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Soliddd
Sight Restoring Glasses
Andrew Kuzemczak
March 11, 2025
Hi friend,
Welcome back to Future Human, and a special welcome to our 20 new subscribers joining in the last week! We have doubled our size in less than a month and there is no going back now. I will let our subscriber survey keep collecting some data before I jump into the exact numbers with you all, but so far…queue Steve Harvey:
Survey Says!
Our physician base is growing to about 20%
10% of you are founders
Investors are increasing steadily toward 10%
The student proportion is shrinking closer to 50% as I get this newsletter out to more professional groups
All very exciting!
As a note for next week, I have mentioned before that we have gotten sponsorship offers. This is terrific given how small we are. I wanted to hold off on any sort of advertisement for at least five editions as that feels like some disingenuous money grab (and I’d be grabbing only like $5). I may still hold out even longer, but just as a test, I am going to accept one of the sponsor offers I've gotten for next week. Dipping my toe in the water, so I wanted to provide advanced notice. If you can, click the link when it comes out. Maybe if every one of you clicks the link next week, I can afford another day in Manhattan (strong maybe though).
Alright, let's jump into newsletter #5.
I am so excited for this one, because this is our first founder interview. Back in January, I wrote a short LinkedIn post about a company that just exploded out of CES 2025 with a pair of glasses that could return vision to those with partial blindness. The hardware was way over my head, but in a few lines on LinkedIn, I tried best to explain it. A few hours later, I had a DM from Neal Weinstock, the founder of Soliddd. Like a dog left without supervision, I jumped on the opportunity and asked him to chat in the coming weeks. He generously agreed, and so we spoke two weeks ago. Allow me to reflect.
He is the truest definition of a mission-driven engineer and serial entrepreneur — an incredibly thoughtful gentleman with ideas and ambition that many dream of. Neal has spent 30 years applying his electrical engineering and business expertise across media/cinema and now medicine. Speaking with him was a gift. Writing now about Soliddd is an honor. I will do my best, as always, to pay the company the detail and respect it deserves. So with that, let me ask you…
Ever wonder if your glasses could outsmart your retina?
I’ll answer that. No, but Neal has.
What if your glasses could do more than just focus the vision you already have — what if they could fill in the blind spots stealing your vision with next-gen sensors and an age old trick of the brain?
The Story
Neal is unbelievably smart, so to have him claim his co-founder was a genius and way above his level was shocking. Then I learned his co-founder was Richard A. Muller. For those who do not know, Dr. Muller is a famed physics professor at Berkeley and MacArthur Fellowship winner (literally the ”genius grant”). To give you an idea what he is thinking about, at 81 years old his current project list includes:
Evaluating lunar soil samples to track the moon’s asteroid impact rate over the last 3 billion years
Investigating if carbon-60 molecules are a reliable tracer to understand the Triassic extinction
Using sea-floor samples to study the ice age cycles through time
Testing if we can safely dispose of nuclear waste in 3 mile deep boreholes
Back to our team. Neal and Dr. Muller met and started Soliddd in 2010. Critically, they did not begin in vision restoration. Their early mission stemmed from Neal’s prior work in the 3D industry — yes like movie screen 3D! Neal helped build the second-largest company in the world in theater 3D, so he was well versed in the vision research ecosystem.
Soliddd set out to innovate in the auto-stereoscopic 3D space (3D without needing those funny glasses). By 2016, they had developed a prototype that offered unlimited depth and solved the crosstalk barrier of 3D perception (crosstalk arises from a leakage of light intensity between multiple views that degrades the 3D perception). Here’s the issue — by 2016 the 3D TV market collapsed. Now they had a technologically successful product with no market, so they went searching for a new arena.
Neal landed on a personal motivation to help others (see above: thoughtful and mission-driven). Neal’s father had gone blind from glaucoma years earlier (eye disease causing vision loss by damaging optic nerve). Neal thought that perhaps the technology could be repurposed to address vision impairment.
