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Optimization for the body
"Behind every successful Israeli startup is a person with enormous faith"
Spirituality, Divinity and advanced technology go hand in hand at Healables, the company founded by Moshe Lebowitz to help the masses deal with physical discomfort and improve physical performance. “It is wrong to look at spirituality as contradicting technology”, he states, revealing the company’s new product line
Photo 1: Moshe Lebowitzis. By: Larry Brandt
In partnership with Healables
Moshe Lebowitz is a spiritual and visionary person. In a conversation with him, he weaves spiritual sayings alongside business insights about the groundbreaking market in which he operates. He founded Healables to develop wearable aids to deal with pain and improve physical performance. Its vision is to help people improve their physical and mental health and optimize their performance.
Photo 2: ElectroGear Improves physical performance, By: Shemtov Hollinger
One product called ElectroGear is already doing this in practice for athletes and manual laborers, who rely on muscle and strength to do their jobs. They are already using it to return the body to the state it was in before intense physical activity was performed. An American baseball player, who participated in a tournament, testified that after wearing the ElectroGear, his recovery to full strength took only a few hours, instead of the four days it usually takes.
“We did a soft launch for the product this year. It is available to a select audience and next year we will open its availability to the general public,” says Lebowitz. “The feedback is amazing. Users say it’s a life-changing product. It’s really electronic therapy for the body. Not only athletes and workers will find it useful, but also office workers whose sitting posture and computer use cause them body pain. Soldiers and reservists who suffer from knee or back pain will also find it very useful, and as someone whose daughter is married to a paratrooper soldier, it is important to me to help this segment of the population.”
How does it work and when will we see the product in Israel?
“This type of electrotherapy, which is subsensory, recharges the cells and gives them energy. The medical literature shows that it has the power to increase the ATP in the body by 500%. A soccer player whose pain prevented him from functioning – returned to play two weeks after starting to use ElectroGear. He even scored the game winning goal. The company has business relations with medical centers in Israel such as Wolfson, Hadassah, and Sheba, so it is not long from today that it will also be offered to the general public. Alongside it, we are already in the middle of a development process of a product line for various medical problems such as fibromyalgia and neuropathic diabetes.”
Quantum thinking instead of binary
Moshe Lebowitz founded Healables in 2017 in Jerusalem – the biotechnology capital of the Startup Nation. Today, the company, which received a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority, works with 25 people who focus on the technology of wearable products, called Electron Stream. Those who already imagine an image of an average American start-up from Silicon Valley, will be surprised to hear that Lebowitz’s profile is far from that. He is an ultra-Orthodox man who was a yeshiva student and studied for and even obtained a rabbinical ordination. He studied business communication at Towson university, and after recovering from a traumatic brain injury about 15 years ago, he turned to entrepreneurialism.
Photo 3: The ElectroGear device. By: Guy Hecht
“Thank God, I have fully recovered. But what I learned in my journey back to health was that there is a need for optimization for the body and mind,” he says. “The event really encouraged me to invent a product that would do this and be available and accessible to the public. After various positions in the market, including product manager, fundraiser and CEO of various companies and organizations, I founded Healables to make this dream come true.”
So the rabbi became a startup entrepreneur?
“As someone whose company focuses on products that are very relevant to athletes, I am often asked “What is the connection between the rabbinate and sports?” I answer that people have an animal soul and a Divine soul. Every sports coach, business manager or rabbi wants to help their team connect and identify with the Divine soul that has infinite power, so that it will serve as the source of motivation to reach the goal. There are animals that have horns, with which they stab those in front of them. Our animal soul also has such horns. We must take their sharp edges and turn them towards ourselves and hollow out the ego from within. When we blow through these horns – we produce a beautiful sound, which is the sound of the Divine taking over the place of the animal. So I see a clear connection between Jewish spirituality, business and sports – this is the way to get employees to do their job well.”
Did you feel that your rabbinic background helps you in the world of entrepreneurship?
“Yes. When you study Torah in depth, you learn to ask questions. If you want to understand how it is permissible to use a refrigerator on Shabbat – you need to learn about electronics. If you want to understand about fasting on Yom Kippur, you need to learn about medicine. When you are trained to ask good questions, to listen more than to talk and to conduct a dialogue – you have the key to learning, which is a critical condition in entrepreneurship. You become humble, know how to ask the right questions and manage to learn from everyone.
In general, I think it is wrong to look at spirituality as contradicting technology. To the contrary. Steve Jobs was a Buddhist. He realized that while many technology leaders think in a binary way – 0 and 1, the correct thinking for the field is quantum. Quantum thinking is characterized by creativity, super-positioning and looking at several possibilities at the same time. It allows people with different opinions to coexist in a harmonious state. These are important abilities in the entrepreneurial and business world. You see it in Israel as well – behind every successful Israeli start-up is a person with enormous faith.”
“My tip for investors is that if they find a start-up that has a message or a product that they feel a connection to - to reach out and ask its managers about investing, because it is likely that they are raising money.”
What are the significant challenges facing Healables?
“Bringing new technology to the world is always a challenge. The way I see it, the company’s biggest challenge is to bring the innovation to all the many verticals in which its products can make a difference: Sports, medicine, veterinary medicine and more. As CEO, focus is very important and I chose to focus first of all on the field of sports, to concentrate all resources there and to maximize the effort. Fortunately, since we are based in Israel, which is the Startup Nation, we have relatively easy access to top-level technology professionals, and we can do things that can only be done in one or two other places in the world. A very significant challenge is fundraising. That’s how it is in startups. My tip for investors is that if they find a start-up that has a message or a product that they feel a connection to – to reach out and ask its managers about investing, because it is likely that they are raising money.”
And when such an investor comes to you, how do you 'sell' him the investment in Healables?
“I tell him that the company has reached a significant milestone, that it has a product out there, that the technology works and that now we must focus on optimizing the product and building international distribution partners. We aim to sign the right distribution deals with the right partners so that we can bring the product to the wider world, so there is a huge opportunity here. We are on our way to create life-changing experiences for millions of people all over the world. People who suffer from pain, people who cannot work, people who want to realize the purpose for which they are here yet they cannot due to limitations. I hope that in a few years from now we will help these people realize their dreams.”
Moshe Lebowitz- CEO of Healables
Education:
Rabbinical ordination, Bachelor’s degree in business communication, Towson University.
Notable previous positions:
Product manager, fundraiser, CEO of various companies and organizations.
Hobbies:
martial arts, cooking.
Leading motto:
“Every person has a Divine soul waiting to shine.”
