How to Hochschule VOICES - Daniela Venegas and Philippe Vayda of Art-Glove

How to Hochschule VOICES - Daniela Venegas and Philippe Vayda of Art-Glove

00:00:00: Stephan Hanf: ​

00:00:05: Stephan Hanf: Welcome to How to Hochschule Voices. This monthly bonus feature to the main podcast features full length interviews, personal stories and a collection of conversations with people from Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kleve, Kamp-Lintfort and the entire Lower Rhine region. On today's show, we're taking an immersive journey into the realm of innovation.

00:00:37: Stephan Hanf: Join us as we chat with the minds behind Art-Glove. This episode will expand on the conversation we started in our last episode, aptly titled, How to Innovate.

00:00:52: Daniela Venegas: I'm Daniela Venegas. I am originally from Colombia. I work in the medical industry and I am part of Art-Glove team. I have been traveling a lot to different countries, and then I was thinking to do a master's in my home country. I studied industrial design. So I was looking for something that complimented that discipline.

00:01:15: Daniela Venegas: And yeah, I had some requirements. to what I wanted and as well, like to my limitations. So I knew about Germany, like as a good place to study it. But my German, it's not so developed. So I found this master that was complementing. design that was in English. So it was like quite fitting to my requirements and that's how everything happened.

00:01:42: Daniela Venegas: I apply only to this university and luckily everything worked out.

00:01:47: Philippe Vayda: How about you, Philippe? I'm Philippe Vayda. I'm 30 years old and I'm working as a UI UX developer in automotive, but I'm also CEO of the Art-Glove team. Um, well, I studied here in Munich, also something related with design and I also wanted to do a master.

00:02:06: Philippe Vayda: And I always had a picture in mind that I want to improve the HMI, the usage of products. I found this master course and I thought it was in English and I said, okay, let's give it a challenge or let's do it because I was also for one year abroad in the English speaking country. And I said, okay, that's also a good opportunity to refresh your English.

00:02:27: Philippe Vayda: And yeah, then I also applied and moved to Kamp-Lintfort.

00:02:32: Stephan Hanf: So how was your first experience in Kamp-Lintfort? What was your, your first

00:02:36: Philippe Vayda: day? Maybe I should start because you arrived a bit later. My first day in Kamp-Lintfort was actually quite nice. I looked up two flats or like two shared apartments and I had a good conversation with the landlord.

00:02:51: Philippe Vayda: He's the same age. And I loved like the location and it was super close to the university. It was just like crossing the street. And it was like all quite small to say, but neat and new. And so it was very exciting. And I was impressed that also this location on Kamp-Lintfort had the FabLab, which was like, for me, new, because I thought, okay, just like your big campuses and has like a FabLab.

00:03:18: Philippe Vayda: Daniela, How about you?

00:03:19: Stephan Hanf: First time in

00:03:20: Daniela Venegas: Germany, probably. Uh, first time in Germany, almost first time in Europe because I had been only like in Turkey before, so it's not really Europe. I didn't know anything before because I set up my accommodation and everything from Colombia. So everything I had was like Google Street, some pictures and a lot of expectations.

00:03:42: Daniela Venegas: So when I arrived, I was just very surprised to how small the town is, or the city. Sorry, but it was just like, everything was new and interesting. Could

00:03:54: Stephan Hanf: you explain what the FabLab is for people who don't know what that even means? I mean, lab, the most people probably know what the lab is, but what is special about the FabLab?

00:04:04: Philippe Vayda: So the FabLab is like, I know I'm missing it. Fabrication. Fabrication laboratory. Thank you. So FabLab is a fabrication laboratory and it's basically a open space where, um, you can build your own prototypes, your own projects and, um, It's usually related to a university. Um, but as I said, it's also, I think, usually also accessible to the public.

00:04:32: Philippe Vayda: So if you want to fulfill a project, if you want to build on something, then you can come there and use the machines. Was it

00:04:41: Stephan Hanf: part of your studies to use the FabLab or how was it structured?

00:04:45: Daniela Venegas: It was this specific class. I remember a lot because the first day I arrived and I got catched up with everything.

00:04:52: Daniela Venegas: Then I think that you just had this class in the Fab Lab. So there was one specific project that happened mainly in the Fab Lab because we needed to create something there. So it's the whole introduction to all machines, yeah, materials, everything you may need and. So we got the introduction to the FabLab in general, and also to individual machines like laser cutter, 3D printer.

