An IoT posture seat and app deliver real-time feedback, a posture score, and tailored exercises anywhere you sit.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews William Choi, Co-Founder & CEO of Neurabody. William explains how Neurabody’s sensor-equipped posture seat and AI app create a smart ergonomic experience—tracking posture, scoring it, and prescribing personalized exercises. He shares the company’s mission to reduce global back pain by making better sitting accessible at work, in transit, and for gamers.
About Neurabody
Neurabody is pioneering the future of digital ergonomics – fusing smart ergonomic hardware, AI coaching, and SaaS analytics to transform sitting into a health and performance advantage. Their solutions deliver measurable outcomes with 30%+ posture improvement, 72% pain reduction, and 10%+ productivity gains. Trusted by global partners including Samsung, LG, and AXA across corporate, wellness, and esports.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I’m in Los Angeles, California and I’m at the Health Span Summit.
Lemme tell you, Elias and his team have put on an amazing two day event, and my next guest is William. William, welcome to the show. Thank you very much, Adam. I really appreciate the invitation and being, hopefully being able to be really productive in terms of information. Amazing. So what brings you out to the conference today?
So basically Brad, like, you know, he, he said, Hey, this is a conference that would be really important. Mm-hmm. And, you know, for, to really. You know have an audience in the United States. Mm-hmm. And so I figured, okay, I’m on my way to Europe and, and Dubai. Yeah. And so I figured, you know, this kind of worked in perfectly and I’m really glad I came.
Mm-hmm. You know, just, just really great innovation out there. Yeah. In terms of longevity and yeah. I met a lot of really great people. So talk to me a little bit more about your company and product. Sure. So basically what we do as a company we are what we, we’ve built and we are built still building an iot platform mm-hmm.
That solves the back problem with ai mm-hmm. And embedded sensors in our posture correcting devices that are backed by doctors. Mm-hmm. And so basically this is a, one of our flagship products, the one that’s commercially ready at the moment. And basically what it does is that we’re fusing ergonomic design as a hardware that’s linked, that’s fused together with software, and the AI is able to provide that personalization.
Mm-hmm. And it’s all coming into one in order to help people to understand and as well as to receive really meaningful data based on their. Personal data mm-hmm. Performance. How’d you come up with this idea? Like, where did that start? So, I suffer from back pain for many, many years. Mm. It’s just, you know, it’s, you’re just busy all the time and, mm-hmm.
You know, and you know, of course I go try and go for treatments like chiropractic and physical therapy. Mm-hmm. And it works, but sometimes it just, in my busy life, it’s just kind of hard to get out there. Yeah. You know, and then when you know, you feel really good and then you get back into it.
Mm-hmm. And you gotta go back for treatment again. And then you have these FDA-approved products that’s sort of big and bulky and you gotta use them in a controlled environment. Yeah. And then you have the, these other wearables. They’re sort of limited in their, in their usage. And as well as that, you know, it is sort of expected for the person to be, to integrate into the hardware and the hardware’s actually completely useless.
Mm-hmm. And so and so being a back pain sufferer myself and just trying all these different different solutions really wasn’t working. And really the pivoting point came when my wife. And and, and she’s really, she’s a busy entrepreneur as well. Is that on that our 10th year anniversary when we’re supposed to be traveling she ended up in a wheelchair.
Oh no. Because of a back issue that just kind of, just all of a sudden and then she, yeah, we spent pretty much the the entire trip with her in the wheelchair and lying down. Oh. So that’s when, that’s when really started thinking about, you know, we need to get back and really. Try these different things.
Mm-hmm. And it just wasn’t working. And that’s when we decided, okay, we’re going to we, well, we did try to find other solutions and I did one major investment into a into a, a back products company that actually kind of worked. And that’s when I got the idea is, you know, why don’t we put like these really great, technologies, like sensor technologies, you know? Yeah. And then turn them into smart products. Hmm. And that’s really where the idea came from. How did you know, like when you were developing the product, how did you know that this was gonna be like a serious thing? Like not something that you were just going to create to kind of like, help yourself, help your wife, but you’re like, you know, going down as an entrepreneur, going down that rabbit hole or whatever you wanna call it, and then you’re like, okay, this is something that can help a lot of people.