Between 2016 and 2019, Neal invented a new lens design with his team and filed initial patents. The patient-centered mission was so clear even the attorneys they had on staff were working pro-bono (and continue to do so). This journey was not easy, however. At one point their lead investor from 2012 advised them to shut down the company and sell the intellectual property (IP) for $1. To keep Soliddd alive after the pivot, Neal was taking consulting projects, like developing 3D posters, to generate revenue. In 2019, their luck thankfully arrived. They landed a spot at the NYU Stern accelerator, Endless Frontier Labs, which brought about angel investment ($100k in non-equity funding from a customer and also a $300k contract).
They were fully pivoted to health tech, with a specific focus now on restoring sight for those with conditions like macular degeneration. Despite some pandemic-related delays, Soliddd developed their new lens. They then participated in the MassChallenge accelerator and won the $100k alumni award, plus they landed investment from AARP.
Looking back on my conversation with Neal, I cannot help but underscore the number of external forces attempting to throw the team off their path. They never wavered:
“I'm not looking for those guys [Sand Hill Road investors]. I'm looking for people who care about the mission of what we do, whether investors or customers.”
Inspiring.
The Tech
Now let me try to take what I described in 9 lines on LinkedIn and produce a deep dive where I appear to know what I am talking about.
We will skip the 3D movie era, since that is less Future Human themed, but understand they managed to achieve unlimited depth and overcome crosstalk issues using advanced optics and physics-based encoding.
With that foundation, they moved to vision impairment. I think I can best summarize the current tech this way — the glasses use multiple coordinated, in-focus images to reconstruct stereopsis (3D vision) for users, bypassing blind spots (scotomas) by presenting visuals to functional retinal areas that fill in the impaired regions. Easy, right? Right?
The current glasses present multiple images (128–160 per pair, 64–80 per eye) to the brain, which constructs a full visual field by compensating for missing or distorted areas. The lenses track your gaze to map the retina, pinpointing scotomas. Then the lenses selectively shut off light to distorted areas while enhancing light to functional zones. Your brain does the rest — filling in the blank spots with the extra images seen by the working regions. Those 128-160 images are delivered using multiple Maxwellian displays.
For those who don’t know (that’s probably most of us — can’t make fun of just finance types here), a Maxwellian display is an optical system that projects light directly onto the retina in a way that keeps images in focus regardless of the eye’s natural focusing ability. Its a method to have images always in focus even if there are optical imperfections. It can be used in AR applications to create a more realistic experience, or perhaps, in vision restoration.
A few more Soliddd principles for you:
Retina mapping performed by computer vision identifies blind spots (scotomas) and gaze direction at all time
Multiple parallel beams—akin to collimated laser light—are directed to healthy retinal areas, avoiding damaged zones
Each beam acts as a Maxwellian display, focusing non-intersecting light precisely where it’s needed
These beams present distinct but coordinated images (64-80 per eye), which the brain combines into a unified, 3D perception, leveraging stereopsis (depth perception from binocular vision)
The beta version was showcased at CES in January, and Neal claims it has improved by an order of magnitude in speed/latency even since then. They have successfully tested the glasses with patients with optic neuritis (inflammation of optic nerve), cone dystrophy (breakdown of cells responsible for color vision), and macular degeneration (deterioration of the central part of the retina that normally provides sharp, central vision — also Soliddd’s beachhead market).
Early prototypes were monocular and tabletop, but Soliddd has since simplified the tech into seamless glasses. They are even experimenting with a model that resembles ophthalmology equipment, so doctors can run pre-qualification tests with their patients.
The future of this tech also couldn’t be brighter. We will discuss the diseases Neal could expand to a little later, but just think of all the individuals you have met living with an astigmatism, color blindness, dyslexia, etc. As the computer vision tech advances, they may soon be able to map the rods (low light) and cones (color vision) to center on just one type of cell. With the electronics shrinking, future designs will have a smaller profile and be better suited for pediatrics as well. So much to be optimistic about! Onward!