00:05:21: Stephan Hanf: Yeah. So both of you took the master's course, right?

00:05:25: Philippe Vayda: Yes. Usability engineering.

00:05:27: Stephan Hanf: Like the structure, how it was in Kamp-Lintfort for the structure of the fab lab and what's the course because of this a little bit different, where you're more open and free to explore. Was it the same thing with your bachelor

00:05:38: Daniela Venegas: studies?

00:05:40: Daniela Venegas: For me, it was. Somehow similar to my bachelors, because also in my home university, we used to have this fab lab. It was not called like that, but was called more like a building space. And we also have the different areas for glass, for metal, for wood and different materials. And every semester we were introduced to a material and we needed to have a project with this material.

00:06:06: Daniela Venegas: In order to get used to different prototyping tools and machines. Yeah. I was really happy to have this space. It felt a bit like home.

00:06:17: Philippe Vayda: Yeah. Like for me, it was rather new. I would say I also started on the university of applied sciences in Munich, but like the practical or the action was like real problems or like real practical issues was in a way different.

00:06:33: Philippe Vayda: So for me, it was rather new. To use the FabLab. Before we

00:06:38: Stephan Hanf: go into the reason why we talk here in the first place, before you, you had the idea, what kind of role played innovation in your perspectives? My

00:06:45: Daniela Venegas: whole bachelor's was always a structure in a way that we have at least one big project per semester.

00:06:53: Daniela Venegas: So we had some. Problem or some need in some case, and from that, we needed to create something, of course, from the design point of view. So, I think I had always had this trigger to come up with solutions in an innovative way.

00:07:12: Philippe Vayda: Yeah, for me, it was like the innovation part, not so big, I would say I had to design maps because my bachelor's was in cartography, geomedia, I had to design maps and pictures and so on, but I had some innovation touch points, so to say, because I worked like in the automotive industry, I did like a working student internships and so on, and was like always in the development and research department of the company.

00:07:41: Philippe Vayda: Also during my bachelors, I was like a part of the Formula Student Racing Team, which are like students, they build and race cars and other universities.

00:07:53: Stephan Hanf: That's really interesting. Now about, finally about the main reason why we're here today. Please, again, can you explain how did you came up with the Art-Glove?

00:08:01: Daniela Venegas: Can I? Of course. Yeah. So I think this is my favorite part to tell. And I like to go back to, I don't know, anywhere 15 years ago or so, when my mom got diagnosed from rheumatoid arthritis. So she had a lot of pain in her hand all the time. And I was little and I used to give her hand massages. All the time, just as a nice gesture from the daughter to mother.

00:08:30: Daniela Venegas: And she was always telling me that was really relieving her from the pain. And many years after 2010, I started my industrial design bachelor's degree. And I remember we visited the university together. I got the introduction to the bachelor's and then she told me. Yeah. Now you can design something that provides me a massage as nice as you do it.

00:08:54: Daniela Venegas: And then you will become rich. I ignore her for how many years? Nine. Nine years. I remember her request. But I really never put it into execution until the day I arrived, like the next day that I arrived to Kamp-Lintfort and a colleague was catching me up. Okay. And we have this class. And for this class, we need to create something that solves or that helps with a human need.

00:09:26: Daniela Venegas: And with the Arduino. And you need to use an Arduino. And I was like, What?

00:09:32: Stephan Hanf: Yeah. Yeah. Can you explain the last part?

00:09:34: Daniela Venegas: And so I didn't know what an Arduino was. Maybe Philippe, do you want to jump in there?

00:09:39: Philippe Vayda: Basically an Arduino is just like a small computer, like a Raspberry Pi where you can program and yeah, use it for many different do it yourself projects.

00:09:50: Philippe Vayda: So yeah, it's a small computer.

00:09:53: Daniela Venegas: And this part was quite interesting, I would say, because he. Uh, my colleague told me this task and I think I was shocked for around five seconds, not too long. And then my mom hit me on my head and was like, aha, now I can do this thing she asked me so long ago. And since that day I decided I was going to do something for relieving the pain on the hands that feel as good as the massages I used to give to my mom.

00:10:25: Daniela Venegas: So.

