Brian Nestor might be semiretired but that doesn’t mean he’s given up on his biggest dream – to sell his invention to help the disabled. He developed the StandMaster 20 years ago and made about 100 of the devices for people with spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders back then, when he was operating Nestor Machine Co. in Agoura Hills. Now, with more time on his hands, he’s looking for investors to help finance resumed production of the invention, which he believes can improve the quality of life for those who would otherwise spend their entire day in a wheelchair. But there are administrative as well as financial hurdles holding things back with the StandMaster, which is a portable platform that holds a paraplegic’s body in an upright position. While Nestor has a patent for his invention, it faces a bumpy road ahead. First, it needs approval from the Food & Drug Administration, which oversees medical devices. FDA approval is necessary for an insurance company to pick up even a partial cost of the device. Also, the market for the devices is small and Nestor admits that marketing and sales are not his strong point. “We are not business people, we are mechanical people,” he said. Competition comes from companies that have standing platforms on the market for decades and already have global distribution networks. Prime Engineering in Fresno, for example, has made platforms for both adults and children since the 1980s, while Altimate Medical, in Morton, Minn., has done the same since 1989. Nestor’s stand will be for adults only. Kyle Smith, marketing manager for Altimate and its EasyStand devices, said that adults with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries and neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis will use standing platforms. There are a wider range of children using the devices, with the largest being those with cerebral palsy. The EasyStand is also used by children who are able to walk but cannot do so for long periods of time and when they do must use a walker. “Kids will use a stander to stretch muscles and maintain range of motion of the joints so when they use a walker their gait will improve,” Smith said. Huge barrier A huge barrier to entry is putting together the necessary documentation and testing, Smith said. “It is costly to do third-party medical device testing,” he said. Nestor did give premarket notification on his device to the FDA, which subsequently gave the OK for him to bring the product to market. A neurology review panel gave it a designation of being substantially equivalent to other standing platforms that had gone through the same process. The FDA has not formally approved Nestor’s standing platform. A patent was issued to Nestor and co-inventor Hans Evertse in 1996 for their portable mobile stand. It has braces at the knees and waist to support weight, and a chest pad for stability. Hand wheels are attached to a chain drive allowing the device to move on smooth surfaces much like a wheelchair. The StandMaster can fold up and fit into the trunk of a car. Nestor believes its light weight and the ability to go from one location to another separates it from the competition and fits with the Southern California car culture and lifestyle. “You can take it to the park or take it to the mall and be standing up,” the 74-year-old said. “You are eye to eye with people instead of sitting down.” Nestor had come up with his idea for a mobile standing platform when he was working for Everest & Jennings, a manufacturer of wheelchairs that had operations in Camarillo before going out of business. The experience inspired him to create a device to help people in wheelchairs stand upright rather than constantly sitting. After starting his own machine shop, Nestor worked for the big aerospace companies – Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Skunk Works in Burbank and Rockwell International when it owned rocket engine developer Rocketdyne in Canoga Park. He still owns the company, but when the end of the Cold War brought a decline in business, he revisited the idea of the standing platform. Nestor and his business partner laid out what the device would look like and went through several prototypes that were tested by a paraplegic. “He liked it so much that he wanted to buy one right then,” Nestor said. The StandMaster measures 41 inches tall, weighs 37 pounds and comes with a writing table, pouches for holding items and even a cup holder. It is available in four colors and takes about six months to build from scratch at a cost of about $800. The retail price for the StandMaster is $2,300. Nestor originally had 100 of the platforms made using a factory in Mexico to build the frames and bringing those back to the Conejo Valley for additional machining, welding and final assembly. But the Mexican manufacturer went out of business, leaving Nestor without a reliable partner. He recently found a Burbank company willing to do the same work that had been done in Mexico. Resuming production But without financing, Nestor said he remains stuck in first gear. He estimates he would need between $300,000 and $500,000 to get production started again. He has taken part in “Shark Tank”-style pitch meetings in Irvine and Huntington Beach, where investors liked his invention but not enough to invest in it. An area computer repair shop has placed a StandMaster in its window as a way to promote the device, Nestor said. He has also appeared with it at an international trade show in Atlanta, where attendees from Europe and Asia expressed interest in being dealers and distributors if the device were ever produced in large numbers. Marcus Filipovich, a member of the Pasadena Angels group and a business strategy adviser, said that investors hesitant about putting money into early stage medical device companies can be scared off by lengthy regulatory approval processes and product liability issues. The key is to find investors educated about those issues, Filipovich explained. “Angel groups have become more knowledgeable and I have seen more sophisticated biotech deals being done,” he said. For now, Nestor still has a small inventory of devices from the original production run of 100. He did not provide a time line of when he expects production to resume, citing the need for financing. Filipovich advised that he should be prepared to answer the questions a potential investor would ask of a medical device entrepreneur, which include how the device addresses a compelling problem, the market size and how the device represents an improvement over what’s already available. Also, investors with a background in working for medical device manufacturers or a pharmaceutical company will tend to be more receptive to the deal because of their detailed knowledge about the industry, Filipovich said. “They are also going to have high standards for investing,” he said. “They will know the right questions to ask.”
Device Sets Disabled Up
