Инвесторы i2n Angels вложили средства в компанию Quix Labs, разрабатывающую альтернативу курению

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... WEST GOSHEN — Zachary Starr, 23, recently met with investors to thank them for their support and present the path forward for his growing company, Quix Labs, an international pharmacy-led nicotine reduction company. The company slogan is “the inhaled smoking alternative system built for primary care.” Quix Labs hosted its third annual summit at Tanglewood on West Chester University’s campus on Aug. 28, where 50 investors, advisors, and supporters celebrated the company securing its inaugural investment from i2n Angels, an angel investment group formed by the Chester County Economic Development Council. “Supporting innovators and entrepreneurs across southeastern Pennsylvania is the focus of the Ideas x Innovation Network (i2n), and the success that Zach and the Quix Labs team have accomplished exemplifies the impact i2n is having across the region,” said Matt Cabrey, managing director of i2n. The mission of i2n seeks to support the region’s innovators through four key pillars: strategic connections, coaching and advising, workspace solutions and funding options. “We are thrilled to have made our first i2n Angels investment in support of Quix Labs,” Cabrey said on Thursday. Specifics about the investment were not released. However, according to the organization’s website, i2n Angels can support startup companies in the southeastern Pennsylvania region with early-stage funding of between $50,000 and $500,000. From Idea To A Company A resident of West Goshen, Starr graduated from West Chester University in 2024. He began Quix Labs when he was 16 while a student at West Chester Rustin High School. He was soon flying across the Atlantic to open an official corporate subsidiary and business branch in London. As founder and chief executive officer of Quix Labs, Starr introduced his company’s lead product, Quixotic, into the United Kingdom market. Quixotic is now distributed across approximately 70 community pharmacies in England. “As much as I had confidence in betting on myself as a 20-year-old, I was not able to convince many others to put in the amount of money that we would need,” Starr reflected on Thursday. “The UK presented us with a much quicker pathway to market.” And given there would be no language barrier, it became Starr’s  European country of choice. Quixotic is a reusable, refillable inhalable device that offers four nicotine strengths, allowing users to taper down to zero. To avoid the heavy initial costs of FDA approval, Starr said he targeted the United Kingdom for a faster, more affordable pathway to market. Quixotic is priced at approximately $12-$13 for each device and $10-$11 for weekly refills. Staying Local — Growing Internationally Starr has decided, despite building a multinational company, to keep the business’ headquarters in West Goshen. “Chester County is in my blood. Every time that choice has come up, I have chosen home,” the 23-year-old said. “The people who wrote some of our earliest checks are ten minutes from where I went to high school,” Starr reflected. “That is not something most founders can say, and it is not something I take lightly. West Chester made me, so West Chester is where we plant the flag.” Starr said he created the concept while observing his high school peers struggling with vaping addiction and hiding devices in their sleeves. Recognizing the low 15% efficacy rate of traditional smoking cessation products, he said he designed a device that maintains the physical hand-to-mouth habit while gradually tapering chemical dependence. Quix Labs employs nine people with Starr and four staff members based in the U.S. and four employees based in London. This summer, Starr served as a student Entrepreneur-in-Residence at West Chester University’s Dr. Edwin Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center. “If we could take a magic wand and just get rid of nicotine addiction, get rid of smoking, get rid of vaping, get rid of nicotine pouches, I would do it in a heartbeat,” he said. Starr said he plans for his company to submit its products to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review and approval by 2028, with hopes of entering the domestic marketplace that same year or by early 2029. Starr said he is inspired by the idea that this can become a “smoke-free world, a nicotine-free world one day.” He added that he hoped future generations can grow up in a world  where they don’t need to go to high school and see their peers vaping in secrecy. As for being an entrepreneur, he advised people to enjoy each step that gets one closer to the goal ahead. “You need to love the process more than the results,” Starr said. “The most successful people — they fall in love with the process.” Starr said launching a business, which he noted only 1% of entrepreneurs with startup companies succeed in the end, requires sacrifice and realism. Starr said it is vital to enjoy every day, every step along the way, and to have patience to withstand the bad days that come alongside all the good days. “I’m still very far from the summit, still very far from the peak, and hopefully for this company’s sake, very far from the levels of success that we will have,” the West Goshen local said. “This job, this intensity, if you really want to be successful and stand out above all else, it does come at the sacrifice of personal relationships at times,” Starr said. “You have to be willing to sacrifice.”