Key Learnings From Dmitri’s Experience
- Taopatch has scored some impressive publicity from world-renowned tennis player Novak Djokovic and famous actor Robert Downey Jr. But you can’t fake your way into that kind of spotlight. You have to have a working device and the capabilities to scale. Build steady momentum, and be prepared to seize those moments of luck when they come your way.
- When it comes to market development, first identify those who are receptive to what you're doing. Examine your potential partners’ business models and look for alignment. Once you have a solid base of customers, optimize for organic growth using customer testimonials and word-of-mouth.
- Running huge clinical trials requires serious capital and resources. If you’ve already proven the safety of your device, you can use a creative strategy, like a money-back guarantee, to reach a greater audience and let their testimonials demonstrate the validity of your product.
Dmitri Leonov was on a different path before he found his way to healthtech. Upon graduating, he spent several years in investment banking and then a few more at Overture (later acquired by Yahoo). Bitten by the startup bug, he then launched Sanebox.com because he was excited to find solutions to address the growing problem of email overload to help with mental health and productivity.
Dmitri had always been interested in the wellness industry. He says, “I wanted to work on something more meaningful, especially coming from Yahoo, where we had so many really smart people focused on optimizing clicks, essentially.”
Inspired by Einstein's prophetic quote, "The future of medicine will be the medicine of frequencies," Dmitri started thinking about frequency medicine.
“If you look at the world from the quantum mechanics point of view, everything is a wave and a particle. It's a wave before it gets observed, and then it becomes a particle,” explains Dmitri. This fundamentally means we can influence things through resonance. While this might sound outlandish to someone from a traditional medicine background, Dmitri sees potential.
Driven by this fascination with the upside of frequencies, Dmitri co-founded Taopatch USA, a company offering frequency healing solutions for a wide range of imbalances. Taopatch – essentially a patch with conductor wires on it – is a patented, FDA-cleared, Class 1 medical device that merges ancient acupuncture concepts with the latest in nanotechnology and light therapy, aiming to provide a natural, non-chemical way for the body to reset and find balance.
Taopatch is like a tiny, wearable prism and mirror with embedded nanomaterials. When it’s placed on the skin, the patch captures the body’s heat, or infrared energy, and converts it into a broader spectrum of light. This light is then reflected back into the wearer’s body, targeting specific acupuncture points. “It's a combination of light therapy and acupuncture,” Dmitri explains.
Light therapy has a solid scientific foundation, with over 9,000 studies exploring its benefits for injury recovery, neurological disorders, mood enhancement, and more. Taopatch utilizes light to help the body "remember" how to communicate efficiently with itself, leading to improvements in balance, posture, sleep, focus, athletic performance, and pain relief.
The technology was first developed by Fabio Fontana, an Italian biomedical engineer who faced a debilitating injury. Desperate for relief from chronic pain, Fabio developed a form of light therapy that proved to be the only solution that offered lasting benefits for his health issues. His breakthrough was the discovery of a unique nanomaterial – quantum dots – which powers Taopatch and has been reported to help with conditions like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, pain, and fatigue.
The success of Taopatch made headlines last summer when Novak Djokovic credited it as "the biggest secret of his career." The company is now working with about 20 Olympians who will compete in the upcoming summer games.
Dmitri Leonov is the co-founder and CEO of Taopatch USA and an advisor in a number of transformative technology projects. After seven fruitful years at Overture and later at Yahoo, Dmitri dove into the startup world. He went on to found several companies, including Sanebox.com, but was intrigued by frequency medicine and started his current venture by bringing Taopatch to the United States from Italy, where it was first invented.
Build a Great Product and Luck Will Find You
Despite the fact that frequency medicine tends to raise some eyebrows, Taopatch is steadily gaining commercial traction.
Last summer, Novak Djokovic, the tennis superstar, publicly credited a small wearable device as "the biggest secret of his career." This wasn't a paid sponsorship – Taopatch had organically found its way to Djokovic through his trainer. From there, things took off. The company is now on its way to becoming a staple among athletes, currently working with over 20 Olympians.
Then Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man himself – was spotted wearing Taopatch at the Golden Globes while accepting a prestigious award. This is definitely a signal for Taopatch’s appeal to a broader audience.
So, how can you replicate this kind of exposure for your solution? Dmitri emphasizes there's no shortcut. You have to have a product that actually delivers. Then, you want to be prepared to scale with a solid business model.
Beyond that, it takes relentless effort and the ability to seize opportunities when they come. Taopatch's success stems from years of dedication, strategic connections – like the regional link to Djokovic's trainer, and staying vigilant for those moments of luck. As Dmitri puts it, "Momentum builds, and then you start to see these nice synchronicities happen. That's when luck comes your way."
