When Easton LaChappelle was 14, growing up in Durango, CO, he built his first robotic arm out of Legos, fishing wire and electrical tubing.
Now, LaChappelle has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $500,000 to provide 100 prosthetics to 100 amputees.
At 18, LaChappelle founded Unlimited Tomorrow, creating prosthetics at less than one-fifth of the cost of traditional devices. The company, which is now in its fourth year, creates its prosthetic devices using a 3D printer, allowing for light, AI-enhanced devices that have individually moving fingers and look like realistic limbs.
The devices cost $10,000 to produce and are created to match the size and color of the opposite limb.
The company has grown cautiously, spending the last four years working on research and development. They recently moved to New York in an effort to grow the operations side of the business.
“Developing new technology takes a different mindset,” LaChappelle said.
The company has focused largely on crowdfunding to grow, raising $1.6 million in equity crowdfunding through a February 2018 campaign. They also have key partnerships; famed author and entrepreneur Tony Robbins is a founding partner and Microsoft partnered with the company in 2016 to create the first device.
“A little over a year ago we put the first device on Momo,” LaChappelle said of the 10-year-old girl that received the first prosthetic. “The natural next step is putting it on 100 people.”
So, LaChappelle launched the 100 Tomorrows campaign earlier this month, looking to raise $500,000 to provide 100 amputees with prosthetic devices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g828lh3scU
At the time of writing, the campaign has raised $430,000 from 67 backers, with substantial donations coming from partners like Robbins and Arrow Electronics.
LaChappelle said the campaign will give Unlimited Tomorrow an opportunity to change the lives of 100 amputees while testing the devices across a range of variables.
“We’re steering our selection process to reach the full market. Each of these different cases have a different process of fitting. We’re looking keeping all these variables in mind, so we can create the best process possible,” he said.
To donate to the campaign or learn more, check out the Indiegogo campaign here.
