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INSIDE • 3-D Printing Gains Foothold In Orthotics • Shedding New Light On Old Germs • Stethoscope Detects Epileptic Seizures • Emerging Tech Portfolio /Wolfe Emerging Tech Volume 13/ Number 6 / June 2014 www.forbeswolfe.com REPORT 3-D Printing Gains Foothold In Orthotics The Insider OLS Systems Co-founder JOSH WOLFE, EDITOR and CEO Kegan Schouwen- his month, we marvel at Sburg is a leading voice in 3-D Ttechnological progress in printing and mass customization, two stagnant markets and and obsessed with bringing nascent relay words of caution regard- technology into the consumer sec- ing a realm that affects each tor (Full disclosure: my venture and every one of us. firm Lux Capital is an equity in- We lead with Kegan vestor). Schouwenburg’s back- Schouwenburg, the founder ground in industrial design and and CEO of SOLS Systems mass manufacturing gives her a (Full disclosure: my venture unique perspective on scalable sys- firm Lux Capital is an equity tems and products, and fuels her investor). After spending desire to bring beauty and simplic- nearly a decade running and ity to new markets. Previously building companies in the 3-D Kegan spent four years running a printed manufacturing sector, consumer design and manufactur- Schouwenburg has set her ing firm, learning the ins and outs of physical product, before becom- Continued on page 2 ing tired of the high barrier to entry KEGAN SCHOUWENBURG in manufacturing, and leaving to Continued on page 2 Shedding New Light Stethoscope Detects On Old Germs Epileptic Seizures artin J. Blaser, M.D., is the r. Josef Parvizi is an associ- MGeorge and Muriel Singer Date professor of neurology Professor of Medicine, professor at the Stanford University Med- of microbiology, and director of ical Center. His expertise is in the human microbiome pro- functional mapping of the gram at the NYU School of Med- human brain using the three icine. He served as chair of the methods of electrocorticogra- Department of Medicine at NYU phy, electrical brain stimulation, from 2000-2012. A physician and functional neuroimaging and microbiologist, Dr. Blaser is (fMRI) methods. The general interested in understanding the theme of his group’s research is MARTIN J. BLASER, M.D. DR. JOSEF PARVIZI Continued on page 4 Continued on page 6 3-D Printing Gains Foothold In Orthotics Continued from page 1 join Shapeways (Full disclosure: my venture with what I could make with my hands so I racked my brain and thought, “What prod- firm Lux Capital is also an equity investor in started outsourcing my projects. One of the uct embodies all of these?” Shapeways). There, she built, and ran, the factories that I had outsourced them to told Everybody has to eat, everybody wears Factory of the Future. Schouwenburg holds me about 3-D printing. At the time, it was shoes, everybody wants to be more comfort- a bachelor’s in industrial design from Pratt not looked favorably in the program, but I able and we can empower people. We can Institute (2007). fell in love with the technology. enable people to walk outside and feel in- I graduated college and started a com- credible about themselves, as we customize When did you first discover 3-D pany with a classmate where we designed not the outside, but the inside of their shoes. printing? products and 3-D printed them. Both My background is in industrial science. I’ve MOMA and Urban Outfitters picked up our Before you founded SOLS, what did the always loved physical products. I moved to designs on the spot at our show. After four orthotics landscape look like? New York to study at Pratt Institute where I years at this company, I discovered how On the medical side, the industry is stag- learned about 3-D printing. I wasn’t satisfied Shapeways was using 3-D printing to open nant, old and forgotten. There are no regu- market opportunities for everybody. Why lations on how we do things or standardiza- move your manufacturing to China when 3- tion in the product’s category. It’s very D printers offer a manufacturing solution? I much region dependent, lab dependent, and The Insider Continued from page 1 joined the team at Shapeways and I served doctor dependent. What happens is you as team lead of distribution. I helped bring have all those aspects of dependencies and sights on bringing a drastically new ap- distribution to the U.S. and built out its fac- then you end up with people like my dad proach to the $170 billion footwear mar- tory in New York. who will sit down at the dinner table and ket. Kegan and her team are harnessing say, “These are my orthotics from 20 years the latest 3-D printing and scanning You mention that you began