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The Young and the Restless: Pittsburgh's Innovators Cut Across Industry Lines, Blur Passion with Business
12.01.02
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it," according to Astro Teller, CEO of BodyMedia, a Downtown outfit that researches, manufactures and sells wearable body monitors.
The BodyMedia monitor, called SenseWear, is a lightweight sensor that slides onto a person's upper arm in a very unobtrusive way. It generates ongoing measurements of a myriad of body functions and applications.
"Nobody knows what people are doing with their body all the time," Teller says, "but think of the benefits if we did. This is closely related to behavior modification. The impact on weight management—potentially huge, only because today there's no way to measure the relevant behaviors and body states."
Rehabilitation, geriatric care, assisted living, disease management, sports performance and fitness all could make great use of the BodyMedia monitor, as well. The firm is poised for explosive growth, but Teller may be as surprised as anyone to find himself the head of the company.
"What did I want to do? I only started to think about that while I was earning my doctorate," he sas. "I could have been a professor, or written a novel. Then I found this group of people who knew something nobody else knew about wearable body monitors. The four of us got along professionally and personally and decided to found BodyMedia together."
From that four-person beginning, BodyMedia now employs 20 and has a strong partnership with UPMC. The future looks bright, and Teller explains why.
"There's no point cooking a bad steak really well," he says, meaning that BodyMedia has spent enough time choosing good initial ingredients such as employees, product offerings and target markets so that it's worth all the subsequent effort. "Persistence, integrity and passion are the dieas that spell success."
Copyright © 2006 Astro Teller. All rights reserved.