13-Year-Old Becomes a CEO After Inventing Possible Cure for the Hiccups
- Posted on May 6, 2012 at 3:42pm by
Erica Ritz
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(Photo: Hiccupops)
Most 13-year-olds have high ambitions– they want to be astronauts and firefighters, superheroes and doctors– but it’s a rare feat that one of them actually accomplishes the task before finishing middle school.
Not so for Mallory Kievman, who wanted to invent a cure for the hiccups. A CEO of her own company at just 13, Kievman will be soon launching a line of “Hiccupops,” or lollipops that eliminate your hiccups.
With a patent pending, financial backing, and a team of business consultants, Kievman’s remedy certainly seems promising.
Business Insider has more information on the product, and the story behind it:
What are Hiccupops?
Kievman got the idea after trying to tame a stubborn bout of hiccups two years ago by using any home remedy she came upon: Drinking saltwater, sipping water out of an upside-down cup, eating spoonfuls of sugar, slurping pickle juice. After testing about 100 folk remedies, Kievman picked three of her favorites — sugar, apple cider vinegar, and lollipops — and combined them. I’m still “tweaking the taste,” she tells The New York Times, but the combination of ingredients “triggers a set of nerves in your throat and mouth that are responsible for the hiccup reflex arc… It basically over-stimulates those nerves and cancels out the message to hiccup.”Is this a viable commercial product?
Let’s put it this way, says entrepreneur and angel investor Danny Briere. “It’s very rare, when you’re evaluating businesses, that you can envision a company or product being around 100 years from now.” Hiccupops is one them. “It solves a very simple, basic need.“ It also ”has some terrific potential benefits for society,” adds Christopher Levesque, who’s advising the team of University of Connecticut MBA students who will help Kievman launch her product this summer. “It straddles that line between an attractive, go-to product that people might like to savor and a helpful nutraceutical aid.” Hiccups is a common side effect of chemotherapy.
Around the 50 second mark, Kievman is interviewed at a Connecticut Economic Summit:
Business Insider continues:
How many employees does Hiccupops have?
Two, so far. Kievman is listed in the company’s organizational chart as CEO and head of research and development. “Then you get to a picture of me,” the second employee, Mallory’s father, Adam Kievman, tells The New York Times, “and it says, ‘Adult supervision.’” It‘s Mallory’s show, the elder Kievman insists. “I’m trying to do my best to support it but to also not, you know, drive it.“ Dad is helping with ”a lot of the business stuff,” Mallory says. “And he’s also helping me handle stuff like using the stove.”How did a 13-year-old manage all this?
A lot of hard work, and a lot of help. Kievman met Briere, founder of small-business incubator Startup Connecticut, a year ago at the Connecticut Invention Convention, a sort of talent fair for young tinkerers. Kievman won prizes for innovation and patentability. With that boost, she presented her lollipops to investors and state officials, and even helped ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. “The hardest part of the business aspect, I would say, is I’m a minor, so there’s a lot of different contract things that are difficult,” she tells Tech Cocktail.
Kievman and her father pose for a photo with Senator Cassano (Photo: Connecticut Senate Democrats)
What’s next for Hiccupops?
Kievman has to find a manufacturer for her lollipops, then she has the team of business grad student consultants until August. And “what about product testing?” says Rich Maloof at MSN Living. “Imagine the boardrooms of angel investors, where suited millionaires sit patiently around a conference table for hours, a box of lollipops on the table, just waiting for someone to get a case of the hiccups.” Kievman’s goal is to make Hiccupops “a staple in drug stores [and] nurse’s offices,” she tells Tech Cocktail. But perhaps more pressingly, she adds, “I have recently been applying to high schools.”
When asked if she has any advice for other young entrepreneurs, Kievman remarked: “Carve out a lot of time. And keep pushing for it. If you know you want to do it, you know there’s a specific goal in mind, don’t take no for an answer.”
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Comments (68)
Jim
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 9:30pmThis must be liberal troll night.
Report Post »IvanK
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 9:25pmDECENDENTOF56,
Report Post »WTF is your major malfunction? Seriously! That’s a brilliant 13 year old girl – not the same girl that rejected you when you were her age… Assuming you’re not her age – just guessing by the level of maturity of your comment.
cdcats8
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:40pmNecessity is the mother of invention and this young lady has done a great job! I would buy her product.
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 8:51amDo you know why a 13 year old thought of this? Because adults are too self absorbed! Good for her!! Now let’s see what she thinks about the TAX CODE! Stay tuned!
