He Needed a Seeing-Eye Companion, But He Hates Dog Poop. So, We're Building Him A Robot.
A.D. is a kid with leukemia whose treatment damaged his vision. He needed a seeing-eye companion. The guide dog waiting list was too long, the process too involved, and — he'll tell you himself — he hates dog poop. He wanted a robot. A dinosaur robot, specifically. His mom called the Mad Scientist. The Mad Scientist said yes. And everything you see here is what happened when a garage full of disabled makers took an 11-year-old's specifications seriously.
Your Insurance Company Doesn't Get a Vote.
Most adaptive technology reaches families through a system built to limit access to it. Insurance companies decide what gets approved. Manufacturers price for reimbursement, not for people. Families wait months — sometimes years — for approvals, fight denials, and sometimes lose.
That system exists because most adaptive technology companies don't control their own manufacturing, supply chain, or distribution. They are dependent on a system that was never designed to say yes.
We built our own. Every piece of it. Starting in a garage. Starting with a 3D printer and a community of disabled makers solving problems for themselves. Which means we can bring adaptive technology to market as consumer products — at consumer prices — without asking anyone's insurance company for permission.
Built by the Community It Serves. Sold Directly to the People Who Need It.
Stim Factory started as a group of disabled makers 3D printing indestructible cases for AAC devices in a co-founder's garage — because the cases that existed broke too easily and cost too much to replace. That's still who we are.
We build for ourselves. We build for A.D. We build for every family that has ever been handed a denial letter for something their person needed.
And because we own the full stack — the AI, the hardware, the manufacturing, the distribution — what we build doesn't have to go through a system designed to say no before it can reach the people it was made for.
What We're Building
BuddyBots
The seeing-eye dinosaur robot A.D. asked for — and every kid who needs one. Autonomous. Edge-native. No cloud. No operator. No insurance approval required. Deploying 2027.
Meet BuddyBots →V.I.C.K.I.
The AI at the center of everything. She runs on-device, reasons before she responds, and works without internet — because the people she serves can't always assume a connection. Built on IBM Granite 4.0. Built for real life.
Meet V.I.C.K.I. →The Ecosystem
Four subsidiaries. Four brands. In-house manufacturing. The infrastructure we built to serve one kid — now the infrastructure that can serve everyone. This is what it looks like when you build the universe first.
See the Full Picture →“A.D. didn't want a guide dog. He hates dog poop. So we built him a robot instead. Everything you see here exists because we took that seriously.”
— Joseph “Joie” Thompson, Founder & CEO, Stim Factory Inc.
We're Pre-Revenue. We Built the Infrastructure First.
We didn't ship something half-built to claim traction. We built the AI, the hardware, the manufacturing capability, the structure — because the families we serve deserve products that actually work, not promises that don't. We're seeking $750K in seed investment from people who back builders.
If that's you — let's talk →