TOP 20 [ *established contact ]
-Mercedes Waldon, CEO CryoCell Intl.
-Professor Michael Ward, NYU Material Science Dept.
-Michele Obama
-Deborah Ottenheimer, OBGYN*
-Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Stem Cell Tissue Engineer*
-Ludy Dobrilla, Cord Blood Bank*
-National Geographic magazine
-Adam Bly, Seed magazine
-Agent Provocateur/ Victoria's Secret Lingerie Company
-Museum of Menstruation*
-Society for Menstrual Cycle Research*
-Jamie Hayon, Designer
-Fedex Clinical Samples Division
-Duane Reade/ Walgreens
-Playtex/Diva Cup/Tampax
-Dr Caroline Gargett, PhD, Senior Scientist, Centre for Women’s Health Research*
-Women ages 20-35*
-The Dieline, packaging website
- Surgical Silicone manufacturer
1 comment:
Hi Chelsea,
I am following your progress with great interest, although I was a bit disappointed to find out that there is already a product out there, C'elle, that does what you are suggesting. Are you proposing to create a product that competes with that one, and if you are, how will you differentiate yourself? Are there any intellectual property issues that you would have to address if you tried to bring your product to market?
I assume that your product will include other things beside the actual collection vessel. Are you now considering designing special underwear for use with the collection system? What about the storage service for processing the blood to isolate the stem cells and then putting those into the appropriate deep freeze until they are needed? Would this happen at some big cryogenic facility somewhere, and if so, how are the cells maintained during shipping.
Once you have answered these questions, it seems to me that you need to organize and run some user tests. I would not recommend that you actually get involved with people inserting something you make into their bodies because of the ethical and legal liabilities that you would expose yourself to. However, I would say that the most serious challenge that you will face in bringing a product like this to market will be the potential yuck factor among people who might otherwise be potential customers. I suggest developing some packaging and (non-functional) prototypes, and then showing them to a lot of people (including men) to find out how they would really feel about using something like this, and what kinds of messages you need to embed in the design to help overcome people's potential squeamishness. It may be that all women are used to lots of blood and deal with this every month, so there would be no additional problem for them to collect and then process their dmenstrual blood instead of just flushing it. But that's the kind of thing that you can't know without running some tests. Let me know how I can help as you plan for this.
steven
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