Cooking Up Safety: Akshita Iyer on Revolutionizing Kitchen Technology

Summary

In this conversation, Akshita Iyer, CEO and founder of Ome, discusses the inspiration behind the Smart Knob, a device designed to enhance kitchen safety by preventing unattended cooking, a leading cause of house fires. She shares her journey from neuroscience to entrepreneurship, driven by personal experiences with her family's safety. The Smart Knob integrates technology to monitor cooking activity, send alerts, and allow remote management, particularly benefiting older adults. Akshita emphasizes the importance of data insights for cognitive health and the potential for partnerships with senior living communities. She also outlines future plans for integrating the technology into new appliances and customizing the product for aesthetic appeal.

Takeaways

• Akshita's journey to entrepreneurship was inspired by personal family experiences.
• The Smart Knob addresses unattended cooking, a major cause of house fires.
• The device allows for remote monitoring and management of cooking appliances.
• Older adults are disproportionately affected by cooking-related fires.
• Data from the Smart Knob can provide insights into cooking habits and cognitive health.
• The technology aims to help older adults maintain independence in their homes.
• Partnerships with senior living communities are a focus for Aum.
• Future plans include integrating the Smart Knob technology into new appliances.
• Customization options for the Smart Knob are being explored for aesthetic appeal.
• The product pricing is designed to be accessible for families.

Sound Bites

• "I never thought I'd have started a company."
• "We hope that we can continue to solve for that problem."
• "We can see if someone is actually cooking."
• "We really want to work towards customizing this knob."
• "One knob is 129. For four knobs, it's 399."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Aum and Akshita Iyer
00:30 The Inspiration Behind the Smart Knob
03:32 Functionality and Features of the Smart Knob
09:13 Safety and Monitoring for Older Adults
11:47 Data Insights and Cognitive Health
16:48 Partnerships with Senior Living Communities
20:49 Future Plans and Integration of Technology
23:41 Product Details and Pricing

Transcript

Janet Engel (00:01.55)
Hello everyone and thank you for being with me today. My guest is Akshita Iyer and she is the CEO and founder of Aum, the Smart Knob. Akshita, thank you for being with me today.

Akshita (Ome) (00:14.971)
Thank you so much for having me, Janet. It is always a pleasure to talk to you.

Janet Engel (00:18.382)
Tell me about a little bit about what inspired you to create the Ohm Smart Knob.

Akshita (Ome) (00:30.513)
Yeah, my journey to entrepreneurship started by accident. I actually never thought I'd have started a company and definitely not get this far with it. I went to school for neuroscience, thought I was going to med school, and then I took a few gap years. And in that time, my mom accidentally left the stove on one too many times and started a kitchen fire. And so it was the first time that I had even spoken to my parents about what it meant to age in their home.

My mom had also been diagnosed with Parkinson's. And so there were other factors that we needed to consider about the safety and the things that they were doing every day in the home. this was right after Nest had been acquired. All of a sudden, we had a lot of smart security devices like doorbells and door locks and thermostats that were coming to the market and really being adopted quite quickly.

But when I looked at what was available in the kitchen to solve for this problem of unattended cooking, I really didn't find much, at least not anything that I felt was affordable or intuitive or easy to use like all of these other retrofit devices were. And so I decided to do something about it. And because our appliances last a really long time, right? We typically don't buy appliances for 10, 15, 20 years. I thought,

Janet Engel (01:50.446)
Hmm.

Akshita (Ome) (01:54.725)
what if we could just retrofit your most used cooking appliance, solve for the number one cause of house fires, which is unattended cooking, people getting distracted, and then bring safety and automation to the kitchen in an affordable and intuitive way. So what we ended up building is a smart knob. So it does exactly what it is. It's a knob that replaces your existing stove knob.

And you use your stove like you do every day. So you push, you turn, nothing about how you cook changes. The only difference is that this knob has a bunch of custom technology in it. So it has a motor, sensors, connects to wifi. So every time you turn your burner on, we know what burner is on, what setting it's at, how long it's been on for. And because of that motor, like a door lock, we can actually turn off the burner proactively so that you don't have to worry about it. And then we'll send you notification. So.

