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Founder's Story
The Founder Who Turns Your Body Heat Into Healing Light: 'It Goes 2 Inches Deep' | Ep 295 with Seth Casden Founder of Hologenix
00:19:36
What if better sleep, faster recovery, and improved circulation didn’t require supplements, routines, or discipline—just the clothes you wear and the pillow you sleep on? In this episode, Seth Casden breaks down the science behind infrared textiles, the long road to credibility in wellness tech, and why perseverance—not hype—is the real competitive advantage in building lasting companies.
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- [00:01]
State Street Investment Management Announcer
Hear that? That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on my front porch. How did I get here? I invested to make my dream home home. Get where you're going with mdy, the original mid cap ETF from State Street Investment Management. Getting There starts here.
- [00:17]
State Street Investment Management Disclaimer
Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Visit statestreet.com im for prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. MDY is subject to risks similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. Alps Distributors, Inc.
- [00:30]
State Street Investment Management Announcer
Distributor we all take good care of the things that matter. Our homes, our pets, our cars. Are you doing the same for your brain? Acting early to protect brain health may help reduce the risk of dementia from conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Studies have found that up to 45% of dementia cases may be prevented or delayed. By managing risk factors, you can change make brain health a priority. Ask your doctor about your risk factors and for a cognitive assessment. Learn more@brainhealthmatters.com hi, I'm Andy Staples from.
- [01:02]
Andy Staples
Andy and Ariane 3. And another five star quarterback just entered the transfer portal. That's what college football is now, a non stop adventure. And we cover it every day at Andy and Ariane 3, whether it's the transfer portal, the college football playoff, the coaching carousel, you name it. And guess what, it doesn't stop even when the season ends. So join us every day, Monday through Friday. New episodes drop at 3pm wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:36]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
So Seth, always great to connect with you again. I was super happy that I got to meet you what feels like a lifetime ago, right? So I think it was almost a year ago and when I heard about what you were doing I was like oh my gosh, I need that. Like I've been looking for that for a long time. And that was specifically the pillow and what you are creating. But you are combining health and wellness through textiles and I have to understand how did you even get into that.
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Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah, well thanks for having me on Daniel. It's great to reconnect with you also. And yeah, it's, it's, you know those kinds of responses when people hear about our technology that motivate me and get me out of bed every day. When I first heard about it, the inventor David Hornick, he's a friend of mine and I was just fascinated by the intersection of physical science, human, you know, human physiology and also what natural occurring minerals can do and then looking at how to improve and optimize the body and being a triathlete and really loving to be outdoors and wanting to live a long time being a dad, you know, you're always looking for how to optimize your body and, you know, have a good, healthy life. And when you look at what we do in our technology, we're basically delivering health and wellness to the body through, through textiles, through everyday apparel and bedding and sleep products. So it's been. It's been a great journey. And I think the science is really there now. And we're seeing people that get introduced to the technology having a similar responses as you just had.
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Daniel (Podcast Host)
Can you tell me more about how does the technology work and what have you seen?
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Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah, of course. So really we're all batteries. We're giving off about 100 watts of energy every second, just having this constant conversation. And that energy goes into the environment and it's basically lost. And so what salient does is it's found a way to harness that. We capture that heat and the minerals naturally convert heat to light, and they put that light in the infrared spectrum back into our body, which improves circulation and blood flow. And so you see, we have 11 published studies now showing the benefits of salient and how it affects the body and interacts the body with the body. And. And you know, infrared's just beyond the visible, so it's not light that you see what you're normally like looking at a rainbow, but it's real. And it goes up to 4 centimeters, you know, a couple inches into the body and provides these thermoregulation benefits.
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Daniel (Podcast Host)
I have to say, infrared, you know, red light therapy, all these things the last few years have just been dominating the health and wellness space. How was it when you started to talk to people? Do you think you're at a time where people believe it more, understand it more, or are there a lot of skeptics?
- [04:21]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Well, I think when we started, there are certainly a lot of skeptics. People were a little incredulous that you could make these kinds of impacts. Naturally. This tends to be just healthy skepticism when something's new, particularly if this is something that is maybe not easy to see with the naked eye. But now I think it's really. There's over 10,000 papers on photobiomodulation that have been published. Over 125,000 subjects have been studied. If you look at the whole universe of using light and lasers to help people. So I think now it's really got a stronghold, and particularly with the biohacking and longevity community, has embraced infrared and understands Infrared. So I'd say now we're at place a fairly wide acceptance, if not universal.
