest today, Paweł Elbanowski who has been the Founder and COO of StethoMe. Hi, Paweł! How are you?

Paweł: Great. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Hello, everyone! 

Ayush: Yes, glad to be hosting you, Paweł!, And why not? You start with a quick introduction about yourself and StethoMe.

Paweł: Thank you, of course. I am the, as you mentioned, COO and Co-founder of StethoMe, and StethoMe is a electronic set, a whole set of stethoscope for home use. So we wanted to to build a solution which will help parents especially, but all patients being at home to take care about the lungs without going each time to a doctor. So we are analyzing sounds and gives you instant answer.

What type of abnormalities were detected in your lungs so simply whether there is a problem. And you have to go to a doctor or call a doctor, or you can stay at home, because with your lungs is everything, okay?

From my background, I am the IT specialist. I met with scientists, and we built this company together to put this medical device on the market.

Ayush: Great. So like, let’s go a bit more deeper into the journey. What led you to starting this company, and what were you doing before StethoMe? And you know, like, how did you get started? And what did you learn in this journey? Especially during the early stage of the company.

Paweł: Yes. So we we had a software house. So we were building a software for big brands like manufacturers of cars to integrate all internal solution. For example, to make an offers and configure the the the cars, and so on. 

So it was a great possibility to learn how to build the trustful solutions which the company are based on.

There were many different companies we were helping. But during this time we started to doing many, many other projects, because every time we had such a feeling that we want also do a product, not only be a service company, but to build a product. So in the meantime, we did a image recognition technology. So the it was before the machine learning and AI technology, even so we built the solution where you could take a picture of the advertisement staying being on the bus stop, for example, or taking picture of the book you are having in your hand 

and you can find it in your Internet. And directly, what type of of the product it is and purchase it directly. This technology was used by Coca-cola, Pepsi Cola, EA sports. So it was a great thing we did.

Eventually, this company didn’t succeed from the business perspective, we did the great technology. But the business perspective wasn’t so so good. But we learned how to do how to get 1st investors for the products and how to build the the startups as well. We did 3 more projects like like this. We sold free companies before. 

And then we thought that it’s a time for us that we have to focus on building something huge which will make an impact to the world. And we simply post a message on the Facebook that we are looking for the ideas, maybe for people who  have ideas, but they have to put it to, you know, to the on the shelf, and and to aid because they don’t have experience in business in IT. We have it. And we wanted to share this experience. And that’s why that’s how we because. I mean Marcin and Wojciech. There are 5 co-founders out there, Marcin and Wojciech. We are the IT guys. And we have those software house together. 

Now, we found Honorata they are this scientist from the Aramis, Davin University in Bosnia, and they are biophysicists. So they came to us with an idea that. Having possibility or to auscultate, analyze, identify abnormalities in lungs by the technology. So by the objective way, it’s a great option to help parents, because Honorata spent a week in hospital with her child because of pneumonia, and during this time she was wondering why each doctor tells me something different, name those abnormalities differently, and so on. So on. So this was the start of the idea. 

We started to go deeper into this technology, into to check whether is it possible to do it with it, and we founded the company. We found the 1st investors. We invested our own money, and we proved that it’s going to good direction. That’s why we focused only on this project, and we are building this project to scale it and to put it everywhere in the world to homes.

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Sorry.

Ayush So saying, very interesting especially the pivots which require both the will, but also the courage to make those pivots, because making pivots is easier said than done.

 So I think that’s something that you’ve done pretty nicely into like. If we look back, because now what I hear is that StethoMe has been growing rapidly to tell us more about the impact that StethoMe has been creating today? 

What size and scale are you guys on, or what are your markets? And what is your go to market strategy? Let’s expand more on those aspects.

Paweł: Yeah, okay,we spent years on building this technology because to build a good technology, especially when it comes to the medical technology. It takes time and money. So we spend an 8 years on building this technology. And for last years and years and a half, we are going to the market to sell this technology. We believe that we should be in every home sector when we just are today. So this is our vision.