The Market
Everything is going noninvasive. The more time I spend in medical school, the more this is beaten into me. Ophthalmology is no different, kind of.
Soliddd began with 3D tech, pivoted to glaucoma, and now landed on macular degeneration (AMD). Around 200 million people worldwide are thought to be living with AMD, a number expected to reach 288 million by 2040 (contributing to 8.7% of blindness). Age is the prominent risk factor for AMD (the A stands for age-related). The risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration increases from 2% for those ages 50-59 to nearly 30% for those over the age of 75.3 Once again, AMD is a condition damaging the central part of the retina allowing for sharp, central vision. AMD can be broken up into two categories. Here are some CliffsNotes:
Dry Macular Degeneration (most common and Soliddd’s focus)4
Macula becomes thinner with age
No treatment for late dry AMD
Supplements (lutein and zeaxanthin) may help slow progression
Wet Macular Degeneration4
Abnormal blood vessels grow, leak fluid, and damage macula
Always late stage — faster vision loss
Can be treated with injections of anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) medications or rarely laser therapy to seal leakage
Although this is not the economics section yet, as a teaser, estimates for the annual global cost of visual impairment due to AMD are $343 billion, including $255 billion in direct healthcare costs.
So we have a:
Paradigm shift in medicine toward less invasive interventions
Disease category that lacks its minimally invasive solution
Disease (AMD) costing the globe billions annually
Growing AMD population (primarily elderly) with no plans of slowing
We have…a market.
That is where Soliddd comes in. Injections for wet AMD are far from “accessible” and supplements for dry AMD are by no means “solutions”. The Soliddd device, however, is a minimally invasive, soon accessible, and vision restoring solution.
The market landscape is also unique. You have some pharmaceutical companies (creating those anti-VEGF injections), magnification device options, and…Facebook?
The real discussion, if any, is Meta using their Ray-Ban glasses to narrate the surroundings for the visually-impaired. Neal, however, sees Meta as more helpful, and I agree. Users buying Meta’s product for narration might later discover Soliddd’s vision restoration glasses, creating a pipeline effect. Seems logical to assume most would want to see their surroundings if possible compared to having something describe it to them. Meta remains focused on assistive AI, not sight restoration. It is a tangential player.
Soliddd’s device approach also permits them quicker entry into the market. Since they fit the eyeglasses category, they avoid significant FDA oversight, unlike injectables or other medications. Market access is rapid, lending a major advantage.
So there you have it. A massive market, costing billions, manifesting in blindness for millions, largely untouched by the device manufacturers. The opportunity to restore sight appears largely unencumbered.
The Sick
Helping the blind. What more could you ask for?
Well to be fair, it is a bit more complex than that. AMD causes vision loss, but not necessarily blindness. Individuals present with blurry, black, or grey spots in portions of their field of view where the macula is deteriorated. The photo below gives you an idea.
You could imagine, this would radically change tasks like reading, cooking, or even recognizing a face. As mentioned above, treatment is limited. For wet AMD patients with severe vision loss, anti-VEGF injections can slow progression and even return vision, but not in any immediate sense. For dry AMD, patients are left without any option accept supplementation to slow vision loss. In general, patients must become more reliant on caregivers, magnifiers, and screen readers.
Soliddd has continued to show its ability to eliminate such distortion, flicker, and spotting from scotomas. Neal described to me a woman with cone dystrophy (similar to macular degeneration) who had a blacked out center to her field of view and saw a transformative shift with usable sight where there once was blackness. Her review is on the website and it is beautiful:
"Since the age of 19, I’ve lived with a black, empty smudge in the center of my vision with central cone dystrophy. When I tried the SolidddVision technology, for the first time in almost 30 years, that smudge disappeared and was replaced by any actual image. This opened my mind to all the possibilities of this technology to change a life. Simple human experiences most people take for granted could become extraordinary for me. Instead of only being present at my daughter’s drama performance, I could actually see her. To enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend and see her face as we talk. To watch my son’s excitement as he tells me about his day. To actually see facial expressions and emotions and not have to guess. This would be priceless to me."
