Denver Life Sciences Wins at Kellogg

Denver Life Sciences (DLS)’s mission to hydrate the world found deep resonance among the elite panel of judges at Northwestern Kellogg, as the company secured first place in the healthcare business plan competition.

With an active waitlist, the company publicly presented its hydration form factor and underlying technology for the first time at Kellogg, where the weekend competition featured an array of startups in the life sciences, digital health, consumer wellness, and medical devices space.

“Hydration is a crucial pillar of human wellness. But it’s barely been talked about, and never measured. Yet, the data around its impact is staggering: the chronically dehydrated have a 60%+ higher risk of premature mortality (1); one in four older adults are dehydrated right now (2); and close to 55% of children are inadequately hydrated (3),” remarked Kunal Lunawat, co-founder at DLS.

“When we set out 1,000 days ago, we were fixated on how we could improve lives with hydration. As we look to launch our product this year, this win at Kellogg is invigorating for the entire team and a shot in the arm to our mission to hydrate the world,” observed Lunawat.

The panel of judges at the competition included career VCs, a board member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a senior executive at a publicly traded medical equipment and robotics company. Given the sheer breadth of their experience, DLS’ win is a strong endorsement of the nature of the dehydration problem, and the company’s approach to solving it.

“The level of focus, precision, and research that has gone into measuring dehydration is unprecedented. Today, touch-based sensors, machine learning (ML) models, and a stellar mobile platform form the trifecta of our intelligence platform. Each component has been built painstakingly, keeping users and their hydration levels in mind. It is gratifying to observe that the judges at Northwestern Kellogg lauded what we have built thus far,” said Gurbinder Bali, CEO of DLS.

“Now, we cannot wait for our users to see this labor of love and embrace the missing pillar of wellness that is hydration,” added Bali.

Sources

1. Dmitrieva NI, Gagarin A, Liu D, Wu CO, Boehm M. Middle-age high normal serum sodium as a risk factor for accelerated biological aging, chronic diseases, and premature mortality. eBioMedicine. 2023;87:104404. Read the study

2. Parkinson E, Hooper L, Fynn J, Howard Wilsher S, Oladosu T, Poland F, Roberts S, Van Hout E, Bunn D. Low-intake dehydration prevalence in non-hospitalised older adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Nutrition. 2023;42(8):1510–1520. Read the study

3. Kenney EL, Long MW, Cradock AL, Gortmaker SL. Prevalence of Inadequate Hydration Among US Children and Disparities by Gender and Race/Ethnicity. American Journal of Public Health. 2015;105(8):e113–e118. Read the study