We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jena Rangnow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jena below.
Alright, Jena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Beam Wellness emerged from a unique background and personal wellness triumph intertwined with my fascination for innovation and caring for my grandmother during her debilitating battle with arthritis.
2019 – The story all started when I worked as a marketing professional for a Dallas Based medical spa, It’s A Secret Med Spa, that offered red light therapy as a facial service; while designing a marketing campaign, I researched benefits and found a slew of peer-reviewed research saying light at specific wavelengths has a variety of benefits categorized in the medical community as “low risk and high potential for impact.” I delved into the world of light therapy in my early 20s but found the options available for body light therapy inconvenient, expensive, and unobtainable to me.
During this time in my life, I was struggling personally and was crippled with health anxiety (hypochondriac) and saw my primary physician TWICE a month per year. Every ache and pain I would assume was a death note – I later came to find out this irrational fear is all too common. In search of a proactive treatment that made me mentally and physically feel better, I purchased a 12-inch x 12-inch panel for $100 (a splurge for me at the time) and sat in front of it daily. At the time, weighted blankets were trending, and I also owned a heated blanket – so I searched for a light therapy blanket, which did not exist. BlankEmit was born (in my notes app, at least).
2020 – I entered the MBA program at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and sought out every rearouse I could. I emailed every member of the leadership at the SMU engineering school and met with them; thank you, Selth Osborn and Duncan Mcfarlan. They connected me with a manufacturing legend, Moe Maghami, who has become a personal friend and an undergraduate engineering student who volunteered at the DIG. I then designed and soldered the “low fidelity” prototype, a washcloth with LEDs at the DIG.
My boyfriend, a medical doctor and prior researcher, helped me comb through all of the available research around light therapy, and we decided on the two most impactful wavelengths – 660 nm and 850 nm- used in our Beam Blanket. Another theme arose from the literature review: light therapy is only effective with daily and consistent use – current options in the market do not serve.
Fall 2021 – I applied to be on the SMU Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (CGEC) leadership team as the event planner. Through this experience, I gave away SO much of my time. I volunteered at every event I could and attended every conference and networking event. My life became one of school and service – all while running a small marketing agency that catered to independent aesthetic providers (who are Beam customers to this day) to pay my bills and feed myself. However, I later learned that giving my time away paid dividends. I volunteered at the sign-in table for a pitch day at Health Wildcatters, a globally recognized early-stage healthcare accelerator. Through this, I met many investors, founders, and, notably, the Health Wildcatter team.
SMU offers many unique experiences; another is the Venture Practicum led by John Terry (a legendary VC/PE professional), which embeds SMU MBA students into local Dallas VC/PE firms for the semester. Though my undergraduate degree was in public relations and I had to attack a steep learning curve in financial modeling and accounting, I applied. There are less than 20 accepted applicants, and thanks to a previous CGEC leader, mentor, and friend of mine, Annable Reeves, she encouraged me to apply and wrote me a letter of recommendation. To my surprise, I was accepted.
I was placed with RevTech Ventures, an early-stage retail technology firm, and was lucky to have met David Matthews, Lindsay Lightmet, Stewart Matthews, and Taylar Gomez. I spent the semester giving my all, setting in on deal flow, sifting through pitch decks, and helping with due diligence. I will never forget when David Matthews asked me if I knew what a convertible note was…. At the time, I had no idea; now, as a founder fundraising, I had one drafted. RevTech and the community there became another integral part of our story.
Fall 2022 – Through the encouragement of the CGEC president, Valencia Harris, I submitted my business plan for “BlankEmit” at the time; now Beam – get it Blanket – emits? I thought it was clever, but the feedback was different. People would ask who is Emit? Is this a German word? This inspired a later rebrand. Anyway, I submitted my plan to the SMU Business Accelerator Program (BAP), which happens to be hosted by the Entrepreneurship Club I was a leader in and participated in 2 pitch competions— The BAP is a nine-month-long intensive with weekly workshops and access to mentors and events featuring two pitch competitions. The first competition was the BAP Elevator Pitch Competition, where I presented a weird rendition of my original idea that had been washed through by many different advisors whose opinions I took as law; I ended up pitching an idea for my Blanket to be a medical device (knowing what I know now, that was a far stretch). I lost.
This loss made me hungry and focused. I was blessed to raise a small sum from the 3 Fs (friends, family, and fools) – I am partially joking, but in the startup world, that is what we call this stage that assumes extreme risk. With this investment, I hired an engineering team to make the second large-scale prototype. I continued to the second round of the competition, thinking that if I could show the judges the product, it would be a no-brainer winner.
Spring 2023 – The night before the big competition with $50K in non dilutive finding on the line – A night I will remember forever – my partner (thank God for his support) drove me to a small town outside of Waco to pick up the prototype I was planning on showing at the competition – as with any innovation it seems, the development took twice as long as anticipated, and we were down to the pun intended, wire. We met the engineer at an iHop, who graciously let us use one of their booths to finish assembling and testing the Blanket.
I stood outside under the flickering street light, practicing my pitch over and over again and envisioning success,
At the pitch competition, I was nervous but excited. I was able to hit all of my points and even throw in improv. However, I was disappointed when I did not win at the awards ceremony. I truly felt the lows of entrepreneurship at this moment and wondered if it was an event worth pursuing. This was one of those weeks where it is hard to get out of bed. I felt defeated, incompetent, incapable, stupid.
