eric-muellejans-kumovate

# S01E18 · Eric Muellejans — Founder of Kumovate <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_0WiJT5e2Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="uv-poster" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b_0WiJT5e2Y/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="Eric Muellejans on The Useful Podcast Episode 18" loading="lazy" /></a> Eric Muellejans is the founder of [Kumovate](https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/design-fabrication-zone/community/members/kumovate/), a medical device startup born out of Toronto Metropolitan University's Design Fabrication Zone that makes the Kumo, an inflatable leg-elevation device. He built the first prototype in his bedroom at sixteen while recovering from a leg injury, later manufactured it in China, and became a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Since then he has worked across health tech, including at NiaHealth, and is now an account executive at Relay, a business banking platform for US small businesses. In this clip from The Useful Podcast, Eric and Gokul get into why he spent a month visiting Chinese factories in person and learned Mandarin before manufacturing there, what he calls the information asymmetry between how deeply China studies the West and how little the West studies China, and how that compares to America's understanding of Japan in the 1980s. Their full conversation ranges further, into leaving health tech for fintech, the regulatory maze around clinical pilots, an AI chip startup, and how he builds early-stage go-to-market teams — all covered in the transcript below. ## Listen <ul class="uv-linkrow"> <li>Watch<a class="uv-ico uv-yt" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_0WiJT5e2Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube</a></li> <li>Show<a class="uv-ico uv-sp" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033DRed1adLXd1bg8honOl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Useful Podcast on Spotify</a> · <a class="uv-ico uv-x" href="https://x.com/theusefulpod" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@theusefulpod on X</a></li> </ul> <a class="uv-btn" href="https://useful.ventures/podcast/eric-muellejans-kumovate/transcript">Read the full transcript</a> ## Key facts <ul class="uv-facts"> <li>EpisodeThe Useful Podcast, Season 1, Episode 18</li> <li>GuestEric Muellejans, founder of Kumovate and account executive at Relay</li> <li>HostGokul Bala, co-founder of Useful Ventures</li> <li>Company<a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/design-fabrication-zone/community/members/kumovate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kumovate</a>, maker of the Kumo inflatable leg-elevation device</li> <li>TopicsManufacturing and studying in China, the Schwarzman Scholarship, US-China information asymmetry, health tech regulation, fintech for small businesses, building early-stage teams</li> <li>Length~2.5 min clip published · full episode audio pending release</li> </ul> ## Guest <ul class="uv-linkrow"> <li>Eric<a class="uv-ico uv-li" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmuellejans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Relay<a class="uv-ico uv-play" href="https://relayfi.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relayfi.com</a></li> <li>Host<a class="uv-ico uv-x" href="https://x.com/GokulsVision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gokul Bala on X (@GokulsVision)</a> · <a class="uv-ico uv-ig" href="https://www.instagram.com/gokuls.vision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram (@gokuls.vision)</a></li> </ul> ## Key insights **Information asymmetry breeds fear.** Chinese students, scholars, and business leaders study the West deeply — they speak the language, read the media, and understand the culture. Almost nothing runs in reverse. Eric argues this one-directional understanding, more than any inherent hostility, is what fractures US-China relations, and compares it to how well the US understood a rising Japan in the 1980s. **Go in person before you go all in.** Before manufacturing the Kumo in China, Eric spent a month visiting factories face to face and learned Mandarin first, a deliberate hedge against the IP-theft horror stories he had absorbed secondhand. He argues trust built in person, not paperwork, is what actually de-risks offshore manufacturing. **Early-stage teams need exactly two roles.** In a zero-to-one company, Eric says you need someone who can build and someone who can sell. Since he isn't a coder, sales became his lane, and he has built a career as the founding account executive who lands the first customers before a company can afford a full go-to-market team. **Constraints drive creativity.** Eric left nearly a decade in health tech, where privacy and clinical regulation shape every decision, for fintech at Relay, a similarly regulated space. He says operating inside real constraints, not around them, is where differentiated positioning actually gets made. **Hire fast, fire faster.