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Daniel (Podcast Host)
And so when you, when you started using this, I imagine you must have seen a difference or maybe someone that, you know had also seen a difference. But what type of things did you start to see? And, and I was reading a lot about, you know, recovery and sleep performance. I think like you said, the biohacking is maybe those three things are the things that everybody, everybody wants to achieve. And especially us as entrepreneurs who work like 24 7, we many times neglect those things.
- [05:41]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah. And for me personally, I had a Bristow procedure on my shoulder and had to have a rod put in and a cleat and using stallion as a wrap and as like an insulation around the scar, I could really actually feel and perceive the increase in circulation, blood flow. I was on the short end of the healing spectrum. My doctor thought I had healed very quickly relative to what the average is. I also had some incredible experiences around animals with horses, dogs and cats, you know, where there's no placebo effect. They don't really, you know, have anyone to kind of bias them and see how they interact around the product was also very compelling. And then, yeah, you know, friends, you know, people have bad knee that taken a leave every day and wear a salient knee brace and, and don't need the Aleve or, you know, people that are arthritic dogs that, you know, have bad hips and then they start walking better. So, you know, those are all individual cases, but collectively and with the science, it starts to make a pretty compelling, you know, paint a pretty compelling picture.
- [06:45]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
It's something I need, I really need to get the pillow. Like, I really, really need to. I need the brace. I got bad knees. I got. My knees are like Rice Krispie treats.
- [06:55]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah, it's great what you're saying about the pillow, because when we go to sleep, that's really the longest period we have for recovery. And, you know, it turns out that the only time the brain can really recover is when it's turned off when it's asleep. And so increasing circulation while you're sleeping really provides a wonderful benefit for restorative sleep and waking up feeling, you know, your best.
- [07:17]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
That is the. I think that's the biggest thing I struggle with. I woke up last night at maybe 3:45am and I don't know if I even went back to sleep after that. It's definitely one of those things. And then I started looking at my phone. I do like all the worst habits that I'm trying, I'm trying to change. When you, when you went into this model, I believe you were looking at licensing and now you're really going, doing a lot with direct to consumer. What was the reason for that model?
- [07:45]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah, that's a great question. And we've been fortunate enough to work with some incredible brands. You know, Under Armour is really our largest brand or most, maybe most well known in the United States right now. We also work with Decathlon and EON overseas. And we've been fortunate enough to be in programs with Puma and ADI and New Balance, Reebok. And what we saw was despite really over a billion dollars at retail, very, very little brand awareness, very little consumer understanding of infrared and how it works and what the benefits are. So we thought the best way to approach that is to really launch our own brand and tell our own story directly to the consumer to help raise the awareness and the level of education around infrared. So this year we started selling it sleep line. We started with the Dream Pillow and we just launched our sheets as well last weekend at the trade show Longevity Fest in Las Vegas. So we're starting to really have our own assortment of product lines in addition to like socks and wristbands and some of the other things that we give away typically. So, yeah, for us, I think it's really important that we can control the story and take that story directly to the consumer.
- [09:01]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
I need those sheets. I think the sheet, the sheets sound incredible. When you look at how health and wellness is now being transformed into our daily life. From watches, from rings that monitor now to your, your clothing, textiles, that can do things as well. How do you see this whole. I don't know if this is like a new industry, maybe there's a new name for the industry, but how do you see this going forward?
- [09:26]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Well, I think the longevity biohacking is exploding. It's billions of dollars now. There's literally dozens of shows internationally that focus on this that are attracting tens of thousands of people. And the science and our ability to your point, to measure things that 10, even five years ago we couldn't really look at now that we can measure like mitochondrial health and we can understand these micro improvements and what really powers and fuels our health on a cellular level and with supplements and nutritional support. I think a lot of these devices are measuring our heart rate, our heart rate variability, our sleep. But we're just sort of quantifying. And now we have something that you can use that'll show an improvement. And so you can use these devices to actually see how you're improving. So I think that's going to really help us and I think just the more science around this whole space really helps to lift us up and to show the consumer that, you know, this is part of your routine. I mean traditionally we're told if you want to be healthier, you have to either change your diet, you know, change how you eat, workout more, or change your sleep and all of those things will help. But this is also something you can incorporate into your daily routine without changing anything else. And you're going to see an improvement.
- [10:46]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
When you look back at your experience in business. Did something that you did before this carry over? So for example, could be a job, it could be something that you did in school. But is there something that along the way, maybe you know, lessons and leadership, something that really carried over to now what you use in business.
