Student to CEO: FSB grad working to get startup launched
Amanda Simeone wants to change the way diabetics deal with low blood sugar, and her path to market demonstrates the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur
Student to CEO: FSB grad working to get startup launched
Between final exams, presentations, and getting caps and gowns, May is already a busy month for students graduating from the Farmer School of Business and Miami University. Amanda Simeone was doing all that while also working to get her business up and running. It’s a far cry from where she was two years ago.
“Going into junior year, I had no idea what I was doing with my life -- I mean, I still don't, but most people don't,” Simeone laughed. “I had no idea what I was doing, what I wanted to do.”
But when she entered Startup Weekend in the fall of 2023, she did have a general idea of what she was going to pitch. “I knew that I wanted to do something in the diabetes space.”
Simeone’s mother is a Type 1 diabetic. During Thanksgiving a couple years ago, she had a low-sugar episode that caused her to collapse in front of her daughter. That moment sparked the start of an idea.
“I went into Startup Weekend thinking, ‘Oh, I'll create a protein bar that has sugar in it,’” Simeone said. “I hadn't even researched the idea. It was an idea that popped into my head. I think that's what I pitched at the start. Then we actually researched it and there were a thousand things like that.”
She and her group pivoted to a dissolving strip that would allow glucose to enter a diabetic’s bloodstream more quickly than the standard tablets many diabetics keep at hand for low blood sugar events. That idea, called Diasolve, took second place.
“Working tirelessly with my team, we had many frustrating moments, where we had to stop and completely reroute. However, every second of this process was essential to reaching our final pitch. I was so lucky to have a great group of motivated individuals working tirelessly to create a solution,” Simeone said just after the event. “With each individual's unique backgrounds and experiences, we collaborated to create something great, and I now have new knowledge and new friends whom I hope to soon call business partners. I also created new connections with many mentors who can help us move on with this product.”
In a Hollywood production, this is where you would learn that Simeone found an unexpected business partner and investor at Startup Weekend to help her create her business, and her product would be on shelves nationwide by now. But in the real world, entrepreneurship takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and is rarely a smooth road.
For one thing, the product isn’t Diasolve anymore. Nor is it GlucoGo, the name it had in 2024, or HERO Glucose, as it was named earlier this year. And it’s a no longer dissolving strip, or the oral droplets it became as GlucoGo, but more of a melting lozenge. Being able and willing to adapt and iterate new ideas is a key part of entrepreneurship.
“One of the things that we say in the entrepreneurial community is that what's really critical is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution,” Herbert E. Markley Visiting Executive Professor Theresa Sedlack said. “Because if you're in love with the problem and passionate about the problem, then that's really what's going to carry you to what becomes the opportunity you seek, and it gets you through all the pivots in between. And that's what I see in Amanda.”
Since that Startup Weekend in 2023, Simeone has been part of the RedHawk Accelerator Program, working on what’s now Rally Higher for six hours a week at a Cincinnati COHatch location. Her idea was one of nine to receive a Hawk Tank award from the Miami Women Giving Circle in 2024. And she’s been taking her idea on the road. Just this April alone, she took her product pitch to competitions at Baylor University and Texas Christian University, finishing in the top 10 at Baylor and winning the Ripple Effect award at TCU.
"We're actively in the process of finalizing a manufacturer to help us out with the product. I've struggled a little because the product itself is not a pharmaceutical product – it’s essentially sugar. So, it's taken some time to find a manufacturer ready to take on the challenge.” Simeone said. “I've had a lot of meetings with different manufacturers around the states to try to figure that out.”
She intends to launch a Kickstarter project this fall to raise the funds needed to begin manufacturing Rally and to start traveling to diabetes conferences to raise awareness about her product. Simeone is aiming for a full product launch in January 2026.
“It's definitely been the biggest learning experience I've ever had. I've made so many mistakes that I've learned from, which is pretty awesome, even though it stinks in the moment,” Simeone said. “Honestly, at the end of the day, I'm doing everything I can to make this work out, but it might not, and if it doesn't, I'm going to come out with so much experience, from learning how to build a website, leading employees, developing financial models, and managing social media content. Starting a business is a lot, but it's been so worth it.”
Simeone said the end goal is to bring Rally to market and have it become successful enough that a larger company decides to purchase her company and scale Rally to larger success, whereupon she would find some other product to develop.
But what if, despite all her efforts, Simeone can’t get Rally to succeed?
“I’d like to work at an entrepreneurial support organization where you get to work with the entrepreneurs and connect them with other people who can help. Because even just now, with the connections I've made and my classes, I love when one of the other students is saying ‘I kind of need someone who can do this,’ or ‘I'm struggling with this,’ and I'm can say, ‘Oh, I have someone I can connect you to.’ I love helping make those connections,” Simeone said. “So if it doesn't work out, so be it -- most things don't work out, but it'll be a great learning experience, and then I'll know ‘Hey, I've been in your shoes. I've done that.’”
