Startups

App Aids Optometry Offices

Founded last year, Opti-Xpres provides a turnkey application and platform solution to optometrists and patients that links patient medical records with already existing office EHRs. The application allows doctors to customize an app for their office where patients can virtually schedule appointments, fill out paperwork, receive appointment reminders, integrate payment processes and more without having a face-to-face interaction.

Larry Holle, O.D., built the system for his Total EyeCare Centers clinic. Then the COVID-19 pandemic gave additional attraction to the initial concept of streamlining processes in the optometry world. After Dr. Holle integrated the platform in his own office, he and his Opti-Xpres co-founder, Cornelius Miller, were able to fine-tune and enhance their concept.

“We boost profitability for individual optometrists as well as improving the quality of care,” says CEO Miller, noting the platform includes a contactless virtual frame try-on feature that uses a 360-degree scan of the frames to accurately place them on a 128-point face scan, so patients can see exactly what glasses would look like on their face. “The try-on feature currently provides the highest accuracy on the market. It is easily accessible in the app and has allowed optometrists to reduce their on-hand frame inventory,” Miller says.

Doctors or their office managers can simply drag and drop message schedules with an easy-to-use feature that allows them to schedule emails or text messages, or push notifications. Says Miller, “They can be sent out to specific patients on a preferred schedule. On-boarding contactless Tru Filtered Air is a breathing company that sells air filters. “We produce custom, high-quality air filters, in any size, at one great price, delivered right to your front door precisely when it’s time to replace the old ones,” says David Zimmerman, who co-founded the company with Chris McConnell.

One of Tru’s biggest differentiators is its unique subscription-based model that allows customers to pre-order their air filters online and have them automatically delivered when it is time for them to be replaced. The worst culprit in poor air filtration is not changing air filters frequently enough, and Tru solves that issue with its shipments serving as a seamless reminder that it is time to swap out the old air filters.

In addition to convenience for the customer, the subscription model also provides the company with a recurring revenue stream. “I own a creative agency that builds various brands, and the models I saw with the most ‘financial’ success were definitely the residual ones,” Zimmerman says, then adds, “But I also believe in having a product that inspires, that’s a catalyst for change — so when Chris and I got to talking on a plane ride to L.A. and he pitched me on the idea, I loved it.”

They started development in late 2017 and spent 2018 building the brand, creating the website and online shopping cart, designing packaging, figuring out inventory and logistics, ‘paperwork’ can easily be filled out before visiting the doctor’s office. Opti-Xpress can integrate with any payment gateway and can conform to any already established payment process.”

Opti-Xpres has seen a 70% increase in patients onboarding via its platform since March and is looking to rapidly expand into practices across the United States. The platform stores all sensitive information on a private secured dedicated server that is monitored 24/7. All web access is performed on a secure connection using the latest SSL encryption to ensure that all data remains private. It is HIPAA compliant and affiliated with all major credit card companies including Apple, Google and AliPay.

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Better Air, with a Delivery Schedule

Opti-Xpres opti-xpres.com and stocking the warehouse. In 2019, they did a soft launch for friends and family, and launched to the public this past fall.

TRU offers all high quality MERV 13 rated air filters, which are the same efficiency rating trusted by hospitals to catch the smallest particles of virus, bacteria, dust, allergens and other toxins. “Breathing the cleanest air possible has never been more important than it is now. Arizona has always had a need for more advanced air filtration because of the excessive dust here and monsoon season, and COVID has significantly compounded that,” says Zimmerman.

Tru Filtered Air trufilteredair.com

MAKE EVERY BREATH COUNT

Tru Filtered Air co-founder David Zimmerman says he and Chris McConnell were inspired by the words of Maya Angelou, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Says Zimmerman, “When you improve the quality of the air you breathe, you improve your life. [We believe] that you can turn to the rhythm of breathing to guide you through difficult times, that we’re more than just a company selling filters — we’re a company that wants the world to make every breath count.”

