Jake Adler, the 21-year-old founder of the biotech and defense startup Pilgrim, literally put his own sweat and blood into developing the business, cutting his thighs to demonstrate the new technology. Surprisingly, this bloody effort paid off and he received $4.3 million from investors.
Pilgrim creates biotechnology for use on the battlefield, with plans to sell to the military and eventually civilians. Their flagship product is the Kingsfoil hemostatic bandage, which startup CEO Jake Adler cut both of his legs on camera to demonstrate.
We won’t publish the video and will avoid giving details. In short: Adler anesthetized his legs with lidocaine and used a biopsy tool to make two precise cuts. One of them was covered with Kingsfoil to stop the bleeding, and the other was used for a control comparison.
Adler clarified that the law does not explicitly prohibit self-testing and compared the experiment to a regular tattoo.
«I was very careful», — Adler said in a commentary Business Insider and noted that he does not encourage other startups to conduct such dangerous tests on themselves.
According to Adler, Kingsfoil is clay-based and turns into a gel-like consistency when it touches the skin, which helps close wounds, clot blood flow, and promote healing. The only known side effects are minor skin irritation.
Kingsfoil is well known to Lord of the Rings fans as a healing herb. Names based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien are generally very popular among creators of defense technologies — remember Anduril and Erebor Palmer Lucky, or Palantir Alex Karp.
Interestingly, these bloody experiments with Kingsfoil paid off and Pilgrim raised $4.3 million from investors including Cantos VC, Day One Ventures, and Peter Thiel’s family office.
“We look for people who stand out and are a little bit weird,” says Ian Rowntree, general partner at Cantos. “Jake is exceptional and tackles one of those problems that is hiding in plain sight.”
Adler hopes to build on the demonstration by testing the bandage in “more controlled conditions.”
“It’s meant for proper and thorough clinical trials,” Adler said of Kingsfoil before sterilizing his hip in the video. “This is just a precursor.”
As a “first and initial market” Pilgrim is considering the Ministry of Defense, but plans to extend the technology to civilians in the future.
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