We all know the feeling: back pain - if you observe yourself in everyday life, you quickly catch yourself standing hunched over, strolling around with slumped shoulders or sinking deeper and deeper into your chair at your desk. These posture patterns not only put strain on the spine, but also weaken the muscles in the back and shoulders that should actually absorb the strain. When we looked more closely at this problem, we quickly realised that good posture can be the key. But getting there is not that easy. In the search for a remedy and support, we and countless people out there have already tried passive posture belts, but these are more of a hindrance than a help and usually end up in the corner and gathering dust after a very short time. If you delve deeper, you increasingly come across so-called 'intelligent' posture trainers - but these often fail too, as they don't cover posture comprehensively enough and bring more frustration than relief. We were dissatisfied and said to ourselves: there must be a better way! Fortunately, the three of us engineers Erik, Marcus and Jan crossed paths with Tobias Baierle. Tobias is an experienced physiotherapist who was confronted with the same challenges in his day-to-day work. He was also unable to recommend a product to his patients that would accompany and support them beyond the therapy. Even more acutely, he himself lacked a tool that could support him directly during therapy. So much need - and no solution in sight? That was the starting point for us to come together as a team to develop StraightUp. With our combined expertise from the fields of physiotherapy, sensor technology and AI development, we began to create a solution that addresses the problem holistically.

Jan Bartenbach, our software and business development expert, ensures that the solution has a solid foundation, both technically and strategically. Marcus Hamann-Schroer, with his background in electronics and finance, brings the necessary precision to the development and keeps the project on track financially. Erik Vautrin, who specialises in hardware, marketing and sales, brings the vision to the world and ensures that our technology is accessible to everyone. Tobias Baierle, who is in charge of clinical studies and product testing, ensures that our posture trainer meets the needs of patients and therapists. Together, we have set ourselves the goal of rethinking and tackling the issue of back health in the area of posture. We strive to create a solution that really makes a difference - both for individuals and professionals.