- [11:06]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
You know, for one, I really like working with great people and small teams and you don't really get that in the corporate world. I mean maybe you can be fortunate to have some great colleagues, but having that like passion and that shared focus that you find when you're an entrepreneur and when you're working with small teams of like minded people.
- [11:25]
State Street Investment Management Announcer
Hear that? That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on my front porch. How did I get here? I invested to make my dream home home. Get where you're going with mdy, the original mid cap ETF from State Street Investment Management. Getting there starts here.
- [11:41]
State Street Investment Management Disclaimer
Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Visit statestreet.com im for prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. MDY is subject to risks similar to those of stock stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. Alps Distributors Inc.
- [11:53]
Andy Staples
Distributor hi, I'm Andy Staples from Andy and Ariane three. And another five star quarterback just entered the transfer portal. That's what college football is now, a non stop adventure. And we cover it every day at Andy and Ariane 3. Whether it's the transfer portal, the college football playoff, the coaching carousel, you name it. And guess what, it doesn't stop even when the season ends. So join us every day, Monday through Friday. New episodes drop at 3pm wherever you.
- [12:23]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Get your podcasts, to me that's really fulfilling. And what you're making almost becomes secondary because you know every day, all day, you're in and you're out, you want to be enjoying what you're doing and what you're grinding away at. And so for me like finding the right the right team, and then obviously a product that's, that's bringing value and health to people. And, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, if you feel better, you're going to be happier and just live a more enjoyable life. And so, you know, that really appeals to me. And, you know, as far as, like, the path to get here, I think this is my fourth company. So, you know, that perseverance, that understanding that, like, what some people might see as a failure is just, you know, another opportunity in a, in a different direction and not really losing my spirit or my, my hope just because something that I started out initially didn't work or the work the way I wanted it to. So I think, like, that tenacity and that perseverance I've carried with me and certainly needed for this business to succeed and thrive. And yeah, I mean, there's a lot of life lessons along the way about just learning to see things with a broader perspective. Maybe not such a harsh, judgmental attitude of what failure and success looks like and really being able to just move forward with whatever changes we need and course corrections and just keep going.
- [13:44]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
When you think about. I know you just mentioned some traits, but it. Is there a certain trait that you think every entrepreneur or every person really has to be a successful entrepreneur? And the reason I ask is we had another guest on and they were talking about grit just because the ups and downs that they had to go through, most people would have quit along the way. You have to be like, hyper dedicated. But is there, Is there a certain trait that you think in order to really be successful, not to become an entrepreneur, like, anyone can open a business, but in order to really be successful long term, is there a trait that you think everyone needs to have?
- [14:21]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
You know, I'll answer that kind of maybe a little differently. I think there's a trait that you can't have, and that is just like a negativity disguised as, like a cynicism disguised as a lot of people say, oh, I'm just being realistic, you know, like, realistically, that's not going to work. Or, you know, I'm just, I'm just telling you how it is. And, you know, things never worked until they worked. So, you know, just because it hasn't worked to that point isn't any reason to think that it can't be different in the future. And if you have kind of a fixed mindset, you're not open, and you tend to see the world as kind of half empty, the glass half empty, you know, that's that's not going to work. There's a lot of ways to make things work. But I can say that if. If you have that kind of dismissive attitude, you know, you're never going to be able to see something that other people haven't done yet.
- [15:17]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
It's hard not to get sucked into that. As you know, there's great ups, but there's a. There might be more downs in business than ups in the moments, like over time. How do you not fall into that trap?
- [15:32]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Well, I'd say one, I have over different times. You know, you get down, you get frustrated. I, you know, be disingenuous to say I've never felt defeated at different points. But I think each time, you know, I pause, I gather myself and. And I. I keep going. And I think a big part of that is the perspective. Like, I don't. I don't have my identity tied to the company. Right. Like, the company is its own thing. I care about it. You know, it's almost like a child at this point. It's 25 years old, but it's just the company and what I'm trying to do, and I believe in it. But there's a. There's a level of separation there. You know, my identity is who I am and the efforts that I put in. And I don't really measure my success from the output. I measure it from the input and what I put into it and the sincerity and the integrity of my work and my effort is kind of how I value my. Myself. And the results are, you know, a little bit, to a certain extent, out of my control.
