SLO LIFE Magazine Dec/Jan 20/21

can get somebody to be able to walk again, because there’s nothing wrong
with the muscles. It’s not a weakness issue; there’s nothing actually wrong
with the body. So, if you can change the intention behind the movement,
then you change the neural pathways that are being activated, and you
allow someone to overcome freezing of gait. So, the idea behind it is by
adding that goal, you change how somebody thinks about the movement.
You change the intention behind the movement and that changes
the neural pathways that are being activated in order to initiate that
movement. In a way, it’s like dancing.
How so? Well, there’s a visual cue that we created, a green laser line.
You visualize yourself stepping over that line. And just by adding that
goal, you change the way that person thinks about the movement and
you allow them to overcome freezing of gait. And the same thing with
the metronome, you try step to the beat of the metronome. And by
setting that intention, you change the neural pathways that are being
activated in order to initiate that movement. So, as Jack began using
the device on a daily basis, I continued trying to improve it for him—
trying to make it smaller or trying to make it more effective, trying to
make it rechargeable, adding all these features for him, specifically. At
some point, he invited me to a support group just to show off this new
technology that was super helpful for him. And at that support group,
I remember meeting fifteen or twenty other people who all came up to
me, one by one, after the meeting and they all said some variation of
the same thing: “Hi, my name is so-and-so. I also experience freezing
of gait. When can I get one of these devices?” And I remember
thinking, “Oh, crap. Where am I going to get the funding to make
more of these?”
What did you do? I remember being so frustrated and thinking that
it was so ridiculous that something so simple and so well known to
be effective didn’t already exist in the world. I sort of had this anxiety
about it thinking if I don’t make them no one’s going to, so I need to
make it happen. I talked to the Master’s student I was working with at
the time about starting a company, but he was leaving to finish his PhD
and wasn’t interested. So, I applied to Innovation Quest at Cal Poly and
to the Accelerator program. And really the goal of that, I didn’t have
a vision for a company, I just had a vision for getting this one product
out to a few more people. But the Accelerator is the thing that changed
that. But, to apply to the Accelerator, I needed a business partner. So, I
did a few presentations at a few different MBA classes, entrepreneurship
classes at Cal Poly, looking for a partner to do the Accelerator program
with me. And I ended up meeting my co-founder, William, in an MBA
class at Cal Poly.
Tell us about that first meeting. I love the way that William tells the
story when people ask him how he got involved. He remembers me
going up at the beginning of his MBA class, drawing random figures
on the board, trying to explain neural pathways, and all of the stuff; like,
not understanding at all what I was saying. But, somehow, I convinced
him to come meet with me afterwards. He saw something, some kind of
potential, so he got on board. The company itself was founded a little bit
over two years ago now. De Oro Devices is the name and, yes, in case you
were wondering, it was inspired by Montaña de Oro. And NexStride is
the name of our product. It took a year and half to get the green light to
get approval to start selling it, which is a very short timeline when you
look at how long it usually takes to get to a medical device to market.
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38 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | DEC/JAN 2021