VitaTalk Ep. 23

elliebecker35
Aug 27
3 min read

From Toys to Tech: How Tom Kramer and Kabloee Bring Creativity to MedTech

In this VitaTalk episode, host Eli Rehmann sits down with Tom Kramer, founder and CEO of Kabloee Design, to explore his three-decade journey from designing toys to creating life-changing medical devices. With a background in industrial design and prototyping, Tom shares how his unique career path, holistic design philosophy, and “design-driven development” process have shaped Kabloee into a trusted innovation partner in medtech.

The Early Days: From Tonka Toys to Pacemakers

Kabloee began in 1991 when Tom and a fellow designer, both moonlighting for Tonka Toys, decided to join forces. Their tagline, Exploding with New Ideas, inspired the name “Kabloee.” While the toy industry was their launchpad, it came with cutthroat competition and unreliable clients.

Everything changed in 1992 when a friend asked Tom to redesign a handheld programmer for Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. The experience was eye-opening: medtech clients valued quality, paid on time, and appreciated the impact of great design. That first device set Tom on a path away from toys and into the medical world.

Why Keep the Name “Kabloee”?

As the company transitioned to medtech, Tom considered a rebrand, until a stranger called to say he’d found a Kabloee business card in the desk of his new executive office and felt compelled to reach out. The memorable name, Tom realized, was worth keeping.

Thinking Beyond the Device

Tom believes many medtech companies follow a rigid, linear process that misses opportunities. Instead, Kabloee applies holistic thinking, considering not just the engineering, but the users, technicians, purchasing decision-makers, marketing, manufacturing, and regulatory landscape from day one.

“Our job is to turn over every stone,” Tom says. “Success looks different for every product—you have to understand all the factors that will make it succeed.”

Building for Success (and Avoiding Failure)

Kabloee’s Design-Driven Development process begins with an evaluation phase to determine whether an idea is worth pursuing. Clients complete a worksheet covering financial feasibility, manufacturing challenges, market barriers, and adoption potential. This upfront analysis saves inventors from sinking time and money into unviable concepts.

Tom’s philosophy is simple:

Know what you’re really putting into the world—it’s not just a product, it’s a sales pitch that must connect to users’ emotions, experiences, and perceptions.
Do things in the right order—validate the market and product concept before building a prototype.

The Survival Analogy

Tom compares medtech success to surviving—and then thriving—in the wilderness:

Find your water → Have funding.
Find your food → Build effective marketing.
Find shelter → Protect your reputation (and intellectual property).
Create consistency → Maintain your market position through product portfolios or strong brand presence.
Defend your territory → Guard against bad clients, competition, and market threats.

Innovate the Way You Were Designed To

Tom’s book, Innovate the Way You Were Designed To, explores the intersection of human psychology and product development. He urges innovators to combine specialized knowledge with broad, hands-on experiences, and to tap into innate human creativity.

“Innovation comes from drawing on a wide variety of past experiences,” Tom explains. “You can’t have a narrow background and expect to be truly innovative.”

The Takeaway

From whimsical toys to life-saving devices, Tom Kramer’s journey is proof that innovation thrives when you blend creativity, practical evaluation, and a willingness to challenge industry norms. At Kabloee, that means approaching every medtech project as more than a product, it’s a human-centered solution designed to succeed in the real world.

🩺 Interested in learning more about life at VitaTek or how we’re reshaping the medical device space? Stay tuned for more episodes of the VitaTalk Podcast!

Stay tuned for more episodes and updates, because the best ideas in healthcare are just getting started.