In this episode of Grit Daily’s Startup Show, host John Biggs interviewed Scott Hickle, the founder of Throne, a health-tech startup aiming to revolutionize gut health and hydration monitoring. Throne uses a camera that clips onto the side of a toilet to provide real-time health insights. According to Hickle, Throne is designed to address a gap in the market, offering a solution for continuous monitoring of gut health, something that devices like the Apple Watch and Garmin have done for cardiovascular health.
Throne’s technology analyzes the contents of the toilet bowl using computer vision models, which provide users with valuable data about their bowel movements, urinary flow, and hydration levels.
“It’s literally a camera that clips on the side of the toilet bowl, and then we’re looking at the frequency and consistency of your bowel movements, your strain, your hydration, your urinary flow rate,” remarks Hickle.
The idea is to provide continuous insights rather than isolated data points, helping users track trends over time.
One of Throne’s goals is to detect trace amounts of fecal occult blood, an early indicator of colon cancer. While the device will not serve as a diagnostic tool, it could alert users to seek medical advice. “Most people miss it. And that’s a big part of the reason colon cancer is so deadly,” Hickle shared.
The product, which is still in the prototype phase, features user-specific buttons to track data for different household members. When onboarding, users pair it with their app and assign themselves a button. In the future, Throne will incorporate Bluetooth beaconing and motion sensing, making it completely passive and even easier to use.
The response to Throne has been overwhelmingly positive. A tweet Hickle posted showing the first prototype generated half a million views within 24 hours. The response has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Those who have reached out are either very into their health or have chronic gut issues and are excited about better monitoring.
Throne’s development plan involves producing 100 beta units to gather user feedback, with plans to scale up over the next year. The long-term plan includes moving to contract manufacturing for larger production runs, with a direct-to-consumer sales model that mirrors other health-tech companies. The device is planned to be priced at $299, with a monthly subscription fee of $6 for continued analytics.
With a clear market fit and enthusiastic early support, Throne is set to make waves in the health-tech space.
