Muscles and money have joined forces in Toledo to create a success story with a company named Turning Point.
Turning Point's CEO, F. Alan Schultheis invented an exercise conditioning machine � the Core Trainer � and received important input from University of Toledo Engineering Professor Vijay K. Goel, Ph.D., in designing the final, working model.
That local help prompted Schulteheis to establish Turning Point in Toledo rather than in his home base of Connecticut.
Schultheis named his machine the Core Trainer because it conditions 28 muscles, as well as numerous tendons and ligaments. Turning Point recently received a $50,000 initial grant to design and refine the prototype, as well as an additional $450,000 to market and develop the equipment. The grants are from Rocket Ventures, the venture capital program of Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership.
Even though Schulteis will be returning to Connecticut, Turning Point now has an advisory board as well as a board of directors and will remain and grow in Toledo. According to Greg Knudson, vice president with Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership, the city's Lockery Manufacturing will manufacture the machine, and local Pinnacle Technologies is making its electronics parts.
Turning Point is gearing up to produce two models of the Core Trainer this fall � a professional model for approximately $1,000 and a consumer model for $600.
Goiel, PhD., is now the company's vice president of Research and Development.
Source: Turning Point and Greg Knudson, Regional Growth Partnership
Writer: Lynne Meyer