Jacqueline Darna, 33

Jacqueline Darna’s anti-nausea wristband company, NoMo Nausea, continues to prove the American dream is possible for a Tampa-based startup.

Darna, an anesthesia clinician, came up with the idea in 2013 when her doctors suggested she be put in a medically induced coma due to postpartum nausea. Instead, Darna used a combination of aromatherapy and acupuncture on her wrist to avoid a scary medical procedure.

She filed a provisional patent in January 2014 and went to production six months later. Within the first 18 months she was selling to 12 countries worldwide in more than 1,000 stores. Now, Darna’s product is sold in 15,000 stores globally, including a number of big box retailers such as Bed Bath and Beyond, Buy Buy Baby and 6,000 CVS stores.

In addition to the NoMo Nausea band, Darna sells a migraine relief band and a band for nausea in pets. Darna says Target and Walmart are interested in selling her product in four different areas of the stores. She also has sales reps working to get her product in multiple spaces in hospitals and to HR divisions of large companies that seek to provide natural relief to employees for nausea and headaches.

This past June, Darna won the Women's Business Enterprise National Council PepsiCo Choice Competition, which awarded $15,000 in prize money and multiple mentoring sessions with PepsiCo executives. The money will go toward building manufacturing for her newest creation: the NoMo Sleepless Nights product. She’s also hoping the increased manufacturing will allow her to start landing big government contracts as soon as she is certified as an 8(a) business for being a Hispanic woman-owned small business.

Darna was also the 2017 winner of Shark Tank investor Kevin Harrington’s new show, "The Big Pitch," filmed at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. Since then, she’s been on the road, sharing her pitch and her product with expos and startup groups nationwide.