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Two Central Coast College Grads Launch Startup; Make Cases To Block Radiation from Phones, Laptops

The two Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students founded SafeSleeve, a company which makes phone and computer cases designed to protect users from electromagnetic radiation from the devices

They were two Central Coast college students with an idea to deal with a safety concern they felt no one was really tackling.

Cary Subel and Alaey Kumar were engineering students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when they realized some people were worried about radiation from smartphones, and laptops. They started thinking about the idea, and experimenting with designs to provide protection.

Kumar says as they looked at research, they realized that there is no real consensus on potential danger. So, Subel says what they came up with were cases which would cut potential radiation exposure. But, they figured if they developed covers which were attractive and practical, even people not overly worried about radiation would buy them.

But, it’s one thing to have an idea, and another to turn it into a business. Subel graduated from Cal Poly in 2011, and Kumar in 2012. They both took engineering jobs to pay the bills as they continued to work on the idea. They raised money through crowdsourcing, and borrowed to family members.

Kumar says their Carlbad based company, SafeSleeve, started shipping cases in 2014, and has sold more than 100,000 items.  Subel says it’s still kind of amazing the two young college students met, became friends, developed an idea and have made it work as a business.

Like to SafeSleeve's website:  www.safesleevecases.com

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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