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This startup has a holy grail for hydration

July 17, 2018 by Stacey Higginbotham 13 Comments

The LVL hydration monitor hardware. Image courtesy of LVL.

One morning, when Dustin Freckleton was in medical school, he woke up with a blinding headache. He stumbled to the bathroom and saw that his vision was off — or rather, he was. He wasn’t able to stand up properly. He looked down and realized that his foot was turned inward. He started to feel a numbness down his left side and by the time he made his way back to his bedroom he fell over, paralyzed on that side of his body.

He was having a stroke. At the age of 24. Months later, after regaining the full use of his body and mind, his doctors diagnosed the cause of the stroke as extreme dehydration. Feckleton’s stroke was caused by not drinking enough water. His experience, and now visceral understanding of the importance of hydration, led to his founding of LVL.

LVL plans to sell a connected wearable that tracks your body’s drinking and overall hydration levels. It works by using a new sensor type to track water in the body. And the algorithm that powers LVL’s wearable, could even become one of the new versions of other popular wearables later this year. And it’s the algorithm rather than the hardware that LVL really wants to sell.

Feckleton is meeting with several large consumer technology companies to pitch LVL’s algorithm for their products, using the new sensor. The algorithm takes into account how blood is moving throughout a person’s body, their heart rate, and how often they drink water to calculate what LVL calls a Body Thirst metric.

This metric is going to correlate to thirst because by the time a person feels thirsty, she is actually around 2% dehydrated. Feckleton hopes to trigger people to drink before that point.

A cynic might argue that it won’t correlate to thirst because that’s a measurement that could prove or disprove the algorithm. However, Feckleton says he has proof the algorithm works. He asked the University of Arkansas to complete a small study on the effectiveness of the LVL tech, and the results were promising. The study showed that LVL tech had a strong ability to anticipate perceived thirst and detect actual hydration during several different types of activity.

It also did a good job predicting actual sweat vs. the amount of sweat the algorithm predicted a user would generate. And it tracked closely with the amount of water the study participants drank throughout the day. So if you’re trying to stay hydrated, the LVL math did a good job tracking water consumption, how much water you lost through sweat, and when you’d actually get thirsty. The results are strong, but the study only included 12 people (seven females and five males).
That might be enough for now. Most fitness trackers rely on the user to self-report their water consumption. Fitbit created a partnership with Thermos to make a water bottle that tracked what you drank from the bottle and input it into the app, but at $60, it’s a pricey option. Plus, you have to use the same cup all the time. It also only tracks what’s going into your body, not water lost through sweat and respiration.
Yet, some people will buy the Thermos because water consumption and hydration are essential for health, productivity, and overall well-being. Dehydration isn’t likely to cause a stroke in most people, but it can exacerbate heart conditions, diabetes, and cause headaches or dizziness. Having an easy way to track what you are drinking and how hydrated you are could help millions improve their lives.
I hope LVL makes that happen.

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Filed Under: Featured, Startups Tagged With: Apple, fitbit, LVL, samsung, wearables

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Comments

  1. Angry Kickstarter Backers says

    July 18, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    How much information did you do on this company and product before you wrote this article? LVL has released on of the worst Kickstarter campaigns – raising over $1M dollars from 7500 backers more than 2 years ago. They have missed every deadline, launched a campaign falsely using prototype images represented as working prototypes, have changed the technology drastically, failed to communicate with backers countless times. There are THOUSANDS of comments on the Kickstarter Campaign page raging in disgust.

    We encourage you to check this out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lactate-threshold/lvl-the-first-wearable-hydration-monitor/comments

    This whole company is a joke. Now they want to sell their algorithm? Does this mean that they won’t be producing the device they promised to backers? As long as Dustin gets rich though, right? I’m pretty sure he comes from a very devout family of Mormons… way to be a good human, bro!

    Reply
    • Stacey Higginbotham says

      July 18, 2018 at 2:20 pm

      The physical device still isn’t ready yet, but Dustin did say it would ship after this summer.

      Reply
      • Angry Kickstarter Backers says

        July 18, 2018 at 2:35 pm

        Perhaps they should update their website then, which still reads “Shipping Summer 2018!” (https://www.onelvl.com/).

        If the device still isn’t ready – and they’re still validating the results of their (very small) test – then there is no chance it will be manufactured/shipped for this deadline. Yet – this seems to be very typical behaviour from this group – they lead people on every step of the way.

