When Eli Lazar’s mother had surgery, she left the hospital with multiple prescriptions from different doctors. Each bottle had dense, confusing labels, and none of her physicians seemed fully aware of what the others had prescribed. Though careful about her health, she often skipped days of medication because she didn’t know how the drugs might interact.

“That’s when it really clicked for me,” said Lazar, CEO and co-founder of One Fountain Health. “If someone as cautious and intentional as my mom could feel lost and abandoned by this process, then it shows just how big the problem really is.”

Medication management affects millions of Americans, especially older adults. Taking five or more prescriptions at once, a condition called polypharmacy, often leads to skipped doses, harmful side effects and, in severe cases, hospitalization.

Lazar, a recent California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) business administration graduate, teamed up with Victoria Asencio-Clemens, a recent computer engineering graduate, to take on this challenge. Together, they founded One Fountain Health, a startup building an accessible medication management system designed to preserve independence for people juggling multiple prescriptions.

“At One Fountain Health, we are striving to help people maintain complete independence through flawless management of their medication,” Lazar said. “When you start experiencing polypharmacy, keeping track of five, six or more medications becomes overwhelming. That’s where so many problems arise—and it’s where we want to make a difference.”

The team is developing a device that scans a prescription bottle, gathers the relevant information sorts the medications for the user. Unlike most pill dispensers, which are built for caregivers and packed with screens, apps and complex technology, One Fountain Health is designed for the patient.

“One Fountain Health is different because it’s simple,” said Asencio-Clemens, CTO of One Fountain Health. “We want patients themselves, not just their caretakers, to feel confident managing their own medications. That’s the big value we’re bringing to people.”

Lazar and Asencio-Clemens first teamed up through Cal Poly’s interdisciplinary entrepreneurial senior design project class, where Lazar pitched the idea of helping the elderly population and Asencio-Clemens saw an opportunity to pursue her interest in medical devices.

Eli Lazar and Victoria Asencio-Clemens of One Fountain Health. Photo by Ruby Wallau for CIE

“We thought there probably weren’t a lot of other college students who would want to tackle something like this,” Lazar said. “But we were excited to jump into something we knew nothing about. That says a lot about our personalities—and why, almost a year later, we’re still meshing and solving problems together.”

Asencio-Clemens and Lazar bring distinct strengths to their partnership. With her computer engineering background, Asencio-Clemens leads the technical side as CTO, focusing on prototyping and product development. Lazar draws on his business and marketing experience to guide customer development and strategy as CEO.

For Asencio-Clemens, the transition from engineering into entrepreneurship has been both challenging and rewarding, sparking new interests she hadn’t previously considered. “It’s been a lot of learning,” she said. “I kind of got thrown into this world, but luckily, the classes, programs and mentors have helped me put it together and realize just how interested I am in it.” 

After senior project, the team entered the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) Innovation Quest (iQ), a high-stakes competition where Cal Poly students pitch their innovative business ideas and prototypes to a panel of judges in hopes of winning thousands to fund their startup. 

“Innovation Quest really prepared our mindset,” Asencio-Clemens said. “We got told what we were doing wrong a lot—which was actually good. It made us critical of ourselves in a constructive way and helped us ask the harder questions.”

Their experience in iQ set the stage for the CIE’s Summer Accelerator, an intensive 12-week program that provides Cal Poly students and recent graduates with the resources necessary to turn their innovative ideas into full-fledged startups. Participants in the Accelerator receive $10,000 in seed funding, as well as access to expert mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops and a dedicated workspace in the HotHouse, the CIE’s office located in downtown San Luis Obispo.

Connected through the Accelerator, the team is mentored by Marketing and Commercial Operations leader Brendon Keiser, whose guidance has been instrumental in their startup’s growth. 

“Working with our mentor in the Accelerator has been huge,” Asencio-Clemens said. “It’s been so helpful to have someone who understands our mission and can push us in the right direction.”

Lazar added that the community of startups in the Accelerator has been just as valuable as the mentorship. Even though each team is tackling a different problem, they’re united by the same process of building solutions. For him, the ability to casually turn to a peer for feedback or advice has created a supportive, collaborative environment that makes the challenges of entrepreneurship feel less daunting.

Looking ahead, the team hopes to finalize a prototype by the end of summer and conduct extensive customer development to refine their product. Long-term, they hope One Fountain Health will become the go-to medication management system for people across the country.

“We want to be that one pill dispenser that doctors recommend to their patients and that you can buy in big-name stores,” Lazar said. “When people hear about it, we want them to immediately think: ‘That would make my life so much easier.’”

For both founders, the impact they hope to achieve goes beyond managing pills—it’s about restoring autonomy and broadening lives. Their ultimate goal is to give users the confidence to manage their medications independently, allowing them to stay in their homes and live life on their own terms, said Asencio-Clemens.

“Aging is often described as a shrinking circle of life. If health challenges keep you from managing your medications, that circle stays small. But if we can remove that barrier, people can broaden their experiences, strengthen relationships and live with more purpose,” Lazar said. 

Watch One Fountain Health and our six other Accelerator startups pitch live at Demo Day here.

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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members and promotes entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit cie.calpoly.edu.