WoW Woman in Wearable Tech I Alison Smith, co-founder and chief scientist of Roga

Alison Smith is the co-founder and chief scientist of Roga, a wearable wellness device start-up helping women to alleviate severe stress and burnout, based out of Los Angeles, California, and Toronto, Canada. 

Before starting Roga, Alison spent over a decade as a neuroscientist and university faculty member, as well as a senior product and research manager in the wearable neurotech industry. She has a never-ending drive to find solutions to complex problems with ridiculously tight budgets. Alison is primarily responsible for regulatory, quality management, and clinical research at Roga. Her personal struggle with severe stress symptoms led her to found Roga alongside her co-founder after they met during a chance encounter at a neuroscience conference in Silicon Valley.

Roga is the first neurotech start-up to offer a non-invasive brain stimulation wearable paired with app-based programs to help alleviate severe stress and burnout at home or on the go. There are 74 million Americans suffering from severe stress, with millennial females suffering the most. When chronic stress strikes, people have two options: medication or talk therapy. Since the pandemic, access to qualified therapists is near impossible and medication comes with some serious side effects. Roga is an evidence-based alternative or supplement to traditional therapies that can reduce symptoms of stress and overwhelm by 50% within 2 weeks. 

Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far. 

I come from a family that believes in supporting each other, having a strong work ethic, and focusing on education (traditional or non-traditional). Not sure which family member planted this seed, but ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a keen interest in neurological injuries. In 2009, I completed a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, Canada. My doctoral work focused on finding a brain-based biomarker, a diagnostic tool, to determine if a stroke patient was responding effectively to movement rehabilitation. After graduating, I became an adjunct faculty member at U. Waterloo and started a medical writing business to help companies translate complicated scientific data. I have a superpower for writing incredibly long and boring technical documents, which, oddly enough, has served me well in my own start-up as we wade through the regulatory process. In 2019, I left academia to pursue a career in neurotech—Toronto has a vibrant neurotech ecosystem. I worked as a neuroscientist and senior product/research manager responsible for product launches at a company developing brain stimulation wearables for cognitive health. In 2020, I co-founded Roga. 

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges? 

I had a long term goal of becoming a chief scientist in a neurotech start-up. I had no idea that I would also become a founder. But, sometimes, life presents you with opportunities out of the blue, and I like to say, yes, to every opportunity that comes along because the experience, no matter how challenging or scary it might be, is worth it and it always leads to the next big thing. 

I got into this industry because there are millions of women, just like me, who are seriously affected by chronic stress and they’re not thriving in this life. We all need better solutions to help restore mental health. It is an incredible challenge to build a female-focused wearable company in the mental health space and get investors on board, but the battle is worth it, and I can’t wait to see Roga in the hands of as many women as possible. 

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?

We launched Roga in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. We spent our first two years developing the wearable and completing our technical documentation for our future US and EU regulatory submissions. Everyone says building a hardware company is hard, and they’re not lying. But, on top of that, we’re also building a future medical device, which requires a great deal of regulatory effort. One of the biggest obstacles we have faced is navigating this process on our own without dedicated regulatory consultation; those services can be very costly and since we’re mostly a lean, bootstrapped company, we’ve mostly had to figure this out ourselves. I believe we’ll be able to move beyond this obstacle once we secure more funding. 

What are your biggest achievements to date? 

We feel pretty proud about bootstrapping our business for the first two years, all throughout the pandemic, before raising venture capital. In that time, we were able to hit major milestones like developing our first product, Roga Life, a wellness wearable device that helps to reduce severe stress and burnout, as well as completing both technical files for our future FDA and EU regulatory submissions. We are a small but mighty team that has accomplished so much on such a modest budget. 

What are the projects you are currently working on? 

We are getting ready to launch our first product called Roga Life: it’s a wearable wellness device and app duo designed to help women reduce the psychological and physiological effects of severe stress and burnout. The wearable is small and elegant: small enough to fit in your purse and take with you anywhere. When worn, it looks like a simple pair of headphones. The wearable is accompanied by an app filled with over 100+ video-based programs designed by meditation instructors, psychologists, and psychotherapists. Roga Life helps the truly overwhelmed and stressed to find relaxation and focus. 

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

Yes, it’s incredibly important to me. There are not enough women in leadership roles, let alone founders, within the tech industry. Young women need to see other females succeeding in leadership roles. As a small child, I had an aunt who I looked up to. She was one of the very first VPs in a large U.S. corporation starting in the 1970s. As a kid, I knew what she accomplished was rare, and incredibly impressive, and I wanted to be just like her. As the decades have gone by, there are more women in leadership roles, but certainly not enough. It’s still so important for young women to know that they can be at the forefront of innovation too. 

In addition, I think this is doubly true of technology that is being designed specifically to serve women. Obviously, it’s important to have women in charge when making technology for that half of the population. You need women in positions where they can not just identify what women need and invent the technologies that can help them, but also lead and drive these innovations to mainstream success – like the old joke: if men could get pregnant or have periods, we’d have endless solutions for it.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading? 

In the next five years, I anticipate we’ll see more brain stimulation medical and wellness device wearables for mental health. People with medical conditions such as anxiety or depression are looking for safe and effective alternative treatments to medication and cognitive behavioral therapy. Right now, 68% of people who are dealing with anxiety never seek medical assistance at all because medication comes with a long list of serious side effects and social stigma. Also, CBT is expensive and hard to access. Medical device wearables will make treatment more accessible, cost-effective, and will allow patients to treat their mental health at home. 

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry? 

All of the wonderful opportunities I have had in my career have come at the invitation of the people I meet. I strongly believe in constantly networking and having conversations with people about their experiences and their interests. When you make genuine connections with people who you find interesting, many will open a door into their world and invite you in. If you want to work in the neurotech industry, reach out to as many people in neurotech as possible. 

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire? 

I greatly admire the work of Dr. Hilary Lin, Kim de los Reyes, and Jamie Wood. Hilary Lin is a physician, co-founder, and CEO of Curio: an early-stage start-up offering virtual ketamine-assisted coaching and therapy. Kim de los Reyes is a former trauma intensive care nurse turned CEO of Seek AI: an early-stage start-up to reimagine patient-provider communication. Jamie Wood is the CEO of Autonomic: a company building software solutions based on neuroscientific data to enhance cognitive performance. It’s inspiring to watch these women build solutions that will help people thrive rather than languish.

Find out more about Roga on their website.

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This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.