When Gal Popovich and Naama Winetraub talk about their product, HeartStep, it’s clear that this isn’t just another healthtech venture—it’s personal, passionate, and built on a shared mission: to empower patients and prevent tragedies through smarter, frictionless diagnostics.
Beyond their academic achievements, both founders bring frontline experience to the table. Gal, currently an exchange student at Wharton Business School and brings to the table 14 years of experience. Naama brings extensive experience in clinical product development, having guided medical devices from initial patent writing through FDA approval and market launch. In addition to being a former paramedic with the Israeli Red Cross, her background in fundraising, international strategy, and managing cross-disciplinary R&D projects complements Gal's technical expertise perfectly. This blend of technical innovation and human compassion is what makes HeartStep feel so essential.
The Problem They’re Solving
Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization worldwide. Yet early symptoms—particularly sudden fluid retention—often go unnoticed until it’s too late. HeartStep aims to solve this with a novel, compliance-friendly approach to weight monitoring: a “smart carpet” that passively tracks patient weight fluctuations to flag early signs of heart failure.
The beauty of Heart Step lies in its simplicity. Most people avoid scales—they’re inconvenient, emotionally charged, or easy to forget. But everyone steps out of bed in the morning and into the bathroom at night. Heart Step’s frictionless design fits right into these routines, capturing the most consistent and reliable weight data possible.
Source: American Heart Association, Inc.
What Makes It Work?
The device collects weight data twice a day—upon waking and before sleep—then runs this through a machine learning algorithm trained to detect abnormal fluid retention patterns. Over time, the system can even calibrate itself to identify individual user baselines, eliminating false positives and improving predictive accuracy.
Built by Experience
Their journey into medtech stems not just from technical know-how but from lived reality. That blend—of science, software, and human compassion—is what makes Heart Step feel so essential. They originally developed the idea for a hackathon, iterating quickly through several prototypes and even considering a bathmat or bathroom scale before landing on the “smart carpet” model.
Looking Ahead
Heart Step isn’t just a clever solution—it’s a heartfelt one. It’s designed to blend into patients’ lives, not disrupt them. And it comes from two people who understand the stakes.
"We wanted something that provides reliability," Gal said. "It should work seamlessly in the background. The technology should function efficiently and consistently... allowing people to focus on their daily activities without interruption."
We’ll be keeping a close eye on Gal and Naama as they continue building. With Heart Step, they’re taking a bold, human-first step toward solving one of healthcare’s most silent killers—and doing it with empathy and elegance.
