Courtney Williamson is the Founder and CEO of AbiliLife, a company dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with Parkinson's. Courtney tells us more about the inspiration to start AbilLife and scaling it over the last few years. Courtney also talks about specific ways to bridge the digital divide and get more people engaged into tech and provided the opportunity to pursue careers in tech and tech-related fields.
Transcription:
Everybody, I am going to guarantee you an awesome time today because we are talking to Courtney Williamson from Bill. I've known Courtney for a long time and watching her grow, I think is one of Pittsburgh's most awesome companies. And I think she's gonna Pittsburgh's most awesome entrepreneurs, and just all around good people as far as that goes. And of course, I'm Jonathan Kersting, here hanging out with Comcast to view our summer of 50 PGH tech stories. When I was putting this whole series together, I knew I had to talk to Courtney, because she's just so smart on so many levels. Every time I talk to her, she kind of blows my mind, and like a new in an important ways. So Courtney, thanks for hanging out with me today. I'm just so pumped to talk to you so glad you're here with me.
Thank you so much. That was an amazing introduction. And I try my best I try my best to do it.
Very cool. Very cool. So hopefully we don't hear too much of the gardener outside of my house right now who's doing some nice tree trimming or something because that's the joys of working from home and using zoom and everything like that. Zoom in. treating you pretty good. I have a neighbor with two huge dogs that just like roam her backyard here and their dogs in my house. So I've gotten used to that like lovely, you know, tone of a huge barking every time a squirrel walks by. Yeah, I mean I think for me I'm I'm, I'm a millennial. So technology is like, a love language for millennials bang. pumped. I have to say it's been it's been pretty seamless, I think moving from being in an office to now I think going on four or five months of not being enough.
Exactly. We're gonna say that. It's like what?
It's our new norm. I mean, it's gonna be like this for a while, at least another year, I
think Yeah, I trust your suspicion. I trust your suspicions.
A vaccine or something like that, right? Whereas I don't know,
I yeah, at this point, I just keep my mask on I, that's, that's really your washing my hands. You know, and just being mindful of that, but yeah, and not not going places that give me unnecessary potential exposure. You're also treating myself like I might have it and I might give it to somebody just to help me to remember, you know, the importance of you know, wearing a mask, washing your hands, getting in and out of places and just being a little more cautious than we normally are.
That's, that's some good advice. And I'm glad to keep reiterating that because we should all be thinking that way. I agree. 100% 100%. So before we start a conversation on people, you know, your background, you've got a really cool background, and the company you build is pretty amazing, because it was inspired by your mother. You're helping so many people right now, and I just think it's so cool. So give us a little background on that.
Sure. So again, Courtney Williamson I'm the founder and CEO. We're below life. We are based in Pittsburgh, in the north side neighborhood, and we are a medical device company. And what we do is create products to improve quality of life and posture for Parkinson's disease patients and patients that have postural instability. So what happened to me was that my mom had Parkinson's disease for 25 years. And before she passed away, one of the things that was very difficult for her was her posture. She was constantly like, stooped over and hunched over to the point where sometimes her face would be like in her lap, just disease and I didn't know that I just I got I just kind of thought it was like something that was maybe idiosyncratic to her. But I did a lot of research and found that 70 to 90% of the 10 million Parkinson's patients worldwide have this problem. And then when you start to look at people with osteoporosis and spinal stenosis, and typhus is like, our backhaul. Our spine health is so important. And there are a lot of diseases that unfortunately attack that. So at the time I was at Carnegie Mellon studying with to get a PhD in organizational behavior in theory, which I really, really loved and was preparing to be a business school professor. But yeah, see thought. Right.
Right, exactly. She had this big problem. And so at the time was like, Well, you know, Carnegie Mellon has so many engineers that maybe I can find an engineer to help me create something for her. I hooked up with Project Olympus, which is Carnegie Mellon's sort of startup incubator. Basically, it's a program where if your student faculty or staff, you can go to them and say, I have this really cool idea. I think it might be a company. Can you help me get started at the time? I just wanted to go there to find out how I can get linked up with engineers.
Right? Okay. Like I need an engineer. you point me that?
Yeah, I had no idea that it was a company but as a prerequisite they made me do it. A one or two pager about what this market could be. And then that's when I started realizing that it wasn't just her. So the first thing I did was called the National Parkinson's foundation. And they were like, Well, we know what this problem is, but we don't have any solution to offer you. So then that's when I was like, Okay, I really do think I need to create something, if not for just just for my mom. And what happened was, this is like in 2013, and worked it on it and it's nearly every day, just little by little, I did get linked up with an engineering team. And I just kept on saying, you know what, at any moment, this could be something that's disapproved or like, you know, your This isn't some right.
