00;00;00;00 – 00;00;01;22
Amy Cowperthwait
Are you going to do that to me?

00;00;01;24 – 00;00;03;16
Amy Cowperthwait
I already answered this question. I won’t talk about it.

00;00;03;24 – 00;00;06;32
Amy Cowperthwait
Hi, my name is Amy Copwerthwait. I am the CEO of Avkin.

00;00;06;40 – 00;00;09;16
Amy Erol
And I’m Amy Erol, I’m the COO of Atkin.

00;00;09;21 – 00;00;47;30
Amy Cowperthwait
And we’re here to answer some of your questions about Avkin. So let’s get started, I guess, what wearable simulators does everyone else have? So we started with the Avtrach. That was our very first product and we have multiple different simulators. We have the Avtrach, the Avcath, the Avstick, the Avline, the Avthor, the Avtone, the Avbirth.

00;00;47;30 – 00;00;56;55
Amy Cowperthwait
And we also have an Avband which is not necessarily a wearable simulator, but a three way communication device and many blood, sweat and tears going into this product for sure.

00;00;57;00 – 00;00;58;44
Amy Erol
Who works at Avkin

00;00;58;48 – 00;01;00;15
Amy Cowperthwait
All right, that’s one yours!

00;01;00;20 – 00;01;21;11
Amy Erol
man. We have a really solid group. We have a sales team, manufacturing team and R&D team that actually develops and makes improvements on the products in-house. And then we have a marketing team and an education team to support our customers as well as a customer service team as well to support.

00;01;21;13 – 00;01;42;43
Amy Cowperthwait
Yep. And the administration makes sure the bills get paid for sure and that we get paid. I would also add in the idea that the manufacturing team does mainly manufacture the products here in the United States. It was just something that we were really committed to the quality and making sure that the products were good quality, going out the door every single time.

00;01;42;48 – 00;01;44;20
Amy Erol
All right.

00;01;44;25 – 00;02;07;12
Amy Cowperthwait
Can Moulage go on Avkin products? This is a frequently asked question for sure. Yes, in fact, we moulage used one of our AV sticks because of the high grade silicone. We moulage, one of the Avsticks And then I left it in my car for a weekend and it was like 90 degree heat and tried to get that, try to get it off and it just wiped off super easily so you can utilize our products.

00;02;07;12 – 00;02;15;46
Amy Cowperthwait
We have done multiple, multiple different things for our products, but it is very realistic and looks amazing and easy to remove as well.

00;02;15;56 – 00;02;26;17
Amy Erol
Now, I remember when you were testing this, you also tested like permanent marker pen, all of that kind of stuff, and that all came off as well. Yeah, very skeptical going into that test, but it worked out.

00;02;26;25 – 00;02;39;48
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah. And as simulation is, we know that pens are a no no in the SIM center because if it does get on some of the other products, it will stain for forever. But that was not the case with our products for sure.

00;02;39;53 – 00;02;47;02
Amy Erol
Remains. Are Avkin products automated?

00;02;47;07 – 00;02;50;11
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah. Yes. Yes.

00;02;50;16 – 00;03;17;35
Amy Erol
So. So the outcome products all have haptic feedback in them, which means that when you do something that would be painful to the patient themselves, so say you’re suctioning too far down and you hit the carina, or if you put the needle in the skin for doing an IV start, they all have sensors in them. So it alerts the wearer that they should be responding with some sort of signal with pain, coughing or anything like that.

00;03;17;40 – 00;03;25;41
Amy Erol
So all the products have that in them and then are adverse. Our newest product also pushes the baby out automatically as well.

00;03;25;45 – 00;03;40;55
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah. And I think that that was a common question that we got when we first released the Avbirth was the automation on that. But it is automate fully automated. You control it by an app. I think one of the biggest, the coolest things that our customers love about our products is the fact that we do have an app.

00;03;40;55 – 00;04;01;33
Amy Cowperthwait
It’s a free download and anybody can interact with our products in that way. The other piece of that is the haptic signals are fully automated. In other words, if the procedure is done in a certain way, regardless of what it is, it will automatically signal the ESP you as the facilitator don’t have to do anything to make that happen.