Very simple in terms of functionality and the problem we're solving, as you can imagine. There's a lot of technology in here that has to work together to make sure that it does what we say that it does. But that's how I started. And I really didn't think it would turn into anything other than maybe something that my parents could use, but then realized how big of a problem this is. And aging in place assistive technologies have really come to the forefront in the last couple of years.

And we hope that we can continue to solve for that problem and help people keep staying in their homes longer, preserve their independence, and then, yeah, hopefully reach even more people.

Janet Engel (03:32.28)
So you're saying that the knob can be pre-programmed, so it can be pre-programmed by the user, but also by someone who is in a different location?

Akshita (Ome) (03:44.347)
Yeah, absolutely. So what we found was that our target demographic tends to be middle-aged adults who have young kids at home. So they already are very vigilant about safety and security. They typically have home security systems already. But then what we saw was that they were buying multiple sets, one for themselves and then one for an aging family member. And so what you can actually do is go and install this for aunt, know, grandma, mom, dad, and then you can have access through your phone.

to make sure that things are off, you can get alerts. And so you can pre-program that automatic shutoff as your family member needs it. But they don't actually have to have a smartphone or use a smartphone for our technology to work. So you can check on it remotely at night if you want to make sure it's off. You can check. can remotely turn it off if you need to. We do not allow for remote turn on for safety reasons. So even if you are monitoring from

you another state, you don't have to worry about accidentally turning a burner on because the user of the actual appliance has to push and turn to turn it on.

Janet Engel (04:53.422)
Will the smart knob or your technology alert someone if a burner has been turned off? I'll tell you why I ask because I have a 12 year old son and the other day we were out to dinner, my husband and I, and when we came back, he was no longer there. He had gone somewhere with his friends, but they had decided to cook ramen while we were gone.

and they had left the gas burner on.

Akshita (Ome) (05:24.741)
And that happens more often than I think we realize. Yeah. So we will not only proactively turn it off for you so that you don't have to worry about that, but then we will send you notifications. So in that instance, we would have turned off the burner after the 15 minute auto shutoff timer had expired or whatever you set that automatic shutoff timer to be. And then you would have gotten a notification as soon as the burner.

Janet Engel (05:49.768)
Okay, so then these timers are pre-programmed.

Akshita (Ome) (05:58.371)
Right, the automatic shutoff is based on a timer. So in our app, once you set up your knobs, you can set the automatic shutoff timer for whatever your cooking activity warrants. So if you know that typically you're not cooking for more than 30 minutes, you can set that automatic shutoff timer for 30 minutes. If it's 15 minutes, you can set it for 15 minutes. So you can really customize it to what makes sense for your cooking habits.

Janet Engel (05:59.051)
Now.

Janet Engel (06:24.842)
Okay, and for that one knob in specific.

Akshita (Ome) (06:29.051)
Yes.

Akshita (Ome) (06:43.899)
Can you hear me?

Akshita (Ome) (06:49.181)
no.

Janet Engel (06:57.262)
Okay, now I've got you back. Okay, so I'm going to ask you the question again, because I know that I really am interested in this because one reason I love to cook using my oven is because I can set the timer, I can go do another activity, and I know it will turn off. And so you're saying that I can do the same thing with the stovetop.

Akshita (Ome) (06:59.119)
Okay, okay, I can see you.

Janet Engel (07:27.014)
If I'm, let's say I have something on simmer and I want to go take a shower, then I can set it for that specific burner that's on.

Akshita (Ome) (07:38.423)
Exactly. So that as a cooking timer is different from the automatic shutoff timer. So the automatic shutoff timer is really designed as a failsafe. So if you actually forget, then that automatic shutoff will engage. For a cooking timer, you can also set a specific burner for a certain period of time. So

Janet Engel (07:44.045)
Okay.

Akshita (Ome) (08:01.647)
let's say you're simmering your rice for 18 minutes, you can actually set that burner specifically in that knob to turn off after 18 minutes so that you're not overcooking something. So there are two different timers. One is really meant to be that peace of mind, whether you're at home or not, right? Like if your son is cooking, that automatic shutoff timer is always.

