Turning Cooking Hazards into Peace of Mind: How Akshita Iyer Made Kitchens Safer with Smart Tech

Cooking fires claim lives and cause over $1 billion in property damage each year in the U.S., with unattended stoves being the leading culprit. Akshita Iyer set out on a mission to make kitchens safer by creating a simple retrofit device that converts existing stoves into smart, connected appliances.

After witnessing her mother’s cooking fire incident, Akshita realized how outdated and hazardous traditional stoves remain. With a background in neuroscience and business, she fused her passions for food, family, and entrepreneurship to launch Ome. Their flagship product, the Smart Stove Knob, enhances stove safety by allowing users to monitor and control burners remotely.

By making our most used appliance smarter, Ome bridges the connectivity gap in homes and apartments. Akshita overcame initial challenges like supply chain disruptions and her own inexperience by exhibiting grit, cautious optimism, and a thirst for knowledge. She schedules downtime and embraces feedback to maintain work-life balance and business agility.

Looking ahead, Ome aims to form partnerships to bring their safety technology to more households. Akshita also plans to support senior communities, helping residents retain independence in their homes longer. Her advice to aspiring founders? Adapt quickly and see feedback as an opportunity to improve.

Interview with Akshita Iyer , CEO and Founder of OME

Please provide a brief introduction of yourself and your professional background.

I grew up in Buffalo, NY where my life revolved around food and family. My grandparents lived with us from the day I was born, and cooking was a central part of our daily routine. My grandma’s cooking skills were amazing! This early exposure to the kitchen shaped my passion for cooking.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor. I went to Duke to study neuroscience, but also knew I wanted to explore something in business. I just didn’t know what that would look like. Starting a company was not entirely foreign to me as my engineer dad had started his own consulting business when I was in elementary school.

While I didn’t know it at the time, watching him planted that entrepreneurship seed and my parents always encouraged my brother and me to embrace new experiences, face failure, and learn from it. Their guidance shaped my resilience and willingness to pick myself up after setbacks.

Please tell us a bit more about your startup – what does it offer, what problem does it solve, and who is your target audience?

Ome builds smart technology for home appliances. Starting with the stove, Ome created the world’s first Smart Stove Knob that makes cooking safer and less stressful. It can be installed on any gas or electric stove by simply replacing your existing knobs, transforming your stove into a smart appliance that lets you monitor and control your burners in real-time — from anywhere!

At Ome, our mission is to bring a sense of tranquility and peace of mind to every home. Our Smart Knob is designed to promote a stress-free and safe cooking environment through various benefits, including an automatic shut-off function for unattended cooking, real-time monitoring and alerts, automated cooking timers, and convenient hands-free cooking via Amazon Alexa.

While we have a strong consumer presence (typically parents buying our device for themselves and family members), we are also expanding our application for property management in multi-unit buildings.

What inspired you to start your own business? What was the “aha” moment?

Honestly, I never expected to know so much about kitchen appliances. After I graduated from Duke, I worked at a hospital to get some experience before applying to medical school. During that time, I got hooked on Shark Tank. It was inspiring to see how non-traditional entrepreneurs were just starting companies to solve problems they faced themselves.

What fascinated me the most was that many of these entrepreneurs didn’t have traditional engineering or business backgrounds. This got me curious about creating something myself, although I didn’t have a clear idea yet.

Around that time, my mom — who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s — accidentally left the stove on one too many times and started a kitchen fire. While looking for solutions, I realized how outdated kitchen appliances were, especially stoves — our most used appliance!

That’s when it hit me and I had my “aha moment.” The rest of the home is covered in retrofit smart devices — thermostats, door locks, doorbells — and I was determined to make one for the stove that would be way cheaper than buying a whole new appliance. I thought, “how hard could it be to make a smart device?” I didn’t know what I didn’t know and jumped right in. Of course, it turned out to be a bit trickier than I thought. Thankfully, I’ve had smart and capable people by my side throughout this journey. I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.

How do you stand out from the competition in your space? What sets your product/service apart?

Ome’s technology bridges a significant gap in the smart home by addressing the lack of connectivity in the most used appliance — the stove. Our intuitive features provide a practical solution to enhance safety in both residential and commercial kitchens and unlike other smart kitchen gadgets that add to counter clutter, our retrofit design allows you to upgrade your primary cooking appliance without sacrificing valuable counter space.

