Interview with Dr. Josh Sigsworth, PT, DPT, Founder & CEO of StairAssist Walker
Tell Us About Your Journey
2009 at Baylor University Medical Center when I was a student. I was a young doctor, a physical therapy student, very excited to treat all these different patients on an orthopedic floor, lots of leg fractures, hip and knee replacements, and a lot of them struggled with stairs. And I asked them, how do we get them up and down the stairs if like they have a broken leg? And their solutions weren’t anything that I thought was very good. Like we just have them go up and down up on their bottom or try to scoot up and down the stairs. And I saw that for years and I just wanted a better way because so many people were trapped inside of their homes or couldn’t get out to see their family or couldn’t even be discharged from the hospital. And this is why I was like, all right, something’s gotta, this, there’s gotta be a better way.
What Is the History of StairAssist Walker?
The history of StairAssist Walker started 9 years ago. This is where I saw again, hundreds, if not thousands of patients where I could not help them get in and out of their homes. I was primarily a home care physical therapist, but I did do work in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. But this really was born out of being in home health where there were patients who were discharged from the hospital and and they had broken legs or some sort of disease process, whether it’s cancer, congestive heart failure, and they just couldn’t do stairs to get out, to go back to their doctor’s appointments or go to weddings or funerals or any sort of family event. And this is why I sought out to create StairAssist Walker. I wanted it to be the first medical equipment for both walking and stairs. Because right now in rehabilitation medicine, we don’t have durable medical equipment that’s specifically made for stairs for some of our most debilitated patients.
What Motivates You?
My patients motivated me. Every day I would encounter some, somebody who had some sort of difficulty with stairs, or they were talking about a loved one that had difficulty, and I just saw every day as a physical therapist and this ranged from 12-year-old cancer patients falling down the stairs to 20-year-old motor vehicle accidents that were stuck in their basement for a month to 95-year-old congestive heart failure patients where the daughter who was 70 or 72 had to pick up her father’s foot every single step just to get into, like, a second floor bedroom. So yeah, I would definitely say my patients motivated me more than anything.
What Challenges Have You Faced?
The challenges with creating a medical device and being an entrepreneur and doing this kind of for the first time, like I never had any, I didn’t have any experience with building a company, building a full medical device, and creating a team, figuring out all the different layers of a business. Whether it’s legal, financial, engineering, marketing, and being able to keep everybody moving in the same direction. And then there’s raising money. You have to raise money. You have to pay for all this stuff. So raising money is always challenging. So I had an Excel spreadsheet of 185 people that I thought could potentially invest money into my company. And I got 180 nos. Wow. Before I got 5 yeses. So yeah, it’s all kind of challenging, ’cause I’m also, you know, I have a family, you know, I’ve worked from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM as a physical therapist, and then from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, I was with my kids and my wife, and then from 9:00 PM to midnight, I worked on StairAssist Walker for 7 years.
What Advice Can You Offer to Other Entrepreneurs?
Don’t give up. Never give up. Because it’s kind of a funny thing. Like, I was watching this Diary of a CEO interview with Seth Rogen, which is kind of a, he’s a very funny guy and director and everything. And he had this saying that I kind of kept in my head. It’s like, he’s like, “If you quit, you definitely won’t make it. If you don’t, you have a chance.” Or it’s something along those lines where it’s like, just don’t quit. Like if you really believe in your idea and it’s going to be helping people, that’s one of the big things too, is that if you’re going to be helping people and you really believe in it, there’s going to be all sorts of naysayers that are like, this is not a good idea. You’re not a company. You know, you’ve never done this before. And that’s okay. You know, just keep going for it. Never give up. And build a team, you know, build like a team where you’re all marching in the same direction. And get A-players too. Like, I surrounded myself with A-players. It’s so much easier to work with people that are at the top of their game. So then you cut down that time that it takes. So yeah, just keep going.
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Where Do You See StairAssist Walker in 3-5 Years?
I see StairAssist Walker being a leader in rehabilitation medicine durable medical equipment. Because right now we, we don’t have durable medical equipment for both stairs and walking that is effective and safe for people to use. So right now I see us international, because this isn’t just a United States problem, this is a global problem where a third of all aging adults, which is 65 and older, they live a sedentary life because they can’t perform stairs. So they don’t leave their home as much and they don’t interact with their family. And in the United States, that’s 22 million, and in the globe, that’s 276 million. So I see us being a global— having a global impact where we’re going to help out a lot of different countries that have this problem because it’s not being solved.
What Value Has Gesmer Updegrove Provided to StairAssist Walker?
Gesmer has provided significant value. Between Steve, John, and Dallas, all the different resources that I’ve spoke with at Gesmer, I was able to connect with my go-to-market guy, Mike Schumann, who has been integral in my success. And then from Mike, I got a fractional CFO, and then from that, I also got a fractional CMO. And then with Steve and John, especially, When I was raising money, like, I would call them and be like, “What do you think I should do?” And they were integral in my ability to raise the second round of funding to keep this business going.
Why Go With Gesmer?
I go with Gesmer because they’re very professional, they’re easy to talk to, and I’ve gotten such good advice from them that I recommend other people go with Gesmer because If you want to bring your company from here to here, I would just contact Gesmer and with what you’re dealing with that’s challenging, and they’re going to have some solutions for you that are going to be high quality.
