A startup CEO had a fortuitous meeting on a flight from Houston to XNA last year that led to a major development for the Bentonville software company.
Huml Health, which uses wearable devices to track biometric data for those in recovery from a substance use disorder, was originally building its own hardware, a wearable ring similar to an Oura product. But the company was facing tariff and reliability issues, as well as wanting to be “hardware agnostic,” according to CEO Rachel Hobert.
But no major wearable device functioned without a phone, a problem for Huml’s development as most addiction therapy centers ban phones.
That changed when Hobert found herself sitting next to the Samsung representative for Walmart Inc. on a flight to Bentonville in April.
In March, Samsung had launched Freestanding Mode for its Galaxy watches — originally designed for elderly residents in nursing homes who struggled with phone connectivity.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is fantastic. You have exactly the solution we need. When can we start working together?’” Hobert said.
Seventy-five days later, Huml had a working product in hand that allowed people in treatment to use the watch, and therefore Huml’s software, without a phone.
“It was just really luck, and made me super grateful to be in Arkansas, because how many times do you get to sit next to a Samsung rep on a plane?”
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