How to Find Your Early Adopters
Dmitri recognizes that educating the broader market about Taopatch's technology is crucial. He mostly credits Fabio Fontana, the inventor of Taopatch, for spearheading this effort.
Fabio’s strategy was to focus on the most receptive audience: open-minded practitioners. “Finding those right partners who would be a good fit, just looking at their business model, that's step one,” Dmitri explains. In other words, you need to identify those who are receptive to what you're doing.
In Taopatch's case, acupuncturists are a natural fit. The device complements their work by allowing patients to continue a subtle yet consistent form of therapy after they leave the office. It bridges the gap between those intense acupuncture sessions with a lower-intensity frequency treatment.
For the past decade, Fabio has targeted chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and naturopaths – those who are intrinsically inclined toward holistic approaches.
Of course, “luck” plays a role too. Many of Taopatch's practitioner partnerships have blossomed organically. Satisfied customers experiencing positive results often shared their stories with their doctors. This word-of-mouth momentum is crucial in educating the market.
Bulletproof Clinical Trials: Customer Testimonials
Dmitri says, “You could run a really high-powered, pretty solid clinical study that's well-designed. But you're still going to have people poke holes in it.” But that shouldn’t stop you from moving forward with your efforts. Even if you’re not working on an atypical product, there will be critics.
Sometimes, demonstrable results with a smaller group of people can have a massive impact. Taopatch's early work with a Multiple Sclerosis patient is a prime example – immediate benefits prompted larger, year-long studies that confirmed and reinforced the initial findings.
Plus, funding is always a challenge for fledgling medtech or heatlhtech ventures. If you can't afford to fund clinical studies, focus on the dramatic improvements you can document on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Dmitri reports that Taopatch has plenty of placebo-controlled studies under their belt, along with striking "before and after" videos of patients regaining function.
"It doesn't matter what the studies say, the only study that matters is a sample of one – and that's you." Whether your product works is ultimately up to the individual. With this lens, Taopatch offered a money-back guarantee, which led to thousands of people purchasing and trying the patch on their own. Hence, the multitude of customer testimonials the company has.
Dmitri says, "Even if a device has been studied across 30,000 people, it still might not work for that one person." But if your product is safe and there's a way for people to try it risk-free, even if the study group isn't huge, those individual success stories can break through the skepticism.
Key Learnings From Dmitri’s Experience
- Taopatch has scored some impressive publicity from world-renowned tennis player Novak Djokovic and famous actor Robert Downey Jr. But you can’t fake your way into that kind of spotlight. You have to have a working device and the capabilities to scale. Build steady momentum, and be prepared to seize those moments of luck when they come your way.
- When it comes to market development, first identify those who are receptive to what you're doing. Examine your potential partners’ business models and look for alignment. Once you have a solid base of customers, optimize for organic growth using customer testimonials and word-of-mouth.
- Running huge clinical trials requires serious capital and resources. If you’ve already proven the safety of your device, you can use a creative strategy, like a money-back guarantee, to reach a greater audience and let their testimonials demonstrate the validity of your product.
Dmitri Leonov was on a different path before he found his way to healthtech. Upon graduating, he spent several years in investment banking and then a few more at Overture (later acquired by Yahoo). Bitten by the startup bug, he then launched Sanebox.com because he was excited to find solutions to address the growing problem of email overload to help with mental health and productivity.
Dmitri had always been interested in the wellness industry. He says, “I wanted to work on something more meaningful, especially coming from Yahoo, where we had so many really smart people focused on optimizing clicks, essentially.”
Inspired by Einstein's prophetic quote, "The future of medicine will be the medicine of frequencies," Dmitri started thinking about frequency medicine.
“If you look at the world from the quantum mechanics point of view, everything is a wave and a particle. It's a wave before it gets observed, and then it becomes a particle,” explains Dmitri. This fundamentally means we can influence things through resonance. While this might sound outlandish to someone from a traditional medicine background, Dmitri sees potential.
Driven by this fascination with the upside of frequencies, Dmitri co-founded Taopatch USA, a company offering frequency healing solutions for a wide range of imbalances. Taopatch – essentially a patch with conductor wires on it – is a patented, FDA-cleared, Class 1 medical device that merges ancient acupuncture concepts with the latest in nanotechnology and light therapy, aiming to provide a natural, non-chemical way for the body to reset and find balance.
Taopatch is like a tiny, wearable prism and mirror with embedded nanomaterials. When it’s placed on the skin, the patch captures the body’s heat, or infrared energy, and converts it into a broader spectrum of light. This light is then reflected back into the wearer’s body, targeting specific acupuncture points. “It's a combination of light therapy and acupuncture,” Dmitri explains.