00;04;01;38 – 00;04;19;39
Amy Erol
Yeah, that was a big thing when we first started the company. Amy It was a simulation test. I was a Simtech and one thing that Amy really stressed when we started designing the devices was that they, the facilitator, would not have to do a lot of work in the control room. You already have. So much that you have to do.

00;04;19;52 – 00;04;26;34
Amy Erol
So when we do the designs, that’s something that our R&D team is always considering. What can we do to make it easier for the facilitator?

00;04;26;34 – 00;04;41;03
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah, changing heart sounds long sounds again. Ask me how I know, right? I mean, it’s just years of experience and just some of the struggles that I had when I first got started in simulation for sure.

00;04;41;08 – 00;04;44;54
Amy Erol
What does Avkin mean?

00;04;44;58 – 00;04;46;09
Amy Cowperthwait
This is a test for you.

00;04;46;14 – 00;05;07;30
Amy Erol
Okay, So often comes from two words which are Akin and Vera. And what it means is close to the truth. So what we were trying to do as a company was get as close to real life as possible. So those two words together really spoke to us and what we were trying to do is.

00;05;07;35 – 00;05;11;38
Amy Cowperthwait
And the outcome was available when we were creating the.

00;05;11;43 – 00;05;27;18
Amy Erol
App that helps sharing. What is the difference between Avkin Avbirth and Contraction Simulator?

00;05;27;23 – 00;05;34;25
Amy Cowperthwait
so like the contraction simulator that they have males try on to know what it’s like to have fear.

00;05;34;29 – 00;05;36;20
Amy Erol
So you could ask that a lot.

00;05;36;25 – 00;06;07;37
Amy Cowperthwait
You could actually probably use both at the same time so that they could see what it’s like to have that larger belly and feel the contractions. But that’s not really what it’s intended for. The app birth is really intended to be a product that is in health care, education and is really meant to bring that human component into health care simulation, but at the same time be able to create normal and abnormal or, you know, irregularities in the birthing process.

00;06;07;42 – 00;06;22;04
Amy Cowperthwait
The this the contraction simulator is really meant to give people that have not had contractions a sense of what it is like to have contractions. So with our product is really not for consumer use. And that one is, I would say.

00;06;22;13 – 00;06;44;42
Amy Erol
One thing we get asked a lot when we’re doing demonstrations is if our products are actually hurting the person who’s yelling, which just really speaks to how good actors and actresses are, but they never hurt the actual person. All it is is like a cell phone vibration that either vibrates on a strap of the device or on the outer band when they’re wearing the band.

00;06;44;47 – 00;06;49;04
Amy Erol
But they just have really good reactions and that’s why it looks like they’re actually in pain.

00;06;49;11 – 00;07;10;53
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah, so it’s an inconspicuous cell phone vibration that typically the learners will not see or know that it was happening, but that the ESP is cute at the right time. If you think of contractions kind of waxing and waning, it gives that full effect to the speed. But hopefully the learners are not seeing that at all. And that was that was another one of our criteria as we were getting things started with the company.

00;07;11;02 – 00;07;17;13
Amy Erol
We should try answering that question and just be like, Yeah, they do feel pain every time we get best responses.

00;07;17;13 – 00;07;37;16
Amy Cowperthwait
I don’t think we do have a lot of people purchasing our products for sure. Yeah. Do we have any more questions? Nate Yeah. Okay. There we go. Okay. You do better at holding this.

00;07;37;21 – 00;07;43;11
Amy Erol
Okay. I was Amy Bucha Erol a Simtech?

00;07;43;15 – 00;07;44;08
Amy Cowperthwait
Said that one.

00;07;44;13 – 00;08;09;54
Amy Erol
I was a simtech. I was actually Amy’s Simtech for a few years at the University of Delaware. And I really love that position. It was really fun. I did a lot of things, other than just taking care of not just the bad side sometimes and then taking care of the equipment. We worked a lot with, like the inventory of the same lab, just all sorts of things.

00;08;09;54 – 00;08;22;41
Amy Erol
And it was really cool to see like the diversity behind that position. But it was also really fun to work with all the equipment and to learn how how they, well, you know, equate to good education.

00;08;22;46 – 00;08;43;27
Amy Cowperthwait
So a couple of funny stories behind that. I am not the most organized person in the world, so having her come in and try to organize me was an act of Congress, literally. And I could tell when I had either mannequin or the equipment malfunction and I would call her and I would be stressed because I had students out in the hallway waiting for things.

