Berkeley Start-upsSmart Vibrator is FitBit for Pleasure
by Tamra Teig
How many entrepreneurs does it take to build a “smart” vibrator?
Seven, it turns out: two co-founders, James Wang and Liz Klinger, teamed up with two Berkeley engineers and three interns, to design the Smart Bod vibrator. It’s like a wearable fitness device–only instead of counting steps and calories burned, it analyzes a woman’s arousal and orgasms.
Klinger’ background in design brought focus to the vibrator’s aesthetic details, user-friendly ergonomic design and medical-grade synthetic materials. But the “smart” part comes in with the data input a woman gets when she’s getting off.
Internal sensors in the vibrator capture a woman’s excitement levels and orgasm patterns. The device then adapts to her preferences over time, customizing its speed and vibration patterns to give her more pleasure.
When the vibrator is paired via smartphone or laptop to an app that uses biometric sensing and statistical methods, she gets visual displays of her body‘s reactions. Then the app makes suggestions on different things to try, to improve her experience.
That sounds a lot easier than trying to explain it to another human being.
But the most valuable help Smart Bod founders believe they offer is empowering women with information about their own bodies, and an opportunity to ask questions and share their experiences with a community of experts and peers. “For a lot of women, it’s a taboo topic,” said Klinger. “They want to know where they fall within the spectrum, to validate that they’re normal.”
“We make learning about your arousal and orgasm less like fumbling alone in the dark and more like discussing your Fitbit’s step count with friends.”
The Berkeley startup has seen an overwhelmingly positive response from their beta testers; they now have a sizeable waiting list. Wang said Smart Bod is also getting positive feedback from gynecologists who want to recommend it to patients instead of just referring them to a sex therapist, or taking female Viagra. “Learning about yourself is better than taking a pill,” Wang commented.
With the strong responses from both users and investors, the SmartBod might be coming as early as 2016—along with a whole new generation of users.
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Note: Co-founder James Wang has an MBA from Haas Business School, Anna Lee has a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and Leo Chen a BS in Electrical Engineering, all from Berkeley.