July 4, 2022 – My late grandmother’s birthday came. Witnessing hee battle with arthritis and subsequent decline had an impact on me.
The story of my Nana: My grandmother, like many elderly individuals, was taken from a nursing home to a nursing home as my family was unable to care for her at home. She encountered a new therapist and eventually became resistant to therapy or traditional treatments. She lay in bed all day, and then COVID struck in 2020, making physical therapy virtually impossible. My grandmother continued to lie in bed – and this became a death spiral. She quickly subcame to the restrictive pain of her aggressive arthritis, making her immobile and rendering her bedbound where she lay until her passing in Fall of 2020. On her birthday, I was reminded of her story and so many others stories.
I was wishing I had taken action sooner and that maybe if my nana could have lie in her hospital bed day after day under a light therapy blanket, even reducing her pain and inflammation by a fraction of a point, my family would have been able to spend a few more cherished moments with her.
This awakening insisted that I preserve – and with a background in marketing in medical aesthetics and my undeniable passion I was able to confidently realize that I had, what we called in MBA class, “domain expertise.” I took action.
I requested a meeting with the managing director of Health Wildcatters (HW), Hubert Zajicek, whom I had known from seeing him speak on panels, seeing his name on the TV and at every big event at SMU. He accepted my meeting. After our meeting, I received an email from Lindsey Settles, the operations manager inviting me to apply and pitch for acceptance into the HW 11th cohort in Fall of 2023.
To my surprise, after all the failures, I had won.. finally!
Fall 2023 – We (I) nervously attended the daily meetings.
We began a rebrand from BlankEmit to Beam, received our first Venture Capital investment, and was suddenly thrown into a world I had only dreamed of.
The first thing I did was put some of the cash to work and hired a talented team, Impact Imbedded, to design our market-ready and manufacture-ready Beam Blanket.
This 3-month intensive program challenged me in ways I couldn’t have imagined, from being crippled with the thought of public speaking and having to be prescribed medication to lower my blood pressure before going on stage to becoming a confident speaker. We would pitch weekly to a room full of investors and mentors who would ask questions and provide feedback during the session.
I challenged myself to always pitch in person (virtual was optional) and forge relationships that previously would have been too nerve-racking to initiate. Through this experience, I gained early evangelist Beam customers, making up 50% of our Q4 2023 – Q1 2024 sales, but most importantly, friends and trusted advisors.
We then officially incorporated as a Delaware C Corporation with the generous support of Polsinelli Law Firm, an investor in the fund and Beam legal counsel.
November 2024 – A week before the final pitch day at HW, we planned something big.
Something to give our business “legs” – because, at this time, all we had was a promise of a 3rd Gen prototype and a pitch deck. We hosted our launch party at the beautiful downtown event space of RevTech Ventures. 75 of my closest friends and supporters came to share in the celebration. We were able to partner with notable local brands like Breathe Studio who hosted sound baths in a glass room off the main event center, Bully Blocker (who fit us in between London and Tokyo fashion week and Avy Day spa who offered massages. We even had a pilot partner, Aesteem Aesthetics (a previous marketing client of mine) doing a live facial with our Blanket draping over the client’s body to show the Blanket in action. At this event, I was able to speak to the room of my closest friends and share the culmination of our journey.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The biggest lesson I have learned – when you wholeheartedly give yourself to a cause and a community, it gives back. I am so blessed with the challenges of the past 2 years. And all along the way was the unrelenting support of my family.
We are selling blankets and have expanded our product to include two unique face and neck masks with 4 wavelengths, but not without challenges and setbacks.
Drawing from the recognized applications of red light therapy, including its use by NASA for astronaut well-being, Beam expanded its offerings beyond the Beam Blanket. We introduced specialized solutions like face and neck light masks, emphasizing the importance of integrating wellness tools seamlessly into daily life.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Fall 2023 – We (I) nervously attended the daily meetings. We began a rebrand from BlankEmit to Beam, received our first Venture Capital investment, and was suddenly thrown into a world I had only dreamed of.
The first thing I did was put some of the cash to work and hired a talented team, Impact Imbedded, to design our market-ready and manufacture-ready Beam Blanket.
This 3-month intensive program challenged me in ways I couldn’t have imagined, from being crippled with the thought of public speaking and having to be prescribed medication to lower my blood pressure before going on stage to becoming a confident speaker. We would pitch weekly to a room full of investors and mentors who would ask questions and provide feedback during the session.
I challenged myself to always pitch in person (virtual was optional) and forge relationships that previously would have been too nerve-racking to initiate. Through this experience, I gained early evangelist Beam customers, making up 50% of our Q4 2023 – Q1 2024 sales, but most importantly, friends and trusted advisors.
We then officially incorporated as a Delaware C Corporation with the generous support of Polsinelli Law Firm, an investor in the fund and Beam legal counsel.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We keep contact with our customers via email and newsletters and always check in on them. We send out links where they can review our products and we’re always looking for feedback to improve our products.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beam-wellness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beammwellness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beammwellness
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beam-wellness
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovEXflUXQa8T6rU_xoNG1g