So says Rich Kindberg, acting CEO, and the company’s only employee other than contractors at this point.

Kindberg has held executive level and senior management roles at various companies that include Johnson & Johnson, CR Bard and Teleflex. He has also led early stage and private equity portfolio companies with revenues ranging from $10 million to excess of $1.2 billion.

Vigor Medical makes what he calls “A handheld little device the consumer blows into to give a clinician high level information needed to treat the patient’s respiratory disorder.” It is wireless Bluetooth device that has apps available for Android and IoS smartphones.

Called a spirometer, it measures the capacity of the lungs, among other things.

Noting that the app market is now $26 billion and digital health apps are one of the hotter sectors, Kindberg says, “Now is the time for it.”

He points out that “This is a product in the clinic today and trials will be done by year-end. It’s not just a concept.” In fact, patients are being enrolled now in support of the 510(k) filing it expects to submit in the third quarter next year.

One advantage: the device could replace now necessary visits to a doctor’s office for a spirometric exam. That equipment is costly and immobile.

Student founders had asthma

The company’s executive summary says it has preliminary clinical results showing its streamlined technology matched the effectiveness of the spirometers used by clinicians and in hospitals.

The company started looking for a seed round of $600,000 just this week and expects to look for a larger A round down the road.

Two of the original founders –all of whom have scattered following graduation –suffered from asthma and happened on this technology while at Duke. They transformed it into a product that can help those affected not only by asthma, but also COPD, Cystic Fibrosis, and other lung disease.

The students won some awards and grants that helped move the startup forward and Daniel Chandler, one of them, was awarded the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Fellowship as one of Duke’s top undergraduate entrepreneurs. In addition to Chandler, the founders included Gregory Poore, Melody Kim, and Jason Kim.

While nominally located at First Flight Venture Center in the Triangle, Kindberg said the firm will likely look for other offices following funding.