Social-E was an E-club program that partnered Husky Entrepreneurs with Innovators to build a brand around a sustainable or social innovation. Last semester we worked with a team from MIT’s Dlab (Check out D-lab here -http://d-lab.mit.edu/ and http://mlab.mit.edu/lfc/) that is developing a product called the Leveraged Freedom Chair – a lever driven wheelchair designed for use on rough terrain in rural areas of 3rd world countries.

Social-E members validated the LFC for for the US market. To launch this product, the company needs to have a for profit sector to support GRIT (Global Research Innovation and Technology) which the non-profit set up by MIT to launch the product in developing countries. They are still very unclear on how this product can be sold domestically and who needs it. We took on the challenge of reaching out to some real consumers / organizations that have a potential use for the product and begin to designate a target consumer for the LFC.

Also, we had the unique opportunity to create marketing collateral for the this product and help design their booth alongside Continuum (a design and prototyping firm currently developing a non working prototype of this product the US market) for the national Abilities Expo in LA on March 30th.