Yeah, something's already out there. I was always constantly looking for this product. I didn't even really know what it was but like something to help us solution, right? Or maybe I was looking for a neurologist to tell me this is a dumb idea or it's not scientifically sound or a physical therapist and the contractor Every time I would talk to a PT or a primary care physician or someone they would say like not only do I think this is a good idea, but I want to use it for other patients. Wow.
I like validated along the way back down the book saying no, this is actually pretty cool coordinate right. And so I ended up long story short, founding the company in 2014. I was a part of alpha lab gear, which is an amazing accelerator and local accelerators that at the time, I think they were like the only hardware accelerator in the nation and made like huge strides because making things physical things it's very hard as our nation is learning the hard way. Pull out pull, you know, ventilators you know, out of the back of your pocket like someone has to make them in order for somebody to make them you have to have an assembly line setup and in procedures and pains all that kind of fun stuff.
Apparently America did not have and that's why we have a big panic in the beginning of You know last quarter so yeah so so I ended up building the calibration plus back brace which is patented with a pulley tensioning system that really lifts your shoulders up and back and gives you support across your entire torso. So we're we are reimbursed by Medicare and private insurance are selling nationwide are starting to look into how to sell internationally which is you know, can of worms but you'll figure it out. Do you always figure it out?
Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing like that's the biggest thing about this season that we're all in now is that you have to figure it out. Once the rubber hits the road. You just have to go and so for me, it was like that passion for wanting to help my mom and people like her and so I have no background in hardware startups, entrepreneurship medical device, oh my God at all, but I had to teach myself and learn along the way to make sure that You know I was building a quality product.
That's why I think your story is so cool because you were inspired by this thing and you found solutions along the way and you're all back with data and I just I just think it's so awesome and I'm just never to my talk to you always tell me something new and exciting is happening you making progress and even despite all the crazy COVID pandemic stuff is still making progress which I just love. Cool. So cool. Such good work here only in Pittsburgh, he can link these things together so you get to see them you and I Pittsburgh is is really an interesting ecosystem. I travel all around the nation or I used to before you know, we kind of get shut down and I've met so many different people and is incredibly unique and just the the talent and the people that you can bring together to make something happen. And I think that's why a lot of companies are starting to look towards Pittsburgh to great offices and even to bring some of our talent to Their facilities because they know that you're not going to just get somebody who thinks one way that person most likely will have been exposed to and maybe even led processes and projects that touch on, you know, many, many disciplines and so I think that just makes for a very robust and diverse thinking. And then at the end of the day, it just helps you make a better product and then your customers happy which is essentially what business is about.
Very cool stuff. Very cool. So switching gears a little bit part of the whole reason why we are doing our our summer of 50 Pittsburgh tech stories with Comcast is because you as as and this has been something it's been apparent for a long time that many of us have not had our eyes fully open to just how big of an issue this is. Is it COVID really brought to mind the fact that there's that the digital divide is not getting any closer in this day and age and we just seen how wide it isn't we're seeing so many folks being left behind with with technology right now and became apparent. We So many Pittsburgh public school students that just didn't have the laptops and the equipment. So they continue to learn. And we were freaking out. And we actually threw a bunch of weird connections, we ended up working with neighborhood allies help raise a bunch of money to help get some of these laptops over. But it's just it's this much in a thing that's this big. And so we're trying and so I know that you've got some great insight on ways that we could just really make a bigger impact not just in Pittsburgh, but I think around the world, because we're seeing this everywhere. So just kind of throw it out there for your court and help us solve this problem. We need your brains on.
I think so if you if you actually I don't have the statistic. But I know that adult illiteracy is a large problem here in America, which means basically that you're an adult but you do not know how to read or your reading comprehension is not where it should be. Should be Right, right.
