Luis Lopez knows entrepreneurs are only successful if they have people around them that want them to be.
Lopez, co-founder of CardiSys, knows this because he’s had help.
He went through Straight Shot accelerator last year. He’s a member of Pipeline Entrepreneurs. And he got another taste of a supportive Omaha entrepreneurial community Wednesday morning when he presented at 1 Million Cups.
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Lopez was the first presenter at 1 Million Cups’s new location in Omaha, the Wareham Building.
A host of new faces attended at the new space, said Scott Bishop, co-organizer of the event.
“1 Million Cups is a place where we primarily do three things: learn from each other, get exposure for founders and their companies and increase collaboration in the community,” he said.
Lopez presented his startup that created a predictive intelligence platform for the healthcare industry that aims to change health behaviors.
He said more than 50 percent of Americans suffer from obesity and in the coming decades, nearly half of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic.
“It’s expensive,” Lopez said. “A healthy employee can cost a company around $1,300 a year. An unhealthy one can cost upwards of $10,000.”
But it’s not just cost — the unhealthy epidemics are killing people. Lopez said 70 percent of early deaths are caused by human behavior and choices: smoking, eating unhealthy foods, not taking care of your body.
Employers try to address and reduce bad behaviors by bringing in professionals to do wellness programs, but only 2 percent of corporate wellness programs have an estimated amount of how much their saving.
“It’s one of the few industries that you can make a lot of money without proving its worth or savings,” Lopez 
(right) said. “It’s like stepping outside and trying to shoot a fly with a shotgun that’s 50 feet away.
“If they can pinpoint who is at risk and address it, it becomes a better system.”
CardioSys takes baseline biometrics and combines it with data sources like health risk assessments and wearable sensors like FitBits and FuelBands.
Their algorithmic engine sifts through a company’s biometric data and visualizes the factors that are driving the greatest health risks at both population and individual levels.
They hope to work with employee wellness programs, healthcare providers, insurance companies and health clinics. The software as a service would be charged as pay per participant.
The startup is running two pilot programs and is onboarding about five more. They hope to have around 15 pilot programs with wellness programs.
He’s asking for help finding companies that have a wellness program willing to give CardioSys a whirl. If you know a company that fits the bill, you can contact Lopez at founders@cardiosys.io.
While some large corporations have built their own version of what CardioSys is doing, Lopez said it isn’t scalable. And as for running into health privacy rules, wellness programs aren’t as regulated as healthcare because it is self-submitted in return for incentive or benefit, like reduced insurance.
CardioSys has three others working on it: Danny Lopez, Luis’ brother, Dmitry Khots, a data scientist and Kiran Bastola, head of reasearch. They’re working near the University of Nebraska at Omaha, but may move locations soon.
Read Luis Lopez’s Founder Friday post from last month about getting the most out of an accelerator.
