Timothy Baker and Jon Coble, the co-founders of GOGO Band Inc., are developing a device they say will help cure a chronic condition that affects more than 8 million children in the U.S. and up to 200 million worldwide. “We are staying under the radar at this point on what the actual condition is,” Coble said.
What they are willing to say about GOGOBand, the product they expect to introduce this year, is that it will be a wrist-band-like device that uses biometric sensors, radio-frequency identification technology, and “big data” computer processing to help parents monitor the condition and effectively prevent it. “It is a unique combination of those three (technologies) that will double the cure rate of these children,” Baker said. Because the device is noninvasive and non-pharmaceutical, it will not require FDA approval, the co-founders of GOGO Band said. Baker and Coble came up with the idea when they were volunteering together in a men’s ministry at their church. Baker is a Navy veteran with a background in health care management, and Coble has a background working with numerous technology start-ups.
“I had a lot of start-up experience, and Timothy had this concept,” Coble said. “I agreed to be his mentor to help him build this idea out, and every time I gave him a task to help with the business, he would come back the next day with a solution. He was tenacious.”
“After about five or six months, I said, ‘You know, I think we have got a business here.’”
“Coming into the DRIC was a plug-and-play from Day One for us. We had our computers plugged in, and we were up and running. Our ability to accelerate the trajectory of our company was magnified three to five times. What it would have been 10 years ago in the Richmond area, was I would have had to spend three months worrying about Internet service, worrying about desks, and even worrying about where my facility was going to be,” Coble said.
Baker and Coble said they want to keep their company in the Richmond region. “The other side of it is being able to keep the business in the Richmond area,” Baker said. “This area and the state overall are really trying to develop the innovation and product market not only to build here but to stay here, and that is one of our commitments.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch –