Tim Balz has worked on a long list of successful wheelchair innovations, landing his name on a patent and leading a project endorsed by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.
Balz’s latest efforts won’t revolutionize the wheelchair, but rather, the quality of life of the people who use them.
Melbourne-based Kalogon, founded by Balz last year, developed a "smart cushion" meant to prevent pressure sores in people who sit too long, especially those in wheelchairs. The product is in use by some rehabilitation centers, assisted-living centers and hospitals across the Sunshine State.
The cushion senses pressure points and automatically redistributes pressure to those areas. Plus, a mobile app allows users to adjust the cushion's support themselves.
Kalogon aims to ramp up its manufacturing after a $195,000 investment from early-stage investment group SeedFundersOrlando. While relatively new, Kalogon is made up of a talented team of engineers from giants like Northrop Grumman and SpaceX.
Here, Balz discusses his path to becoming a startup founder:
When did your interest in wheelchairs start? My neighbor found a wheelchair in a dumpster. He called me because I was part of the robotics team at my high school. A guy from school, his job was to pull recycling. The recycling was tied to the back of his wheelchair. It got so heavy that he couldn’t move in his manual wheelchair. The insurance company denied him an electric wheelchair. I tried to repair the one that was found and built a wheelchair that would be cool enough for him.
Did you refurbish more wheelchairs? People kept coming to me, donating wheelchairs. The charity, Freedom Chairs, has done over 150 wheelchairs. We’re still operating and giving away wheelchairs.
What came after high school? Before college, I was hired by a design firm to build an all-terrain wheelchair. At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology my freshman year, I skipped classes and wrote a business proposal for Intel for what would become the first connected wheelchair. This is 2014, and the internet of things is buzzing. They hired PhD students and interns to work on the project I was leading. We created a connected wheelchair that monitored data, could detect when medical issues happened, call 911, track GPS and more. Stephen Hawking heard about it and publicly endorsed it.
You later worked at SpaceX for three years. Why did you leave to start Kalogon? There were plenty of talented people to take my role and make sure SpaceX hit its milestones. I realized I wanted to start my own venture that would help people. Freedom Chairs and seeing the people helped by my work was what motivated me, kept me working to 2 a.m.
How did you build your team at Kalogon? I kept a list of the best engineers I worked with. I called and said we all should move to Central Florida and get day jobs and build this company. All but one person I called quit their jobs and moved within three months. We bought a house in Cocoa and turned half of it into a workshop. We got day jobs at Northrop Grumman, NASA and SpaceX.
How did the company decide on developing a product for pressure sores? Last year, we went into the Brevard County community and started asking the biggest problems that are unsolved and how to use technology to solve them. Pressure sores came up. We made prototypes and sold the first product two to three months later.
Why did you get connected with Groundswell? Then we needed to raise investment. I never learned to fundraise. Someone introduced me to Groundswell. They saved the day for me. They mentored me, helped me figure out marketing and sales strategy and how to manufacture.
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