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Dave Segal of York had what he said sounded like a crazy idea that gives airbuds almost a telepathic control of all of a person’s technological devices. He had the idea but he needed assistance.
“I knew the science was very, very sound but it was just me and my idea,” he said.
In 2018, he met with Eric Darr, the president of Harrisburg University of Science in Technology. Darr liked the idea and the university gave Segal an office and public relations and marketing help.
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Segal was having trouble finding financing but in the meantime created patents and today his company, Naqi Logix, has 22 patents around the world.
In 2020, Naqi Logix became one of the first tenants in the new business incubator at Harrisburg University, the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which opened in 2019.
Naqi Logix said its earbuds sense the signals from micro gestures and movements and turns them into instantaneous commands that replace the mouse, traditional joysticks, keyboards and voice commands with touch-free and voice-free commands.
The earbuds can control wheelchairs and other mobility devices with subtle facial micro gestures or head movements, according to Segal.
“How it works is we built and designed what I call an invisible user interface,” Segal said.
And Segal said the earbuds can also work for gamers.
“In many ways it like a third arm and second controller for gamers,” he said.
Today Segal says the company has raised about $3.5 million, has a very strong path to going public and is deep in the prototyping of the earbuds.
“We want to partner with the Apples of the world, the Samsungs of the world,” he said.
Segal is still based in York but the company is based in Canada.
Segal said that the PR and marketing assistance he received from the university was invaluable and added credibility.
“This all launched out of Harrisburg University,” he said. “Without Harrisburg University, I would not be where I am today and the company wouldn’t be at the level where it’s at today.”
The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship is now almost four years old and has moved from university space to a new home. The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship powered by Harrisburg University of Science and Technology officially opened its new 4,000-square-foot space, the Entrepreneurship Center inside the former Hallmark store at Strawberry Square on Market Street in Harrisburg. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held before a packed crowd in front of the center on Wednesday afternoon.
The center is a collaborative space that is home to 11 startup founders enrolled in its business incubator program. More than 250 people have applied for the program.
The center’s executive director, Jay Jayamohan, and his network of entrepreneurs and innovators mentor the incubator’s entrepreneurs in the center.
Jayamohan has had three startups including RollStream, a supply-chain software that he said is used by many retailers. Jayamohan was recruited by Darr to start the center at the university. The center started with the concept of helping out the startups and see if there was a need in central Pennsylvania. All of the entrepreneurs at the center are from the area.
“Every study says entrepreneurship is really the way to create wealth,” Jayamohan said. “So what we are hoping is that this becomes a space for people who are thinking about a side hustle or never thought about starting a business but had an idea and just wanted to try it out. So this is our way of encouraging that and creating more entrepreneurship.”
The center helps the entrepreneurs form corporations, connects them with funding resources, helps them find attorneys for their intellectual property, helps them flesh out ideas, provides support staff and connecst them with technology and software development partners.
“We have kind of become the hub that connects all of the different startup ecosystems,” Jayamohan said.
The new space offers the entrepreneurs who are invited into the incubator residency to develop their business ideas for up to 18 months and they receive free space and up to four student interns paid by Harrisburg University.
“Right out of the gate they already have an address and employees,” Jayamohan said.
In addition, the student interns gain experience.
A group of mentors – all people who had started companies and sold them, provide guidance and some have even invested in the companies at the center as well.
Jayamohan said the new space should be able to accommodate 20 to 25 startups.
And if a company becomes successful, the university shares in that success. Harrisburg University has 3.5% liquidity in each company, according to Jayamohan.
Segal said all of the centers entrepreneurs are incredibly intelligent creative people, and he said it’s so much easier to get to a target as a group than it is individually.
“Every single founder, I think has a technology that I think could change the world,” he said.
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