HabitHalo is a Portfolio Company of Boomerang Ventures
Source: Inside INdiana Business
Indianapolis-based tech startup HabitHalo is working to help people who vape kick the habit, just like its founder and CEO did.
Phil Tran picked up the habit when he started as a freshman at Indiana University—a time when students thought vaping was a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes. But he found himself struggling to quit.
“Over the years, they started coming out with higher strength, more puffs, cheaper, more flavors. I saw that with myself and my friends, how hard it was to quit,” he said.
As a means to beat his own addiction, Tran developed what would become known as RipLok, a high-tech vape limiting case that syncs with an app designed to help people reduce their use or totally quit.
Users lock their vape device inside the case, which limits how many puffs they can take per day, creating a wait time that prevents chain vaping. If they go over their daily limit, users are locked out until the next day.
Tran started working on his idea before he graduated at IU and received help not only from professors at the Kelley School of Business, but also the School of Public Health. That help was reciprocated as Tran assisted professors with designing their own vape studies.
“We started collecting a lot of data, coaching doctors themselves on vaping,” he said. “Because, funny enough, vaping was in none of their textbooks. So we kind of have to give them teachings from the ‘street level.’ And so it would be a good exchange of information.”
That data helped inform an algorithm that went into the RipLok device and app to personalize the experience to each user.
“It watches how much you vape and then creates a custom plan for you to help you cut back or wean down,” he said.
Over a 90-day period, RipLok reduces puffs by just 1% each day. But Tran says users can be flexible with with the timetable, making it less rigid than traditional products used to quit smoking like patches and gums.
Tran founded HabitHalo in 2020, and the startup currently operates out of the 16 Tech Innovation District in downtown Indianapolis. The company has received investment from Boomerang Ventures, also based at 16 Tech, as well as the Flywheel Fund in Bloomington and other angel investors.
Just before the New Year, HabitHalo began selling the cases on its website. Users have the option to provide the data from their cases to the company to help improve the algorithm or remain anonymous, Tran said.
The company is building and selling its first batch of units, about 200 so far, out of 16 Tech. Tran said he eventually wants to scale up manufacturing to up to 10,000 units.
“My biggest dream was just to get this out there. It didn’t matter if it was a million units or 100 units, just be able to get something out there to start helping people,” Tran said. “Because it’s not just quitting and it’s not just getting in control; it’s the lessons you learn along the way and how that applies to the rest of your life. And we’ve had a lot of challenges, and just to be able to get it live and get it in the market, is what I’m really excited about.”
Source: Inside INdiana Business, January 14, 2026