00;08;43;41 – 00;09;12;24
Amy Cowperthwait
Whenever she started humming, I needed to just back off and walk away. That was her like signal to herself, but to me also that I had I had flapped a little bit too hard about whatever the issue was. So that is for sure. The other thing that I think it’s really important is Amy is an engineer and she took on this SIM tech position to learn more about simulation equipment because she was helping the engineering students at the university create our very first prototypes and our product.

00;09;12;25 – 00;09;35;57
Amy Cowperthwait
So she’s been with this after the trick was developed. So from really from the beginning. But her value in this was she saw it from the SIM tech perspective, but also from an engineering perspective and what the needs were. So I think that unique mix of knowledge and experience really helped us build a sustainable product as well as a company that is meeting the needs of the simulation community.

00;09;36;01 – 00;09;40;38
Amy Erol
I didn’t realize I did the humming thing until you told me that she was like, I definitely do that.

00;09;40;38 – 00;09;46;24
Amy Cowperthwait
So yes, she doesn’t do it as much here, but she definitely did it in the same lab.

00;09;46;29 – 00;10;07;36
Amy Erol
And the other thing that happened when I was in tech that I bring up a lot when we’re doing like development work and stuff is during the summer. I know a lot of you sometimes do this. I had to clean all the equipment and we always talk about not using organic substances in our devices. We don’t put putting in the track in general because it gets gross.

00;10;07;36 – 00;10;08;32
Amy Cowperthwait
Ask her how she knows the.

00;10;08;32 – 00;10;29;45
Amy Erol
Reason is because that’s what Amy did when she was doing exams at the University of Delaware. So I was cleaning the mannequins one of the summers, and I was trying to clean out the ones that had just like mold growing everywhere. And I ended up cutting out the lungs completely from the mannequin. So I was like, This is hopeless.

00;10;29;45 – 00;10;45;58
Amy Erol
There’s no way that we’re going to be able to recover this. But since then, when we were developing the products, we’ve made it so that everything was able to actually be fully taken out, cleaned out parts, replaced all of that stuff because I was just like such a gross experience.

00;10;45;58 – 00;11;04;46
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah. And we worked with the chemistry department on that one to make sure that all of our products were antimicrobial antibacterial. But that’s just to say how much I prioritize the realism and the authenticity. Like if you’re going to suction a mannequin, we got to at least have them suction something out to be able to document on it, to be able to talk about consistency.

00;11;04;48 – 00;11;14;08
Amy Cowperthwait
Do they are they suctioning until clear? Needless to say, it didn’t work out so well, but it was one of the impetuses for us getting started with our products.

00;11;14;13 – 00;11;16;25
Amy Cowperthwait
All, all this is all about, you know.

00;11;16;36 – 00;11;47;50
Amy Erol
Amy, crazy sim story. All right. Amy Bucha Erol, crazy, sim story. So a lot of the time when I was with Semtech, I was hanging out with the maternity simulators just because they are a lot more in-depth and require, you know, someone to actually be there. The whole time when you’re running the simulators. And we did have like an entire semester period of time where the something was going on.

00;11;47;50 – 00;12;06;23
Amy Erol
I still don’t actually know what was happening with it, but the baby would birth and then go back in to the device. So every time we do that, they instructor obviously was like, Hey, can you figure out why this is happening? But we would always be like with the students, like, okay, and then we’re going to pause and clearly that wouldn’t happen.

00;12;06;23 – 00;12;29;43
Amy Erol
We’re just going to move past that. But I did I did have to send that device back to the companies for repair. And because I am small and it was a very heavy device, I used a patient lift to get it off the bed and into the into the boxes. But I needed to and everything like that. So you figure out a way with your Simtech simtech hat on.

00;12;29;48 – 00;12;46;55
Amy Cowperthwait
And I will say I didn’t have anything to do with maternity. My background is emergency department. So that was not my area of expertise and I also the interesting story behind that is that a customer that recently bought our Avbirth said that the product that they have I don’t know which one it was, but that every time it’s a shoulder dystocia.