Every Fuel to Fit order is delivered by team members, not third-party organizations. Fuel to Fit further sets itself apart by providing customers with delivery options twice a week, versus one, and a convenient storefront for walk-in customers.

Nutritional Packaged Meals … and Now Upcycled Healthy Food for Pets

Franchesca Gonzales left the banking industry four years ago to start Fuel To Fit, a health-driven meal prep company that is now one of the longest-standing and fastest-growing meal prep companies in the Valley. Each meal is prepared using high-quality ingredients with macros and nutritional content in mind, and guests can customize their orders to be dairy-free; beef-, fish- or shellfish-free; low carb; and more.

About a year ago, Gonzales opened a comprehensive retail marketplace that offers healthy grocery staples and unique, hard-to-find artisan foods, which customers can add to their delivery order.

“The inspiration for Fuel To Fit came from the crossroads I came upon while my banking career was coming to an end,” explains Gonzales. “I wanted to start a company that encompassed my desire to live a life dedicated to health — not only my own but others as well. So, I started doing research and creating recipes. The rest is history.”

She financed the business initially with very little savings and used all profits to help it grow, marketing solely by word of mouth for the first two years. “I would make meals and flyers, then go to multi-story buildings around the Valley that I felt would be good clients. I would start at the bottom of the building and work my way up, handing out meals and flyers and telling my new business venture to anyone who would listen,” Founded by Arin Finger earlier this year, in the very thick of COVID-19 closures, Dough Riders is a mobile wood-fired pizza company that “comes to you” to “deliver” fresh fired pizza, salads and desserts on demand. Using an 800-degree oven, Dough Riders provides a visual presentation with each order. Pizzas are served fresh in less than two minutes, and guests can enjoy watching their scratch-made pizza go from start to finish right before their eyes.

Finger is a franchise owner of youth sports organization i9 Sports who has successfully run his league for more than seven years and had been expecting his biggest spring season yet when COVID-19 hit the nation hard in March, abruptly shutting down business and entire industries.

“Dough Riders,” says Finger, “is a solution to a need that developed out of COVID-19 — providing families with wholesome food without leaving home — and we’re proud that we can do something during these times that reconnects neighborhoods and communities.” And he’s franchising his concept.

While it was happenstance that led Finger to switch from sports gloves to oven mitts, the transition happened naturally, and he knew immediately this concept was the recipe for success during his unexpected downtime from i9 Sports. He approached Codey Stetler, his lead soccer instructor with i9 Sports who also happened to have culinary experience making she relates. “I still have some of these initial clients ordering from us to this day.”

Fuel To Fit’s success spawned a newly launched endeavor: Tasty Pet. “I hated seeing hundreds of pounds of fresh meats and veggies being thrown in the trash every week. So again, I started doing my research and in just a couple months we were able to launch a human-grade, healthy pet food line.” Each Tasty Pet meal is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by AAFCO Dog Food nutrient profiles for all life stages. And Gonzales created a pet feeding calculator that customers can use to enter their pet’s weight and life stage to determine exactly how much they need to be purchasing and feeding.

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Pizza Oven on a Roll

Fuel To Fit fueltofit.com

Arin Finger (right) with Dough Riders chef Cody Stetler

fresh dough from his own Italian family’s pizzeria background. Drawing on their mutual New York heritage, they built a menu featuring creative New York-style pizzas. Then, financing the endeavor with his own savings, Finger officially fired up Dough Riders Wood Fired Pizza Co., a mobile company specializing in made-to-order, fresh-out-of-the-oven pies for private, corporate and community events, outdoor concerts, farmers markets and any special occasion.

Dough Riders’ first customers were the Sky Crossing neighborhood, but social media is how Finger originally launched along with word of mouth through his neighborhood (having a network of youth and families to appeal to didn’t hurt, either).

Dough Riders doughriders.com