Janet Engel (08:20.033)
Mm-hmm.

Akshita (Ome) (08:22.993)
engaged and every time that burner turns on that timer is counting down. But then for that added convenience and flexibility you can also set a specific timer for a specific amount of time based on what you're cooking.

Janet Engel (08:37.834)
Okay. And does the own technology integrate with other existing home systems?

Akshita (Ome) (08:45.723)
So right now we only integrate with Alexa. We are looking at other integrations, but Alexa seemed to be the most useful for our customer base. And voice technology, we believe, is going to play a huge role in the kitchen especially because we're always multitasking, we have our hands dirty. And so that's actually one of our most used features is setting timers and even checking on the stove through voice.

Janet Engel (09:13.716)
Yeah, I just love this idea. Do you know what the statistics are around fires and older adults?

Akshita (Ome) (09:25.329)
Yeah, so older adults are actually two and a half times more likely to die in a cooking related fire than the rest of the population. And so they are disproportionately affected from cooking related fires. And it makes sense, right? As you get older, I mean, not only are we distracted all the time, regardless of your age, but as you get older, you now have some cognitive decline. so dementia, Alzheimer's,

And usually before there's even a diagnosis. And so what we found as we've expanded our region to senior living communities and also just through our own customers who are installing this for family members is that they can actually see that automatic shutoff engaging well before there's actually any diagnosis of any kind of cognitive decline, right? So typically cooking is one of the first things to go as we age because it's a hazard.

And we don't want any of our family members at risk for a cooking related or kitchen fire. And so we hope that our technology can really enable older adults to not only live at home longer and to make sure they can continue to do the things that they love to do like cook in their own home and preserve that independence, but then also be able to use that data and those insights from someone's cooking activity

to alert family members and caregivers of whether there is a change in cooking activity and behavior so that that might be used as a data point for some kind of decline well before it becomes too late. So for example, with my mom, what I didn't know was that she had been having issues with leaving the stove on well before we actually had this incident. And so if I had had this technology,

actually establish a baseline for what her cooking activity looked like and then I could see that, there's actually a change. Maybe we could have done something proactively before we got to the incident that we did versus reacting to it. And so our technology, we really hope can help the kitchen and the home be a much more proactive place with all the sensors that we have rather than reacting to situations after they already have.

Janet Engel (11:47.314)
Yeah, and the reality is that everyone has to cook, at least do simple meal prep, right? Every day, several times a day. So it's an activity that you have to engage in even if you don't want to, or you don't feel safe, you're forced to engage in that activity. And then what you said about how it can alert to changes in cognition.

Akshita (Ome) (11:51.813)
Right.

Janet Engel (12:16.654)
One of the things that we see often in people with cognitive impairment is that they forget to eat. And so you'll see weight loss, you'll see them looking disheveled. And so I can see how the smart knob can really give you a lot of information as to if someone's ever preparing a hot meal, right? That's, yeah, not in the microwave.

Akshita (Ome) (12:40.091)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we can, exactly. And we can see at any time a burner is turned on, how long it's been on for, what setting it's at. And like you said, it's not just actually about the automatic shutoff and just forgetting, but it's also, you know, is someone actually cooking? And we can see.

on a day-to-day basis, hey, know, mom typically cooks every morning at 9 a.m., right? We're creatures of habit. We like to do the same things over and over. And then we can actually see and flag whether, hey, you mom didn't cook in three days. So maybe we check on her, right? A very nonobtrusive, unobtrusive way of assessing someone's general wellbeing without having to be there all the time or to call all the time. And so this is one more data point.

that we have and we hope that this kind of technology and these sensors can be used in that way in the kitchen, right? How many appliances do we use on a week to week basis, right? We open our fridge doors, we use our washer dryer, our dishwasher. And so all of those touch points can actually be data points for us, right? For anybody to make sure that, you know, someone is doing okay. And so we hope that the smarts in...

at least the appliance space can really be catered towards using that data in a helpful way versus, you know, having a smart fridge with a screen on it that doesn't really do anything significant for me.

