Startup success

Inspired by his experience as an international athlete, LAS senior Mitchell Leshchiner created ElectroKare, a start-up company that tracks electrolyte levels through smartwatches.

ElectroKare is one of several startups coming out of the iVenture Accelerator program. The program started in 2015 and is based in Gies College of Business, but open to students across the U of I. Many in the College of LAS have taken part in the program since it began.

Leshchiner, who majors in computer science + econometrics and quantitative economics was no stranger to start-ups when he began working on ElectroKare. Before coming to the U of I, he already had created two startups. One is called MJ Labor, a service company with 20 employees across the Midwest performing tasks such as power washing, painting, moving, and assembling. The other was a high-end apparel reselling marketplace called Leshchiner Soles.

His newest startup comes from his experience as an athlete. Leshchiner is from Vernon Hills, Illinois, and has been playing soccer since he was 3 years old. When he turned 13, he played soccer in Europe, joining teams in Germany, Spain, and Georgia. In 2021, Leshchiner played in a professional league in France for TEGG FC as a right back.

“I struggled with electrolytes my whole life just like managing them at the highest levels,” said Leshchiner. “There's no true formula for this. This has always been a problem.”

Before going to France, Leshchiner had to decide what he wanted to do after graduating high school. He describes himself as entrepreneurial and did not really see himself going to U of I, but after playing soccer professionally in France for a few months he came to Illinois to study econometrics and computer science.

Leshchiner cofounded ElectroKare with Josh Malinkovich, a senior studying bioengineering. They began bouncing around ideas for ElectroKare in fall 2023, and they officially launched the business in March 2024. A couple of months later they took part in iVenture, where they were able to develop their idea further.

Leshchiner said he and Malinkovich heard about iVenture from other entrepreneurs on campus. “We heard that was a cool organization,” said Leshchiner. “Meet a lot of people, raise some capital… I mean, no one else offers that kind of thing. That's really, really positive.”

According to the ElectroKare website, the technology works with a watch to track electrolyte levels using electrocardiogram (EKG) technology. When an EKG monitors your heart activity, it can detect imbalances in electrolyte levels by looking at the electrical activity in the heart. These electrolyte levels can change based on potassium, calcium, sodium, and magnesium levels.

Tracking electrolytes can be crucial for some. According to medical experts, electrolytes are important as they affect cell, nerve, and muscle functions. They also keep the water level in the body balanced. In cases of kidney disease, tracking electrolytes is critical because those organs are not able to regulate electrolytes.

When the startup began, Leshchiner said they were tracking potassium for patients with chronic kidney disease and dialysis. He realized, however, that it would be too difficult to get FDA approval while the startup was still small. That is when he decided to shift the audience.

“The really big vision that we have is that ElectroKare becomes the electrolyte tracker for all. What that encapsulates is that there's a huge athlete population,” said Leshchiner. “Beyond that, though, there's 64 million Americans that engage in fitness.”

Leshchiner compares ElectroKare to fitness apps like Strava and WHOOP, which track things like heart rate and sleep. “We are trying to mimic them a little bit with a much more data-driven approach to hydration.”

In the future, Leshchiner wants to expand ElectroKare into the medical field. “We will become a medical business at some point when we really grow,” said Leshchiner. Another barrier he faces is acquiring medical data, which is difficult because of laws governing confidentiality. The company is currently using open-source data to build ElectroKare. 

Techstars Physical Health Accelerator in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of ElectroKare’s investors. It is available in the Google play store for business-to-consumer users, and Leshchiner is hoping to launch it for iOS this November.

He is looking to expand ElectroKare into different markets, such as the military and SpaceX.

“We are growing fast,” said Leshchiner. “My big goal in life is really to make a mass scale impact. I want to improve health, wellness, and fitness.”