00:10:25: Stephan Hanf: That was the first idea, right? Was it clear that it will be a glove in the beginning?

00:10:31: Daniela Venegas: No, this is part then of the whole design process. So we are encouraged and let's say the base of our masters was to use a human centered design approach to came up with a solution. So you start. From the need, so I had the need and I had an idea of what it could be a solution, but not the way of transporting this solution to the need.

00:10:56: Daniela Venegas: I don't know if that's clear. So let's say that the glove is something that came out of digging in. to the user need, the user requirements, what's in the market already, what is not working, what it is working. And from there you build up your requirements. And with these requirements, then you start building up a solution that it's iterating all the time until it becomes to, to the glove in this case.

00:11:24: Daniela Venegas: What

00:11:24: Stephan Hanf: timeframe was from the idea to, I would say the first prototype?

00:11:28: Philippe Vayda: It was like one semester, right? A bit shorter actually, because we have to present it and maybe also document it. Um, I think, but it was like almost, uh, one full semester. It flew actually by very fast because we were like, in my case, I also had an idea.

00:11:46: Philippe Vayda: We were of course facing some problems. And so did the time and also other courses we had, of course, so that the time flew by very fast, but I would say it was a bit less than one semester. Yeah, at that

00:11:59: Daniela Venegas: point, we each one of us have individual projects. It also, it took the whole semester to develop a prototype because what I mentioned before.

00:12:08: Daniela Venegas: So the prototype is the very end thing you do after going through the whole process. So of course we can, the building up of the prototype doesn't take too long. What it takes longer is to come up with a solution of what are we going to prototype actually.

00:12:26: Philippe Vayda: Yeah. To get like all these information, user needs and requirements.

00:12:29: Philippe Vayda: And that's what Daniela said. And actually at the end, you also tested. So like we also had to do some testing, which is like always part of the human centered design approach to test your prototype and improve with this feedback your product.

00:12:45: Stephan Hanf: If I understand correctly, the big challenge in the beginning was to figure out what it actually has to be, right?

00:12:51: Stephan Hanf: So the idea was clear what it is, what it has to be, and then to figure out what, what works and what doesn't work and what exists in the market and what doesn't exist in the market, right? This was like the biggest challenge in the beginning?

00:13:03: Daniela Venegas: For me, I would say the biggest challenge was to use the Arduino part because I managed, let's say, to, you follow the process.

00:13:13: Daniela Venegas: If you follow this process, let's say you, you start getting the results. It's the nice of it, but let's say I, um, I don't know if I'm jumping too much ahead, but then I was struggling a lot to actually implement all these things I found out. Because my strength is not, let's say electronics or coding and programming.

00:13:37: Daniela Venegas: So there is where I start asking for help to my classmates. And Philip jumped in to, to help me to, yeah, do the programming or the electronic part, and I was helping him with the design, the graphic design of his project. So,

00:13:57: Philippe Vayda: yeah, so we helped each other out.

00:13:59: Stephan Hanf: So after one semester, you had more or less a working prototype.

00:14:03: Stephan Hanf: Did you first tested it before you presented

00:14:05: Daniela Venegas: it? That's part of the process. So this human centered design approach, you understand the needs, you create some requirements, you understand the context of use, then you came up with a design solution, you test this design solution, and then you contrast the result of your design against the requirements you had at the very beginning.

00:14:27: Daniela Venegas: These requirements are met. And when they are not, you iterate, you improve your design and repeat. So for this assessment, you needed to build out the prototype, test it, and let's say, why draw the conclusions. And there, there was the code for the project.

00:14:46: Stephan Hanf: So how many projects were in the program?

00:14:49: Philippe Vayda: So like each student had like his own project or like his own idea to work on.

00:14:54: Philippe Vayda: And we were like in the first semester around 25 students. Well, I don't know. I don't know. Something like this. So we, yeah, we saw like all the other projects from the other students, uh, that did and everybody had his own idea. How to fulfill like this first requirement to use an Arduino and also to solve a human problem.

00:15:19: Stephan Hanf: So around 20 projects, that's quite a lot. When you came up with the decision, because I guess a lot of other students finished a project and that was probably it, right? They didn't move on with it. When did you make the decision? Okay. That's. Maybe something that's interesting to further

00:15:36: Daniela Venegas: develop.

