USF-grown startup RelieveIt partners with HSN

USF-grown startup RelieveIt partners with HSN

In the 1800’s on the island of Trinidad, Arabella Skinner used Caribbean pine resin to treat those unable to afford traditional medicine.

Fast forward to 2018, when her great-great grandson Caleb Williams realized he could carry on his grandmother’s legacy with RelieveIt in Tampa. 

“My grandmother spent her whole life bringing healing to her community,” Williams said. “I know I have the opportunity to bring her remedy to the masses and change the world.”

Williams originally remembered the remedy in 2014 when his son, who was trying out for an elite soccer team, sprained his ankle in the first day of tryouts.

“My son had suffered an ankle sprain and generally a person would be out of commission for one to two weeks,” Williams said. “But one of my brothers who was there remembered my grandmother’s remedy — we applied it to his ankle and he called me the next morning saying ‘Dad I’m ready to go. Then I had the remedy modernized.”

A few years later, he enrolled in the University of South Florida Tech Incubator in Jan. 2018 to further test the efficacy of the solution.“I presented to them in the backend of 2017, saying (the amount of money) companies spent in workers comp and with athletes, (sprains) are the most common injury,” he said. “And said ‘If you can help me back these years of anecdotes up with science, we can make the world of better place.’”And last week, Williams appeared on HSN after becoming one of 70 products chosen from across the nation at its “The Big Find” product search. He sold over 1,900 units of his products in the allotted half hour time frame and will be on the network each month.

The network also asked Williams to bring forward any new products under the RelieveIt line to them first. There are a few products in the works: he is working on a treatment for mosquito bites, as well as a skin care line.

His ultimate goal is to create a drinkable version of the product, either for athletes to consume in sports drinks before exercising or for those who need pain relief at night that can be taken in a tea or coffee.

“Imagine having a cup of tea or coffee before bed and instead of drugs in your body you have RelieveIt,” Williams said. “In addition to all the things we mentioned (in the product line), that’s the end game where we really peoples lives.”

He is now gearing up to seek funding, as he has bootstrapped the company until this point.

“I leaned through this journey you can have the best product in the world but investors want to see commercial viability,” Williams said. “Coming out of the gate with HSN, that bodes well. We’re just about in a position now where we’re ready to bring in significant funding.”

He continues to leverage his relationship with USF to work with their top scientists, who have both natural medicine and Big Pharma ties. He is also in the process of building a relationship with the National Institute of Health.

“We want to partner with them where they fund some of the studies, because when we accomplish some of the things I described it will absolutely change the world,” Williams said.