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Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

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Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#1

Post by KeenanKeenan »

The social impact of a better and more affordable hearing aid would be immense. Especially since the social isolation of hearing loss takes such a devastating toll on one's social life. And it's there's interesting technical challenges that have to be solved. Mainly packing as much digital signal processing onto a very low compute environment.

As someone with hearing loss, it's sad to see promising startups like Whisper.AI leave the market. There should be dozens of hearing aid startups out there. Where are they?

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#3

Post by iamblue »

Hello, my name is Blue. I am also severely hearing loss. We have developed hearing aids, but we are currently only sold in Taiwan. Other countries will start selling them this year(FDA approved). If you are interested, you can follow otoadd (https://otoadd.com/index-en.html)

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#5

Post by methodical »

Cost of entry is immense. As with anything medical or food and drug related, there are large (and expensive) obstacles to hurdle before any product can enter the market. It's a rather difficult market to get into without a large amount of capital at your disposal.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#6

Post by echelon »

methodical wrote: post #5

Cost of entry is immense. As with anything medical or food and drug related, there are large (and expensive) obstacles to hurdle before any product can enter the market. It's a rather difficult market to get into without a large amount of capital at your disposal.

> Cost of entry is immense. As with anything medical or food and drug related, there are large (and expensive) obstacles to hurdle before any product can enter the market.

What about not using the US as the launch market?

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#7

Post by methodical »

echelon wrote: post #6
methodical wrote: post #5

Cost of entry is immense. As with anything medical or food and drug related, there are large (and expensive) obstacles to hurdle before any product can enter the market. It's a rather difficult market to get into without a large amount of capital at your disposal.

> Cost of entry is immense. As with anything medical or food and drug related, there are large (and expensive) obstacles to hurdle before any product can enter the market. What about not using the US as the launch market?

The US is probably the worst launch market. The FDA regulates hearing aids so any new product would have to go through the FDA validation process, which is expensive.

Edit: I may have misread your comment, my apologies! I'm only loosely familiar with the US regulation on this matter and completely unfamiliar with other countries' regulations but I'd find it hard to believe there's any country more expensive to launch in for a medical device than the US, so for the OP I'd agree with you that the US should probably be a later market to target.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't there more hearing aid startups?

#10

Post by methodical »

iamblue wrote: post #3

Hello, my name is Blue. I am also severely hearing loss. We have developed hearing aids, but we are currently only sold in Taiwan. Other countries will start selling them this year(FDA approved). If you are interested, you can follow otoadd ( https://otoadd.com/index-en.html )

Out of curiosity, what made you target Taiwan first? Was it a geographical reason, or was it because of regulatory reasons?
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