To reiterate, there are 200 million individuals living with AMD globally. Megan’s experience is not uncommon. This 200 million is massive, but what is even more insane is the all cause visually impaired. There are 2.2 billion people living with vision impairment of some kind globally. Below are some key categories.6
Near vision problems: 510 million
Mild visual impairment: 258 million
Moderate to severe visual impairment: 295 million
Now I know, being far sighted does not mean you need Soliddd’s tech, but even if we filter this group down to those directly in need, we are left with hundreds of millions.
Here come the exciting future potential. Once Soliddd proves its value among AMD patients, Neal thinks there are plenty of ways to take the tech. For one, their original plan of glaucoma (impacting peripheral vision) remains a promising field. Then, Neal feels dyslexia is a serious near-term population to support with reading features. How about color blindness? If light can be accentuated to specific rods/cones then color can be better perceived. Then astigmatism. For the 8% of the world impaired by astigmatism, this could mean sharper vision. Maybe one day they will become the treatment and diagnostic standard of care. Enhanced quality of life all around.
Soliddd is planning to further test and validate their product in a few key regions. Based on their current relationships, areas like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Paris remain highest on the list. Look out for Soliddd glasses in a physician’s office near you!
The Economy
Recall from above, estimates for the annual global cost of visual impairment due to AMD are $343 billion. The global cost of vision loss due to all causes is estimated to be nearly $3 trillion for the 733 million people living with low vision and blindness worldwide. The cost is not just to the healthcare system — people with vision loss experience a 30.2% reduction in employment.10 I can keep lobbing values at you, but I won’t. Okay one more.
The visually impaired market is valued around $5-6 billion and is growing anywhere from 9-14%.7,8,9 Frankly, smaller than I expected, but you know those analyst reports — as reliable as meteorologists. Yeah you’ll predict that storm next time for sure! As with all analyst reports included in Future Human, I have pulled from 3 different sources to capture the general trend, and it is certainly growing rapidly.
Soliddd also makes a fair argument with the elimination of recurring costs. Unlike anti-VEGF injections, which require repeated treatment to keep blood vessels at bay, Soliddd could become the one stop solution and even the diagnostic device.
For context, leading anti-VEGF drug, Eylea, requires 2 mg injections every 4 weeks for 5 doses and then once every 8 weeks from then onward. At $2,000 a dose, that is $16,000 your first year and then $12,000 every year after that. With the average age of AMD diagnosis being 50, and average US lifespan of 77, this gives us a rough cost per patient of $330,000.11
With Soliddd, even if the patient does not choose to work again with their new glasses, their caregivers (often family) could return to paid work, further amplifying economic impact.
So Soliddd could reduce early retirement, slow productivity loss, lower healthcare costs, and pad GDP growth, and if all these don’t matter to you, they can most importantly improve the livelihood of millions.
My Thoughts
My conversation with Neal reminded me why primary research is so superior to secondary. Being able to have direct conversations with the trailblazers leading the way offers a level of access to information that no amount of online research could provide. It is also deeply inspiring. For my own long-term plans in health tech, speaking with those who have already or are in the process of saving lives with their innovations reaffirms the path laid out.
Neal is an unapologetic engineer with pure intentions leading a similarly unapologetic group of engineers and physicians. That is a duo I will always bet on. To read more about their work, check out their white paper here. For the sake of all who have ever lost their vision or know someone who struggles with theirs, I hope Neal and the Soliddd team continue to experience the most unimaginable successes.
To more lives saved,
Andrew
I always appreciate feedback, questions, and conversation. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn @andrewkuzemczak.