A few weeks ago, Dr. Maria Artunduaga announced on LinkedIn she was pregnant.
Artunduaga credits medical technology with helping her conceive her first child at age 41, helping her find a solution to her and her husband's fertility struggle, which began four years ago.
"I honestly felt like it was never going to happen, at least not in my body," she said. "But it worked."
Artunduaga is no neophyte to the world of medical technology. While working on a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, she started developing a prototype for a small device that could allow people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, to easily and remotely monitor their symptoms.
Her work on the gadget ended up leading her down the entrepreneurial path, and in 2018 she founded a company called Respira Labs. The Mountain View-based company, legally known as Respiralabs Inc., now has a wearable device being evaluated in clinical trials.
Called the Sylvee, after her grandmother who suffered and eventually died from COPD, the device can measure the amount of air trapped in patients' lungs by transmitting a sound from its speakers and listening with its microphones for how that sound passes through patients' bodies. A corresponding phone app continuously collects and analyzes the data the device generates and can share that data with patients' physicians.
This week, Respira can claim bragging rights as the last startup standing in the first Bay Area Inno Madness, a competition that pitted 32 startups against each other, with readers voting on their favorites in a series of bracket matchups. In the final round, Artunduaga's startup beat out another medical technology company, Chameleon Biosciences of Berkeley, to be crowned the first Bay Area Inno Madness champion.
"I'm thankful for the people who actually took the time to vote for us," Artunduaga said. "It's been a really great experience for me to find that people are willing to do something for us, because they believe in the team."
Artunduaga was familiar with and impressed by Respira's final competition. Chameleon had participated in the SkyDeck accelerator program at her alma mater, UC Berkeley.
After earning a degree from the school in translational medicine, a course of study that focuses on turning medical innovations into actual products and services, Artunduaga has been tapped into its SkyDeck program, which has related goals.
"I know that (Chameleon is) working on immunotherapies, especially for kids," she said. "Especially now that I'm becoming a mom, it's super relevant."
Supporters helped spread the word
Inno Madness brought Respira some unexpected attention, said Artunduaga, a native of Colombia. The Colombian Consulate contacted her to help spread the word about her startup.
Additionally, Respira's creative team put a short video together to help sway viewers to vote for the startup in the competition.
"I've never done this sort of voting through the Internet, asking for people to vote for us," she said. "It has helped us a lot to spread the word and to make Respira Labs relevant, not only here, but overseas."
The company's investors also helped get the word out about Respira.
Zentynel Frontier Investments, a biotechnology-focused venture firm based in Santiago, Chile, led Respira's pre-seed funding round in February. Zentynel had heard of the startup through its network of contacts in Colombia, said Cristian Hernandez, a general partner at the firm. It was drawn to Respira because the startup was targeting a widespread respiratory illnesses, he said.
Respira "was just in the right moment with the right technology asking the right questions and solving the right problems ... a respiratory application in the middle of a pandemic," Hernandez said. "You don't need to think too hard to understand there's a huge market that is growing and that needs solutions."
Artunduaga appeared to be a founder who was driven enough to solve important problems but also self-aware enough to seek counsel when necessary, said Hernandez, a biologist by training.
"She was this empowered woman from the medical field that (worked) out of frustration to solve a problem that she faced in her family," he said. "That drive, when it's well-channeled, it can drive you really far."
Respira is in the process of clinically testing its device in Florida on patients afflicted with COPD, long Covid and asthma, Artunduaga said. Processing the data from the trials has been difficult, but the startup founder is confident the results will be worth it.
"No matter how hard it is, I find trying to fix the problem fascinating," she said. "I'm probably crazy."