** His rule for early-stage hiring: skip the six-round interview loop, put people on a two-week trial, and trust your gut if it says to move on. He would rather bet on curious, scrappy juniors who ask good questions than on senior hires used to bigger budgets and bigger teams. **The AI scribe market is a warning, not an opportunity.** Eric's blunt investor take: healthcare AI scribes are a race to the bottom the moment a giant like Epic bundles the feature for free, while consumer-facing preventative health platforms that can pivot into employer benefits, like Hinge Health and NiaHealth, have a much clearer path to scale. ## About Kumovate [Kumovate](https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/design-fabrication-zone/community/members/kumovate/) is a medical device startup founded by Eric Muellejans while he was a business student at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), built out of the university's Design Fabrication Zone with support from Futurpreneur Canada. Its flagship product, the Kumo, is the first inflatable and adjustable leg-elevation device, designed to make recovery from leg injuries and surgery, including post-op femoral circulation, more portable and comfortable than rigid alternatives. Eric built the original prototype in his bedroom at sixteen while recovering from an injury, then later manufactured the device in China after spending a month visiting factories in person and learning Mandarin first. ## FAQ <div class="uv-faq"> ### Who is Eric Muellejans? Eric Muellejans is the founder of Kumovate, a medical device startup behind the Kumo, an inflatable leg-elevation device, and a Schwarzman Scholar who completed a master's program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has spent most of his career in early-stage go-to-market roles, including in health tech at NiaHealth, and is currently an account executive at Relay, a business banking platform for US small businesses. ### What is Kumovate? Kumovate is a medical device company founded by Eric Muellejans out of Toronto Metropolitan University's Design Fabrication Zone. Its product, the Kumo, is the first inflatable and adjustable leg-elevation device, built from medical-grade plastics to support recovery from leg injuries and surgery. Eric built the first prototype at sixteen and later manufactured the device in China. ### What is the Schwarzman Scholarship? The Schwarzman Scholars program is a fully funded master's program at Tsinghua University in Beijing that brings emerging young leaders from North America, Europe, and around the world to study alongside top Chinese scholars for one year. Eric Muellejans was selected as a Schwarzman Scholar and completed the program, including time studying and interning in Beijing during the pandemic. ### What does Eric Muellejans mean by information asymmetry between the US and China? Eric argues that Chinese students, scholars, and business leaders are deeply educated about the West: they speak English, study at Western universities, and consume Western media, while very little of that understanding runs in the opposite direction. He compares it to how well the US understood Japan during its rise as an economic power in the 1980s, and warns that without closing that gap, US-China misunderstanding and mistrust will keep deepening. ### Why did Eric Muellejans learn Mandarin and visit factories in China before manufacturing there? Eric had absorbed common fears about manufacturing in China, including IP theft and losing control of a product. Rather than manufacture remotely, he spent a month traveling to Chinese factories in person, meeting manufacturers face to face, and learned Mandarin beforehand at Toronto Metropolitan University so he could build direct trust with his manufacturing partners. ### Why did Eric Muellejans move from health tech to fintech at Relay? After close to a decade in health tech, including at NiaHealth, Eric wanted to specialize his sales skills in a more focused role while staying in early-stage, high-growth companies. Relay, a business bank built for US small businesses around the Profit First methodology, let him keep selling directly to small business owners, a segment he says he understands firsthand, inside a similarly regulated, constraint-driven industry. ### What is The Useful Podcast? The Useful Podcast is a series of founder-to-founder conversations from Useful Ventures, hosted by Gokul Bala. Each episode digs past the highlight reel into the actual work of building a company. This is Season 1, Episode 18. </div> ## Related * [[podcast]] is the full Useful Podcast index. * [[manifesto]] is how we see the world and how we work. * [[notes]] is where we write about the world we see coming. * [Kumovate](https://www.torontomu.ca/zone-learning/design-fabrication-zone/community/members/kumovate/) · [Relay](https://relayfi.com) · [The Useful Podcast on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/033DRed1adLXd1bg8honOl) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TheUsefulPodcast) · [@theusefulpod on X](https://x.com/theusefulpod) Back to [[podcast]].