And I actually at Carnegie Mellon, my minor was education. So I learned a lot In a group that I was a part of education group that I was a part of about adult literacy, and how happens and why it happens, right? And how these people are absolutely brilliant because what they've done is they've managed to work throughout their adult lives without being able to read, but they compensate and use other tools and techniques. Wow. But the problem is they still don't know how to read, right? And so when you have a child, and you are an illiterate adult, and your child comes to you with homework help meeting homework out, you really can't be of help. Exactly. We have households where both parents, one parent or guardian is literate, and it's quite easy to help and then you have households where that's just not the case. I think we're seeing that with with the digital divide. Okay, I think there's a digital illiteracy that's rampant in our society, particularly when you think of poor and or minority communities. a point where the cash is not there to to get the latest and greatest technology. I mean, if you look at an iPhone, the second you buy an iPhone, two days later, they have another version it feels like right. And so it's just like, and it's this constant consumption society that we're in. And so it's it's overwhelming to feel like, I can't afford us an $800 iPhone, so I can't have one right, like, right. So what happens is you're missing, you're missing the ability to normalize going on a web browser, and typing in a URL and getting to a location really cripples that literally right? Yeah, correct. So there's a digital illiteracy divide. What is a website? What is the URL? How do you how do you search for something, right? So when you look at the problem that we're facing now is that you know, obviously, schools were shut down. And so everyone's like, well just get online. But for me, it's just it's not that simple. What Getting online mean, right. And in the tricky part about it is that most of the adults in America have experienced some sort of web interface. Even if they don't own device, they've experienced something that was web or app related. But it doesn't mean that they're literate. It doesn't mean that they can leave their child through a class online. Right. So I think that that's like one problem is like this assumption that everybody has access. And that's coming from a very, like privileged perspective. In terms of helping, I mean, I think it's very clear that the government has money because if they didn't, then there would be no way that they could be giving PvP loans to the Lakers, right?
Yes, exactly.
Oh, we clearly have access to funds.
Right, diverting some of those funds to students, if you're going to make them learning this hybrid or whatever we're going to do for the fall, and giving some of those funds. I think it has to start from the top. Unfortunately, there's so much of a divide right now that it's so difficult to get anything passed in legislation. But I think that one of the things that I am I'm saddened by but also happy that it's happening is seeing how just how abused our education system has been, and how truly defunded and underfunded it has been for Becky. And now it's coming and it's just falling in our laps. And it is scary and sad because the people who are truly the victims are the children and the students. But it had to it was bound to happen because there's no reason why we shouldn't have laptop carts and every public school that that children can sign out a laptop
and simples that like literally just making sure their carts their full laptops that are current, ready to go. Safe wreck, you need that to go home. There's your laptop, correct?
There's no, there's no, there's so much technology out there. There's so many companies that could do that. And that could do that heavy lift of getting all those laptops and being the vendor for the nation's public school to be able to do I mean, like,
it was feels like we need like a groundswell from the grassroots up saying Microsoft or whoever that is step up and make these things available.
Correct. And right, and so then now you're saying, okay, the government might not do it, or they'll go too slowly. What about these huge organizations? Yeah, right. Like, wouldn't it be cool I think Jeff Bezos wealth increase what $26 billion emit. Awesome if he just decided to, like send Amazon send every child a laptop.
Yeah, you could do that. I mean, I mean, you could do right. There is no
They're right. And so to me, I think a lot of this is coming down to people are used to having access to technology, to wealth to whatever, but they don't necessarily believe or expect everyone to have access to that. So there is just this inherent, unequal approach. The problem is and that was fine, because you could kind of ignore the holes in the system. As long as the system was working the way it should, right. You could ignore it. It wasn't fully working, but you could ignore it now that you have students who literally cannot do their lessons
can ignore it anymore. I mean, this is literally made explore this cannot be ignored. Something has to be done.
Something has to be done. I mean, and I love that Comcast is sponsoring this and I know that there have been a lot of initiatives across has done to give like basic internet to families and I think that's phenomenal. And I'm just encourage Comcast leadership and board to find their vendors and their other peer companies and say you need to step up to the plate and do more. Because like, literally are we I don't think people understand when these children grow up, they will be our leaders.
Exactly. That's To me it's like this is why our future right here for all of us have to invest in that if you believe in investing in the money in the stock market, CDs, and what and when a Roth IRAs, right, the future the child, think of a child as a stock, right? Like, you know, if that's the only way you can think in numbers Fine, then do that. You know, I think it's just obscene. So I think that these private companies need to step up to the plate, our government certainly needs to step up to the plate. We need to stop burdening our teachers and educators. It is not their responsibility to fix a system that is broken and unfair to them as well. Because that the problem is, is that so many teachers for many, many, many years, have been buying supplies and also personal items for their students, because there's just a need, and there's just not enough.
