it's one thing to run the new york city
marathon
it's another to do it blind
in 2017 simon wheatcroft did just that
becoming the first blind person to run
the marathon unaided thanks to the
wayband a device that helps you navigate
entirely through vibrations on the skin
by the way band made marathon history
the tech behind the way band was
actually developed for a much different
sport
this all started for me because i wanted
to build this suit that would allow me
to download kung fu using vibration so
that was my foray into the world of
haptics from that idea sprung wareworks
a haptic design company run by keith and
co-founder kevin
inspired by the experiences of their
blind friend and now company advisor
marcus engel kevin and keith committed
to using their haptic technology
backgrounds to help the blind and
visually impaired communities i wanted
to create something with a new
functionality that was innovative how do
i really change lives of somebody using
a product using design they figured out
how to do just that with a wayband so
now the question remains
can they raise the capital to bring the
product to market
the road has been ridiculously
challenging but i think from my point of
view the road of life is always
challenging
that's the entrepreneurial journey it's
about autonomy it's about independence
it's about freedom
but freedom isn't free
you just started your dream business how
much profit would you need to pay your
basic living expenses like rent and
ramen this is a show on the economics of
entrepreneurship and founders turning
their dreams into reality this is ramen
profitable
[Music]
when we were first doing this we didn't
really know
a lot about what we were doing
so i got this box of
stuff
this was bs zero this is the very very
first prototype that we built this is bs
10 this was one of our early versions of
the way band this is actually one of the
way bands that we used to run the
marathon with we had to put a bigger
motor on so you could feel it clearly
so yeah so we were just
doing what we could with what we had
all the technology that we spent
building in here ended up being the
technology that got compressed and made
it into here
here's a prototyping later where works
finally has a model ready for launch
with the first units going to awesome
people like erskine hey everyone how's
it going hey how are you doing
pleasure to meet you
nice to meet you man how is everything
it's doing fantastic man so the way band
is a wristband that gently guides you to
your end destination using only
vibrating cues without the need for any
visuals or audio when you're going in
the right way you feel absolutely no
vibration at all
and when you start to veer off you'll
get a tiny vibration
and that vibration will get stronger the
wronger you are
nice okay so long say hand no vibration
be good
that means we stretch
every little bit helps
me dog
getting the weigh band to this point was
no simple task
the wereworks faced many obstacles
during development their largest
challenge came back in 2017
after they received a 250 000 nsf grant
that they spent in just six months
as keith and kevin learned the hard way
to make your product cheap you first
have to make it expensive
the national science foundation grant
was the biggest grant that we've ever
received 250 000
did not last a long time that's for sure
we paid our interns we hired a software
team we hired a guy from mit and he was
doing all the pcbs for our prototypes
that grant got us to the first phase we
have a product now but once the money
ran out in the grant we were going
through the drought
we went almost 18 months with no funding
at all like not a single dime into the
company no money
no security no health care nothing we
were a lot more stressed out a lot more
angry at each other and we were scared
as well it was like a roller coaster of
just constant failures and mistakes the
temptation equation is super real you're
doing something that you don't know is
possible you're walking into a venture
that basically has a 90
failure rate guaranteed as part of the
process i could be making 200 000 a year
right now but i'm choosing to make two
thousand dollars a month instead
all for the hope that maybe one day
this will turn into something that is
huge
to make ends meet
kevin and keith taught and consulted
while they continued refining the
wayband
despite the lack of funding they refused
to give up
the reason i never really quit was
because when i looked at all the other
things that i could do they were just
different ways of doing what i'm already
doing right now the silver lining of the
fear and of the drought is we always
get back to the core the value of why
we're doing this and
are we willing to sacrifice everything
we have for it and obviously it's the
reason why we're still doing it you know
six years in
now we're looking at what are the assets
we have built
what do we need to do now and how are we
going to get profitable and how are we
going to get interest of further
investments
right now
so we started building relationships
with blind virgil impaired organizations
we did speaking engagements we were
talking to people who were in the space
working with other people in the haptics
world to see what life does our device
have outside of the blind and visually
impaired community and outside of
navigation and then all of a sudden
things shifted we got an investment
and that investor's
brought in a lot of other people who we
didn't even know were on the table at
the moment so things just kind of
started piling in so we basically like
with 18 months with no funding
and then raised half a million dollars
in the middle of a pandemic
so their networking and tenacity paid
off and now their fundraising is back on
track
we're currently raising a one million
dollar round and we have 49 of that
close that's going to get us our first 5
000 units and get us to break even by
the end of the year wareworks plan is to
begin manufacturing their first units in
june and then launch in october
after launch they plan to market the
device through pilot programs with the
olympics the paralympics and blind and
visually impaired organizations what do
you enjoy about it
this could take me to the park by myself
it gives me the freedom
to be free
money always comes and goes so you've
got to have a purpose and one that you
can stick to for years and years to come
it's a really tough industry if you also
choose technology get a good co-founder
build up a good team and have a purpose
an impactful market that you really can
make a change in this is really about
freedom it's about autonomy
it's about independence that's the
entrepreneurial journey but finally
that's also exactly what way band is
about it's about giving people freedom
autonomy and independence and one of the
things that i've kind of learned
personally in life is that the easiest
way to get the thing that you want is to
give it to others
[Music]
you