Dear Readers,

Welcome to the final installment of my recent discussions with the founders of the 2023 Community Foundation of Louisville’s Vogt Awards cohort. Each year, up to six early-stage businesses receive $25,000 in non-dilutive grant funding and participate in a 10-week startup accelerator program including coaching, mentorship, strategic introductions, and recognition – all designed to boost the growth of their businesses.

Today, we are bringing you interviews with Matthew Neal PhD and Jeff Cummins, founders of Immersive Hearing Technologies, and Terri Lykins, founder of My Food My Choice. 

Immersive Hearing Technologies is developing a virtual reality hearing aid demonstration tool that allows patients to experience the sounds associated with disparate environments like noisy restaurants or movie theaters during their doctor appointment. This allows the audiologist to tune the device to the specific person’s preferences while the patient is in the office – eliminating the burden on the patient who, without this tool, would have to gather that information over the course of a few weeks and then return to have their device adjusted. Check out our conversation to learn more about the form factors in development and what they’ve found to be most valuable in the Vogt acceleration program.  

My Food My Choice is developing a digital platform that empowers people with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) to plan and choose healthier food options. This group of individuals typically struggles to have control over what they eat, creating a lot of disagreements with caregivers over food. The platform is designed with simplicity in mind and will utilize gamification to increase client ownership of food choices, reducing friction with caregivers and greatly improving their health through better nutrition. 

We will be following Immersive Hearing Technologies and My Food My Choice in the coming weeks and months to track their progress toward success.

Stay tuned!

Tom Cottingham
CEO Fast Future Media

View The Interviews Below:

Now Hear This!

2023 Vogt Award Recipients Jeff Cummins and Matthew Neal with Immersive Hearing Technologies sat down with Tom Cottingham, CEO of Fast Future, to discuss how their early-stage business is developing a virtual reality (VR) hearing aid demonstration tool that allows patients to simulate what it’s really like to wear this type of assistive device and get the right fit the first time.

For more information about the Vogt Awards and this year’s Demo Day, visit www.vogtawards.com.

What’s on the Menu?

An innovative approach to accessibility! 2023 Vogt Award Recipient Terri Lykins with My Food My Choice sat down with Tom Cottingham, CEO of Fast Future, to discuss how she hopes to develop a digital platform designed to empower people with neurodevelopmental differences to plan and choose healthier food options.

For more information about the Vogt Awards and this year’s Demo Day, visit www.vogtawards.com.