That's always blown my mind. I've always like, like, wow, like, because I've been at school for so long. I can't even remember but when these these stories about the fact like, literally, there's not enough money for basic school supplies, like paper and glue and sparkles and the stuff that you need. Yeah, it's just like this is just out of the values are screwed up somewhere because that funding should be available. And that funding should make sure that there are cards for laptops, so that way kids have access to the internet and it further limits showing kids how to use the technology. And yeah, I don't know like To me, it's just it's blows my mind and for as awful as it is, I'm glad at least now that it feels like for the time being, and I hope it's not just for the time being, but at least my hope is started now is us having more conversations and been raising more awareness around this because we're gonna stop talking about it. We got to keep this going, because that will maybe get to Jeff Bezos of the world and be like, No, actually, I think I should donate a billion dollars to laptops. I think I can do that and you'll be okay. You know, so that's why I'm just so happy to have your insight on this because yeah, you you know what you're talking about Courtney, you know, you don't know lots of stuff and when you the point you're bringing up now like you just make it so real the idea that like, these kids were stocks, like you need to invest. We need to invest kids now. It sounds so lame to their future of course there but yes, like literally they are future like we both want to retire one day. Right. Courtney, we need kids being gainfully employed to do that. Yeah, you need them to do that. They're going to be running, you know, public offices. They will be teachers themselves. They will be building companies themselves, and They're going to remember this time. And this is going to shape their future. So I would love for them to be shaped in a way that's helpful. And that they felt like, you know, I needed something and people stepped up for me.
Definitely. Villa port I get concerned about is I feel like not seeing a child reach his or her full potential like really freaks me out because I see so many kids, you know, are just so freakin smart. But they're not going to get the opportunity to fully like, use their smartness because they're going to be out, we're into something where they won't get the opportunity because they couldn't get online and get to it or something like that. You know, not to oversimplify, but I think that's just another huge issue too, is the fact that there's, we need the smartest people everywhere, everyone else. Anyone not being able to come and help us and I think I'm seeing that too much. And that's why it's just like, Oh, it's so daunting to me. Mm hmm.
I think that one of the things though, is To, for me, when I think about huge problems, it does become of course overwhelming, but then start thinking about like what you can do. Yeah. A little level. So like, I had already decided I wanted to donate a laptop or to to a student that I knew. Okay, um, because for me, you know, I'm not Jeff Bezos, so I can't or any, you know, Jeff Bezos yet yet. I'm giving you time. Right.
Like, you know, I can ask in my network, you know, what would student need something right, like, needs a laptop or whatever. And I can provide that, right. Yeah, I think I think that's important. So yeah, it's important to not get overwhelmed because then what happens is you don't do anything and it's actually nothing happens.
Right? Where you just like, you get so paralyzed. You don't do anything because you think that other people are going to do something and other people's help is bigger than yours, and you shouldn't even try right? is a way that because that's actually not true. If I give a laptop to a child who's like, I really need one, that might be the difference between them getting on the honor roll like they should have or like completely fallen behind. And to me that's worth it. It's not every child in America, but it's that one child and you just you're selling a seed into somebody is very important.
I like it. I'm actually I'm really glad you brought that up. Because I think sometimes, you know, we all get a little paralyzed thinking, well, I can do anything. It's like, No, you absolutely can. It's called on the edges, right? It's like, doing what you can do within your sphere of influence, do a little bit into to be helpful. And if you can do that, then that's that's helping to row the boat forward, one little rule at a time. So it is something that we all get that mindset, we can maybe start seeing some really big changes and that way, I hope that happens in my lifetime. I really wanted to see that happen. Or is that goes. I'm just curious for you, what inspired you as a kid to go to CMU and to just be so analytical about everything. And you think is awesome mindsets like solve problems and stuff like maybe you're just born that way something inspire you to be that way. Like,
I think it was a combination of what I grew up around and education. So my dad is an entrepreneur and he's been since I can remember I think now going on probably 50 years and so I just remember one of my favorite things to remember is is like driving to a restaurant after going to church and like you would be talking to an associate and he, you know, have like a cell phone, a car, phone and for the people who are younger Oh, yeah. But people think is young but like there was a moment in life where cars have like phones and I had one I had one back then it had like a little It was like it was like a corded phone in your car and But that was a man. Like if you had that, that was like very advanced.
But I remember like him talking on the phone and just like listening, I had no idea what he was talking about. But I just remember that they people were making business deals or like talking about solutions. So that was always really cool. And yeah, I mean, I had a great education with the private school my whole life. I'm originally from Baltimore. And then one of the best decisions was going to Spelman College, which is a historically black college in Atlanta, and just the amount of black women there who were like phenomenal. Yeah, and just constantly pushing me to want to do better. So I think that's sort of where and I had phenomenal teachers who always believed in me and just encouraged me so that that was I think, for me, where I was like, I can do anything that I kind of set my mind to including going to get this PhD straight up. undergrad and then to being a med device entrepreneur. So for me, it's always it's always been just the people I've been around, right?