Well, yeah. I mean, I, I, you know, just when. You know I was involved with a poster products business. Mm. And so when I was introducing these products into my market, which is Asia. Mm-hmm. I live, I live in South Korea and so, you know, I was in 23 department stores, you know, we’re at home shopping and so you kind of know what works, right?
Yeah. And especially being a back pain sufferer yourself. And then when people are responding to these different products, then you, you kind of know that, you know, when you’re not the only one and it’s a 1.5 trillion. Dollar global pain market. Mm-hmm. Right. I mean, the cost to economy, even in the United States is about 400 billion by itself.
Absenteeism, you know, it’s the number one cause. Well, number two reason for absenteeism, number one, cause of disability worldwide is back pain. And, you know and now, you know, with with children, you know mm-hmm. One in three. Children before they hit the age of 15 are gonna be suffering from back pain.
Wow. You know, so you know, with this advent of sedentary lifestyle Yeah. Sitting as a new smoking, all this stuff coming up, I, I consider it sort of like a global silent killer. Yeah. Right. You know, it, it’s just no one really talks about it. No one really understands Yeah. Why you get into it. I mean. You could cookie cut the whole thing and say, you know what, it’s only because you’re sitting for eight to 10 hours.
That’s the reason why you have back pain. Yeah. But what kind of sitting are you doing? Are you an airline pilot? Are you truck driver? Are you office worker? And also the different types of pain that comes from that. Mm-hmm. You know, so knowing that there’s a lot of different products out there, I just wanted to build products that really help people immediately.
Mm. And then being able to put you know make. Have technology built into those already well-designed products, right? Mm. So we’re not really reinventing the wheel, but at the same time we’re sort of bringing all the best of everything. Yeah. And building a brand new category. Yeah. In building a category.
Well, first off, I know you mentioned you were an entrepreneur now, and you were working in posture and working in back were you working in creating like, like tech, like this in the past too? Was that part of your background as well? Yeah, so I’m, I’m a technologist. Mm-hmm. Right. But I’m not an engineer.
Yeah. Right. But the thing is though, is that I do a lot of different inventions, I guess you could say. You know, just having ideas, knowing that Yeah. You know, that there’s a, there’s a demand out there. And then I, I find really the great partners that mm-hmm. I, I, you know, that will help to make those inventions come to life.
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And so I’m, I guess you could say I’m a builder. Yeah. You know, and I’m always willing to work with people and you know. Being ha having other partners and working together with other partners is really interesting. Mm. And, and, and, and, and you’re really building something together.
Yeah. And yeah, that’s really basically what it is. And, and you know, like I suffer from back pain. I’m here I am, you know, I try to find these different products and I did this investment and then I helped. Grow Asia, and then all of a sudden, you know, you start to get the epiphany and you’re say, Hey, you know, because I live in South Korea, right?
Yeah. So I live in Seoul. I am Canadian. Mm-hmm. Born born in Toronto, raised in Vancouver, but, you know I was placed, you know, I, by destiny, I guess you could say, yeah, I started my career at pwc. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, just my life story kind of goes from there. And then, you know, just, you know, being a back pain sufferer and then making those investments and then being a part of that and seeing what, what goes, what’s right and what’s wrong.
Right. And learning from that, and then you’re cons, and then you just sort of have this idea and you’re trying to introduce it and they’re not gonna do it. So I decided to do it myself. Yeah. So talk, go a little bit further into, for those that are at home and haven’t had and, and don’t have the opportunity to try one of these.
Yeah. Talk about like what, what this, what need this fills and how it’s helping people with back pain, like specifically. Yeah. So, that’s a really loaded question because a lot of people suffer from different types of back pain. Of course Uhhuh. I would say if you’re talking more like in terms of who would need it, it’s really, there’s two types of people, those that are suffering from it mm-hmm.
And those that wanna prevent it from happening. Yeah. Right. So I think with this this at, you know, this trend of longevity and, and people wanting to be, be better in their health. Yeah. I think that sort of, this falls into that sort of category and everybody knows someone that has. Back pain. Yeah.
That suffers from it. Mm-hmm. Right. So the market, in terms of customer, customers right, are obviously those that suffer from it, but those that want to prevent it from happening mm-hmm. And those that don’t suffer from it are gonna suffer from someday. Yeah. Right. Or something’s gonna happen. Right? Mm-hmm.