And but to achieve this vision we need to go step by step.

And the 1st thing we are doing is to build awareness of such a technology that we exist because we are the only in the 1st on the market which solves this problem which provides the solution for such a problem. So we have to approach doctors to tell them that you know, like, previously to check the blood pressure, we had to go to a doctor right now. Everybody has their blood pressure monitor at home.

So this is the same. What we have to do with the lung, checking, lung, monitoring. We have to approach doctors, to let them know that we exist, to show them proof to of our technology, and to convince them that this is the next step of the medicine, and we should they should promote our solution to a better monitor. People being at home. So approaching doctors is the one thing. The other thing is that it takes time, because, you know, changing mindset of doctors, changing procedures, it takes time. 

We believe that to reach the patients. They needs such a solution like ours. The most. Those are patients with chronic diseases, lung chronic diseases like us, our COPD. We should be working with the national insurers to be reimbursed, for example. And this is the path the long path we have to take, and we are taking to be on the market and to be available for chronic disease, patient monitoring and treatment. But again it takes time to change the law, and so on. Covid, of course, helped us because the telemedicine growth is visible right now, and but still, you know, being the, the 1st thing to think about about lung monitoring and chronic disease that needs a needs some time. So we also started to do the direct to consumer approach.

Right now you can buy, StethoMe in consumer electronic stores in apple premium reseller stores in pharmacy chains.

So we are available to every person on the market where they can buy this solution, start using it, and they are approaching doctors with the results. So they are also being our ambassadors, and they are building this awareness of this technology into doctors. 

So we are doing many different approaches to the market to show that the technology of the future is already existing and it’s all good already on the market. And we have a certification on the European markets. So we are right now in Poland, in France, in the UK, started to go to Germany and Italy. So step by step, going into each market within our medical certification. 

Next, we want to get the FDA certification to go to the US market. There is. This market is the biggest market when it comes to medical technologies in the world, and when it comes to numbers. I know that the Azure market is also growing. We are looking at it, and we should be there. But it’s all about the money and investors. So as a startup, we are looking for the partners, investors who will help us to grow and make a presence on the different markets. 

So maybe this is the answer for your question. Right.

Ayush: So have you totally pivoted more to the B2C, or you want to like, manage like 2 models or parallel tax. One is B2B and then one is B?

Paweł I may say they, we pivoted because the 90% of our energy right now is going to the direct to consumer. But we are not. We did not stop working on the business to Government, I mean to the national security level and B2B. But it’s a long shot. It will take time to do it. 

So we are moving one step forward into those directions. But putting 90% of our energy and money for the marketing into B2C to, as I mentioned, to grow the scale, to build awareness, to make it visible, because when we are visible, more B2B partners are connecting to us and trying to integrate within their solutions. So we are also using the B2C approach like a marketing for the B2B and the B2G approaches.

Ayush: okay, okay.

1. That’s good. So when you let’s talk more on the B2C approach that you have today. So what are the channels? Or how do you build a B2C plan format tech business? So if you can share some of the learnings, there.

Paweł: Yes, we are working with the distributor who has a great access to the consumer electronics channels. I mean, consumer electronics. They the biggest brands, the biggest shops online and offline where you are going when you want to buy a laptop when you want to buy a you know, a mobile phone when you want to buy a digital weight also on so everything, maybe even TV. So the the 1st thing when you as a consumer thinks about the electronics to buy. So we are there because those those channels, those brands, has good connection with their customers.

 And when they promotes any solution. The customer knows about it, and we can reach to many, many different customers we are not able to reach with with with our resources. So this is the channels we are following primarily to that. With our distributors we are positioning ourselves. You know, we are the medical device. We are not a toy. We don’t want to be a gadget. We are giving the huge value with our AI algorithms to the a monitoring and treatment for patients and doctors taking care about the health. So we want to also position ourselves like being experts in the field because we are in the logs.

