TWIICE: The Venture Leader Medtech creating powered exoskeletons for walking assistance

07.06.2022 15:25, Tracy Woodley

For the second consecutive year, the Venture Leaders Medtech will represent Swiss innovation in the United States. To select the 10 featured startups, a jury of professional investors and medtech experts reviewed 60 applications. These startups improve diagnostics, treatments, and well-being with innovative solutions that cover artificial intelligence, sensors, smart devices, and robotics. Allow us to introduce you to each of the Venture Leaders Medtech 2022 ahead of the June 2022 roadshow in Boston and Cambridge: Meet Tristan Vouga, the CEO and co-founder of TWIICE.

Every year, 250,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury leading to permanent paraplegia. TWIICE is a modular and customizable exoskeleton for walking assistance that allows people with paraplegia to regain independence in their daily activities. The device was designed to meet a variety of pathologies, symptoms, morphologies, and needs. The startups mission is to reconnect people to their communities by giving them back their access to life.

Name: Tristan Vouga
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: EPFL, Ph.D. in Wearable Robotics (2019) 
Job title: CEO and Co-founder of TWIICE
Number of employees: 8
Money raised: CHF 1.5 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Academia-Industry Training program in Rio de Janeiro in 2016


Explain in one or two short sentences what your startup does and why.
TWIICE develops powered lower-limb exoskeletons that enable people with paraplegia to stand up and walk again. We engineer human-machine interaction that empowers people to do what they love doing.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup? 
I fell in love with robotics when I was 6. A few years later I was working as a roboticist on the design of the world’s first brain-controlled exoskeleton at Duke University in the United States. I felt there were still too many challenges related to the installation of thought-sensing implants in the brain. To leave a more immediate impact on people’s lives, we decided to create a simpler device that would fulfill our user’s dreams today and not in a decade. We set out to create the most advanced exoskeleton in the world. Our first patient took her first steps after only a year.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Medtech roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
Our goal is to get exposure to the American style of startup management, execution and investment practices. The Venture Leaders roadshow opens the door to potential U.S.-based investors in medtech. We also want to use this opportunity to expand our network of fellow entrepreneurs in similar deep technology fields because peer learning is the best type of training in the startup environment. 

What is one thing not many people know about you? 
I’m an acting instructor and an improvisational musical performer. Being on stage while having no clue of what is going to happen next, yet making up the next story plot, script, rhymes, melody, chorus, harmony, and choreography within a split second as the story unfolds is one of the most satisfying feelings ever. When I’m not on stage, I spend my time sailing on Lake Geneva, enjoying the best things nature has to offer: sun, wind, water, wine, and good company. Also, I used to play ice hockey and baseball.

What was your dream job when you were a child?
I've dreamt about becoming a roboticist since age 6. I was fortunate enough to be born in a country where things like this are possible. 

What is your favorite movie and why?
Her, because it questions us about who humans truly are.

How did you come up with the name of your startup?
Julien Pache had the idea. TWIICE represents the duality of the interaction between humans and machines. It’s inspired by the intimate physical and behavioral interaction between these two entities. The two I’s represent the thin space that lies at the interface between them, where everything happens (but it’s hard to explain how). 

What is your favorite productivity hack/tool and why?
Notion. It means everything to me.

Where and when are you most productive?
Between 7 PM and 9 PM and midnight and 4 AM, when I can typically read a book overnight. I wrote most of my Ph.D. thesis in two places: on the roof of my building and on the train. I use a keyboard without a screen to avoid distractions so I can keep my eyes on the world instead.

How and where do you clear your mind?
Ironing, every morning.

Who inspires you?
Myself in 20 years.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
Being a founder comes with a lot of responsibilities. This is no easy task, but I am so grateful for being entrusted with responsibilities. The most difficult part is when people I love don’t get why I do this and feel sorry for me or blame me for not having enough time for them.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Spending time with brilliant and inspiring people all day. I owe so much to our patients, who have taught me so much about life, and to my team members, who are the most dedicated and hard-working people I know. I am humbled and grateful for this opportunity.  

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
First, to have no expectations – a lesson that has changed my life. 
Second, to fall in love with the problem rather than the solution.
And thirdly, resilience and acceptance – I can cope better with setbacks and failure than I used to be able to.

What is the best advice you have ever received and from whom?
Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. I wish I could attribute this quote to someone. But I owe all the passion I have for my work to our patients, who are the most important source of inspiration I have.

For more information and updates on TWIICE and the Venture Leaders Medtech 2022, follow #VLeadersMedtech on Twitter or on www.venture-leaders.ch/medtech.

The Venture Leaders Medtech program is organized by Venturelab and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Hansjörg Wyss, Helbling Technik, Kellerhals Carrard, Paul Scherrer Institut, Swissnex Boston, Canton of Vaud, Canton of Zurich, and Venture Leader alumnus Dominik Lysek.