The Pransky interview: Russ Angold, Co-Founder and President of Ekso™ Labs

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to present a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experiences of a prominent robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market. Design/methodology/approach – The interviewee is Russ Angold, Co-Founder and President of Ekso™ Labs. Mr Angold has a bachelor’s degree in BioResource and Agricultural Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is a California-registered Professional Mechanical Engineer and has two granted patents and another seven pending. Findings – In 2004, two weeks after Mr Angold was hired by a former colleague to work on exoskeletons (Exos) at the University of California, Berkeley, one of Mr Angold’s six brothers has an accident that leaves him as an incomplete quadriplegic. This is the catalyst that eventually leads him and the company to design and create robotic Exos for medical applications in addition to military applications. Originality/value – Russ Angold, via a personal tragedy, becomes a bionic entrepreneur who provides many of the concepts that shape the current inventions and intellectual property of Ekso Bionics, a pioneer in the field of robotic Exos. Ekso was selected as WIRED magazine’s number two “Most Significant Gadget of 2010”, was included in Time magazine’s “50 Best Innovations of 2010” and was also featured in Inc. Magazine as one of the “5 Big Ideas for the Next 15 Years”. Ekso is listed on the US over-the-counter QB securities.