Defender Pad

Company: DefenderPad, Bradenton Beach

Principals: Daniel DeBaun, CEO

The big idea: The idea behind DefenderPad, a laptop radiation shield and heat protector, isn't necessarily new. But the inventor, Bradenton Beach entrepreneur Daniel DeBaun, says his patent-pending product is the only one on the market that combines state-of-the-art technology with actual medical research.
“Most stuff in the marketplace is useless,” says DeBaun. “The DefenderPad is science.”

The product, claims DeBaun, is a thermal resistive shield that protects the body from potential health concerns caused by electromagnetic radiation, extremely low frequency waves and radio frequency waves. Possible health issues from those rays, in addition to high temperatures a laptop can emit, says DeBaun, run from skin rashes and heat burns to infertility and cell damage. “People have a sense that there's a problem” with harmful rays, DeBaun says, “but it's not common knowledge.”

DeBaun began to sell the DefenderPad in January, at $90 a piece, and has since sold thousands. Manufactured in Sarasota with U.S.-made parts, the DefenderPad has its own website for sales and is available on Amazon, newegg.com and several other websites. It's also sold in Sky Mall catalogs.

A retired Bell Labs employee, DeBaun says he's invested less than six figures in startup costs on DefenderPad. He says there are other product possibilities with the technology, and the firm, now just him and his son, is already in design mode for DefenderPads for smartphones and tablets. The firm is also developing a DefenderPad that could fold along with a laptop.

This story has been updated to amend DefenderPad's unit sales.