 So, being in pharmacies is also the path we are following, because when you have a chronic diseases or when you have a you know, a severe problem with the infection or the the acute problems with your health. You are going to the pharmacy. Besides going to a doctor, you are going to to to buy a medical man in the pharmacy. That’s why we are there to approach people who has a problem right now and show them next time. Buy StethoMe and check the lungs being at home, check whether you have to put those medicines because you already have the problems with your lungs. Maybe when you already have pneumonia, you should go to a doctor without treating yourself at home.

So this is the other way. We are going through the B2C, and the next part is approaching customers which are more about into tech. I mean the the users who are early adopters of new technologies. 

That’s why we are partnering with the with the biggest apple premium resellers chain here, and we are in all of their shops offline. So when you are going to see the new iphone, new ipads, new Apple, a Apple things. 

You are also, seeing that StethoMe is out there, so you can listen about it, you can check what? How does it work? What value is? It gives So you, as a person who who are into new technologies. You want to hear it in a place where you are looking for those new technologies. So these are channels we are marketing. Of course, we are also on the marketplaces like Amazon, and where, in different countries in when I mentioned before, because people are also using digital channels, and they are used to use Amazon for buying many, many different things. So this is how we want to approach those customers. Patients. B, we want to be there where they are looking solution for the problems.

Ayush: Right? Right makes sense. And do. Do you also white label for like larger companies where they would like to sell in their name, or like, are you? Of the opinion that you want to make sure that the brand obviously means StethoMe if you can elaborate, and why, that choice, whichever choice you have taken.

Paweł: We are open to many, many different approaches, especially a, especially on the market. We are not not yet there we believe that like with new medication, when the smaller companies are new, are developing new medications. And they are doing the 1st clinical trials, the second phase, and they then have to partner with the huge brands huge partners. 

Why? Because they have opportunity. They have knowledge how to make it global. They have a sales force on every. In every country. They have resources to certify it to the country. They have distribution, resources and procedures and processes in place. They have production processes in place. So we believe that to achieve our vision someday we should be partnered or acquired by the big brand. In the meantime, if it takes. If the step is that we will be white labeled by this company, it will be beneficial for both ends.

Why? Because StethoMe is a great solution, but the brand is not known. We know it, and it takes millions of dollars to build the brand awareness. And when we will put the good name good brand name on our solution. It will be easier to approach those patient and to reach the scale. So we are open to any solution right now. What will move us closer to our vision?

Ayush: Great, great. So what’s next? In terms of product development or StethoMe? So are you looking for new SKUs, or are you looking to augment AI, or are you looking for more precision in the measurement like, what are your next? You know? on the product development side? What are the new ones.

Paweł: Yes, I believe. We are. We want to reach the scale in sales. So we are right now, focusing mostly on Go to markets and commercialization, and so on. Because we are getting a new feedback, you know, when it when it comes to the scale, we are getting a new feedback, because we are approaching and reaching new customers, and in our pipeline of development in the product there are more features about the whole process rather than the product. I mean, we want to provide better access to doctors to integrate with online doctors to, you know, with one click, lets you do the online visit. 

So to integrate with many different partners on many different markets. to ask you a different analysis. I mean the time analysis to compare the today’s your recording with the previous visits, to show you the trends to integrate within the calendar of allergies. To see the connections with your health status with the Allergies, which are right now in place in your direct location, to connect additional information about the weather, so potential threats of you. 

So this is this goes more into individual approach of the patient. We also have a new version of our algorithms which we are which we are. It’s not certified yet where we are learning you as a patient. So we know your health status, your baseline, where we are showing the when we are learning. How. what, what does it mean? That you are a healthy person? What are your parameters when you are a healthy person to to measure and to monitor each different difference in each parameter of yourself, not about the whole population. 

Because when you have. when you are asthma or diagnosed, for example, we know that you have whizzes, and there is nothing special that you have whizzes on the level of 10 or 15, for example, because it means that in general you are healthy. We know that you have, asthma, you have whizzes, and you are taking many commands, but let’s assume I don’t have asthma. So my wheezes on the level of 15. It’s something unexpected.

