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If you’re interested in the role, reach out to me at [email protected] or +1 (650) 642 7093 (WhatsApp). See Selection Process for more information!
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Kylin Shaw, Co-founder – Dec 27, 2025: We’re hiring a founding engineer. Read more below.
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“Mikayla is doing everything she possibly can to get back to football and she has her moments where she wonders what if it happens again. Which is why after watching what you all had invented, I knew as a mother I needed to reach out,
Should you ever need someone of a young age or to trial from Australia, please reach out, I will do anything to see my daughter play sport and achieve her dreams.”
We received this message from an Australian mom whose 12-year-old daughter, Mikayla, loves sports. Like many girls, Mikayla fell in love with football. She played on a mixed boys' and girls' under-14 team, and since then, football has been her whole world.
One day this April, Mikayla fell to her knees after making a tackle during a routine game. When she tried to get up, she heard a popping sound. An MRI later revealed a ruptured ACL and a torn meniscus.
What was supposed to be her happiest day—being selected to play interleague for the EDFL—may have forever changed her life.
Everyone told us that starting a hardware company in London—deep in the medical field and focused on consumers—was entrepreneurial suicide. At times, even we, a 20-year-old team, questioned whether we were crazy.
But moments like this remind us why we started: how could we ever forgive ourselves for not giving it our all, knowing that even a small chance to change the life of a girl like Mikayla is worth everything?
At Hippos, we aim to redefine human mobility through cutting-edge soft-exoskeleton technology. Our innovation lies in designing devices that seamlessly integrate with the human body, enhancing movement while protecting against acute knee injuries like ACL tears.
Our flagship product is a patent-pending smart knee sleeve featuring embedded micro-airbags, an advanced sensor fusion system, and a custom-designed inflation mechanism. The device predicts dangerous scenarios such as knee rotation or hyperextension, deploying an airbag in just 30 milliseconds—half the time it takes for an ACL tear to occur—effectively preventing injuries.
Technology should empower people, enabling them to move with confidence and freedom. Athletes shouldn’t have to compromise on comfort or performance for safety. That’s why we’ve reduced the device's weight from the 450g industry standard to just 107g.
