New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Self-lifting toilet seat company seeks space in Milford
MILFORD — Jeremy Bronen and Tim Krupski have entered the small-business world, and the results have proven a benefit to senior citizens and people with disabilities.
The pair, founders of SedMed, have developed a self-lifting toilet seat, with the goal of keeping the elderly and disabled safe and independent. The company was formed in the spring of 2020, and Bronen, a Milford resident, said the pair hopes to find space locally to showcase their operation.
“SedMed began because my co-founder Tim was living with a close family friend of his, who he affectionately called Grandma Grace,” said Bronen. “While he was in high school, she suffered from a stroke and became wheelchair-bound, and he would watch her struggle around the house, getting on and off the surface, and they hired a caregiver.”
The experience Krupski had with Grandma Grace gave him the inspiration to set out and develop a selflifting toilet seat.
“The product is a toilet lift,” said Bronen. “It mounts onto a toilet without electricity and helps people to get on and off the toilet for their safety, independence and to
reduce costs to healthcare institutions.”
Both Bronen and Krupksi are mechanical engineers and graduated from UConn, where they met and kicked off their partnership.
“He had been working on the idea for about 10 years,” said Bronen. “He sponsored my senior design project at UConn, and that's how I met him.”
Bronen said his senior project that Krupski sponsored was a powered toilet lift.
“When we picked what our project was going to be, I saw toilet lift. It was fourth on my list. The first on my list was a canon,” he said. “But the excitement came once he was like, ‘Hey, I'm doing this business accelerated program. Do you want to check it out with me?' Me being an engineering student who was more interested in business, I told him yes.”
They decided to go through the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program. Through those accelerated programs, they realized they needed to pivot and that's how they came up with the design.
“We found this niche in the market that was underserved and underappreciated with innovation, and that is what got me excited more,” said Bronen.
SedMed has plans to have their toilet seats in healthcare institutions to reduce injuries for healthcare workers.
“That's the forefront of the business as well,” said Bronen. “Healthcare workers constantly get injured lifting people on and off the toilet because they are straining their back lifting up a person, which leads to high cost for healthcare institutions.”
Currently, the SedMed team is working from home. For Bronen, that means he is working in Milford, where he has lived for the past two years. He plans to stay in the city.
“I reached out to Julie
Nash (Milford economic development director) because we are looking for office space and co-working space,” he said. “We are operating pretty lean, but we want something to get a little more in-person stuff going.”