Plano’s origin story on the run.

From a personal frustration to the most innovative health tech start up in the world in 3 years.

The Plano origin story began in May 2017, as a passing thought.

I was out for my usual 10 km run. Two laps of Albert Park Lake, South Melbourne, Australia. I would often run with my phone at hand. A bad habit that eventually served me well. Although it was intended for only emergencies and to track the metrics of my runs, I had fallen victim to checking and at times responding to notifications all while running. This was probably an early sign of device dependency or even internet addiction syndrome.

I would often find it difficult to refocus my distance vision and then adjust to my running pace after fixating and tapping at a tiny screen. On that evening, this nauseating habit occurred a few times. Frustrated by this, I slowed my pace and fell into deep thought. I wonder how many other people are being unnecessarily distracted by these tiny screens. I was disappointed in myself,
these messages, emails, and other notifications were not important enough to disrupt my outdoor time in nature. The phone became an extension of my being.