Alexander Stronko carries an engineering notebook with him wherever he goes, recording anything and everything he thinks might someday be useful. Luckily, that means that he happened to capture, in detailed meeting minutes, the first day he was connected with Dr. Laura Lee. In 2008, Dr. Lee, then a faculty member at the UVA School of Medicine, approached the school’s Biomedical Engineering department seeking help with an idea that she thought might fit their capstone project requirements. An idea borne out of her own experiences, she proposed a product that could “reduce caregiver strain and injury during turning, cleaning, and repositioning of immobile patients.” A meticulous note-taker who enjoys jotting down ideas and inspiration wherever it may strike, Alexander had pen and paper at the ready to capture that vision.
One of the recurring themes I’ve heard from the ventures this summer is that the process and principles behind effectuation empower them to believe that “anyone can be an entrepreneur,” no matter their background, appetite for risk, or other circumstances. So, if at first you think that these two now-founders of LLEEL3A sound like unlikely entrepreneurs, you’re not alone – they’re the first to say that they thought so themselves. Although Dr. Lee is a 2003 Darden graduate, she says the idea that “everyone can be an entrepreneur” wasn’t as strong an undercurrent in her time at business school. Similarly, Alexander shares that he slowly came around to the idea of working on a venture, because “in a way, effectuation is similar to engineering – it takes hard work, dedication, and focus, and then ideas come out of that. It’s not magic,” and he finds that refreshing and empowering.
The idea, which ultimately did turn into the capstone project for Alexander and three classmates, initially came to Dr. Lee during a particularly rough night in the hospital waiting for a nurse to arrive at a patient’s room. “I had a patient who needed vital signs, and I was told [the nurse] was in another patient’s room changing the sheets.” She was helping a fellow nurse with this task, because larger patients often require two nurses to be able to turn them on each side for cleaning and sheet changing. After waiting for the nurse for about twenty minutes, “I thought: there has to be a better way of doing it – to make it less labor intensive and reduce the potential for [nurse] injuries, so that one person can do it alone.”
Alexander and his classmates were excited by the challenge, and, in the end, they created a prototype and senior presentation that “got the job done” quite impressively, according to Lee. It was so impressive, in fact, that they decided to apply for a provisional patent and, despite a grueling 5 year lag to receive the full patent, Stronko and Lee decided to invest additional time and resources into bringing the idea closer to fruition during the interim.
The product, currently still in development, functions as a double-sheet system that hooks up to a facility’s existing lift system (which is traditionally used to move patients from a bed to a wheelchair). The use of the lift technology dramatically reduces the strain on nurse’s backs and shoulders by automating the patient-turning process, giving caregivers proper access to clean areas left unreachable when patients are on their backs.
With 25 years of experience in the field, Dr. Lee is particularly qualified to innovate within this particular space – she’s spent her career in physical medicine and rehabilitation, specifically geriatric rehabilitation. “That’s where I encountered a lot of patients who were unable to move,” she tells me.” But despite its challenges – the time and physical strain on nurses being chief among them – “it’s a very fulfilling field [in which] you get to really know your patients. The queue length for other fields is about four days, but in my field it’s closer to two weeks, and you can see the patients progressing, etc.”
The LLEEL3A team has already created one prototype and they’re working on their second, improved iteration. They credit the i.Lab with helping them understand and approach the customer side with a new perspective and are excited about the positive feedback they’ve received from the market thus far. “One nurse said ‘we need this yesterday,’” recalls Dr. Lee. That kind of validation is extremely gratifying, because for both Stronko and Lee, their first priority is to help make the (often thankless) jobs that nurses perform easier and more efficient. As a second order effect, patients sometimes also suffer under the current patient-turning parameters. “If the caregiver is not comfortable with the process, they may not turn the patient as much as they should, so the patient doesn’t get fully cleaned or get it as frequently as they should.” The Easy2Turn product that LLEEL3A is developing will clearly have a powerful impact on quality of life for both caregiver and patient, making a tough situation a bit gentler for all involved.
If he re-visited his notes from that first interaction, Stronko would undoubtedly be struck by how far they’ve come in this entrepreneurial journey, one that Dr. Lee describes as “a gift.” The opportunity has irrevocably shifted her mindset, one which used to tell her “I never thought I’d have the creativity to be an entrepreneur.” Nevertheless, these unlikely entrepreneurs are walking the walk, holding their own with any lemonade stand-starting, born-and-bred hustler. Perhaps all it takes is an inquisitive mind, a desire to help people, and a trusty engineering notebook to record the moments – both serendipitous and planned – that lend themselves to the creation of a startup.