{"id":1746,"date":"2025-03-15T12:54:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T12:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/15\/ex-spacex-engineers-startup-makes-stephen-hawking-approved-wheelchair\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T12:55:00","slug":"ex-spacex-engineers-startup-makes-stephen-hawking-approved-wheelchair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/15\/ex-spacex-engineers-startup-makes-stephen-hawking-approved-wheelchair\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-SpaceX Engineer\u2019s Startup Makes Stephen Hawking-Approved Wheelchair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Tim Balz\u2019s commitment to mobility innovation goes back to his high school years. Courtesy Kalogon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Timothy Balz<\/a>, co-founder and CEO of Kalogon, a wheelchair technology startup, a stint at SpaceX wasn\u2019t a dream job\u2014it was a launchpad for a very different mission. \u201cI went to SpaceX so that I could come back and disrupt the wheelchair industry,\u201d Balz told <\/span>Observer<\/span> at this year\u2019s SXSW. Balz was a build engineer for SpaceX\u2019s Starship<\/a> thermal protection system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/section>\n

Balz\u2019s commitment to mobility innovation goes back to his high school years, when he founded a nonprofit called Freedom Chairs to refurbish and donate power wheelchairs. The project began after he saw a fellow student stranded in a manual chair because his insurance wouldn\u2019t cover a powered one. Balz responded by building a custom device for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI traded a moped for a wheelchair on Craigslist, and I tricked it out for him,\u201d said Balz. He added a sound system, leg rest, joystick adjustment and even a hitch to pull a recycling bin so the student could participate in the school\u2019s recycling program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifteen years later, the technology has come a long way\u2014and so has Balz, now in his early 30s. During an internship at Intel, he developed the first connected wheelchair <\/span>using the chipmaker\u2019s technology, and it earned praise from none other than Stephen Hawking<\/a>. In 2019, he launched Kalogon to develop smart seating systems designed to make wheelchair use more comfortable, reduce pressure injuries, and even assist seated professionals like pilots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kalogon\u2019s technology adapts in real time to the user\u2019s body shape and movement, automatically shifting pressure points to simulate the health benefits of standing. Its core offerings\u2014the Orbiter Med and Orbiter for Aviation\u2014are already being used in both clinical and commercial contexts. A connected app allows clinicians to fine-tune settings based on medical needs the device can\u2019t automatically detect, such as amputations or pelvic imbalances. The system is powered by A.I., eliminating the need for manual adjustments and traditional air pumps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balz isn\u2019t just refining the wheelchair\u2014he\u2019s redefining what\u2019s possible for the people who use them. John Miller is an early user who suffered a debilitating pressure injury after a spinal cord injury. Previously confined to his chair for just a few hours each day, Kalogon\u2019s technology extended his comfort window to 16 hours. The change gave him the time and energy to reconnect with his community, take a road trip to see his grandchildren, garden, cycle, return to physical therapy and begin relearning how to walk. He now walks with a cane.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t make him able to walk again, but we did enable him to get back in his community and not only find his purpose, but create the time for him to be able to go do those activities that eventually led to him being able to walk again,\u201d said Balz.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An\"An
John Miller sits in front of the water in his chair using Kalogon\u2019s Orbiter. Courtesy Kalogon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The\"The
A wheelchair equipped with an Orbiter control box. Courtesy Kalogon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Investors are skeptical about disability tech<\/b><\/h3>\n

Despite the technology\u2019s promise, Kalogon initially struggled to get traction with investors. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even get my foot in the door initially,\u201d said Balz. The assumption was that wheelchair tech didn\u2019t have mass-market potential, despite the fact that around 5.5 million Americans use wheelchairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are aging more, and they\u2019re living longer because of technology. It\u2019s becoming more and more evident that disability is a natural part of the human experience,\u201d said Diego Mariscal, CEO and co-founder of 2Gether-International (2GI), the largest startup accelerator for disabled entrepreneurs, told Observer SXSW. As someone with cerebral palsy, Mariscal also calls himself \u201cchief disabled person\u201d of his company. (2GI is not an investor in Kalogon.)<\/p>\n

Balz said he hopes Kalogon\u2019s success will help shift investor mindsets. \u201cWhen I can go back to them and say, \u2018You lost out on a 10\u201320x return because of your biases,\u2019 that feels pretty good,\u201d he said, hinting at where Kalogon would be if it found a buyer today. \u201cNow we\u2019re giving an edge to all the other startups who have failed not because they didn\u2019t have a market, not because they didn\u2019t have a great product, but because of the bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

As mainstream companies like Apple and Meta roll out accessible consumer technologies, such as AirPods with clinical-grade hearing aids and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Mariscal sees reasons for both optimism and caution. Outside of what Balz calls the broken incentive structures of the U.S. health insurance system, which often fails to serve disabled individuals, Mariscal points to a more fundamental issue: representation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a mantra that really runs through the disability rights movement, which is \u2018nothing about us without us,\u2019 which implies that if you\u2019re making things for the disability community, we really should be thinking about the disability community at all levels,\u201d said Mariscal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mariscal believes Kalogon\u2019s innovation-first model\u2014what he calls \u201cthe startup approach\u201d\u2014must work in tandem with long-term advocacy. His nonprofit accelerator currently supports 700 disabled entrepreneurs and is in the process of developing a first-of-its-kind venture capital fund focused on founders with disabilities. Even as DEI efforts face political backlash<\/a>, Mariscal remains hopeful. \u201cThere have been monumental strides in the space, and you\u2019re not putting the genie back in the bottle,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"This<\/p><\/div>\n