Brave works to prevent sexual assault at college campuses nationwide

Content warning: This article contains discussions of sexual assault.

Kian Abrishami will never forget the night he prevented his friend from being sexually assaulted at a USC party.

“I saw a friend getting pulled to a couch when it was obvious that she wasn’t interested in being romantic with this guy,” said Abrishami, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering and computer science. “I intervened — but if that was behind closed doors or if that friend was alone, things could have escalated. It became very clear then that a lot of vulnerable students don’t have a way out.”

From that moment, Abrishami said he made it his mission to create an immediate way for students to discreetly notify their friends when they are in danger. 

He partnered with Grace Miedziak, the director of advocacy at the Survivor Support Community at USC, to develop Brave — a startup developing bracelets to prevent sexual assault on college campuses, coined “Bravebands.” 

Since its incorporation March 20, the pair have onboarded a team of 15 staff members, with Abrishami as chief executive officer and Miedziak as chief operating officer.

“The Braveband serves as a shortcut and direct lifeline to your friends so that users are only two bracelet taps away from notifying their entire friend group that they need help,” said Miedziak, a junior majoring in composition. “The user would not need to use their phones at all unless they would like to cancel a signal.”

Throughout April, which is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Brave plans to launch a full beta test of its app to be used in conjunction with the bracelet, which will send a user’s exact location to their friends’ phones. The bracelets will eventually be able to communicate independently of phone access, addressing any concerns surrounding the perpetrator taking a user’s phone away.

“Once we get enough feedback on this beta technology that we’ve developed, then we’ll tie that in with a bracelet,” Miedziak said. “Instead of going on your phone, you’re going to actually discreetly tap it and then it’ll have that vibration haptic that’ll instantly get people’s attention.” 

The startup has amassed over 200 student beta testers in college campuses across the country such as the University of Rochester, Lehigh and Northeastern, and is looking to expand beta testing opportunities — specifically to student organizations at USC. Brave plans to update the app with a heat map, which will keep track of where alerts are sent and the frequency during which these alerts are sent. 

“A lot of students agree that universities aren’t doing enough to prevent sexual assault on their campuses,” Miedziak said. “I really strongly believe in finding something now that can help now versus waiting for universities to do something.”

As Brave collects and analyzes data as well as user feedback on the app interface, they can reaffirm the brand’s viability to possible partner educational institutions. Brave currently is working with Princeton University’s Title IX Office. Princeton gave Brave a checklist of goals as well as requirements on market validation data. They need independent research done, and Brave will provide that information following their pre-sales.

Brave’s ultimate goal is to work with multiple universities to offer the Braveband at zero cost to incoming freshmen as a welcome gift package, Miedziak said. At the time of publication, USC has not responded to Brave’s partnership offer. 

Presale for the Braveband began late March. Brave has 15 hardware bracelet prototypes that they are coding. Abrishami estimates that the total manufacturing is $15 per unit. Brave will sell each Braveband for $30. 

The company is also working on partnerships with brands such as Lululemon and Madhappy to help design the bracelets to make them fashionable and discreet. Taylor Vangrin, a junior majoring in business administration and director of social media marketing at Brave, has used social media to contact these companies and release promotional material.

“The power of our product is just visually like when you see it, believe in it,” Vangrin said. “Now it’s one of those things that I think emotionally connects to a lot of people. We have promotional videos in that we filmed scenarios with the product in action. I find those leave the most powerful messaging.”

The Braveband was displayed to potential investors at USC TroyLabs’ DEMO 2023 Entrepreneurship Conference April 5. 

“For me in particular this is a chance to sleep at night knowing that the work that we do is keeping people safe and preventing sexual assault,” Abrishami said. “That’s what I realize is the most important virtue that any entrepreneurship or entrepreneur should have: empathy. Empathy for the people that you work with, and most importantly, empathy for the people who you’re trying to help and serve.”