- [16:30]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
You know, maybe that is the. The challenging part of what. When people fall into the fact, like, this is my whole life. My business is everything. It's my life. Like, it's. It means everything. I like your separation of that. So then if something ever happens to the company, it's not like your whole world is then imploding with it. We see, you know, founders who exit or they raise money and their company has taken over and they're kicked out of their own company, which is always quite sad. But I imagine if you can disassociate yourself, you know, that, okay, I can just go do something else at this point versus, like, you know, never letting it go.
- [17:12]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Yeah, that's not a perspective I've always had, but it's certainly, as I sit here today, the one. The one I have.
- [17:19]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
So where do you. How do you see. Where do you see the future of just for yourself? When you look at. Okay, I, you know, what do you want to do with the company? Like, do you look at things in terms of. I want to hold a company for a legacy, for pass it down through generations. I want to exit the company, I want to advise companies, I want to invest, I want to, you know, I want to do a new company. How do you look at things for the future when it comes to, you know, business for you?
- [17:47]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
You know, it's something I've wrestled with and think about from time to time, certainly when you're, when you're out fundraising, I think for me, you know, I don't have a predisposition. I try not to have an expectation, and that tends to keep you open to more possibilities to the extent somebody else comes along and sees the same value that I see, you know, explore that. If nobody ever comes along and sees it as valuable as I do, then I'll probably just keep doing it myself. And you end up offering friends and family and friends of friends help as the more experience I have and the more value I can offer, then I don't know if it'll ever be formalized in a consulting role or not, but certainly gathered a lot of life experience on this journey and a wide variety of experience, supply chain and business development and globally and the width of products that, you know, that we make that have our technology and all of the science behind it and the regulatory work. And, you know, there's a lot of different touch points this company has. So, you know, all of that experience just makes, makes for a little bit better sense of purpose, I guess, and provides a little more clarity as I get older and so far just reinforce that I'm doing the right thing and feel good about it. So, you know, try and stay open to what the future holds and, and, and take what's in front of me and evaluate it as it comes.
- [19:19]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
I like the approach. I think that, that, I think that can make for a healthy approach because you're, you just never know what's going to come back. In 2018, somebody had offered to buy one of the companies that we had, and I was quite insulted because at the time I didn't realize that you should probably sell if you get the chance to at a high note. And then within a year, that company no longer existed. So that was a learning moment for me. Have you had any of these learning moments for you?
- [19:51]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
You know, nobody's come along with this company to offer me a big check that I turned away. But, you know, in another life, I was doing residential real estate development and we had built a spec home and I think we had it listed for 5.2 million. We had an all cash offer for 4.3, and then we had another offer for 4.75 and that was contingent on them selling their house. And so we took that offer because it was an extra 400,000 that ended up falling through. We went back to the person offering four, three. They had gone on and bought something else. The house then sat on the market for a year and a half and we sold it for 3.8. And that was always something that I regretted, not just taking the burden hand and the cash. And you know, in perspective, it was barely 5% difference, 10% difference in price, and it would have been a home run to sell it, you know, as soon as we listed it. And that was something that I, you know, that I learned from. And you know, a lot of times it's about the better deal, not, not evaluated from more money, but from more certainty.
- [20:59]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
That's a valuable lesson. I think most people would run on the money side, not the value side. And maybe that's where many people make that mistake because somebody could say, I will give you the whole world, but if they can't give you the whole world in the end, then you're basically at zero, maybe even negative. But what a valuable lesson. Seth, this has been amazing. If people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more about the company, how can they do so know?
- [21:26]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Reach out to our website and happy to answer any inquiries and, and check out our gear and I love to connect with your community.
- [21:34]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
Well, I need to get the pillow and I need to get the knee brace. I need to get the sheets. I think I need to get everything. I, I really do. I have so many ailments. I feel like I'm 80 years old. It's like every day there's like some new ailment. I'm like, I must be 150 years old in my body. So I, I need to turn the clock backwards. And, you know, I want to live a long, healthy life like most of us do. But Seth, thank you so much for joining us on Founders Story.
- [22:02]
Seth (Guest, Founder of Salient Health Tech)
Thanks for having me.
- [22:08]
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- [22:38]
Andy Staples
Hi, I'm Andy Staples from Andy and Ariane three and another five star quarterback just entered the transfer portal. That's what college football is now, a non stop adventure. And we cover it every day at Andy and Ariane 3. Whether it's the transfer portal, the College Football playoff, the coaching carousel, you name it. And guess what? It doesn't stop even when the season ends. So join us every day, Monday through Friday. New episodes drop at 3pm Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:09]
Daniel (Podcast Host)
Happy Holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the channel show grow. From all of us at Believe, have a Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy Holiday. If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.