00:15:38: Daniela Venegas: Everything developed pretty organic. I will say the day we all were presenting our findings on our final prototype and project, the teacher, Carsten Nebel, he told us there is this program, it's called the Best Idea Cup, it was organized by the Hochschule Rheinwald, you have very good ideas, I think you should present your ideas.

00:16:02: Daniela Venegas: So I think he gave like, uh, general statement to, to most of us and I look it up, check what was requested and went for it. And that

00:16:15: Stephan Hanf: probably was the first time you had a bigger audience for your product. That's probably mostly people from the

00:16:22: Philippe Vayda: university or students. You used the colleagues for testing, uh, basically, I think.

00:16:27: Philippe Vayda: Right? Yeah. And then at the competition I also supported Daniela because then we, uh, she got basically, yeah, accepted. yeah. And also, yeah. Yeah. Present the idea on this best idea cup with like our own stand. So I also joined Daniela there also for answering German speaking questions. And, uh, yeah, do you want to continue what happened on the best idea cup?

00:16:52: Daniela Venegas: Yeah. So. Uh, I apply, like at that point I was still, let's say, me and, and Art-Glove non Philly was always there, uh, supporting, but let's say we had not officially, uh, become a team. And then in the Best Idea Cup, I don't know how many applications there were at that point, but only. Oh, I think around 100.

00:17:14: Daniela Venegas: Applications, but only 11 or 10 projects were, let's say, pre selected, and then there were like three final winners. There was like a money prize, and there was also like a coaching sessions for us as a prize. And our coach was Adriana Boldisova, and in the first session, she told us of many different options that we could have for moving ahead.

00:17:39: Daniela Venegas: She recommended us that we should do this as a team. She had already seen that Filip was supporting me during the whole contest. So she was like, okay, you are making a good team. You should maybe apply together to it. And I. Yeah, I proposed to Philip if he wanted to, yeah, work on it, if he will leave it on it.

00:18:00: Daniela Venegas: And then we applied to the Gründer Stipendium and we got it. Yeah, it was quite overwhelming. I was crying when the idea was. call on stage in this very first Best Idea Cup. And it was cold. And then I was just thinking on my mom and how happy I felt to finally, let's say, return something to her. And so many people were asking and impressed and giving their cards and giving feedback and giving input.

00:18:33: Daniela Venegas: It was so overwhelming in a good way that I was like, wow, this is real. This is nice. And the, this can make a change, not only to my mom, but to 7 million people or more. 37. 37 million people, sorry.

00:18:48: Philippe Vayda: Yeah.

00:18:49: Stephan Hanf: And that was like the starting point to say, okay, let's try Stipendium.

00:18:57: Daniela Venegas: Um, we got the scholarship and this scholarship had the requirement that within six months we needed to officially register the project as a company. Can

00:19:11: Stephan Hanf: you explain what the product actually is and what it does? Like in the goal is clear, but how can you explain how it looks like and how it works more or less?

00:19:21: Stephan Hanf: Is it possible?

00:19:23: Daniela Venegas: Yeah, I think we have talked about the need, the idea, but actually not the solutions, the final or not the final, because it's always improving, but what we developed so far is a self massaging glove. I think maybe Philippe can explain a little bit more in detail.

00:19:41: Philippe Vayda: Yeah, it's a massaging glove, what Daniela said, which is fingerless and also portable.

00:19:46: Philippe Vayda: Users can enjoy a massage while they're like anywhere and anytime. And it also actively massages the joints of the hands. So for each joint of the hands, also of the fingers. We have like a individually, like a compression technology, which compresses these joints and like also on the muscles and to give it like a relief.

00:20:11: Philippe Vayda: Also, we have another system to stimulate the nerves of the hand. Basically it's yeah, a portable massaging glove for any fingerless. Their vision is to not. basically distract you from your daily tasks and, and give you like a relieving massage while doing. And also it's like also a washable glove. Stay

00:20:37: Stephan Hanf: Forever It's really impressive, but I guess there were a lot of challenges, right?

00:20:42: Stephan Hanf: Just design wise and technical wise that you had or still. trying to solve. I don't know how far you are right now, but

00:20:49: Philippe Vayda: yeah, actually, we are right now in the sixth iteration. So we built up six prototypes and we are basically building up the sixth prototype already. We started small, just like with the nerve stimulating.