Even more, Ome addresses a critical problem in the home — unattended cooking, the #1 cause of house fires with $1B+ in property damage annually. This issue extends beyond individual households, with the majority of multi-unit building and student housing fires attributed to unattended cooking incidents. Our centralized dashboard enables remote monitoring and proactive safety measures for property managers, reducing the occurrence of hazardous events and providing support to at-risk residents.

By providing a solution that enhances safety and control in the kitchen, Ome mitigates cooking hazards, reduces the occurrence of devastating fires, and as a result has significant potential to eventually reduce property insurance premiums.

What were some of the biggest initial challenges you faced in getting your business off the ground? How did you overcome them?

The pandemic supply chain issues were brutal for us. The delays in getting components manufactured not only paralyzed our operations but also left us unable to honor commitments to our first customers. We focused on transparency and directly communicated with our community, explaining our manufacturing challenges and delivery delays. We set up a dedicated war room to think of solutions for both immediate and future needs. Our proactive approach was not just about navigating the current situation but also securing our operations against any future uncertainties.

Another challenge was switching from neuroscience and a med school plan to the tech industry as a first-time entrepreneur. One of the biggest hurdles was figuring out how to raise capital. Even though I had support from friends and family, I soon realized that fundraising was a whole new ballgame. Having a brilliant product and a solid idea didn’t cut it. I needed to dive deep into the psychology of capital raising to really make it work and leaned on other entrepreneurs who walked this path before to do this.

What are the most important skills someone needs to be a successful founder, in your opinion?

Grit, (cautious) optimism, and an unending thirst for knowledge. Grit because you will be knocked down every day from every direction and you have to figure out how to get back up every time. Optimism because you are making the impossible possible — building a company rarely goes the way you expect it to and in those moments, you have to reassure yourself that you can and will figure it out one step at a time. And finally, always be learning and be humble. It takes a village to grow a business and you don’t know everything. Always surround yourself with people smarter than you.

 

What does a typical day or week look like for you? How do you manage work-life balance?

It’s easy to paint a picture of a daily routine where work and personal life co-exist harmoniously. In reality, I’ve realized that this view is unrealistic, especially for those of us navigating the ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship.

For me, finding an equilibrium that was sustainable meant figuring out how to stay mentally and physically healthy. I schedule downtime in my calendar, literally — early morning exercise, lunch, dinner, breaks —  and try to intentionally maximize this time for personal rejuvenation, wellness, and life outside work.

I also make sure my team can see my calendar so they also feel it’s ok, and much preferred, to take time for yourself! Having these periods where my mind is occupied by something else that I enjoy also allows me to decompress, clear the noise, and truly disconnect.

What are some future goals or plans you have for your business in the next few years?

Ome’s journey of growth and innovation continues as we prepare for the launch of our next-generation Smart Knob. This upgraded version will be compatible with an even wider range of stoves, have some much requested feature upgrades, and be offered in new colors to match your kitchen look and feel. We’re also actively exploring strategic partnerships with appliance manufacturers so we can deploy our solution at a much larger scale.

Lastly, I’m thrilled about our plans to introduce the Ome Smart Knob to multi-unit buildings such as senior living communities, where we can provide valuable support for those who wish to age gracefully in their homes and foster a sense of security and control. Our ultimate goal is to encourage positive cooking practices that contribute to the overall well-being and vitality of those we love.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company?

Embrace feedback and adapt quickly. As an entrepreneur and leader, encountering rejection is an inevitable part of the journey. Whether it comes from customers, investors, or team members, it’s important not to let it throw you off. Instead, look at these situations with an open mind and actively listen. Identify what you find relevant, act on it, and let the rest go. Remember to take a step back every once in a while to look at the forest from the trees.

Akshita’s journey shows how personal experiences can spark innovative business ideas that solve real-world problems. By embracing feedback, persevering through challenges, and maintaining work-life balance, aspiring founders can also turn their passions into purposeful startups. Akshita and Ome prove how a simple but thoughtful device can transform convenience, safety, and peace of mind in the home.