KC Inno Madness is down to the final round with two competitors: Artio Medical and Fit Truk.
These two health-focused companies started among our pack of 32 rising startup competitors. They're each innovative in their respective ways, with Fit Truk creating a mobile fitness experience on a truck and Artio Medical developing new medical devices to address issues in vascular, neurovascular and cardiology cases.
Voting for the final round kicks off Tuesday and continues through Sunday. The winner will be announced on April 4.
Here's a deeper background on the final two competitors:
Fit Truk
Although the idea for Fit Truk started six years ago, the pandemic was the catalyst to make it a reality.
“I was thinking creatively about ways to pivot (my City Gym) business and ways to disrupt the fitness industry, since I was pretty sure we were going to come back, but it was going to look very different,” Fit Truk co-founder Hailee Bland-Walsh said during a previous interview.
Fit Truk's fitness equipment storage system takes about 10 minutes to set up and five minutes to pack away, making it easy for personal trainers to lead small group classes and private events. A variety of strength-training equipment is attached to the exterior and includes dip bars, a squat rack, pull-up bars and more.
Some of the truck's features include flat-screen LED displays, a solar panel system, weatherproof sound system and app-controlled LED lights to set the mood for workouts. The inside serves as an office for personal trainers.
The startup's founders now are working to franchise the concept.
Artio Medical
Artio Medical was born out of co-founder and CEO Dr. Nick Franano's personal experiences as an interventional radiologist. He wanted to dissect the problems he witnessed as a doctor and come up with solutions.
The startup recently checked off a milestone – securing Food and Drug Administration approval to market and sell its first medical device. The Solus Gold Embolization Device offers a precise method for blocking or reducing blood flow in blood vessels and can be used for cases such as excessive bleeding after vehicle accidents or as a preventive measure in diseased blood vessels at high risk of bleeding or rupturing.
"I know the impact the products can have on patients,” Franano said during a previous interview, “because I’ve stood in a cath lab when a patient is bleeding to death or I’ve stood there when they’re having a stroke. … I know what happens to their families and their loved ones.… I wake up every day, and I know why I’m doing what I’m doing. That’s an advantage of being a clinician.”
Artio has 14 products in its portfolio and hopes to secure FDA approval for additional devices next year.
