What We Do

We help companies produce and disseminate science and technologies that improve lives. Particularly focused on education and healthcare (including biotech and wellness) applications, we leverage artificial intelligence, data analytics, and applied neuroscience to bring scientific ideas into everyday use, with a special interest in digital health mobile apps. When working with startups or new organizations, the focus is on finding product-market fit and designing new products and features that both help and delight the target user. 
  • Projects range from white papers to developing new apps to advising on product strategy. Deliverables have included scientific review papers, market research, competitive analysis and positioning, business model development, scoping new products and features (including product specifications and design of wireframes), product requirements and design (including wireframes), user experience studies, and quantitative analysis in user testing.
  • Recent clients: the inventor of the Palm Pilot and the Palm Treo, the maker of a #1 iPhone app, a Fortune 500 company, and a leading venture capital firm. Clients have been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
  • Current and past honors/awards: Catalant network expert (5/5 stars), MIT Venture Mentoring Service (by competitive selection out of MIT alumni startups), Silicon Valley Startup Leadership program (<25% selected internationally), Audience Choice Award for Android app at NYCEdu Startup Weekend​​
​

About the Founder

Picture


Elizabeth Ricker’s background spans science, technology, business, and user experience. Her passion is bringing great technology ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace. She has been an invited speaker across the United States and internationally.

Business Leadership: Elizabeth has held product and program management positions in education and healthcare technology companies launched out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard Medical School, and Stanford University that have cumulatively raised over $100 million and had their products used by over 70 million individuals worldwide. She has been consulted on the market potential for genomics and cognitive training by strategic consulting and venture capital firms, advised early stage MIT and Harvard spin-outs ranging from marketplaces for architectural design to brain based consumer personalization mobile apps.

Academics, Research, and Development: Undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Masters degree from Harvard University in Mind, Brain, and Education. Educational technology research at the MIT Media Lab and molecular neuroscience research on memory with MIT Nobel laureate.  

Invited Symposia, Talks, Presentations, and/or Panels: The Kaufmann Foundation for Entrepreneurship, MIT Chairman’s Salon, Harvard Graduate School of Education, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Society, Kairos Society, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the First International Whole Brain Learning Conference in Suzhou, China (2010-2015)  

Scientific Communication: Upcoming popular science book on cognitive enhancement and self-experimentation "The 15-Minute Brain: Inside the World of Self-Experimentation, Neurohacking, and the Quest to Upgrade Intelligence" currently under contract with Little, Brown Spark (Hachette Book Group). Short form articles covering education and neuroscience for a lay audience have won Best of North America (Fair Observer, 2012) and consistently place as front page articles. 

Entrepreneurship and leadership awards: TEDMED Frontline Scholarship, Silicon Valley Leadership Program TiE, StartingBloc Fellowship, MIT Venture Mentoring Service (2009-2013).

Innovations in Educational Technology: Selected as Employee of the Month, Freshman Pre-Orientation speaker for excellence in innovative sports education programs and teaching at MIT (2011). Selected to run educational policy committee spearheading midterm evaluations that provided feedback from hundreds of students to their professors across the MIT engineering, science, and humanities schools (2004-2005).  

Professional Memberships: the Product Development and Product Management Association (PDMA), the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Other: Regional Get-Out-the-Vote Director on Barack Obama's presidential campaign (2008) and on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign (2016), nationally ranked squash player (#24 nationally, #3 in state, Junior Olympics), and elected undergraduate class president at MIT.

​Photo by Lindsey Lune
Email us at info at rickerlabs.com