Vitaly Khodzhaev had "sticker shock" the first time he purchased a pair of prescription glasses.
He was at the optometrist’s office with his daughter, who was just diagnosed with nearsightedness, and the nearly $400 price tag seemed exorbitant. Still, concerned about his daughter’s well-being, Khodzhaev bought the glasses. It wasn’t until the following year, when his daughter was prescribed a new prescription and Khodzhaev faced another hefty price tag, that he decided to look for another option.
“I started thinking about it and didn’t believe a piece of plastic with lenses could cost so much money,” said Khodzhaev, who owns an IT consulting business in Sarasota. “I started to look around to find companies selling eye glasses online and their prices were dramatically different. At that point, I decided maybe I could also help people to see in a cheap way — not cheap from a quality perspective but from a money perspective.”
After speaking with some optometrists, Khodzhaev decided to launch EyeBOGO, an online eyeglasses store that aims to make eyeglass purchases less expensive and more streamlined through technology.
One of Khodzhaev’s priorities is to take some of the hassle out of the process for purchasing prescription glasses. That includes limiting the number of options available for customers to choose from, without limiting variety of frames the company offers. EyeBOGO offers 418 models available in two to seven colors each.
"When I looked online [at eyeglasses websites], they had thousands of models but if you haven’t bought glasses before, you wouldn’t know which ones to buy,” he said. “For frames and lenses, they give so many options you might not know what to pick up.”
Khodzhaev said his solution was to develop an application that measures an individual’s pupil distance using their phone or webcam. The results are specific frame recommendations that fit the customer’s face.
“When you enter the prescription on our website, we offer to measure your pupil distance,” Khodzhaev said. “This is the main parameter used to make the eyeglasses.” Based on these two parameters – prescription and pupil distance – the EyeBOGO platform offers users only the eyeglasses options that fit. Customers can then select from plastic, polycarbonate or high-index lenses.
Most EyeBOGO glasses range from $25 to $70 depending on the style of frames. Khodzhaev has so far self-funded the company, which he said currently has four employees, including a designer, developer and salesperson.
Although he wouldn’t elaborate on specifics, Khodzhaev said he has tons of ideas for refining EyeBOGO’s current platform such that company offers “the most technically advanced website for online eyewear.” That said, he said his goal will remain to make it as convenient as possible to order new prescriptions.
