Jeff Weber spotted a design rarity: The market opportunity is massive, and the products out there are terrible.
When Jeff Weber suffered an injury to his left foot five years ago, he was given a set of standard crutches from the hospital. But the crutches were uncomfortable and seemed to only add ergonomic insult to the original injury: Weber's hands chaffed and his wrists ached because of poorly designed, badly placed grips. “All in all, it was a pretty awful experience,” he recalls.
Weber is a seating designer by trade, and apprenticed to Bill Stumpf, a legendary pioneer of ergonomic design and co-creator of the famed Aeron chair for Herman Miller; later, the two created the Aeron's heir, the Embody. It's no surprise that Weber set his sights on crutches, which account for $320 million annual sales on 10 million units in the U.S. alone.
The real news comes in the last paragraph, though:
Weber figures that by capturing just a tiny fraction of the market, he can quickly create a company doing $10,000,000 a year in revenue. And armed with $800,000 in angel investments, Weber plans to turn his new company, Mobi, into a full-on mobility startup: Look for a cane, walker, and wheelchair under the Mobi brand later this year.
We'll keep our eyes open.