00;12;46;55 – 00;13;00;28
Amy Cowperthwait
So it’s kind of how you’re describing that the patient that the the mother is having a shoulder dystocia birth because of the, the product that they had. So it’s probably something like that where there’s just some kind of programing.

00;13;00;28 – 00;13;05;02
Amy Erol
Maybe like came out and then we like suction back in and we were like, That doesn’t really happen in real life.

00;13;05;06 – 00;13;08;14
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah, for sure.

00;13;08;19 – 00;13;43;16
Amy Erol
All right. What is Amy’s favorite book, That’s all right. Well, everybody knows that my favorite books are the Harry Potter books. I reread them every year because I really like them. And my favorite of the Harry Potter books is the fourth one, because it’s a big competition and I’m very competitive. Harry Amy’s favorite Avkin simulator. The Avbirth was a lot of fun, but it’s not my favorite.

00;13;43;16 – 00;14;08;16
Amy Erol
And my favorite one is the Avstick because I have a really big history with the Avstick. So when we first started the company and released, we released the track and then we released My Cat The Mistake pretty shortly after and with the stick specifically, we really struggled at the beginning with finding something that worked well for the customer with the stick that was really easy to use.

00;14;08;21 – 00;14;28;44
Amy Erol
Whenever you have pressurized fluids in a system, it just becomes really complicated. And then we needed the look to look nice. We needed it to be able to get blood all over it and still be usable after they got blood all over it. Can some students, when they stick it, they might have a little blood come out because that happens sometimes.

00;14;28;49 – 00;14;55;27
Amy Erol
So we had a lot a lot of iterations with the stick. It was really working hard with the customers, with our developers to get something that works really well. But once we were able to get through that, we were able to release a product that works really smoothly. And once you set it up, it functions really well consistently and it just it was such a painful start.

00;14;55;31 – 00;14;58;46
Amy Erol
So I’m really proud of it and it’s a fun product to work with.

00;14;58;46 – 00;15;23;49
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah, and I’ll say this, that as far as the products go, she put the most blood, sweat and tears. Definitely. I think if they maybe the at birth too because it’s just so it’s a bit more complex but just personally so much you know effort went into that from her perspective and from our perspective. But it was it’s also a testament to what we do as far as getting customer feedback and acting on that.

00;15;23;49 – 00;15;41;25
Amy Cowperthwait
I can remember so many times I would give feedback about the products that I was interacting with and nothing would ever change, nothing would ever improve, or there would be no, you know, nothing giving back. And so as a simulationist, as it was so important to me and I think to us that we were acting on that feedback.

00;15;41;39 – 00;16;06;57
Amy Cowperthwait
And I jokingly, I’ll say it to Amy sometimes, like when can we go do injection molding on a certain part that would make it easier. And she’ll always say, when when we stop making changes based on customer feedback. So just know that we do take customer feedback very seriously and we do want to be here for the simulation, as it’s not about necessarily just pumping out products, but it’s about making those products work within your STEM center.

00;16;06;57 – 00;16;25;29
Amy Cowperthwait
So that is really kind of one of our foundational or cultural principles for sure. All right, board number three, tell me.

00;16;25;34 – 00;16;31;59
Amy Cowperthwait
All right, I take a better set. Okay.

00;16;32;04 – 00;16;51;13
Amy Cowperthwait
How many CEO? Okay. So I didn’t know anything about being a CEO or running a business. When we first got started, I didn’t have a business degree. I didn’t have experience with business, as nurses were typically not trained for that. I got my master’s as a clinical nurse specialist, but that really didn’t help me as far as starting the business.

00;16;51;13 – 00;17;19;46
Amy Cowperthwait
So in order to gain knowledge I listened to because I did audibles as I was walking for exercise but listened to over 250 books on entrepreneurship, getting companies started, Women in Leadership, you know, the Art of negotiation, all those kinds of things which were skills. And the funniest thing is that I think walking helped because there was like my blood was circulating as I was listening to these books, and I can always remember certain things that are said.

00;17;19;46 – 00;17;55;54
Amy Cowperthwait
I never remember what book it was in, but I do definitely remember consuming a lot of information and the early team and Amy was a part of it. Got to hear all of my latest rantings based off of whatever book it was. And there’s some things that have stuck over the years for sure, but it is very interesting to be able to even draw on knowledge now as a company has grown that I listened to or heard or knew about beforehand, I would say probably the art of negotiation was one of the books that was really important, but probably still a big struggle for me as far as negotiation.

