Maxime Crivian pitches MyCelsius, a wrist bracelet that cools skin by 15°C in 20 seconds to relieve hot flashes. A clinical trial of 32 people showed promise. The device costs $60 to make and would retail for around $200, targeting the 40% of people globally who experience hot flashes.
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Hi, my name is Maxime Crivian, and I'm the co-founder of Celsius Innovations. Our mission is to change the way we cool our bodies down and protect our health against heat by developing wearable devices that cool you down when you need it. And I always had the entrepreneur, I think, knack. I always wanted to be kind of free. Staying in an office and being dependent on other people was never really my forte, so I decided to leave and start companies. If you want me to get a bit personal, I think that comes from the fact that my father was an entrepreneur. He was the first French entrepreneur to break the market in China That always kind of stayed with me as a story, wondering how the hell did he end up in the '80s in China. He died very young, so part of me was becoming an entrepreneur, I think, is a way to kind of reconnect with that part. So, I mean, throughout all my 20s, I've really suffered with like hidden hot flashes. So that's why the first product we've developed is hot flashes. Genuinely ruining my personal life and even professional, talking dates being, you know, absolutely obliterated by liquefying through stress and anxiety. One night after a couple of pints, may I say, at the pub, back home on my balcony in London, and I just thought, why don't we just cool our body instead of cooling the whole room? It might take less energy. An advice we're given in France when you're feeling too hot is to apply an ice cube on your wrist here because it's a very thermally sensitive area of the body. So the first thing I did was a Google search to see, you know, are there already 10 ideas like mine out there? And actually, this is not at all something new. And there was not. There was just one company. I've got one with me. Do you want to see?
Yeah. Oh God, that feels better.
It's really designed for hot flushes, so that helps me right now. And actually, that helps me calm down.
Oh, it—
yeah. But I'm always quite happy how this works. And so by playing cool here, not only do you get that first, ah, that feels good, but the more important part is it actually sends a cool message to your hypothalamus, which is our brain thermostat. And it tells the brain you do not need to panic, you don't need to flush all that heat, you're fine. And it basically cools all these flushing mechanisms it's just activated. Yeah, I'm pretty relentless. First of all, I mean, if you want to go really deep, I can probably know where it comes from and I'm using it. So my dad committed suicide when I was 8 years old. That will kind of mess you up a little bit as a kid and you're never going to feel you're enough. So I've got this urge to try and achieve big things. I think this big hole that's created when you're a child is one of the things that then you build upon and that's what makes you much stronger. When you get tired and when you want to give up, there's something else that's helping you being like, no. You just keep going. We've done a few of these conferences. Leap is one of the best, if not the best I've been for for a while. Support you get for startups, the people you meet, all the investors and the potential partners, customers—it's been really, really awesome. Love the energy of the people. That's what I'll say. Like the everyone has a lot of energy and yet feels humble and very open to talk, which is not something maybe sometimes. times you always get in Europe. Also to come here and talk about, you know, menopausal symptoms and the struggle with hot flashes and sort of raise awareness in a country where they're trying to, you know, do a lot more things for women's health and women's rights. It's been really, really, really interesting experience. The hospitality, like people are very, very friendly. Yeah. And then you can feel they're happy for you to be here and come and learn more about Saudi. You know, the cameras are rolling, so it's a bit more pressure. It's also Tim Draper in front of you and the judges as well. You have Estonian former prime minister. My name is Maxim I'm Krivian and I'm the co-founder of Celsius Innovations. Our mission is to change the way we cool our bodies down and protect our health against heat. We've created one of the most powerful and miniaturized cooling systems in the market that we integrate into wearable devices to cool you down when you need it. Journey started because I used to suffer a lot from hot flushes due to stress and anxiety. 10 years ago, I would be liquefying here. But very early in our journey, we were connected to a support group for women going through menopause. And quite frankly, we're heartbroken by some of the stories we heard. Hot flushes have a huge impact on women's health, wellbeing, but also professional lives. And ultimately, at least 40% of the world's population will at some point in their life struggle with hot flashes. So I'm proud to introduce you the MyCelsius cooling bracelet that I'm wearing.
Wait, it's that small? Here, can we try it?
Yeah, of course. So basically, it's fitted with an electric— electrocooling system, and it cools your wrist down by 15 degrees in about 20 seconds. The science behind it is that it leverages the high thermal sensitivity of your wrist, and it connects with your hypothalamus, the brain thermostat, very efficiently. Hot flashes, especially during menopause, because of all the hormonal changes are an overreaction.
Okay, I gotta stop you there because I gotta tell the audience, my hand is freezing right now. It feels like I've had an ice cube on there for like a week.
If you were having a hot flush, that will tell the brain, stop the flushing mechanism, it's activated for no reason. It almost acts like a switch that stops and reduces the hot flashes. And there's clinical research backing the, the, this principle.
How long did you say it works?
The cooling sessions are 3 minutes and you can have up to 15.
Oh, only 3 minutes?
Oh no, you get 20 sessions in That gives you up to 2 days of coverage.
If you're out there and it's really, really hot, does this feel like it cools your body?
The core of what we've developed is the miniaturized cooling system that is patent pending. We could easily create other devices.
How big was your sample size, you know, to prove that this actually works?
For the core technology, we've done some long-form trials with 32 volunteers.
Right. What do you make it for and how much do you sell it for?
We make it for about $60, more or less. We're in the final stages of DFM and manufacturing. And we're going to retail it first at around $200 mark.
You are planning to go to market like yourself. I assume that you're considering also going through some like really big names.
So there's the route working directly with healthcare providers. So when it comes to the technology itself, we could be integrating straps with maybe other wearables that just deliver the cooling system. It's something we want to do is integrate with other devices we create ourselves, but also work with other partners or license the technology.
Terrific. Well, Maxime, thank you so much for being on Meet the Drapers.
Thanks for having us. For some people, their first reaction to seeing it to be like, oh, I love the effect, I love the design, it's the best validation we can get at this stage for us.
It doesn't go away. It's like an ice plunge, but just for your wrist.
Very intrigued. I think it's not something that you would think about sitting at home or looking for a problem. It's very particular. Can I take it from, you know, the hot flashes maybe to mass market at some point of cooling? We talked about the heat in Saudi.
Sounds very intriguing. Then the question starts becoming, how good is the technology, or how difficult or easy it would be to replicate? Because if it really works, then I would assume that there will be like thousands who will try to clone it.