Report Post »randyman1
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:40pmWill people be able to buy them with food stamps? What‘s going to happen when some liberal occupier gets the hiccups and can’t afford them because they don’t have a job? Is the Government going to make us all supply them?
Report Post »whitjake
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:36pmThe sure fire way is to block your ears,block your nose and drink a glass of water..all at the same time. Use index fingers to block ears,pinkies to block nose and pick up cup with mouth or have someone feed it to you. WORKS EVERYTIME!
Report Post »wampanoag
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:20pmUtter nonsense. It is the physical affect of granulated sugar that helps stops hiccups and not the sweetness itself. And it is distressing that such stuff can be sold on the say so of a teenager instead of a carefully controlled studied. A nation of morons-
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 10:10pmSmart young lady..don’t be jealous
Report Post »Ethereal
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:56amThe physiology doesn’t make sense to me. The hiccs start due to a diaphragm muscle twitch so I don’t know what this arc is with nerves in the throat and why this is the target.
Report Post »Yaeli
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 2:50amActually no, You can get the same hiccup-stopping effect by drinking a couple of spoonfuls of liquified sugar (like the stuff you pour into your iced coffee or iced tea in restaurants) as you can by munching on the sugar granules.
Report Post »MikeJoyous11
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:20pmI’m just so glad for Mallory. Reading about her makes me feel maybe I too can accomplish a dream of mine.
Report Post »AllAmericanGirl22
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 8:19pmAwesome, I hate the hiccups, I would buy these. Nice work Mallory!
Report Post »forthepeople
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 7:28pmWatch …….There has to be a Federal Restriction to make there lives miserable ? How dare they make something without the help of big brother and what about the poor hiccups that not fair to them ?
Report Post »Dano.50
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 7:12pmHere’s the breath technique that work 100% for me.
When you hold your breath, suppress the hiccup like you’re trying not to burp. It sort of feels like trying to clench a sneeze at the same time you can’t inhale after being punched in the gut. You have to make sure not a bit of air moves in your chest and throat area. It’ll feel like an acid burp, or trying not to throw up.
Then you have to hold your breath however long it takes to stifle the next impluse to hiccup and I swear, swear, swear, it works for me so well I don’t even think about it anymore when I get the hiccups. They’re gone inside of a minute.
Report Post »prage2001
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 9:04amI do the same thing. Works every time and it’s free.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 12:24pmI’ll eat a half tea spoon of ground habanero peppers, which converts the hiccups into an entirely different kind, and consequently wash it down with a glass of cold water to take down the hotness level a notch. Works for me every time.
OTOH, hiccups never happen when I drink scotch, only when I forget to replenish my supply. Maybe it’s a reminder to git some!
Report Post »PrfctlyFrank
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 7:10pmWait a minute.. She’s got all this stuff lined up, ready to launch this product.. She has financial backing, experts, patent attorney et al.. She’s about ready to launch the product?? ” About,” ready, and she’s ringing the bell at the NYSE? How many levels is this ridiculous on? Come on folks! Look at the timelines and everything here and if this isn‘t silver spoonage I don’t know what is.. Has this product been market tested? Did it say somewhere that it had been?? This is manufactured feel good bs..
Report Post »Marci
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 7:26pmThis kind of innovation is frowned upon by progressives. She’ll be taxed and regulated out of business in a couple of weeks!
Report Post »Watchingtheweasels
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 7:45amWe have a winner. Notice how she’s applying for (presuambly exclusive, private) high school(s)? I suspect this has a good deal more to do with that than anything else. Where are the tests that show this works? Or are we going to launch this as some homeopathic remedy?
Report Post »JustPeachy
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 7:02pmMrs. Obama will probably outlaw them anyway because they contain evil SUGAR! *Gasp!*
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:07amLOL, not to mention what Mayor Bloomberg will enact probably tomorrow.
Report Post »spfoam1
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:48pmI read somewhere that breaking a bone will cure a stubborn case of the hiccups. I wonder how someone came up with that. Perhaps someone had hiccups so long they finally snapped and punched the wall, hitting the stud and breaking some bones instead of the sheetrock. Voilà…no more hiccups!
Report Post »McNamara
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:41pmI could use those…when i get the hiccups, they last for 4-7 days, non-stop, and I generally have to go to the hospital and get heavy muscle relaxers to make them stop.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 7:25amMan, you have much stronger constitution than I. A week long bout of hiccups would drive me nutty!
