The Innovation Fund is a four-week crowdfunding competition that gives VFA Fellows the opportunity to launch their business ideas and projects. Nine Fellow-led teams are off to the races sharing their new ventures with the world and hustling to raise as much money as possible on Indiegogo between now and March 16th.
David Roger is the CEO/Founder of Felix Gray and a 2013 Venture for America Fellow. After working at Downtown Project in Las Vegas for the better half of his two-year commitment, he is now focused on growing Felix Gray. David and his team are dedicated to relieving Digital Eye Strain with awesome glasses that make you feel and look good.
At Felix Gray, we’re starting a company to solve a problem that affects more than 60% of us.
People are constantly staring at digital devices: they’re using dual monitors at work, checking their smartphone, Facebook stalking on their laptop, late night reading on their tablet. I mean, I’m staring at a computer right now to write this article.
My first job out of college meant being in front of two monitors building financial models. Whether I was staring at tiny Excel cells, answering email, or messing around on Facebook (yeah, I did that too), I stared at a computer for 9 or more hours a day. And by 4 pm, my eyes would hurt…a lot. Many of my friends had similar experiences as they also worked jobs that involved lots of screen time: investment banking, consulting, web development, advertising. You name the profession and it most likely means being in front of a computer. And guess what, that’s not so good for you.
It turns out Digital Eye Strain (DES) is a real problem.
Our eyes never evolved to stare long hours at objects up close; in fact, they’re at rest when looking 20 feet away. When staring at closer things, the ciliary muscle in our eye spasms back and forth to adjust. This overworks the muscle and makes our eyes tired. Digital devices also have the adverse effect of producing glare, which was never meant to be such a prevalent part of our eyes’ daily lives.
I used to think that DES was a pseudo-syndrome, but my online reading consistently pointed to it being a growing modern issue. 70% of all Millenials experience its symptoms. These include dry eyes, sore eyes, blurred vision, difficulty focusing your eyes, and increased sensitivity to light.
I started Googling solutions and what came up again and again was the optometrist-recommended computer glasses. However, when I went to buy a pair, I discovered that the brands and designs did not suit my taste. Nothing looked cool. I couldn’t help but think about how many other people stared at a computer all day long that would want a pair of sophisticated, affordable glasses to combat their digitally caused eye fatigue.
So that’s how Felix Gray started. We want to help relieve DES while simultaneously making people feel good and confident in our stylish, intelligent frames.
Our lenses address both issues that our eyes cannot handle naturally. They increase the magnification, which tricks our eyes into believing we’re staring at objects further away. This helps ease the workload of the ciliary muscle. Our lenses also have two high quality anti-reflective coatings to combat the two types of glare. We apply an AR coating that eliminates back-glare by equalizing the light reflected from the inner surface with the light reflected on the outer surface of the lens; our EMI coat eliminates static glare that digital devices produce.
But enough science stuff, our glasses are also supposed to make you feel good. Feel sexy. Feel confident. Otherwise, we’d have gone out, bought a pair of gamer glasses that look straight out of The Matrix, and never started Felix Gray. But we couldn’t do that. Our frames are classic with a twist: in touch with both the modern, digital world and the older, analog past.
Right now, we’re in the middle of a 40-person beta to test different lenses and frame styles. However, for Felix Gray to reach the next step, we need to raise more capital. We’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to create our first self-designed frames. We have plenty of perks, many of which are frames at a discounted retail price (we plan on selling glasses for $85).
Yes, it’s important to make your eyes feel better. That’s why we will continue to source high quality lenses. But it’s equally as important to us that when you sit down to your computer at work or read your iPad on your couch that you perk up a little bit knowing that—frankly—you look pretty damn sweet.