From Ballpark to Battlefield
Long before Legacy Innovation began developing medical technologies, co-founders Kim Reeves and Jeff Dalton were solving complex challenges involving pressure, temperature, and flow. Their work first found a commercial home in sports and entertainment venues, where they developed technologies to keep beverages cold and dispensing systems operating reliably in demanding environments.
When COVID-19 shuttered live events and disrupted the company’s core market, Legacy redirected its proven technologies in pressure, temperature, and flow toward a more urgent purpose: improving respiratory care and getting life-saving blood to trauma patients before they reached the hospital.
With support from the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and the U.S. Air Force, Legacy developed and tested new medical technologies while working alongside hospital and military medical personnel. The company created the Venspirator, a compact, non-electric respiratory-support device designed to conserve oxygen, filter airflow, and work with sealed face masks and endotracheal tubes. The result, patients could breathe anywhere.
Reeves and Dalton then learned through direct patient care, alongside military medical staff, that there is no device in existence that could continuously manage a patient's airway while switching from one mechanical ventilator to another without loss of oxygen flow. Legacy then developed the patented T-Slider, designed to help clinicians maintain continuous airway support when transferring a patient between mechanical ventilators. These efforts deepened the team’s experience in prehospital trauma care and connected Legacy with civilian and military subject-matter experts.
That foundation led to a new challenge from the U.S. Department of Transportation: reducing preventable deaths after highway crashes, particularly those caused by severe blood loss before a patient reaches a hospital. Legacy recognized that its experience protecting temperature-sensitive products and managing pressure and flow could help solve a critical gap in emergency care. Legacy was determined to solve the problem through BLIS (Blood/Biologics - Logistics, Integrity & Security), a comprehensive cold-chain solution establishing a U.S. Pre-hospital Blood Supply dedicated to military and civilian first responders for pre-hospital blood transfusion. BLIS integrates verifiable chain of custody and temperature controls with existing communication networks and multi-modal deployment — including drones — to scale seamlessly from routine care to major crises.
SBA’s SBIR Program has had a profound impact on Legacy Innovation. The program not only provided $1.4 million in funding but access to medical experts and patient interaction for proper testing and research. CEO Reeves states that "SBA does more than provide capital, it provides credibility. That credibility attracts strategic partners, creating the exact chain reaction needed to turn a raw idea into a commercial success."
By providing non-dilutive funding that helps small businesses develop technology and chart a path toward commercialization, America’s Seed Fund has enabled Legacy to move promising concepts closer to real-world use.
Legacy’s story shows how SBIR/STTR Powered by the SBA can help a small business translate proven commercial technology into tools designed to improve emergency care for civilian and military patients alike.