Report Post »AliceInObamaland
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:46pmI would buy this product, when I get hiccups I get them bad. I’ve tried all the remedies and nothing seems to work. I just have to wait for them to pass and it can get painful.
Report Post »CanteenBoy
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:23pmAt some point, Obama will determine that she’s made enough money then take it.
Report Post »JustPeachy
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:59pmAnd/or make her “spread her wealth around!”
Report Post »lgccac
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:50pmI have a sure-fire cure for the hiccups. It works 100% of the time. Trouble is there is no way to market it because it’s simply a certain way you hold your breath.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:02pmI believe I know what you are talking about; when I came up with a certain type of breathing technique, I’ve never had the hiccups sense (no more then 3 or 4 times anyway); it’s been over 30 years since I got them for any extensive length of time that is. :)
Report Post »Snidely
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:34pmSooooooo, since you’re not going to get rich off of it anyway, can you share?
Report Post »kryptonite
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:46pm@lgccac
Report Post »I have a sure-fire cure for the hiccups. It works 100% of the time.
———
Yup.
Rob in Katy
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 6:45pmLOL – thought that I was the only one doing that!! for me, I sort of make a manual burp and then you catch / stop about the time the air gets to your throat. I can‘t remember the last time that I have hiccuped more than four or five times and I couldn’t stop it.
Report Post »jackson25
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:49pmThere is no need for this product and this is not revolutionary. In the late 70‘s early 80’s there was a news brief type show on ABC. I cant remember if it was local or national but the show was called FYI. One day they mentioned a story on how to cure hiccups. Place a spoon full of sugar on top of the tongue. place the tongue against the roof of your mouth. suck away the sugar. Works every time without fail. Sometimes in very severe cases it takes two spoons full. Thank you FYI for that tip all those years ago.
Report Post »TurboCat
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 1:58amYou mix a little sugar with a little lemon juice and your hiccups will go away.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on May 7, 2012 at 3:59amStinks if your a diabetic though, doesn’t it?
Report Post »iratd
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:34pmWait till the FDA hears about it….It’ll be 15 years before it ever gets to market. big pharm will put a stop to it.
Report Post »docgreen
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:52pmWell lets see how fast our Govt/Obama takes before he robs her Piggy Banks? I would bet the Irs and Federal reserve allready have an eye on her piggy banks!
Report Post »Leader1776
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:40pmI agree with the first part. The second, not so much. However, it might be Pharma that markets it, but probably not.
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:17pmEvery singer and public speaker would keep a supply on hand.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:48pmI’d keep them in our medicine cabinet along with our sore throat lolipops and the Benedryl.
Report Post »whatthecrazy
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:13pmOnly the elite will benefit from anything invented in the future, for us stupid middle class the hiccupops would run 500.00 bucks a piece, never mind trying to get one in a fema camp…………..
Report Post »Leader1776
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:11pmRemember Junior Achievement? This group educated yougnsted about business and the free market. Haven’t heard about them in decades. Maybe a time for some retired, successful business types to revive the concept.
Hats off to Ms. Kievman. Many people will be working for her some day. And let’s hope her children will be just as important to her!
Report Post »Gary S
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 5:33pmWow! hadn’t thought of them for many years. I was in JA @ 15. Great experience. (I’m 71)
Report Post »Longing for Change
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:08pmDamn American Capitalism!!!
Take her money away! Tax her earnings more appropriately!
She was born with a spoon in her mouth, now she is part of the 1%…
Wait… she is 13??
She is/was part of the 99%? Was she undereducated? How did she do this at 13? I America really that great of a country?
Hell Yes We are that GREAT! I love America and the things we as individuals can achieve! We need more people doing this kind of thing and less people relying on the “entitlements” given freely by the government!
You go Mallory!!!! Congratulations. No other country would allow someone such as her to achieve such heights and such an age!
Report Post »copatriots
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:06pmToo bad they have her posing with a Dem. She’s about to get schooled in taxation and bureaucracy. Her math should also improve as she determines how many lollipops she will have to sell to support those who weren’t fortunate enough to come up with her idea.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 3:48pmAmerican Individualism…
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 3:57pmBut to the ‘left’ she is an evil greedy capitilist….
Report Post »Longing for Change
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 4:11pmMark..
and she was born with an evil spoon in her mouth by being given all that wealth… who says she has earned anything.. lol
The left will hate this story. Personally, I love it! It shows what people can do in America.
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