#107 - David Hojah, Co-Founder Loro - How to turn technology into something that becomes your best companion?

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to unlock the potential of people with physical challenges and enable them to be active in society. My guest is David Hojah, President, co-founder, and CTO of Loro

His background is in medical devices, engineering, and healthcare innovation. He is passionate about empowering people with physical challenges to live independently and making a great social impact.

David has invented and developed many medical devices, such as adjustable dental instruments, wheelchairs that convert into a walker, a medical drone for emergencies, and a medical app tracking health for people with chronic diseases. He also built an autonomous personal transporter for wheelchair users that can convert any manual wheelchair into an electric wheelchair.

Loro is David's third company. He has received awards, nominations, and news coverage from organizations including MIT, Harvard University, MIT Hacking Medicine, ALSA, Harvard Innovation Lab, Fit4Start in Luxembourg, Microsoft Imagine Cup, and TechCrunch.

Loro is an AI-powered smart, personalized companion for wheelchair users to navigate safely and to communicate efficiently. A person with physical challenges can’t interact with the world the same way as the able, but there’s no reason we can’t use tech to close that gap.

That inspired me, and hence I invited David to my podcast. We explore the challenges of creating solutions that are life-changing – what mindset do you need, what’s the secret sauce to such approach, how do you make critical decisions, how to make tangible progress, and create something remarkable.

Here are some of his quotes:

I got inspired by Stephen Hawking. He inspired me both personally and professionally. I do believe there are many people like Stephen Hawking out there. They're just missing accessible technology to be the next Hawking. To be the next engineer, designer, whatever they want to be.

They're brilliant, they're intelligent, they're very, very smart, but the only problem: they're stuck in their body, they cannot move their body, they cannot talk. Their mind is like, with the whole universe, they can do many things. The only challenge is; if we unlock their potential, so they can talk, they can communicate first, then they can do many things with their ability.

Then we can move on to another level: How to make them more independent. How to make them more engaged and help them to be employed.

We want those people to be active in society. To be engaged. To do more, not just for them, but for everyone.

During this interview, you will learn three things:

1. That there’s no lack of good ideas – what separates you in doing something remarkable is in turning these ideas into solutions that matter.
2. Why it’s critical to get crystal clear on the real problem and what its value proposition is. If you don’t get this right, you won’t survive for long.
3. How to remove bias – ways to seek the truth – finding out what’s right and what’s wrong. Doing your homework here paves the path for your success.