00:21:02: Philippe Vayda: Then we tried out how can the massage feeling be more enhanced or like more intensive. So we came up with this compression system. Then we tried to combine both together. Then we tried to combine both in one glove. So it's like also portable. And what was the biggest challenge right now was like the compression system to make it work, to make it airtight and also yeah, usable for the user, not too big.

00:21:34: Philippe Vayda: And that was right now, I like what a 6. 0 prototype. The biggest challenge, actually,

00:21:39: Daniela Venegas: this draws back to this human centered design process. So it's when I tell you about these requirements. So when we were talking to people, we were asking them, okay, what is your idea? If you have three magic wishes. What it will be or why you don't use this product or why do you use this 1 instead?

00:22:01: Daniela Venegas: So there we started what users wants. Okay. They want a product that they can use when they are not at home. So it has to be portable or they want a product that. They don't need to put your hand over and over again because it gets sweaty. Okay, we can make it washable. That they don't need to be attached to a single place.

00:22:22: Daniela Venegas: Okay. We need that this has batteries. According to what people were telling us in different ways, there are different usability methods to find out what actually people wants and needs. When

00:22:33: Stephan Hanf: you won the contest, then it was clear for you. Okay, we. have to be a company in the next six months, was it,

00:22:39: Philippe Vayda: or half a year?

00:22:40: Philippe Vayda: By winning the Gründerstipendium Nordrhein Westfalen, then basically, yeah, we had this requirement to establish a company within six months in order to keep the scholarship running, because the scholarship was for one year. And then basically, I think it made like the switch to, okay, let's try it and let's keep going.

00:23:01: Philippe Vayda: We always have this mindset, just step by step. We are not Too much looking into the future, into the big picture, which might come up with the product. We just want to see how far we can go and to see, okay, how well we can develop the product in order to fulfill the requirements and to also, yeah, basically I have to say also to fulfill like their own.

00:23:30: Philippe Vayda: Expectation. So

00:23:31: Stephan Hanf: in German, bureaucracy was probably also a big part, right? It's always like a joke about Germany. If you want to start a company here, good luck with bureaucracy. That's like the first hurdle you have to

00:23:42: Daniela Venegas: take. Yeah. And imagine if you are foreign.

00:23:46: Philippe Vayda: Exactly. Yeah. I had to help Daniela with a lot of.

00:23:50: Philippe Vayda: I like also actually I think getting the Gründerstipendium. I think that was quite easy to get this Gründerstipendium when you're foreign, but then establishing the company is like a thing where you have to go many times to the Ausländerbehörde to ask people, like the officers there. They sometimes don't know, so they have to inform themselves because it's a bit unique, so to say.

00:24:12: Philippe Vayda: Depends, of course, where you are in Germany, but yeah. It was a big hurdle also for other scholarships. But you kept going,

00:24:22: Stephan Hanf: so it didn't block off your way to company.

00:24:25: Philippe Vayda: Because I was helping her and basically doing all the communication and so on. It took me some nights where I couldn't sleep or like some, some arguments and some annoying times with the officers.

00:24:38: Philippe Vayda: But yeah, there's like also the passion and the belief in the project that this can be really helpful for people, for so many people. And yeah, it, it kept me like at least me motivating to, even with this big hurdles to continue.

00:24:54: Stephan Hanf: And you both studied at the same time, right? Doing this phase. So how was it?

00:24:59: Stephan Hanf: Did you have any time for anything else besides both projects or? No, really probably,

00:25:04: Daniela Venegas: right? So I think the main strategy was that we managed to merge this project into our studies. So we use it as I use case for. Different tasks that we were having, so we also have a class where we also needed to work on a project and we needed to do the whole development.

00:25:28: Daniela Venegas: It was also from, yeah, like a full. Project from beginning to end. At that point, we talked to him, uh, Philip didn't need to do that class because he had it homologated actually. And he did it anyway, because I talked with the professor to see if we could use our glove as a case of studies. And then he knew already about this project because of the contest we had won before.

00:25:53: Daniela Venegas: And he was like really motivated to help us and to incentivate us to keep working on it. So it was really. nice because we improved our product. We did two more iterations during this course. And of course we also got a great result academically.

00:26:11: Daniela Venegas: Yeah,

00:26:11: Philippe Vayda: we got the credits, we could use it for the classes, as Daniela said, and we could also even write our master's thesis about Art-Glove with the same professor, with Professor Essig.

