During our time in college, almost all of us have known someone who went to the hospital for having a few too many drinks. It’s pretty tough to argue that alcohol isn't huge issue on college campuses around America. In an effort to reduce alcohol–related incidents and promote a safer drinking space, Max Reed (C '19) and Anders Larson (W '18) have created a startup called BACelet.
BACelet is a bracelet that can tell you what your blood alcohol content (BAC) is. They are currently starting with a bracelet and trying to expand to other pieces of wearable technology such as clip–on devices. There is a micro–breathalyzer planted into the bracelet. As a result, you can simply blow into your bracelet and it will glow green, yellow, orange or red. Green means you are sober, yellow is buzzed/ tipsy, orange is drunk and red means that you are in the danger zone and should stop drinking. Colors are easier than numbers when you're hammered. When you first set up your account for BACelet, the app is personalized for each person because you're asked to put in your height, weight and other factors of intoxication levels. The information from the bracelet automatically transfers to an app that is connected via Bluetooth.
This app component makes the BACelet much more than a simple breathalyzer. In the app, you'll be able to view your color level (green/yellow/orange/red), numerical value of BAC and a prediction of how many drinks you’ve had. You can also connect with other friends who have the app. This could be very helpful in preventing blackouts and hospital trips because you can keep track of how much you and your friends are drinking. In addition to there being an in–app messaging system, you can set up an emergency contact who the app will contact automatically as soon as you enter the danger zone. Other cool features of BACelet include alarms for morning practices/classes and a prediction of when you will be sober. This way if you have a meeting at the end of a long day of dartying you will know when to stop drinking. Or you can show up to your meeting drunk. Street respects that, too.
Max, who studies Science, Technology & Society, came up with the idea in September 2015 after hearing countless stories of accidents happening because of alcohol. He disliked how colleges were cracking down on binge drinking by shutting down Greek organizations and taking other extreme but not directly effective measures. He then shared the idea with Anders, who studies Finance and Behavioral Economics at Wharton.
In November 2015 they won the Tech2Gether Pitch Competition sponsored by Capital One. They then got their first seed funding in December 2015. BACelet's success continued to snowball as the founders performed very well in the Angel Venture Fair in April 2016. Max then represented BACelet at the Wearable Technologies Conference in San Francisco in July 2016. Max and Anders are currently working on finishing their prototype and then getting their product into the market. Dartmouth College is interested in the concept and intends to be the first customer. Max and Anders also hope to expand to other college campuses such as Villanova, Stanford and Penn. The biggest market they are looking to expand into is bookstores on college campuses. A few retailers, such as The Wearables Store, have even reached out to them about wanting to sell their product once it is ready.