        It’s also frustrating that this went from a ‘red light sensor’ that can determine the water/hydration level in your blood through your wrist (this is what Kickstarter backers backed – and right in the campaign page it says there is a working prototype with this technology) to now what is an algorithm that can tell when you raise your arm to take a drink. That is not the same at all, and I don’t want tech that is a series of averages and best guesses.

        Why not write an article about the Aura Band? That’s another hydration (and more) band that actually seems to be working, and is shipping in record time. They’ve also been great to their backers, tons of ongoing communication, updates and clear identification of a shipping date.

        https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1559547824/aura-band-ultimate-fitness-tracker

        Reply
        • Stacey Higginbotham says

          July 18, 2018 at 3:21 pm

          As for the Kickstarter, Freckleton says the company will be updating product development and manufacturing timelines after doing a redesign of the hardware.

          Reply
          • mario says

            August 31, 2018 at 11:50 am

            They first mentioned their redesign of the hardware on January 26, 2017(!). How long will it take you to redesign it? During this time I have already finished my master thesis (alone), in which I developed an electronic device with a suitable housing, which is on sale after another half year of work…… It really wouldn’t take 2 years, especially not for a whole team.

      • Just some dumb person who wasted their money says

        January 16, 2019 at 4:14 pm

        Hey Stacey – it’s been another half year, and the device has not shipped. Nor have there been any relevant updates from Dustin Freckleton or LVL to any of the Kickstarter backers. In fact – no updates at all. We’d love to see an updated article digging into why this startup is the OPPOSITE of a holy grail…. Deceit, lies, misinformation and a mis-managed company and lackluster leaders – now that would be a fascinating read.

        Reply
  2. AngryBacker says

    July 20, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    The LVL team really violated kickstarters terms of service. They indicated in the video that led me and 7,500 others to back their device. Kickstarter requires you to have at least a working prototype prior to launching a Kickstarter campaign. Yes there are usually delays and that’s expected. But the LVL team has continually disappointed their backers and failed repeatedly over and over again. So unless the team can actually produce a valid product or something of substance then they’re failing their backers.

    In writing/researching/interviewing the team what’s they tell you exactly? Can you possibly provide the backers with more information than the LVL team has? Really it’s not hard to give a quick update indicating where they are with development. I really mean actual production and delivery of the product. As the LVL team indicated we’d already have these on our wrists informing us of our water hydration levels or lack thereof. I’ve gone with the Aura Band and will actually be receiving that pretty much on time. Amazing what a reliable company can create!!!

    Reply
  3. Nick says

    August 6, 2018 at 2:40 am

    Shame you didn’t do your research properly

    Reply
  4. Really? says

    August 14, 2018 at 9:21 am

    “So you see, we take a normal HR metric and assume that blood will be flowing faster with an elevated HR…and if you raise your arm to scratch your head…errrr I mean if you raise your arm to your face to drink some coffee or a coke or a shiner bock…errrr I mean some water, then you have the perfect algorithm to determine how dehydrated you are.”

    If ANY company buys this, I have some beach front in Arizona.

    Reply
  5. Val says

    August 18, 2018 at 4:55 am

    Ye, so this company won’t respond to any kickstarter messages and they have not met two of their deadlines. July 2017 and Summer 2018. This company has benefited from millions of dollars and have not informed backers if there will even be a product. They are not giving refunds either. Please look further into this company. Maybe some media attention will garner a better response from the creator.

    Reply
  6. Dan says

    August 18, 2018 at 5:27 am

    Please do not advertise for these scum. I have emailed several times and yet no reply. Time for a chargeback.

    Reply
  7. David says

    September 20, 2018 at 11:26 am

    Stacy, from a review standpoint your credibility is called into question for advocating this kick starter that is on its way to be the latest Kanoa Earbuds. Please reconsider advocating for controversial products that have delayed their products.

    Best of luck and do your homework next time.

    Reply
  8. Chris Russo says

    November 25, 2018 at 11:34 am

    I have an outstanding order (not through kickstarter) and have requested either a refund or an update on the product for over 2 years with no response. Instead of promoting a product that had defrauded thousands of kickstarter backers as well as many direct purchase consumers, would you conscious perhaps lean you toward a different tact? Promoting a company that has committed likely fraud seems disingenuous to me.

    Reply

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