By the time Jake Reisch finished his degree at Cornell University, he would become known as "the headphone guy." That's because he co-founded a company called Party Headphones that rented out wireless headphones for silent discos, and it's gotten pretty popular to the point where it has now served parties in 47 states.
But Reisch has since moved on to another venture that also uses wireless headphones as the main appeal. But instead of serving silent discos, he's using the technology to help elderly people hear better. The startup, with offices in Woburn and Boston, is called Eversound, and it just raised a $3 million seed round to expand the network of senior living communities it serves. The investors in the round were senior living community developer The Shelter Group, the Cornell alumni-led Red Bear Angels and New Hampshire venture capital firm 10X Ventures.
Eversound has developed a wireless headphone system that allows seniors at living communities to tune into specific audio sources happening around them, whether it's a movie being shown, a game of bingo or a concert. On the highest level, the problem Reisch is looking to solve is seniors who have hearing loss or hearing impediments.
More specifically, Reisch said, Eversound is addressing a few problems with hearing aids. For one, they can often be very expensive, but even if someone does have hearing aids, they don't do a good job of targeting one audio source. The result is that a person with hearing aids has to hear everything around her while all she's trying to do is watch a movie.
"Hearing aids have not successfully addressed this problem," Reisch, Eversound's CEO and co-founder, said.
"Hearing aids have not successfully addressed this problem."
Eversound is currently in seven of the 20 largest senior living communities across 17 states, and that includes The Residence at Otter Creek, which has locations in every New England state except Maine. LCB Senior Living, the company that runs Otter Creek, recently conducted a six-month study finding a 28-percent increase in engagement from residents.
“The Eversound headphones provided residents who couldn’t hear the opportunity to experience everything being said," Courtney Allenson, resident engagement director at Otter Creek, said. “Before [Eversound], we would have people who were getting up during the program or who might be shouting ‘speak up! I can’t hear you! Talk louder!’ With the Eversound headphones, they’re engaging, they’re asking questions, they’re really a part of the program."
Resich said he came up with the idea for Eversound after going through the experience of moving a loved one into a senior living community and how hearing issues can severely impact quality of life. According to a study published in American Family Physician, one-third of adults between 61-70 years of age have hearing loss, and that number goes up to more than 80 percent for those who are 85 years or older. And for adults who are 70 or older and could use hearing aids, only one in three have used them, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Reisch said he remembers when he tested an early prototype of Eversound's wireless headphones with a man named Verne who had difficulty hearing while attending events. After using the headphones, Reisch said he still remembers the exact words Verne told him: "In the seven years I've been going to this event, this is the first time I've been able to hear everything being said. Even with my hearing aids, the difference is night and day."
When Reisch heard that, he knew he was on the right path.
"When you find an opportunity to build a product that can meaningfully impact people, it gives you the persistence and courage to fight all you have to inevitably fight through to build an incredible organization," Reisch said. "To hear that as one of our first customers, it has set the standard for celebration for our company."
