“It’s been a wild ride,” said Sassa Akervall, CEO of Akervall Technologies Inc. (ATI), maker of the SISU line of sports and nighttime mouthguards. Sisu is a Finnish word to describe strength, determination and resolve to overcome adversity. It’s not only a great name for the product – it’s also fitting given the road the company’s founders have traveled. They went from being Swedish immigrants to “living examples of the American dream,” according to Akervall. Along the way, the company they founded has gone from an idea to 20 employees and nearly $5 million in sales. It was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies for the past three years in a row, and just this year won the Small Business of the Year award from the Michigan Small Business Development Center.
Not all that long ago, Sassa and Dr. Jan Akervall were living somewhat remarkable lives in their native Sweden. She worked in television and was a children’s book author, while he was an ear, nose and throat specialist with a cancer sub-specialty. He had had concerns even back then with the mouthguard devices he used during medical procedures; meant to shield vital areas, they didn’t protect – instead they could knock out teeth themselves. In 2004 the couple moved to the U.S., and he continued to develop ideas for a better device.
In 2008 he’d done as much as he could. He handed his work to his wife and a friend of hers to “make a product out of this.” With two small children in tow at the time, she never saw it coming, but took on the challenge. In 2009, with some help from consultants, they founded ATI. “All of a sudden, all six of us were in our basement working on it,” Sassa Akervall said.
Their big moment came a short while later when Akervall took her daughter, who was getting started playing field hockey, shopping for a mouthguard. They found the only products available to be less than desirable. Rather than buying one, they decided to give what they’d developed a try. The girl loved it and got her teammates to try it too. They knew they were onto something. “We came out with a product people needed and wanted,” said Akervall. “There had been no innovation in the products since the 1950s – they were made of EVA, and were bulky and uncomfortable. Would you wear a football helmet from the ‘50s?”
The sports market suited them. “It’s easier to market in sports than in medical,” Akervall said. “I had a PR background and we had the entrepreneurial spirit. We were lucky – in the right place at the right time – but we’re good at what we do.”
Initially they outsourced everything, simply getting the word out, taking orders, and shipping products. “We had semi-trucks coming up the driveway in our subdivision to unload mouthguards,” she laughed. As the space demands grew, they went out searching for a building. In Saline, Michigan, a little town 20 miles south of Ann Arbor with a small industrial area, they found an empty facility, and “bought it for a steal.” It became their business headquarters and R&D lab.
They continue to rely on contract manufacturing, and one challenge was finding the right partner for that. They searched far and wide, then, as Akervall said, “It turns out they were right across the street!”
They’re now shipping worldwide. All products are made here in the U.S., and they ship domestically from their Saline location. They have one employee in Sweden and a distribution facility in the UK, and between them they handle the rest of the world.
They’ve built a strong base of business with their core line, featuring mouthguards for general sports, high impact sports, and youth. These use patented technology to produce a mouthguard that’s both thinner and stronger than others, so it can be left in for longer periods and allows the wearer to talk and remain hydrated. Each one is custom-fitted to the wearer, and can be remolded to ensure the best fit, so it’s also more comfortable than the competition.
They also sell a mouthguard to protect against nighttime teeth grinding, the SOVA Night Guard, and they have plans for additional night guard products soon. They’ve rolled out a device for surgery as well, the Intuguard, which protects the mouths and teeth of intubated patients, and which brings them full circle back to the medical world where Dr. Jan Akervall started his explorations in Sweden.
Their newest product is also in the medical realm, but goes in a more high-tech direction. Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past January, the SISU Sense contains an embedded microchip that measures hard impacts. It can then download the data to a mobile app. “Mouthguards and concussions aren’t related, but since ours have a perfect fit, they’re able to accurately measure impact,” said Akervall. “It doesn’t diagnose, but can tell you what you put yourself through – including the total magnitude of accumulated small hits.” The Sense was developed by ATI’s own R&D team (and, as with all their products, was invented by Dr. Jan Akervall) with help from a National Science Foundation grant. ATI started shipping them last month.
ATI has big plans for the future, including continuing to ride their wave of strong sales growth, which has run 45% to 60% annually the past few years. “We want to change the gold standard for mouth gear altogether,” Akervall said. “We want to become the market leader. We’ve only just scratched the surface of the market – we have lots of ground to cover.” Currently they manufacture only mouthguards, though they may branch out in the future.
In the meantime, it’s all about their people. “I feel very blessed,” Akervall said. “We’ve been lucky in finding the right people for the team. We want to continue to take care of them, and to make everyone feel welcome.”