00:26:21: Philippe Vayda: And together, both of us, it was a good way to improve the prototype, to continue with the master's thesis. We actually built up two prototypes and tested it and validated it and improved it. So, um, it was luckily very good ways that we could. integrate art love, like our own projects into the study. And yeah, thanks again to all the professors who let us do this.

00:26:49: Philippe Vayda: Is it

00:26:49: Stephan Hanf: patent pending or because it's also a big issue as far

00:26:53: Philippe Vayda: as I know. Already on this best idea cup after the ceremony, after Daniela won the prize, we were like on our stand and many people approached us, many visitors also from companies and industries. And this question came so often up, do we have a patent on it or not?

00:27:15: Philippe Vayda: Like how is the status there? And so on. And yeah, basically then we decided to do the patenting of Art-Glove. And actually, yeah, it's also continuing with the patents. For that, we have another scholarship, which is called the Vipano. So you get half of the patent costs back from the government. And we actually just applied the worldwide patents.

00:27:40: Philippe Vayda: Just a few weeks ago. And before that, we applied also the German patent.

00:27:47: Stephan Hanf: And it's, I think both innovation. It's always like a big thing, how to secure your

00:27:53: Philippe Vayda: innovation. I'm exciting how much this patent will. Push ups or bring us or help us in that way, because they're like these people, they're saying, okay, you need to patent it.

00:28:06: Philippe Vayda: It's very important and urgent and so on. But there are also other people that are saying every patent, almost every patent, you can find a way around. Some big companies, they make so much revenue, so much profit, they don't care if they hurt your patent or use your idea. Then they pay you or they pay lawyers and so on.

00:28:24: Philippe Vayda: So this is like also something which startups in general, I think, struggle maybe to decide, okay, is a patent worth it or not, but yeah, we will see. We don't know yet. So you're

00:28:38: Stephan Hanf: in a process of finding out if it's worth it or

00:28:41: Philippe Vayda: not. Exactly. Yeah. We will know in the future. Hopefully. I find

00:28:46: Stephan Hanf: it really fascinating that you really push through it because probably you had other school projects.

00:28:51: Stephan Hanf: Sometimes you say that, ah, no, it's done because after your studies, you said, okay, we, we really probably the Gunnerstipendium was over. So you could have said it was a good run, learned a lot. But maybe that's it, but you still keep on going. So what happened after you graduated?

00:29:07: Daniela Venegas: I think here was really important that mainly Philippe, he wanted to keep going.

00:29:13: Daniela Venegas: I think he was always looking for these new programs and new options to enroll the project. So we got into. other programs, right? So let's say this is a race that is never ending. Accelerator programs. Yeah. Yeah. I think at this point, it's a really, I would like to, uh, make, uh, a note to Philipp that he has been the one who say, okay, let's keep working on it.

00:29:40: Philippe Vayda: Yeah. Like from my side, I have had some internships before on big companies. And I also, after graduating from the university, I had an internship in, uh, uh, automotive industry. And it was usability related. So it was like related to our study. And I got so disappointed by this internship. I was like almost quitting the internship because it was a very big company.

00:30:10: Philippe Vayda: So like the processes they take for ages and it's, it was like, yeah, just feeling that you are just a little part in a big. Company in a big pool. And this made me like really think, okay, we have a good idea. I'm passionate about it. I think this idea can succeed. So why not continuing and be your own boss basically to decide what you wanna do or not.

00:30:36: Philippe Vayda: And to have a bit of flexibility, but to establish or to make something great was like the, the motivation. And so we continued. I convinced Daniela to continue as well.

00:30:50: Stephan Hanf: So your end goal is a consumer product, right? You don't want to have a product for the medical field, like in, I don't know, clinics. Your end goal is actually that I can buy it on the shelf in a supermarket?

00:31:02: Stephan Hanf: Or what is your goal with Art-Glove

00:31:03: Philippe Vayda: right now? Actually, the big vision is yes, to have it like medically certified, however, there are different approaches. It will depend actually what the next test will show. There are some companies, they already approached us to make a cooperation. And yeah, if we do it on our own, probably it would be easier to have it as a wellness product.