00;17;55;54 – 00;18;09;24
Amy Cowperthwait
I am pretty transparent and shoot from the hip. And so the idea of kind of holding back something or negotiating something and, you know, not necessarily being completely transparent is really hard to do for me for sure.

00;18;09;29 – 00;18;33;42
Amy Erol
Depending on which business book that you were reading, you would come in to our like team meetings and, and that was what we were going to run with for that day. So the other few months, six months? Yes. A few months ago, I found notes from our early company meetings and it was like, what was it, Scrum? Yes.

00;18;33;46 – 00;18;54;30
Amy Erol
So there was a lot of like meetings where it was like, okay, we’re going to do like the scrum strategy and it was because Amy had just read the Scrum books and she was like, We’re using that word. But then you see a transition where like a few meetings later there’s like a new, like Agile, I think was a new word, and it was like, now we’re doing quarterly.

00;18;54;30 – 00;18;55;28
Amy Cowperthwait
Quarterly, rocks.

00;18;55;28 – 00;19;00;50
Amy Erol
Quarterly, right? Yeah, all that stuff. Yeah. So it was definitely like, this is what we’re focusing on.

00;19;00;50 – 00;19;04;31
Amy Cowperthwait
Vision Traction Organizer is another one. We still use that today.

00;19;04;44 – 00;19;06;39
Amy Erol
Yeah.

00;19;06;44 – 00;19;13;58
Amy Cowperthwait
Some of it helped. Some of it was we had, we weren’t ready for it yet, but it definitely helped to prepare us, at least me. I felt more comfortable with it.

00;19;14;03 – 00;19;25;57
Amy Erol
We had to try and see what works for the company and it changes as you grow so that worked. You know, when we were a team of like 15 doesn’t work now, so we had to learn that.

00;19;26;02 – 00;19;30;18
Amy Cowperthwait
And when we first started it was a team of about five.

00;19;30;23 – 00;19;33;09
Amy Erol
Amy covers eight on Dr. Oz.

00;19;33;14 – 00;19;59;52
Amy Cowperthwait
yeah. Well, so the funny story behind that is that I was so excited because they, they had contacted Avkin and wanted me to be in a contest. And so this was the Shark Tank episode of Dr. Oz. And I got to compete against another nurse entrepreneur. It must have been Nurses Week or something, but they were very, very nice and very, very excited to have us on and I definitely thought it was a competition.

00;19;59;52 – 00;20;21;26
Amy Cowperthwait
So Daymond John was going to be the shark, and I definitely thought I was competing for this golden stethoscope. But when I got there, they had like a set, you know, I don’t know, set list of what happened. And at the end of that set list, it has. And both of them win the golden stethoscope. So it kind of took all the air out of my balloon as far as competition goes, because I didn’t realize that we were both going to get it.

00;20;21;31 – 00;20;45;54
Amy Cowperthwait
But Megan was actually that the patient was wearing the Avstick, and I had one of my nursing students there and they were suctioning and we got literally, I think, 15 seconds to explain what this was. And Dr. Oz actually tried to suction the patient, the Meghan, but he wasn’t doing it right because he’s a surgeon. But anyway, but the at the end of it, Daymond John literally had no idea.

00;20;45;54 – 00;21;06;09
Amy Cowperthwait
He’s like, I literally have no idea what you do. So I did reach out to Daymond John and say, Hey, can we meet up? So I could explain it to your father? He never contacted me back, but it was really good in the beginning to have kind of that, you know, reputable opportunity to have Dr. Oz. And I’m not allowed to talk about it yet, but we’re going have something very similar coming up soon.

00;21;06;09 – 00;21;11;03
Amy Cowperthwait
So stay tuned to the African press because we will be keeping you in touch about that.

00;21;11;03 – 00;21;15;19
Amy Cowperthwait
story.

00;21;15;24 – 00;21;18;34
Amy Erol
Amy Coperthwait Hayden Vanguard Award.

00;21;18;34 – 00;21;42;28
Amy Cowperthwait
That was a pivotal event. I literally shed tears at the 2016 NLN conference. So they they at the time, we were still you know, we had a name and we were trying to get the word out. We we always brought the Avtrach there and we’re doing the actual suctioning and got a lot of really positive response.