Janet Engel (14:08.722)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think one nice data point would be to have information on how often someone uses the water dispenser at the fridge. Since urinary tract infections and dehydration are so common in older adults and, you know, cause falls result in hospitalizations. So that would be one great data point is how much water is the person drinking on a daily basis.

Akshita (Ome) (14:19.014)
Yeah.

Akshita (Ome) (14:37.233)
Yeah, and really for any of us, right? mean, all of us are using all of these appliances every day. And so the more insight that they can give us about the things that we do every day that are just kind of running in the background, then I think the better lives we can live.

Janet Engel (14:55.616)
Yeah, I think this would be a great product for my mother-in-law. She admitted to me a few weeks ago that once she goes into the kitchen and starts cooking, she doesn't allow herself to leave because she doesn't trust herself anymore. As soon as she leaves the kitchen, she'll forget that she has something going on in there. So I think this would be a very good product for her. And she lives alone.

Akshita (Ome) (15:10.735)
Yeah.

Akshita (Ome) (15:18.585)
And that's, Well, that's most of us, right? nobody ever, I struggle to use the, or I hesitate to use the phrase unattended cooking because nobody is intentionally saying I'm gonna leave the stove on and walk away, right? What we're typically doing is putting something on and saying, let me just go do one other task.

while this is cooking, I know I'm gonna come back, it's gonna take me five seconds. And the reality of what happens is it takes a lot of hunger or something else, know, distracts us and then it becomes 10, 15 minutes. And so that's what we really want to solve for is distracted cooking. And that's not going away. And if anything, we're getting more and more distracted. And so, you know, just like, you you're saying with your mother-in-law, it's really for anybody where, you know, we have to leave the vicinity of our stove.

You know, we just that's just what happens in the span of a day and and we just want to make sure we have that safety net just like you do when you leave your house and you check to make sure you lock your door because when you're leaving your house, you're typically checking your phone. You've got a million things in your hands. might have kids and then you get in the car and you're like wait, did I lock the door and now we have smart door locks so that you can check garage doors same thing and that same kind of peace of mind.

and those safety measures we really should have in the kitchen too.

Janet Engel (16:48.14)
like Cheetah, what partnerships is Ohm exploring with senior living communities? Because I think this would be a great product to have there.

Akshita (Ome) (16:57.967)
Yeah, so this year we're really doubling down on our value to multi-unit buildings, starting with senior living, largely because again, we already see our current customer base buying this for their aging family members so that they can stay at home longer. And so for as a business, we're looking at how do we get to more customers faster and going to senior living where not only are we solving for a safety concern, right? I mean,

every senior living community is responsible for the safety of their residents, but also to be able to harness this data we've been talking about and these insights for the community to better serve their customers, their residents and their families, right? So if they have a little bit more information about what someone's doing on a day-to-day basis without being obtrusive and without constantly checking on them, we really see an opportunity there.

Janet Engel (17:54.728)
Yeah. So tell me more about how do I install this product if I wanted to buy it? How do I install it?

Akshita (Ome) (18:05.135)
Yeah, so it's pretty simple. So the knob comes in two parts. So we have a knob top and knob bottom. All the electronics are in the knob top and this is how you actually charge the knob. So you just take the knob top off and then you charge it. The knob bottom is what connects to the stove shaft. So the way you install it is you remove your existing stove knob. There's a shaft underneath if you've ever pulled your knob off. You slide this, yeah, you slide this on this little

Janet Engel (18:28.066)
Yes, to clean them.

Akshita (Ome) (18:35.003)
piece right over the stove shaft. So the stove shaft will come right through here. And then we have an installation tool where you just tighten this down. So kind of like a drill bit, you just tighten it down. It'll clamp down onto the shaft. And then you just put the knob top on. And then we have an app where you connect this to Wi-Fi and then you calibrate the knob, which means you are telling the knob and telling the app what your burner settings are.

Every burner and every stove has different settings. And so you calibrate it to tell us we're off, low, medium, and high art. And then that'll reflect in the app. It'll be customized to your stove. And then you use your stove like you do every day.

Janet Engel (19:18.414)
Well, this is, that's fascinating. I've never, there is no other product like this, right?

