Just a few years out of college (Syracuse), Max Koeppel was introduced by a family friend to two young men with a potentially revolutionary business concept—a smartphone breathalyzer—but few ideas for how to get it manufactured and into the hands of consumers. Intrigued, Koeppel, who was then working in his native NYC as a project manager for a home entertainment company, immersed himself in research. Hard on the heels of the explosion in wearables and diagnostics (think Fitbit), the personal breathalyzer market, he discovered, was about to get real. Koeppel decided to invest, becoming both a co-founder of Alcohoot LLC and the nascent company’s chief operating officer.
Weighing in .4 ounces and only slightly larger than a box of matches, the pocket-sized Alcohoot, which currently retails for $100 and is the first smartphone breathalyzer equipped with law-enforcement grade sensors, works in tandem with a free app to allow users to accurately track their Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) whenever, and wherever, they wish. Graphing and other logarithm-based analytics further support users in understanding consumption patterns and safe limits, and the app even offers recommendations for local restaurants and taxi services.
According to Koeppel, sales of Alcohoot (currently available Stateside in 600 Targets, nine Bloomingdales, and numerous Apple Premium Resellers and other stores, and shipping outside the US to 35 different countries) are growing steadily month by month. Perhaps most interestingly, the innovative product has grabbed the attention of the alcohol industry. The happy result? Ground-breaking, cross-promotional partnerships between Alcohoot and the likes of Heineken and Pernod Ricard.
With his burgeoning company about to turn three and rapidly gaining recognition and market share, Koeppel is eager to see what the future will bring and grateful for the work ethic instilled during his four years at Trinity-Pawling, where he played soccer and hockey and served as yearbook editor his senior year. “The way I do things, the way I like to work, I learned there,” he explains, emphasizing the premium he places on both efficiency and thoroughness. “I’d like to think that those qualities will continue to help me grow a product with the potential to save a lot of lives.”