00;21;42;28 – 00;22;00;27
Amy Cowperthwait
But we had some very influential key leaders that came up to the booth at the same time or close to the same time. So Carol Durham came up, Susie Kardong-Edgren came up, and Teresa Gore, who was at that time the president of INACSL. They all came up to the booth and we’re just gushing over what we were doing.

00;22;00;27 – 00;22;22;47
Amy Cowperthwait
They I obviously knew them from previous to this because I wasn’t INACSL member and was actively involved, but they came up to the booth at first. They left and I literally shed tears and I think it was because my concept was I was so validated by what they were saying and so validated that they they thought that this was really cool, but they walked away.

00;22;22;47 – 00;22;47;23
Amy Cowperthwait
And when they came back, I was I was crying. It’s going to make me cry now. But they asked me to be the they wanted to give me the very first inaugural Hayden Vanguard award. And that that award was given to assimilationist that was making a meaningful difference in simulation education. And that meant so much to me. But it was the first time that I had ever really presented to a large group.

00;22;47;23 – 00;23;08;17
Amy Cowperthwait
I had done small group presentations at conferences and things, but there was about 3000 people and I can remember asking my SIM sister, So my and Glenn group came up to the K, came to the an actual conference, and I asked them if they would stay till the end to go do this because it was an ed note presentation.

00;23;08;17 – 00;23;31;47
Amy Cowperthwait
I asked all of the Avkin team to stay, but it ended up that there were so many people there and it was just such an honor to be able to do that. And especially because it’s really named in honor of Jennifer Hayden, who was really the leader of that spend study on simulation and nursing. And so I felt very honored that they would choose me for that very first inaugural award.

00;23;31;49 – 00;23;36;24
Amy Cowperthwait
Inaugural award for sure.

00;23;36;29 – 00;23;40;36
Amy Erol
I mean, I don’t know the childhood and childhood nickname.

00;23;40;48 – 00;23;42;11
Amy Cowperthwait
I don’t want to talk about it.

00;23;42;16 – 00;23;46;02
Amy Cowperthwait
Why are you guys doing that to me? I already answered this question. I won’t talk about it.

00;23;46;06 – 00;24;03;20
Amy Cowperthwait
I will say that at a young age, my nickname was Mouse. And that was because when I would sleep, I would take all of my toys and put them under my stomach. So that’s the only one I will reveal. Some of them were very scary. Think about middle school names that people call you. It’s not nice.

00;24;03;24 – 00;24;04;53
Amy Cowperthwait
Very.

00;24;04;58 – 00;24;07;56
Amy Erol
Does Amy Cowperthwait have a podcast.

00;24;08;00 – 00;24;33;05
Amy Cowperthwait
Yes, it is. I do that in conjunction with Megan, and it’s really based on advances in simulation and trying to help other simulations make a meaningful difference in their professional careers and helping people get programs going. The name of it is called Simulation Nation. And so we invite you to join us. We try to put them out about weekly throughout the semester.

00;24;33;05 – 00;24;52;34
Amy Cowperthwait
We do take breaks in between, so summertime and winter time we do take breaks, but please join us. We’ve had a lot of really positive feedback and comments about what we’re doing there.

00;24;52;39 – 00;25;04;19
Amy Erol
And where is Amy B from? I am from Pennsylvania, from a little town called Macungie, and it’s a side of like Allentown, Pennsylvania area.

00;25;04;24 – 00;25;08;22
Amy Cowperthwait
Has a very cool architectural antique shop.

00;25;08;27 – 00;25;13;58
Amy Erol
Yep. Yeah. Where is Amy C from?

00;25;14;03 – 00;25;32;01
Amy Cowperthwait
I have a couple of different spots. I grew up predominantly in State College, Pennsylvania, which is the town that Penn State’s in. So I grew up as a Penn State proud but never went to college there. I went to college at the University of Delaware, so I spent my high school years in Delaware and went on to the University of Delaware for nursing school.

00;25;32;06 – 00;25;38;06
Amy Cowperthwait
But I would say I’m from State College, Pennsylvania, most likely.

00;25;38;11 – 00;25;40;40
Amy Erol
Where did we meet at?