00:31:29: Philippe Vayda: So for everybody available. So to, to get like some revenue already in a very early stage and then to with that revenue or income to probably do it as a medical product to do all the big hurdles for medical product or a certified product. We are also lucky to test Art-Glove with our master thesis, like the last prototype, in a hospital.

00:31:53: Philippe Vayda: So we really had there the first contact to a medicine house, so to say, so to a hospital. But it's, that has to be also built up or figured out in the team, which way is the best.

00:32:08: Stephan Hanf: There seems to be always like crossroads. How do you want to go next? What do you want to do next? Is, do you think that's something that will ever end?

00:32:17: Philippe Vayda: We have so many ideas also with Daniela to bring out other products, to improve the products with an app, with some additions. Yeah. We don't know if how much will come up, how much new innovations will bring this. I

00:32:34: Daniela Venegas: think that's a very interesting question because it can motivate you, but it can also be discouraging because you know when you start, but you don't know where it ends.

00:32:44: Daniela Venegas: And it's all the time applying to a new project or looking for a new opportunity or thinking what is coming next. Oh, what if this doesn't work? Then what do we do? The idea is good. We believe on it, but executing this idea is the real challenge. How would you keep going? And how you keep going in the right direction and when does it end, if it does at all, right?

00:33:09: Daniela Venegas: Because as Philippe just mentioned, there are so many more ideas building up all the time. And all the time you get new feedback, new input, not only for the product itself, but from different programs or clinics or companies interested. So it be again. overwhelming and I don't know how you do it, Philip, to ground and let's say, okay, this is the next step now and focus on it and block everything else to be able to continue.

00:33:42: Daniela Venegas: Yeah. It's

00:33:43: Philippe Vayda: just like step by step. Yeah. As Daniela said, we have so much insights, but this doesn't help too much if you don't sort everything and if you don't focus on the next steps. So just think little and yeah, do the next steps and not get overwhelmed by all the impressions, all the inputs you actually receive.

00:34:05: Philippe Vayda: I find it really

00:34:06: Stephan Hanf: great. That's a great way to view it.

00:34:09: Philippe Vayda: Yeah, of course. Like many people have asked us, okay, how will we produce it? Will we produce it cheaper in abroad and so on. But yeah, we try to, actually it works quite well. We try to do it step by step. And see how the next steps will go. Looking

00:34:30: Stephan Hanf: back, what was the one thing you learned about innovation from starting in Kamp Limpfort until now?

00:34:36: Stephan Hanf: What was like the one lesson takeaway you have about

00:34:40: Daniela Venegas: innovation? For me, it will be that the solutions are close to us, uh, more than we think. And I will elaborate a little bit there. It's like what inspired me to this project was my mom and she was always there. And I just needed to look at her and ask her and then of course, a lot of work came out of that, but it didn't need to be anything crazy or anything extravagant.

00:35:10: Daniela Venegas: And sometimes the smaller and more simple things are the ones that can make a bigger impact.

00:35:16: Philippe Vayda: Yeah, if you have gotten feedback that people really would need such a product and you have like proof of that, then just keep going. Don't give up. There are hard times. Yes. But if you have the market, if you have the users, they are waiting for this, then it's worth the effort.

00:35:37: Philippe Vayda: And it's basically, it's the biggest motivation to continue and. To, yeah, to believe on your own idea and keep going. Yeah. Perfect. Because you said if you want to add something. Yeah, of course. I would like to thank all to the professors, uh, of our master study ability engineering. Also big thank to Adriana, who was our coach during that time, who Yeah.

00:36:04: Philippe Vayda: Helped us and motivated us, and of course, to all the. Uh, support we got from physiotherapists, from patients, from family and friends and all the network. And yeah, we are continuing the story of art love. We are always looking for supporters like patients or like doctors who, yeah, who support us, who give like their knowledge, their expertise.

00:36:30: Philippe Vayda: And yeah, that's what I wanted to say.

00:36:34: Daniela Venegas: And you just forgot to thank to the most important person, to my mom, to inspire all these project and beautiful idea. And of course, thanks to you to having us today.

00:36:57: Stephan Hanf: Thank you very much for listening. We appreciate any feedback and are always open to suggestions for improvement. You can reach us directly at podcast@hsrw.Eu in the show notes, you will find links and more information about today's topics and guests. My name is Stefan Hanf. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

00:37:17: Stephan Hanf: Tschüss!