Richard Brown, a 71-year-old former nuclear medicine physician and professor, has launched a new career as a product entrepreneur after developing a skewer designed to make frozen fruit easier to eat.
His company, Poka Snack, was launched on Kickstarter earlier this year and has raised more than 90% of its initial 4,000-dollar goal. Brown has also attracted more than 14,000 followers on TikTok.
The venture follows a career that has included private medical practice, university leadership and work at a venture-backed healthcare company. Brown formally retired from the University of Michigan in 2020, but began a new role at the University of Utah School of Medicine the following week.
He spent three years as the institution’s first vice chair of clinical operations in its department of radiology before joining Covera Health, where he is now chief health strategy officer.
For Brown, the frozen fruit product is less about stepping away from his previous career than continuing to learn. “My hobbies tend to be learning something new,” he said.
“I think I never want to retire,” Brown added. “Why would you do that? You spent all this time learning something—and things get easier for you when you get older in some ways because you’re a little bit wiser.”
Frozen banana idea leads to new product venture
Poka Snack was inspired by Brown’s frustration with products used to insert sticks into frozen bananas. He found that existing designs could be difficult to use, break easily and sometimes leave splinters in the fruit.
“I wanted something better,” Brown said. “When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to see if I could create it myself.”
After testing about 40 prototypes, he settled on a design featuring patent-pending semi-helical geometry. Brown is now working with a US manufacturer on production and completing the packaging.
He said the experience had brought back the sense of challenge associated with being a student. “It’s almost like being in college again,” Brown said. “You have that adrenaline flowing. You want to accomplish something.”
Brown graduated from the University of Michigan’s medical school in 1980 and spent the next two decades in private practice. He returned to the university in 2004 as a professor, while also serving as director of clinical nuclear medicine and molecular imaging in its division of nuclear medicine.
His interest in entrepreneurship began during the dot-com boom, when he launched several internet businesses, including websites selling college textbooks and hotel rooms. He also created an educational site for cancer patients and their families, although most of the ventures ended after the technology boom collapsed.
Brown said those experiences taught him not to be deterred by the prospect of failure or embarrassment. “I think the problem with most people is they’re afraid to look stupid,” he said.
“If you think that something should be done, just do it. Don’t worry about what other people think, because you may be wrong, but you also may be right. And if you’re right, do you really want to miss that opportunity?”
He said his wider lesson was to focus less on choosing a perfect career and more on identifying work that genuinely holds a person’s interest.
“People are always asking: ‘What should I go into?’ and that’s the wrong question,” Brown said. “The question is: ‘What are you excited about?’”