00;25;40;46 – 00;25;59;48
Amy Cowperthwait
That’s the University of Delaware. So I had a many years in the emergency department as a nurse and went back to my alma mater to take on the coordinator for the Skills and Simulation Center in 2006. And then Amy joined me in, what, 2013?

00;25;59;53 – 00;26;01;16
Amy Erol
Yeah, year and.

00;26;01;21 – 00;26;02;50
Amy Cowperthwait
Somewhere in there. So.

00;26;02;55 – 00;26;20;19
Amy Erol
Yeah. And I went to the University of Delaware for mechanical engineering and I got my master’s there as well. And I remember we specifically met in a coffee house that was where you were interviewing me. And I was asked recently if that was intimidating and it was not.

00;26;20;24 – 00;26;21;03
Amy Cowperthwait
Let’s just.

00;26;21;03 – 00;26;22;22
Amy Cowperthwait
Say it wasn’t really an interview is.

00;26;22;22 – 00;26;23;21
Amy Erol
A very casual interview.

00;26;23;35 – 00;26;42;53
Amy Cowperthwait
The way that we met is through a mutual friend. So Jenny Buckley was working with the students to help develop the very first prototypes. Again, at that point in time, early on, I had no intentions of starting a company, but as we began to try to think about licensing or shopping it around, I began to embrace the idea a little bit more.

00;26;42;53 – 00;26;59;48
Amy Cowperthwait
And Jenny knew I needed help and sort of Amy and introduced us. So our very first meeting was actually at the coffee shop. Jenny wasn’t there, but she was a mutual friend for sure.

00;26;59;53 – 00;27;07;03
Amy Erol
I’ll answer this one. Where did Amy and Amy go to college? Both of us. The University of Delaware grads?

00;27;07;08 – 00;27;11;32
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah.

00;27;11;37 – 00;27;14;06
Amy Erol
Okay. Where is Atkin located?

00;27;14;11 – 00;27;43;19
Amy Cowperthwait
So we stayed in Delaware. Most. Most companies, don’t they? They’re incorporated in Delaware, but don’t actually manufacture or sell out of Delaware. We actually started in Delaware and a business partner had a another a different business with her husband and she incubated us in the upstairs area. It’s about the size of a one bedroom apartment. We stayed there for at least two and a half years and then ended up moving here to Avkin right before COVID.

00;27;43;19 – 00;27;49;53
Amy Cowperthwait
And thank God we did, because we would never have been able to work and manufacture products in that small space.

00;27;50;00 – 00;27;51;37
Amy Erol
So we were there for four years.

00;27;51;39 – 00;27;52;24
Amy Cowperthwait
Four years.

00;27;52;38 – 00;28;13;34
Amy Erol
Wow. So our manufacturing started, we were in a small room. That’s where our manufacturing started in. And then we just kept on like taking over additional rooms. But we were growing way, way too fast for the space, so we ended up having to move. And once we moved, we were in a huge space and we were like, We’ll never fill this out.

00;28;13;34 – 00;28;15;50
Amy Erol
And it it got small too.

00;28;16;03 – 00;28;38;26
Amy Cowperthwait
Yeah, Yeah, for sure. So think of like 725 square feet to 9999 square feet. And we, we literally I said we could sublet some of this space because we don’t need it all. And then just a few years later, we’re looking to figure out how to rearrange things so that it would make sense. So the growth for Avkin has been amazing and so exciting to see and watch.

00;28;38;26 – 00;28;49;00
Amy Cowperthwait
But it is definitely surprising that we’re we’re burgeoning at the seams here with 999 square feet. Yeah. Last question.

00;28;49;05 – 00;28;52;28
Amy Erol
Where are Avkin products made?

00;28;52;33 – 00;29;10;30
Amy Cowperthwait
Right here, right here at the Avkin office. If you want to see where it’s made, it’s we do a quick tour of the Avkin office in a different presentation or video. So look at the questions video. You’ll be able to see a quick tour of things, but we manufacture it right here. Again, we were very committed to quality.

00;29;10;34 – 00;29;33;02
Amy Cowperthwait
All right. That’s it. Thanks, guys, so much for joining us. And we’ll get together another time if we have more questions that come in from you all. Thank you.