RetroBrain CEO Adalbert Pakura as well as creative mind and co-founder Manouchehr Shamsrizi sat down with REHACARE.com to talk about the success of their startup company, describe their philosophy and reveal what’s next for MemoreBox.
Mr. Shamsrizi, from innovative idea to the now market-ready product: Can you briefly summarize the development of the MemoreBox since 2014 for us?
Manouchehr Shamsrizi: Six of us co-founded our startup company RetroBrain while we were EXIST scholarship holders at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, which also included alumni of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Zeppelin University. In a way, the idea for RetroBrain originated in the networking and the unique community within the university.
One of the aspects that I distinctly remember from this early stage is the discrepancy between the idea of man held by the healthcare economy and the idea of man my generation grew up with and has come to know. This is reflected by computer games being the dominant entertainment medium of my generation. On the one hand, we have the often mentioned Homo Ludens – that is to say, a dynamic, socially interactive and included man, the player. On the other hand is the patient as defined by health economics, who must be "subjected to" prevention, rehabilitation or therapy. In other words, the patient is often controlled by an external source, which tends to be driven by short-term economic incentives and is typically represented by a doctor or a health insurance company telling a patient what to do. There is a huge discrepancy here, which is actually quite unnecessary once you merely scratch the surface. It does not have to be grueling, boring and dreadful to maintain or regain your health - quite the contrary, it is more sustainable, productive and ethically desirable when staying healthy is fun.
Once the gamelab of the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin has come to realize this, we started to form applicable partnerships. We are certain that gesture-based video games with innovative control systems can be made up of drug-free, therapeutic, preventive and rehabilitative elements.