Hear IT Up LLC | Application Preview
Hear IT Up LLC is seeking government grants to fund the development of its online hearing test software, enhance its website, and improve advertising efforts, while also providing salaries for an operations and business manager and purchasing additional computers.
The business aims to broaden its platform to sell, fit, and service hearing aids, striving to make affordable hearing care accessible to more individuals. They plan to conduct market testing with various groups, such as caregivers and employers, to promote their brand.
The proposal outlines the urgent need for improved hearing healthcare services due to the aging population in the U.S., where those over 65 are expected to make up nearly a quarter of the population by 2050. This demographic shift will lead to an increased demand for hearing health services, yet the supply of audiologists is projected to decline due to high retirement rates. This gap highlights a pressing public health challenge, especially in rural areas where healthcare access is particularly limited.
The company emphasizes that telehealth and automated hearing assessment tools can address this shortage by making hearing tests more accessible. The recent OTC Hearing Aid Act enables individuals to purchase hearing aids without a licensed professional, allowing for greater independence. However, challenges remain, including cost, access to services, and awareness of hearing loss.
In terms of competition, Hear IT Up sets itself apart from traditional audiologists with significantly lower prices and a personalized remote care model. Their in-house audiologist customizes hearing devices according to individual needs, ensuring customers receive adequate training and support. With a strong founding team that includes experienced professionals from audiology, marketing, and technology, Hear IT Up is well-positioned to tackle the barriers to effective hearing care and improve outcomes for its customers.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 84-3289614
Location: Hudson, WI, United States
Length of Operation: 1
Number of Employees:
Annual Gross Income:
Annual Gross Expense:
Open to Loans: NO
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Funding Usage
Our team would like to use the funding for Software development of our online hearing test, web development of our website, advertising and promotion to drive sales, pay an operations manager and a business manager and to buy more computers
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Business Plan
Our Hear IT UP Team plans to further develop our business plan. We would like to develop more fully our web base platform to sell, fit and service hearing aids to a broader base of people to bring affordable hearing care to more people. We would like to test market different subsets of users including caregivers, insurance plans, employers and assistive living facilities to be promoters for our brand. Business Proposal: Older people are a rapidly growing proportion of the world’s population in the US alone. The Census Bureau projects that individuals about the age of 65 will comprise nearly one quarter of the population by the year 2050.(He et al 2016). This projected increase presents many opportunities but also several public health challenges, because there will be a growing need to address age-related chronic health conditions. Hearing loss is on top of these chronic disabilities. Workforce analysis has indicated that the need for hearing health care services will outweigh availability. According to Windmill and Freeman (2013), the need for full-time audiologists entering the workforce will increase by 50- 100% between 2011- 2040. A compounding problem is that early retirement in this profession is high. Approximately 40% of Audiologists who graduated between 1984 and 1993 have already retired (Windmill and Freeman 2013). If 40% attrition rate continues, a negative growth rate for Audiology in the US can be predicted over the next 30 years. A potential decline in the number of practicing Audiologists combined with the growing population of older adults contributed to a smaller capacity of audiologists to provide necessary services over the next several decades ( Margolis and Morgan,2008; Windmill and Freeman, 2013). Therefore there is a need to address and improve access and delivery of hearing health-care services to facilitate healthy aging in this growing portion of the population (WHO,2013; Davis et al 2016). The statistics are staggering, with the estimated number of people with a hearing loss expected to increase by 30 million by 2060. People in rural areas are even more desperate for healthcare/ hearing care services. Seventy -seven million people in the US live in designated health professional shortage areas with 62 percent in rural areas and 31 percent in non rural areas ( Health resources and services administration 2019) shortages in health -care professionals prevent access to timely care. Access limits are further exacerbated by a lack of basic insurance coverage ( institute of Medicine 2009) . Telehealth , or the use of medical information exchange from one site to another thTelehealth is not a separate specialty but rather a method for delivering earth care and if implemented well, can be a great equalizer in access to medical care across the population. rough electronic communications to improve a patient’s health (american. Telemedicine association ) is a powerful tool for delivering cost -effective access to state of the art medical expertise. Should these estimated trends in the US be indicative of the global trends, then hearing health care planning needs to be addressed globally. One way to address the shortage of audiology is to use self - assessment technologies such as the development of automated hearing assessment tools (wanepoel ND hALL, 20010, Swasepoel et al 2014). Internet -based hearing screening using computers and mobile technology make hearing testing more accessible to the general public. There are limitations along with their reduced cost benefits being that testing is being done in an uncontrolled acoustic environment and make it difficult to ensure and maintain appropriate background noise levels and calibrated sound systems. The 2017 Over the counter (OTC ) Hearing Aid Act (US Congress,2018) is a manifestation of the decoupling of the traditional linear service-delivery model. This legislation is intended to allow individuals with hearing loss to buy devices without first consulting a licensed professional. A person with hearing loss may choose this approach for many reasons, including having more independence in their hearing care and to be able to dabble with hearing devices from the comforts of home and to be able to pay only for the specific services they use at that point in time. Hearing loss of 25dB is equal to 7 years of ageing. People with hearing loss have a 32% faster rate of cognitive decline. Barriers to hearing health care. Cost Access to services Awareness and understanding of their hearing loss. With our website we can confront these barriers. In short, we are solving a big problem!
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Self Identified Competition
Our Top competitors for hearing aids are conventional Audiologist, whos services and products have a big price tag, nearly 3 times what Hear IT Up sells them for, and other online hearing dispensing websites such as Audicus and Lively hearing. Hear It Up prides itself on the personalized remote hearing care. Our inhouse Audiologist programs the hearing devices to the customers loss to provide the best hearing outcome for them. After the Hearing aids are delivered our staff makes sure they are comfortable with all the information and skills that have to be learned when getting a new device such as putting it in the ear, cleaning it, changing a battery and adjusting it. We are all so there when and if the device malfunctions. We offer a 30 day moneyback guarantee if the customer is not happy. We have perfected our fitting and informational dissemination to customer with our two kiosk locations. in western Wisconsin. Our team of four founders includes an Audiologist with 17 years experience, a MBA Marketing professional , a medical product field sales person and a computer science professional with information security background and app development.
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