working ago and to this day no one has been able to technology to offer beautiful, highly cus- with 3-D printing because you weren’t make me a pair of orthotics like this.” This tomizable orthotics at an affordable price. satisfied with what you made with your is shocking but true. We hear stories like Next we sit with NYU Professor Dr. hands. Can’t traditional manufacturing this every day. Medical orthotics are mostly Martin Blaser, author of Missing Mi- still work hand-in-hand with computer sold through podiatrists, orthotists, physical crobes and one of the world’s leading ex- modeling? therapists and personal trainers—all of these perts on the human microbiome. Dr. Yes. In fact, 3-D printing is just one means sort of dabble in the categories, but podia- Blaser shares some startling numbers re- of execution. It’s one form of digital manu- trists have a lock down. garding what many consider to be our facturing, where tools are allowing us to On the consumer side once again you’ve largest organ and warns us that decades shorten the time between having ideas and got unhappy customers, but they’re un- of antibiotic abuse may be causing un- shipping a product. It will allow us to pro- happy for a totally different reason. They’ve foreseen damage to our hundreds of tril- duce things directly from digital files and to barely spent any money and they have a lions of bacterial allies. remove the touch points that result in product that promises to be great and they Finally, we speak with Stanford Med- human error. get immediate relief, but that product rap- ical School neurologist Dr. Josef Parvizi. idly deteriorates and smells bad, is ugly and Inspired by a contemporary string quar- How did you stumble on orthotics as a is ill-fitting. People feel so betrayed by the tet, Dr. Parvizi teamed up with a leading killer application for digital products that they’ve bought and they feel music researcher to develop a method to manufacturing? let down. They can’t keep up with their convert brain signals into musical notes. I was working at Shapeways and I was basi- friends, they can’t wear the shoes they want We learn how this novel technique will cally seeing all these designs come through revolutionize the way that we detect and and I was amazed at the variety of things treat seizure activity. that people were designing. There are cer- As always, here’s to thinking big about tain products where customization adds “We’re using very thinking small…and to the emerging in- value, particularly products that fit the body. simple, mobile- ventors and investors who seek to profit There are so many amazing applications based technology from the unexpected and the unseen. and technologies out there that just don’t work yet: I see them all the time. 3-D print- that allows people ing a scoliosis brace is amazing, but it’s not to capture their yet cost-effective. I think it’s great that peo- feet in a 3-D scan ple are innovating in the sector, but I to empower the wanted to create a business that works right doctor at the point now with other technology so we can use that to push it forward. I think that change of prescription.” will come. I looked at all of these products, 2 | JUNE 2014 © COPYRIGHT 2014 FORBES/WOLFE EMERGING TECH REPORT 3-D Printing Gains Foothold In Orthotics Continued from page 2 up to 22 people, which is pretty incredible. “3-D printing is one form of digital This June has been really eventful. We’ve got manufacturing, where tools are allowing us to people starting left and right. We’re reaching shorten the time between having ideas and that interesting point where I see great things happening that I’m not involved in shipping a product. It will allow us to produce anymore. That’s a relief for me because it’s things directly from digital files and to remove exactly what’s supposed to happen, but it’s a the touch points that result in human error.” weird psychological point that you have to go through. It’s my job to keep that founda- tion aligned and steady and solid so every- to and they feel socially isolated. I always performance, whereas the medical version one can keep executing. knew there was a problem, but I had no idea will be more focused on advanced levels of how intensely people dislike the current treatment. There will be features that will What are some of the biggest market. I think the fact that we have the op- only have available in the medical product challenges that you’ve faced and how portunity to change that and we can build that will not be available in the consumer have you dealt with them? trust that starts with a product and stems out product.

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