Well, I'm glad your journey brought you to Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. That's why I always say I sleep better at night knowing this kind of you know, and and Pitt and all our universities because they attract people like you to come here. And then you do something pretty rad, like starting a business and solve tough problems and you stay here. I absolutely love it. So I did, the thing we kind of want to talk a little bit about was you had some interest in exploring more on the areas of like, you know, how children now are going to be using more distance learning and so forth. I mean, obviously, if they do have the laptops, which they should have, that they're going to be learning more. I think that's gonna be something that we're going to be seeing obviously, that might become more of the new norm and so forth.
I think it's going to not just be at the grade level, but I definitely think it's going to be at the collegiate level. was well, yeah, and I and it's interesting because I was having this debate like years ago with someone about the university sort of setup and the processes and procedures. Yeah. And I just was like, I don't know if the way that we're teaching college students is sustainable, given how quickly technology is making the world flatter and smaller. And so they said, Well, you know, you'll never see that change in your lifetime. And yeah, we are because, listen, it's the whole system is not going to be thrown out overnight. But if you look at access to education, because that's what we're talking about, it's access. It's not is the students smart, are they worthy, whatever it is, do you have the ability to learn and if you look at the history of our college system, and PhD programs, etc. If you look like way, way back, like, you know, a couple of centuries ago, the how it was built was either wealthy sort of like people who were nobles back in England, who turned into merchants or wealthy merchants who had the means to send their sons to get education. You said education. Right? Yeah, exactly. Education didn't necessarily at that time translate to money. because there weren't any white collar jobs, right. Like, either you were lifting things and pushing things or making things or paying somebody else to do that. They're really, you know, I mean, you could be a lawyer, but they're really like the amount of white collar jobs that we have now did not exist, primarily because the technology that we have now did not exist, right. Look at that. So so you have to start there first. Now fast forward to now We have a lot of students fumbling through our four year education programs, but they can't afford college. Even if they could pay for it, they can't afford it. What does afford mean? It means that I can pay my student loans and it not be a burden for the rest of my life. That is not the case. For many students.
It's pretty frightening to see people with loads of debt with kind of very boring degrees that aren't going to get you a pretty good paying job. Right?
Right. So like you are you are paying to get this degree that is actually not going to end up having the job that you get, you really can't pay sustainably pay your loans back. Like student loan debt is the reason why a lot of people in my age group cannot buy homes. Exactly right. Yep. Like that's just that's just, you know, some some people might you are not having children or as many as they want to, because the loans exactly right. There are people who I know families who have started Families of their own. And they're paying for their student loan debt while also gathering funds for their child to go to school. Oh my goodness. It starts with time their kids in school, they're still have debt from their education. Yep. And now their child is starting a life of debt. Yep. Right. Access. So I think that when we think about education and being online now, it's an interesting thing, because we've proven you can learn online now. It's been horrible experience for a lot of people I've heard at all levels, teachers from grade school on up, but it's possible and I think that some really great company is going to come along, either they're already in existence, or they're going to be formed to make this better. And once we figure that out, why can't I learn about entrepreneurship from Oprah?
Here you go. I can't think of a better teacher there.
Why why, right? You know what I mean? Like, why why what's what's stopping me from doing that and to dramatically bring the cost down as well we ought to be lifelong learners in this day, right? Like the skills are changing. So you might be into something for 10 years and have to change that skill set. So you can go for a month and take some classes, get those skills and you know, throw yourself into crazy loads of debt.
And that's the other thing too, is like, going back to trades. I know Pittsburgh, really, by by default, a trade heavy place. That's how it started. Right? Going back to that, like I only want to know credits and courses for things that have helped me make money now.
Exactly.
I don't want to wait four years, and then a year on the job market, but I'm not going to do that and people can Say that, and they have alternatives. So I think I mean, is Harvard going to disintegrate? No. But the people who go to Harvard are going to shift. It might not be. And especially now we're looking at immigration laws. And just like, what's going on? A lot of a lot of students are going to say, Do I need to go?
Right now? It's lots gonna change very quickly. I do. And you've raised awesome points, Chris. Like, I could talk to you for hours, because, man, I just like that question.
I'm just glad that we got this little time to talk because I just think everyone needs to know who you are and what you're doing. And I'm just proud to be here in Pittsburgh doing what you're doing, because that's what's good that's making Pittsburgh really did the town that I want it to be. And I want more of this happening. And I think you could be a huge inspiration to so many people out there for you. I know you inspire me a lot because I'm like, man, she can figure it out. I can figure it out. play nice fast. But I love it. Thanks for being part of our story. Today and to back out and bring us make this all possible so in Vegas it is keep doing what you're doing. Courtney, you were making Pittsburgh Proud.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
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