It’s just, that’s the way it is, right. I mean, yeah. You know, you know, 90% or 80% of, of the population of adult population mm-hmm. You know, suffer from it. And then yeah. So what was the second question? So how does this work? Oh, okay. Yes. And then just, you know, that’s And just for some context Sure. So, you know, somebody’s driving in their car right now.
Yeah. Somebody’s somebody’s at the gym, they can’t see what you’re holding up. Right. So how does it work? Yeah. So basically what it does is that, so it looks really simple. So describe it. Yeah. So basically it’s it’s a posture correcting device by itself. Mm-hmm. Right? So you could see that. And it’s like a seat, right?
Seat. So somebody sits in it. It, exactly, exactly. Okay. So what you do is you just place it on. So this seat right here turns any seat, any chair. Mm-hmm. Anything you sit on mm-hmm. Into a smart, ergonomic experience. Yeah. Right. And what it does is that it’s, it’s got, it’s elevated to give you that pelvic tilt.
Mm-hmm. So when you sit on it. It elevates your pelvic muscles into your natural spine position. Mm-hmm. Right? And then has embedded sensors inside of them, right? Mm-hmm. That’s connected to your mobile app, where now users are able to now monitor and analyze a good and bad posture throughout the day, and then through that data.
Yeah. Then the, then our AI kicks in and tells you. Very specific exercise and programs that are customized just for you. Yeah. Right. And I would describe it as like, what would you say? Like an upside down, like a upside down turtle shell kind of, yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, I guess when you put it this way, you know.
Yeah. It’s So if you turn, well, no. Sit down. Sit down. Oh, yeah. Because people, people at home are, they can’t see you if they’re listening. Oh, okay. Only So right now we’re recording for video. Okay. But there’s a whole nother audience that we’re not gonna be able to see. So that’s why. Okay. Redescribe it. Oh, oh yeah.
Gotcha. So it looks like an upside down turtle shell. Okay. Yeah, yeah, actually. So when you, when you flip it, it looks like a turtle. Yep. And then, but actually when you, when you turn it the other way, or, or a potato chip, like you’re sitting in a, maybe you’re sitting a pringo chip almost. I would say it’s kind like a bucket.
You know what I mean? Oh, there you go. It’s like, it’s just imagine like a, like a half a bucket. Yeah, yeah. You know, a potato chip. I think that, I think potato chip looks pretty good. Yeah. It’s like almost like you’re sitting in a, in a, in a potato chip. And that’s just for people that are listening at home.
So you’re kind of like sitting in that. And I sat on it earlier, by the way, so you kind of are sitting in this potato chip. Yeah. And they gave me this feeling of like wanting to balance. Yeah. Like maybe go there, like, and I saw the app. Yeah. So the potato chips concept is actually really good. Mm-hmm. And you can imagine that when your, when your butt falls into it Yep.
Right. It kind of gives you that nice little snug Yeah. Right. It kind of captures your, your, your, your, your buttocks. Mm-hmm. Right. And it kind of gives it that little pelvic lift by itself because it’s angled, 15 degree angled this way. Mm-hmm. Right. So when you sit on it, then you feel the immediate effect of it.
Yeah. Lifting your pelvic off of the. Chair. Mm-hmm. Right. So it’s basically floating your spine. Yeah. Right. And so when you’re sitting on that, then you’re activating the sensors inside of it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. So the, the pressure sensors, right. And then and then with the Bluetooth, then Yeah. Gets connected to your mobile app, right?
Yeah. So yeah. And, and, and gimme some of the functionality for, so that was in the app. ’cause I noticed when I was scrolling through it, like there’s many different things and it’s recording, right? Yep. So yeah, so we try to keep it really simple. So in order not to overwhelm the the user, yeah. Right?
So we give you a posture score. So it’s kinda like what Fitbit does in terms of, you know, trying to achieve 10,000 steps, right? So you wanna achieve 80% of. Of good posture. Oh, wow. Okay. Mm-hmm. And then it gives you, that’s pretty cool then. So then you could tell like, day by day, ’cause I mean, what’s the best that I, that you can normally do without a device like this?
You could say I think I feel like I was doing, or, or you could catch yourself slouching and be like, try to straighten up or by yourself. That that’s what I mean. Like you’re not Yeah. It’s basically you can’t, you can’t, you can’t. Well, the thing is, when you’re sitting, you’re concentrating on something, right.
