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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.com

Technology 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