Interview with Ellen Caren, Co-Founder at Run Angel: A Personal Safety Wrist Wearable With An Emergency Alarm

run angel™ is the smallest, loudest personal safety wrist wearable that emits a 120dB alarm when activated, and pairs with smartphone devices over Bluetooth to send out emergency alerts by SMS & email to guardians showing your location. Our USP lies in the patented design of our acoustic chamber. We have built a chamber that emits 120dB when activated from run angel™, or remotely from our mobile application. Our electronics design has also been tuned to a frequency level to enable the sound to be more susceptible to human hearing, thereby attracting greater attention in an emergency.

run angel™ is also manufactured here in the UK & Ireland, which is considered very unusual for a wearable technology product. We believe when it comes to personal safety you cannot afford to compromise on the build quality and reliability of your product, and that the end-user should feel confident that what they are buying stands up to what it says it can do.
 
 

 

What is the idea behind Run Angel and how did you come up with it?

 
Coming from a busy household my husband and I would often rotate our training, which would result in one of us running either early in the morning or late into the evening.

Over the past few years, we would often discuss the increase in women out running alone and subsequently the shift in the gender split at races – in some circumstances with women outnumbering men. As marketers we were also becoming aware of the attention the bigger brands were paying to this lucrative market.

The impetus however for run angel™ was born out of an unfortunate encounter whilst on an early morning run.  After passing a woman out running alone, my husband David was knocked to the ground by a hooded figure, when he got to his feet, the guy had run back in the direction he had come from. It didn’t hit him until he was back into his run that this guy was actually pursuing the lone female runner only moments earlier. This sat with us for quite some time afterwards and admittedly affected me when out running alone.

I set about to see what was available to a runner, which could deter an attack and alert passers-by. I found personal safety devices that were quite cumbersome, that would not be considered as a neat wrist-worn wearable by the running community, and that also lacked the smart messaging capabilities that are found with run angel™.
 

What advice would you give to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?

 
Be passionate and believe in what you are doing above anything else. Belief and passion is contagious, it fosters confidence within your team, can help you secure investment, and attract the attention of gatekeepers within the media.
 

Finally, what can we hope to see from Run Angel in the future?

 
We are gearing up for the launch of ‘Wing’ – an off-the-wrist safety wearable that boasts the same functionality found in run angel™. Since COVID our focus has also shifted to other possible markets for our safety products including frontline staff and the B2B sector.