Either a conversation or your work or whatever. Yeah. So you catch yourself later when it’s. Starts to hurt. Exactly. When it starts to hurt, that’s when you straighten back up like, oh, I better fix my posture. That’s right. That’s right. But you can’t possibly just sit there and lay. Yeah. So now, yeah. Well, so now this, this is the point we’ll do it for you is that it can tell you and you can tell if you’re making progress over time.
Exactly. Exactly. And actually subconsciously your body. It could because of the activation of your pelvic tilt. That makes so much sense. What happens is that the neur pathways between your brain and your spine are talking to each other. Yeah. So you don’t have to think about it. It automatically just, your body is talking to each other anyway, so subconsciously Yeah.
You, you get into that postural elevated postural natural, yeah. You know, alignment. Then possibly that your, your brain is also, for those of you that are gamers and like to hit scores. Oh, there you. Thinking about it. Yeah. And then you’re programming your subconscious for your score. Yeah, that’s right.
Well, I mean, that’s the thing, gamers, like that’s the thing, if you’re a gamer Yeah. Then you’re thinking about your score even when you don’t think you’re thinking about your score. That’s right. That’s right. And a lot of elite eSports players Yeah. That we’re working with today. Yeah. You know, they, you know, they, they would tell us, you know, or even the team managers Yeah.
You know, they’re, they’re, they’re so focused on their work and we all relate to this ’cause we mm-hmm. We’re focused on when we’re sitting For sure. You know, and they lose cons. You know, depending, everyone has a different postural form they’ll fall into. Yeah, exactly. And they’re young normally when they start.
So not to, you know, they’re gonna be young, so they fall. Phone average age, the average age of retirement for gamers, usually about 21. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Dang on, on the elite level, right? Yeah. So yeah, if we could extended it for another year or two, you know, of course they, you know, but they have to focus on, it’s the number one, the, the, the, the lack of posture is the number one cause of retirement, and the second is the risk.
Interesting. The risk, is it really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t know that posture, it literally breaks down their body. It does. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so that’d be like, so now, and it’s number one claim on insurance, on a lot of insurance policies as well. I mean, it’s just that like, again, you know, people don’t know this, right?
Yeah. Until they actually experience it themselves, you know, when it becomes personal. So use cases for this. So office we’re talking about gamers, obviously. Yep. But like office car, like talk, talk to me about use cases anywhere where you’re. Butt sits. Yeah. Is where you’re gonna need the seat. So I’m flying out literally to Luxembourg in about four hours from now.
Mm. Right. And I need this seat ’cause I’m gonna be on that plane for about 11. Oh, so you that fits in a plane seat? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Basically what I like to say is that it turns my economy seat, you know, into a business. Oh, I just flew in from Singapore. So you’re saying I need one of those. Yeah, well it’s five milligrams.
How do, how do you get to, it’s not heavy. It’s okay to get through like a airport. They’re not gonna be like, Hey, what’s that? You got there? No, all I mean, one time, well, you know, I have a story behind that. When US Customs, you know, being a Canadian you, he is like, what is that? You know? No, you got Canadian passport.
They’re like, he’s fine. Let him through. Let him through. He is got Canadian passport. It’s okay. We don’t care. That’s cool. Yeah. And so I call it the bucket seat, you know, I just say, Hey, it’s a. You know, so the potato chip concept? Yeah. Yeah. I call, you know, I used to call it the bucket seat, but now I guess that’s what I’ll describe it as now.
So thanks a lot, Adam for that. Oh, good. Reminding me of how to describe it. Yeah. Awesome. I’m not showing it around. All good. Well, William, first off, it’s been great avenue on the show. Last thing I want you to do, look into the camera. How do people follow up? How do they learn? How do they get a device? Well, you could you could take, go to our website at www dot neuro body.
Dot ai, N-E-U-R-A-B-O-D y.ai. And if you reach out to us you know, on the contact form there as well. Mm-hmm. And as well, if you want to get a discount, you could the discount code is nera. Sit A 30 N-E-U-R-A. SIT 30 and you get your 30% off off the off the seat for your audience.
Awesome. And for everybody at home watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some links in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button in William Man. It’s been a blast. Likewise. Thank you very much, Adam. Appreciate it.
