Mindful Scientific wins Wall Street Journal’s Global Startup Showcase

Last time we checked in on Halifax medical device company Mindful Scientific, they had been selected as a finalist to pitch at the Wall Street Journal’s Global Startup Showcase during the WSJDLive Conference from October 19-21 in Laguna Beach, California.

Pitching yesterday to a panel of “business gurus”, which included Rupert Murdoch, Mark Cuban, Theresia Gouw and will.i.am, Mindful Scientific beat out the six other companies pitching to win the audience favourite award.

Murdoch and will.i.am selected Mindful Scientific as their favourite startup of the competition, while Cuban and Gouw favoured an Israeli manufacturer of 360-degree micro radar for monitoring drone traffic in urban areas called ARTsys360.

Mindful Scientific’s headset, the Halifax Consciousness Scanner, measures brain activity by monitoring EEG signals, mainly to determine whether or not someone is suffering a concussion.

CEO Ying Tam made the pitch. While he sees academic uses for the device, other markets include sports teams, the military and health care.

Panelist Mark Cuban asks during Tam’s pitch, “What about FDA approval?”

Tam replies that it’s a $5,000-$10,000 process, which Mindful Scientific has only just entered into. Since the Halifax scanner is non-invasive, Tam says that it is typically a one to nine-month process.

At the very least, Tam’s victory for Mindful Scientific will bring added attention to the company as it seeks additional funding to build on the seed round they’ve already attracted.

Watch Mindful Scientific’s pitch here.