So we should act maybe differently when people without asthma diagnosed asthma have wheezes. Then with people who have asthma and have wheezes. So this is the individual personalization of the health personalization of the path you are following in each process. So this is the direction we are working to develop our product. Okay.

Ayush: Great, great. So one of the things that you know, most met tech companies have to deal with is like you know, to keep the data stand alone, or, you know, integrate with hospital systems, or, you know, augment, let’s say, you know, like augment the offering with more connections and connectivity. 

Or, let’s say, do more. Basically. So like is that something that as a Co-founder process, your mind as well like what you can add more to the you know, to the offering of the device or new features in terms of capturing more data or connecting data with a smartphone or something. So do you see that there’s magic to keep it more like stand alone, just like a oxygen measuring device, or, you see, going more into, let’s say, a farther into the journey of a patient.

Paweł: A great question is, the answer is that we want to be connected. But we don’t know where we where we end. Why? Because right now. Nobody records the lung sounds so we don’t know the correlation between the lung sounds and other data we have. Doctors are stating that there are whizzes. 

So you have asked me, and so on. But to analyze data on the large scale, we don’t have data. We had to build our own database when it comes to the even sounds. Not mention about the description. Medical description of those sounds. So this data will be helpful to find a new correlations in the future and new treatment plans, and so on and so on. So we all the data we have through the mobile phones in our cloud. And we are analyzing those data. We are connecting those data within the healthcare systems to build the big data sets and finally found the better ways to analyze those data. So we know the value of the data we are gathering. And we are analyzing. So on the both ends, we are giving the instant value for a patient because they are recording those data and getting instant answer on on the doubts, on the problems we are giving the value for doctors, because we are giving them the good quality data within the remote consultations, or with offline consultation. You as a patient, are going to a doctor with history of recordings. 

So the doctor don’t have to base the diagnosis based on the description. You are getting them by the mouth. They were coughing, and it was during the night. It is worse, and so on. You are giving them the objective history, so the recordings they can base the decision on. And 3rd thing, those connected data. We will be analyzing them in the future connected within the whole healthcare system and showing the values we, I believe we cannot imagine yet where we will be there, and what outcomes would be based on analyzes, those those big data we will have, and we will connect to other symptoms.

Ayush: Great.No, that’s good to know. And lastly, you know, from a Medtech founder side, I would like to know more around you know what it takes to build a met tech device, because, you know, one of the things you mentioned was the long time that you had to spend in you know, building the prototype and building you know, the research was there.

For example, you had the efficacy there. So converting that into a met tech device. And you know, probably looking at the hardware options and stuff because I’ve seen a device, and it looks very neat. And the daily nice device. So you know, what would be your pro tips May, mostly on the hardware side of a Mac device. Really.

Paweł: It’s as you mentioned about. It’s crucial. It takes time, takes time and money, so you have to know that it’s a not a sprint. It’s a marathon you have to. You have to go to build it, because you know to be an entrepreneur. You have to be a you know, a Marathon guy because it takes a long time to build a big company. But you have to ask another Marathon just to build the product. You know, it’s a different like with the software, you can build a software, the proof of concept within 2 months, 3 months, and you know already you can check it with with your patient.

Ayush Test it out, yeah.

Paweł: With hardware solution. It’s really hard to do it. And with medical solution it’s even harder because you have to have procedures in place. You will have to have the Certification finally. So you have to follow all the regulations from the day one you you will be you will be needed to provide. The, you know. reports the the the proofs that you did everything correctly, and you are helping patients. You and you mitigate, mitigate all the risks for them. Because we are working with the, you know, real people. We can make a pro bigger problem for them sometimes with medical devices that you know, people can die. So there are huge response. There is a huge responsibility with what you are doing when it comes to medical devices and with hardware devices. It’s the same because there is a electricity out there, so on. you know, you can hurt somebody. 

