Who Helped You Start Up? Featuring Pneumeric

Startups from all sectors often face many obstacles on their journeys to commercialization, but medical-technology startups often encounter additional challenges before achieving success. To better understand the collective community effort required for one company’s growth, Launch Minnesota asked grantee Pneumeric, Inc. : “Who helped you start up?”

Johnathon Aho is the inventor, CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Pneumeric, a Rochester-based company creating a device to aid in the visual detection of tension pneumothorax. This condition occurs when a collapsed lung leaks air into the space between the lung and chest wall. If not treated immediately, tension pneumothorax has a 100% fatality rate.

Pneumeric’s device, Capnospot, provides immediate visual feedback that the needle decompression procedure to reverse tension pneumothorax was successful.

Johnathon told Launch Minnesota that several organizations and many individuals helped Pneumeric get started, including Medical Alley , Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI) and the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF).

Pneumeric also competed in the life science division of the 2022 Minnesota Cup , and was awarded “Best Greater Minnesota Startup” by the Carlson Family Foundation, and “Best Company from Southern Minnesota” by SMIF.

Additionally, Pneumeric received support from several people at Mayo Clinic . The company also got engineering and manufacturing assistance from a half-dozen individuals from across the region.

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