Light therapy has a solid scientific foundation, with over 9,000 studies exploring its benefits for injury recovery, neurological disorders, mood enhancement, and more. Taopatch utilizes light to help the body "remember" how to communicate efficiently with itself, leading to improvements in balance, posture, sleep, focus, athletic performance, and pain relief.
The technology was first developed by Fabio Fontana, an Italian biomedical engineer who faced a debilitating injury. Desperate for relief from chronic pain, Fabio developed a form of light therapy that proved to be the only solution that offered lasting benefits for his health issues. His breakthrough was the discovery of a unique nanomaterial – quantum dots – which powers Taopatch and has been reported to help with conditions like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, pain, and fatigue.
The success of Taopatch made headlines last summer when Novak Djokovic credited it as "the biggest secret of his career." The company is now working with about 20 Olympians who will compete in the upcoming summer games.
Dmitri Leonov is the co-founder and CEO of Taopatch USA and an advisor in a number of transformative technology projects. After seven fruitful years at Overture and later at Yahoo, Dmitri dove into the startup world. He went on to found several companies, including Sanebox.com, but was intrigued by frequency medicine and started his current venture by bringing Taopatch to the United States from Italy, where it was first invented.
Build a Great Product and Luck Will Find You
Despite the fact that frequency medicine tends to raise some eyebrows, Taopatch is steadily gaining commercial traction.
Last summer, Novak Djokovic, the tennis superstar, publicly credited a small wearable device as "the biggest secret of his career." This wasn't a paid sponsorship – Taopatch had organically found its way to Djokovic through his trainer. From there, things took off. The company is now on its way to becoming a staple among athletes, currently working with over 20 Olympians.
Then Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man himself – was spotted wearing Taopatch at the Golden Globes while accepting a prestigious award. This is definitely a signal for Taopatch’s appeal to a broader audience.
So, how can you replicate this kind of exposure for your solution? Dmitri emphasizes there's no shortcut. You have to have a product that actually delivers. Then, you want to be prepared to scale with a solid business model.
Beyond that, it takes relentless effort and the ability to seize opportunities when they come. Taopatch's success stems from years of dedication, strategic connections – like the regional link to Djokovic's trainer, and staying vigilant for those moments of luck. As Dmitri puts it, "Momentum builds, and then you start to see these nice synchronicities happen. That's when luck comes your way."
How to Find Your Early Adopters
Dmitri recognizes that educating the broader market about Taopatch's technology is crucial. He mostly credits Fabio Fontana, the inventor of Taopatch, for spearheading this effort.
Fabio’s strategy was to focus on the most receptive audience: open-minded practitioners. “Finding those right partners who would be a good fit, just looking at their business model, that's step one,” Dmitri explains. In other words, you need to identify those who are receptive to what you're doing.
In Taopatch's case, acupuncturists are a natural fit. The device complements their work by allowing patients to continue a subtle yet consistent form of therapy after they leave the office. It bridges the gap between those intense acupuncture sessions with a lower-intensity frequency treatment.
For the past decade, Fabio has targeted chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and naturopaths – those who are intrinsically inclined toward holistic approaches.
Of course, “luck” plays a role too. Many of Taopatch's practitioner partnerships have blossomed organically. Satisfied customers experiencing positive results often shared their stories with their doctors. This word-of-mouth momentum is crucial in educating the market.
Bulletproof Clinical Trials: Customer Testimonials
Dmitri says, “You could run a really high-powered, pretty solid clinical study that's well-designed. But you're still going to have people poke holes in it.” But that shouldn’t stop you from moving forward with your efforts. Even if you’re not working on an atypical product, there will be critics.
Sometimes, demonstrable results with a smaller group of people can have a massive impact. Taopatch's early work with a Multiple Sclerosis patient is a prime example – immediate benefits prompted larger, year-long studies that confirmed and reinforced the initial findings.
Plus, funding is always a challenge for fledgling medtech or heatlhtech ventures. If you can't afford to fund clinical studies, focus on the dramatic improvements you can document on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Dmitri reports that Taopatch has plenty of placebo-controlled studies under their belt, along with striking "before and after" videos of patients regaining function.
"It doesn't matter what the studies say, the only study that matters is a sample of one – and that's you." Whether your product works is ultimately up to the individual. With this lens, Taopatch offered a money-back guarantee, which led to thousands of people purchasing and trying the patch on their own. Hence, the multitude of customer testimonials the company has.
Dmitri says, "Even if a device has been studied across 30,000 people, it still might not work for that one person." But if your product is safe and there's a way for people to try it risk-free, even if the study group isn't huge, those individual success stories can break through the skepticism.