So from my end was. I wasn’t aware of what we are dealing with, so it might be better because I was, you know, optimistic that we will manage to do it. And I was learning by step by step about new stuff. But in general it takes time, and you need to have good people around you, because doing a startup is is doing something different, doing something for the 1st time. When it comes to the process. When it comes to the, you know verification, you have to change the mindset of people. You have to change the procedures. You have to change the understanding. You have to change, you know it’s uncomfortable to do it, and you have to find people who are comfortable in being uncomfortable. 

You have to ask questions, and, you know. ask good questions. You have to find partners, I mean partners, doctors, developers, product owners and managers, commercialization specialists, advisors, investors who are willing to take a long shot with you and to find the answers for the tough questions, and being aware that you will fail many times, and you will have to, you know, find your own way your old, your own way. Yes.

Ayush: Okay. So and since you know, you were someone who is like outsider to this whole met tech world. Any sources you know that you would like to quote that help you learn about the industry or you know, like help, you guide like how what it takes. So any books, any sources, any Forum’s communities for meteors that you would like to put.

Paweł: I would say that you have to meet as much people as you can. You can to preach to everybody you can, and to see their perspective on this in my case, and I believe in any startup space, or most of them, nobody does previously earlier what you are doing, so nobody has the answer for you. But you have to add the opinion, the answer, the experience of hundreds of people you are meeting to find your own way, because you are the only one who will find the answer and the best answer for this. But you have to based on experience of different people when you want to be in the future, the part of the bigger company medical company start talking to them. What has to be done to be the part of your company. 

What type of company you are acquiring, what problems you are solving, what proofs do you need to have to for me to be acquired by you, and start doing it on the 1st day, because you will end up being acquired in 8, 10,15 years, maybe.

But from the beginning. You have to know whether this is the path for you. The great thing by talking to people is that you know that you don’t want to follow this path.

Ayush: That.

Paweł: Maybe you you don’t know which part you do.

Ayush: Rather than doing it themselves yourself.

Paweł: But I mean also that the for the startup there are tens of paths you can follow to approach market to make a success and the great thing, and you will never know which one is the best for you. But the great thing is to know which one is not for you.

So you know you have 10 paths when you can limit to it 9 path, 8 paths. It’s great, so speak, to many people. Preach them, and don’t bother that. They will steal your product. That will steal your idea. They won’t, maybe, if they will, so they will on the you know without you know your your preaching, because they will find the same solution like you. But when you will preach you can be first. You can be better, you can be quicker. So this is the value we, as a startup person should follow. I believe.

Ayush: Great. No, that’s that’s definitely great words of wisdom. And I think maintenance. People know that. But you know, it’s that nudge. When you listen to a podcast and you get it from another founder, you just no. Okay. Yeah. Maybe I’m reminded of doing that. So I appreciate your you know, these inputs Paweł, and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. We really enjoyed this conversation, and we wish you good luck.

Paweł: Thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation. Nice to nice to be here. Thank you.

In this episode, we speak with Paweł Elbanowski, the co-founder and COO of StethoMe. StethoMe is a revolutionary home-use electronic stethoscope that analyzes lung sounds and provides instant feedback on potential abnormalities, allowing users to assess their lung health without needing to visit a doctor.

✅ Before founding StethoMe, Paweł had experience in software development and had also worked on other technology projects. The idea for StethoMe came from a personal experience, when his co-founder’s child was hospitalized with pneumonia.

✅ StethoMe is currently available in several European countries and is working towards expanding to the US market. The company has a B2C focus, selling directly to consumers through various channels, including consumer electronics stores, pharmacies, and online marketplaces. They are also exploring partnerships with larger companies and healthcare providers.

✅ In terms of future plans, StethoMe is focused on improving their product through additional features and integrations, as well as expanding their market presence. They are also working on building a large dataset of lung sound recordings to further enhance their AI algorithms.