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Inventor and entrepreneur Arthur Lih spent three years and about $300,000 to bring a unique medical device designed to save people who are choking to the marketplace.
But like many startups, Lih's primary challenge with the product, LifeVac, is to generate and maintain marketing traction. And even though Lih is based on Long Island, N.Y., he credits organizations in Sarasota with driving early success.
“Sarasota has been the most receptive part of the country,” Lih tells Coffee Talk. “This is our petri dish.”
Local entities that have bought the device include nonprofit Girls Inc.; several nursing homes; and, most recently, the Sarasota Police Department. SPD, which bought 100 units for about $4,000 in March, is the first government agency nationwide to order LifeVac, the firm says. Lih is also currently in sales talks with the Sarasota Fire Department.
Lih, who founded and grew a trucking and transportation business into a $20 million company in New York, invented LifeVac in 2012. He heard a story about a 7-year-old boy who died from choking on a grape, and says he was so moved he began to create a solution in his garage. “I made a bunch of things that really sucked at first,” says Lih. “I failed a lot.”
Lih also discovered choking is the fourth leading cause of accidental deaths in the Unites States, with about 4,000 deaths a year. That was further motivation.
LifeVac, which looks like a small air pump or suction with a mask, is Lih's solution. LifeVac has a patented valve that prevents air from exiting through the mask and also blocks air from pushing food or objects downward. That creates a one-way suction to remove the lodged food or object. Lih says the non-powered device, which sells individually on the LifeVac website for about $70, is more important than the fire extinguishers and defibrillators found in many homes and workplaces.
Lih made that pitch last year on a Sirius XM radio medical show. Jane Mascola, a Sarasota-based sales rep for Pfizer who also cares for elderly parents, heard the show and contacted Lih about LifeVac. The two have since become friends, which is how Lih began to market LifeVac in Sarasota.
Sales growth, he says, has come in spurts. “My education,” says Lih, “has come from getting doors slammed in my face.”
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