Akshita (Ome) (19:25.701)
There is not. Kitchen safety and the problem of unattended cooking and cooking fires is not new. Insurance companies are paying a billion dollars a year even still today because of it. But because of that, there are other kitchen safety products that are solving for the same problem, but in a different way. So there are reactive...

devices that will spray some kind of flame retardant if it senses too high of heat. There are some devices that will shut the power to the stove, but there is not yet a device like ours that can retrofit at the touch point, so at the knob, the thing that you use every day, and that can proactively and automatically actually adjust the burner temperature or turn it off. So we are first to market with this, and we do have patents on the technology.

and the combination of sensors that we use to be able to achieve the functionality that we have. And we're excited to not only retrofit to existing appliances, but then also work towards this as an integrated solution into appliances going forward. So that every new appliance that comes on the market and that's sold at Lowe's and Home Depot, that it comes with this technology because it's really something that should be a standard across all stove tops and ranges.

Janet Engel (20:49.766)
I agree with you. So my next question was going to be, what are your plans for the future with your technology?

Akshita (Ome) (20:58.095)
Yeah, I think that's a good segue. I really want to see this as an integrated solution. I think the retrofit opportunity has been great because you do have millions and millions of homeowners out there who are not going to replace their appliance for a pretty long time. And so this is a very, very easy way, just like we saw with all of the other retrofit.

security devices, a really easy way to get into the home, right? And to provide that needed safety and security. But ultimately, what I really want to see at this point is a way to actually make this a part of the appliance when you buy it. It also allows us and our technology to simplify, right? So there's no more charging of the knob. Everything just comes integrated. And

The other thing that you can probably attest to in the smart home is that we have one too many smart home apps, right? One too many products. And I really want to see Ohms technology as part of a broader ecosystem. And to really be able to make that customer journey and that experience using your appliance or multiple appliances much more seamless, where you can from one app, you can...

control your fridge, can control your washer dryer, you can control your stove, and that's really gonna require collaboration and integration with much bigger companies. And we're excited to hopefully make that happen.

Janet Engel (22:30.472)
Okay, well great. I learned so much from you today. I love going to your website and seeing the video on how the knob moves by itself. It's a really cool looking and it's very attractive. Do you think that one day you will have the option to have knobs in different colors or different finishes?

Akshita (Ome) (22:57.817)
absolutely. And that's another reason why we're exploring some more significant partnerships because as you can imagine, every range, every model, every brand looks different. The knobs look different, they're different sizes, colors, and we understand the importance of aesthetics in the kitchen and everyone wants, you know, their stove to look a certain way. You bought that stove for a reason. And so we really want to work towards customizing this knob to fit

seamlessly and look exactly the same as the knobs that you have. And so we're hoping that we can offer that option in the coming year.

Janet Engel (23:41.022)
And, Aishina, what is the cost of a knob or a package of four or six?

Akshita (Ome) (23:48.113)
Yes, so depending on how many knobs you have on your burner, we suggest you buy that number of smart knobs. So one knob, if you wanted to buy one, is 129. And then the more knobs that you add, the more discount you get. So for four knobs, it's 399. And then you can add additional depending on how many burners your stove has.

Janet Engel (24:09.664)
Okay, well, it sounds like a great product. I would love to have it myself because I need it. I need it for me and I need it for my son. Well, thank you, Akshita. Is there anything else that you'd like to add before we end our conversation today?

Akshita (Ome) (24:17.285)
We will get to a set. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, we have you covered.

Akshita (Ome) (24:34.001)
I think that's all you covered a lot. I appreciate all the questions and really highlighting some important concerns and issues in the home and in the kitchen and really how it's affecting consumers at large. I mean, you just gave a talk at KBiz, especially around aging in place and assistive technologies and

we really need to start solving for that because we're all going to be at that point one day and I'm glad that we're able to be part of the conversation.

Janet Engel (25:09.326)
Yes, and Aishida's website is omekitchen.com and you can purchase her products there and she's also very active on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for being my guest today.

Akshita (Ome) (25:24.517)
Yeah, thank you for having me as always.