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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – July/August 2017
Is Recovery Force well down the
road to developing game-
changing technology that will
impact patients, athletes and
many others? Or will it be one in
a long line of promising
companies that is unable to
complete that journey and
overcome the challenges that
stand in the way of ultimate
success?
Three of the company’s external
advisors see plenty of signs to
suggest the former scenario will
play out. They share what they’ve
learned in their behind-the-scenes
views and interactions.
New and old
Recovery Force is entering unfamiliar
territory when it comes to what it is striving
to do – weaving nickel titanium into textile
fibers for use in wearable products with a
variety of applications. While that portion of
the equation is new, the who is a team that
brings experience in a variety of business and
entrepreneurial settings.
Bob Taylor of Grand Rapids, Michigan,
owns three businesses, including selling other
companies’ products in the federal
marketplace. With approximately $380
million in sales since 2008, he says, “We’ve
become pretty good experts at navigating the
complexities of the federal government.”
And he expects to successfully partner
with Recovery Force in that area. The reasons
for his optimism:
“One is the extremely unique technology
– it’s like bringing materials to life. It adds a
new dimension into fabrics and allows the
company to address patient problems in a
new and different way,” he explains. “An
example of that is deep vein thrombosis. It’s
just real cumbersome with the current
technologies for the patients. It’s what I call
disruptive technology.”
As for the people, Taylor believes it starts
with a strong leader in president and CEO
Matt Wyatt and extends throughout the team.
“The team brings a lot of strength and
experience. That helps dramatically in dealing
with some of the obstacles. You’re going to
face obstacles – whether it’s raising capital,
dealing with the FDA (Food & Drug
Administration), operational issues. It comes
down to how do you face that adversity.”
Former Indianapolis Colts tight end
Coby Fleener and long-time Indianapolis tech
company executive Traci Dolan (ExactTarget
and Made2Manage before that) are also among
the Recovery Force advisors. They agree that
the tech-team combination is a strong one.
“When you look at a company from the
outside, you look more for a really impressive
product and I think they have that,” Fleener
observes. “You look for intelligence in a
team, continuity, a great meshing of minds –
all those things are present in Recovery
Force. So that makes for pretty powerful
potential when it comes to being an impactful
company at some point.”
Dolan adds, “From a product development
standpoint – going from idea to first prototypes
I saw to what I saw last week (late May) – it’s
just shocking the progress that has been
made. It’s impressive and it’s a small group of
people doing it as well. I think that speaks
volume to a couple of things. Matt is a
tenacious guy. Two, the Indianapolis business
community … people really want to see
others succeed. People avail themselves to
help others. I think that’s a really striking
thing in Indiana.”
Different perspectives
Members of the Recovery Force team
heard Fleener when he was invited to speak
to budding entrepreneurs at the original
Launch Fishers in the basement of a Hamilton
County library branch. The graduate of
Stanford with a degree in Science,
Technology and Society says some may have
expected conversation about football and life
in that world, but he focused on
microcontrollers, code and similar themes.
“As soon as I kind of understood what
they were building, my mind immediately
went to churning on different ideas as to how
the technology could be used in athletics.
Immediate, sequential compression is something
athletes already use today,” he describes.
By Tom Schuman
Trio Talk Past, Future for Recovery Force
ADVISING
AND
GUIDING
EDITOR’S NOTE: Fourth of a six-part series throughout 2017 with Fishers-based Recovery Force. View the previous articles in the archives section of
www.bizvoicemagazine.comTechnology and Innovation: Yearlong Series – Recovery Force
“I like the enthusiasm and what they’ve
done so far. … They are nimble
enough, because they are small, that
they can switch gears if need be.”
Traci Dolan