The Future of Smart Seating: An Interview with Tim Balz, CEO and Founder of Kalogon

Hanna: Tell me about your background and what led you to founding Kalogon. 

Tim: I have been working in and around the wheelchair space for over 15 years now. It started with a non-profit in high school where I refurbished and gave away power wheelchairs. From there, I realized technology for people with disabilities was way behind the rest of the world, so I created the world’s first smart wheelchair. Intel named it the number on smart device of the year, Stephen Hawkin endorsed it, and I transferred that to the world’s largest wheelchair company. From there, I knew I wanted to learn more about innovation, so I went to SpaceX where I learned how to disrupt hardware and spaces that are hard to disrupt. I left SpaceX to found Kalogon and we wanted to solve the biggest problem and unmet need we could find, and that was pressure injuries, so that is how we started making seat cushions.

Hanna: Great. Would you double click on the specific problem of pressure injuries and how Kalogon is tackling that problem?

Tim: The reason we wanted to solve the problem of pressure injuries is really the scale. Pressure injury deaths are higher than the majority of cancers and there are twice as many as car accidents. The incidence rate and the mortality rate was not meaningfully reducing over time. We looked at the root causes and found that blood flow and a couple of other factors lead to pressure injuries. From there, we built this theory that if we could increase blood flow and tissue oxygenation in one small area at a time, in the same way you do when you stand up, you could increase blood flow everywhere. From some of our early testing, it turned out that you could. We went out to solve one of the main problems of seating and did not only end up helping pressure injuries but solving seating for lots of people.

In the wheelchair market today, we have multiple different seating options. We have a custom seating option that we design the contours of the foam to the user and then we have an off the shelf product where we just adjust the length and width. We also have an adapter that adapts to the best-selling lower-cost cushions and is a safety device that manages those cushions. You can experience Kalogon technology in a lot of different areas of the market and we have customers in all those segments. Our goal is really to support them in being able to live their life in the way they want, prevent injuries, and make seating tolerance higher.

Hanna: Would you share a bit on the role of technology and how that makes a difference in your approach to smart seating?

Tim: Our hardware has air cells that are within the cushion. When you sit down, we detect a lot of different things about you like the shape of your body. We take that data and then use that to tune an algorithm, and we are able to make adjustments to increase blood flow and begin to look at thinks like posture, comfort, pain, and all the negative effects of prolonged sitting.

Hanna: The DME space can be tough. How have you been navigating the regulatory and clinical hurdles?

Tim: In the same way SpaceX did, we developed our technology by saying let’s create a huge amount of value that is undeniable and then use that to get around hurdles. So, our first focus was on creating value for the end customer, therapist, and various stakeholders. Then, we looked at how to get it reimbursed. We looked at the decision makers and their incentive structures and came up with a creative strategy. A big part of why we were able to make that work was the fact that we did our manufacturing in house, so we could modify the product and technology to fit in existing codes. More than 90% of the wheelchair cushions are funded through insurance of another external payer.

Hanna: Talk to me about how you have gone to market.

Tim: Kalogon doesn’t sell directly to customers. We sell through suppliers and are working with the majority of national suppliers and regional ones. Almost every state has approved us through one of their codes for at least one of our products and then for Medicare, we received coding that allows for approvals us on a national scale. We are also in dozens of VA hospitals, and we have found that to be the place where the majority of innovation actually happens because the payer problem is solved. That is really how we funded the team and product for many years as we worked to get other reimbursement codes.

Hanna: Shifting to your leadership journey, what has been the most rewarding and challenging part of the journey so far?

Tim: The most rewarding has got to be hearing from customers that not only did we help pressure injuries, we helped them be able to see their grandkids or travel. One of our first customers, we helped get out of bed after a complete spinal cord injury and he is walking now and hung up Christmas decorations this year. He gives the credit to Kalogon for being able to get out of bed and do rehab.

I would say the hardest thing for me has been making sure that I am personally growing at a rate that keeps up with the growth of the company. I am constantly asking myself how I can be the right CEO for six months from now because the role changes. We tripled our medical revenue each of the last two years and running a company that is 9x what it was two years ago is a very different job.

Hanna: What is your vision for the company long term?

Tim: 5 or 10 years out, I hope that Kalogon is anywhere someone sits for long periods of time whether you have a disability or not. People think about their mattress a lot, but less attention is given to sitting. In a world where everyone is going to live longer and want to be more active, you have got to look at your seated health.

Learn more about Kalogon here: Kalogon | The Future of Smart Seating - Wheelchairs Users, Pilots, Drivers, and Beyond