QB Sonic, a technology-based start-up developing a non-invasive ultrasound stimulator to maintain bone tissue in the hips of people with osteoporosis and osteopenia, has been selected as the local winner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) InnovateHER Competition, Hofstra University announced. Osteoporosis impacts the health of millions of women every year in the United States and around the globe.
Hofstra’s Center for Entrepreneurship administered the local competition. The Center for Entrepreneurship was launched this fall and focuses on multi-disciplinary entrepreneurship support and education, leveraging the entrepreneurial activities at all the University’s schools, including the Maurice A. Deane School of Law, the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Center for Entrepreneurship, which is also part of Long Island’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, is led by Executive Dean Mark Lesko.
QB Sonic is led by the management team of Chief Executive Officer Sharon Barkume, J.D., M.B.A, and Chief Technology Officer Yi-Xian Qin, Ph.D. Ms. Barkume has been involved in the management of a number of high-tech startup companies. Prior to receiving her MBA, Sharon was a patent attorney for an early-stage venture capital firm. Dr. Qin is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedics and the Director of the Orthopedic BioEngineering Research Laboratory at Stony Brook University. Dr. Qin is the inventor of the non-invasive ultrasound stimulator.
QB Sonic is based at the Long Island High Technology Incubator and is licensing the technology from Stony Brook University. To date, QB Sonic has received more than $2 million in grants to develop the non-invasive ultrasound stimulator technology. QB Sonic is also part of the START-UP NY program.
“We are very pleased to win this competition. Starting a medical device company, especially on Long Island, is a challenging task requiring a lot of hard work. It is rewarding to have our hard work acknowledged. We are very grateful for all the support QB Sonic has received from Stony Brook University, and now, Hofstra University,” Barkume said.
According to QB Sonic, osteoporosis and osteopenia (OP) affects over 50 million women in the United States (80 percent of Americans with OP are women), 200 million women in China, and 80 million women in Europe. OP occurs primarily in people over 50 and causes 350,000 hip fractures per year in the United States. The greatest concern for people with OP is a hip fracture because of its devastating effects. Approximately 10-20 percent of hip fracture patients die within the first year and 20 percent require long-term nursing home care.
“I congratulate QB Sonic on being selected by the judges as the local winner of the Hofstra University InnovateHER Competition. Hofstra received a number of strong applications, and the judges found that QB Sonic’s business plan displayed the potential of the technology to have an impact on the lives of millions of women and a strong commercialization strategy. I would like to thank the judges, Dr. Elizabeth Venuti, Dr. Anne Hamby and Dr. Veronika Ilyuk from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business for their time in assessing the applications,” Lesko said.
The national InnovateHER Competition is a business plan competition for entrepreneurs to showcase products and services that have a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, a potential for commercialization and fill a need in the marketplace.
Hofstra University submitted QB Sonic as the local winner of the Hofstra InnovateHER Competition. The SBA will then choose semi-finalists from the pool of all the local competition winners. The semi-finalists will have a chance to win $40,000, $20,000 or $10,000 at the Women’s Summit National Finals in Washington D.C. March 16-17, 2016.
The submissions were judged by:
- Dr. Elizabeth Venuti, Senior Associate Dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University
- Dr. Anne Hamby, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing and International Business, Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University
- Dr. Veronika Ilyuk, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing and International Business, Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University
For more information about the Center for Entrepreneurship and to stay updated about future business plan competitions, visit www.hofstra.edu/entrepreneurship.
Karla Schuster is the assistant vice president of university relations at Hofstra University.
