Three McMaster University students started with a side project between classes. Now they are building a startup aimed at making hearing care cheaper for people who have long been priced out of it.

Arish Shahab, Aaron Yu and Ramin Syed are the founders of Amano, a startup developing affordable hearing devices. Shahab and Yu are in McMaster’s Integrated Biomedical Engineering & Health Sciences, or iBioMed, program, and Syed studies mechanical engineering.

The idea grew out of their own families’ experience with hearing loss, including a sister diagnosed at birth and grandparents gradually losing their hearing.

“We saw that people were being prescribed solutions, but not necessarily able or willing to actually get them,” Shahab says. “If you’re living day-to-day, you might not realize how much hearing loss is affecting you until it gets worse.”

In their second-year anatomy course, Shahab and Yu studied the ear’s structure and function in detail. Shahab said one idea stuck with them.

“That changed how we thought about the problem,” Shahab explains. “We realized you could approach hearing care in a completely mechanical way rather than relying on complex electronics.”

That became the basis for Amano. Instead of making a traditional electronic hearing aid, the team designed a purely mechanical device for people with mild hearing loss.

The students say the average hearing aid can cost upwards of $4,700. Their custom-fit hearing technology costs $20 and can be built in under 10 minutes.

The devices are not intended to match the performance of traditional electronic hearing aids, but the team says they can help close an accessibility gap.

Over several months, the students moved from concept to prototype through rapid testing, starting with simple models and refining them through user feedback. Early conversations with people with hearing loss helped shape the design, including a focus on fit and sound quality.

Amano’s devices use 3D-printed outer components shaped to match each person’s ear.

“We designed the product to break the stigma around hearing aids, tearing down every barrier so people can hear their families again,” Syed says.

Earlier this year, the team applied to Founders Inc., a San Francisco-based hardware accelerator. They filmed their application video in Mills Memorial Library and pitched Amano as a different approach to hearing care based on simplicity, accessibility and mechanical design.

They were accepted, and days after finishing final exams they flew to California for the six-week program. There, they worked out of a 42,000-square-metre facility alongside other founders and received mentorship on product development, fundraising and go-to-market strategy.

“It’s really about going from zero to one,” Shahab says.

For Yu, the experience highlighted how much work goes into building a health-care product.

“You don’t realize how much goes into developing a medical device until you’re doing it,” he says. “Regulation, approvals, safety — there are so many layers.”

The team is now working through regulatory requirements in Canada and the United States.

“For example, in Canada, we are a Class 1 device – we’re the ones who make and distribute the device and we’ve obtained our Medical Device Establishment Licence,” says Yu.

Within the company, Shahab leads operations and strategy, Yu handles software and customization systems, and Syed leads mechanical design.

During their time in San Francisco, a video shared by Founders Inc. about Amano drew millions of views. The team says it has received about 1,300 pre-orders.

The founders are now preparing for fundraising, finalizing a patent and looking at options for their own manufacturing space. For now, they say their immediate focus is getting devices to people who have already ordered them.

The students say McMaster has played a big role in their progress, through coursework, mentorship and community support.

“We have a tremendous ecosystem of innovation here at McMaster University. In particular, we have a unique collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering with our iBioMed Program,” says Michelle MacDonald, co-director of the program and an associate professor at McMaster.

“Arish and Aaron shared their device with me in the fall and have since found success at an accelerated pace. It is so impressive that they have balanced their studies and extra-curricular activities with starting this business venture,” she adds.

Yu said advice from faculty, alumni and other founders has helped the team as it builds the company.

“It’s been really helpful to learn from people who have done this before,” Yu says.

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