My Discussion on Force Transfer Geometry, the 150 Million-Person Adaptive Market, and Why the Chef's Knife Has Been Wrong for 200 Years
- dougkatz8
- Jul 9
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 20
I sat down for a long conversation recently on Unconventional Money Moves with Joshua Krafchick about NULU, about leaving 25 years in the mortgage industry, about ADHD and the military and Commander's Intent, and about why the knife in your drawer has been quietly wrong for 200 years.
It ran about an hour. There's a lot in there — some of it about the product, some of it about how I got here, some of it about the 150 million people this company is actually being built for. Rather than ask you to sit through the whole thing to find the parts that matter to you, I put together a map. Timestamps, the ideas at each stop, and the clips as they come out.
Jump to what matters to you. The full transcript is at the bottom if you want it.
⏱ [00:00] — Autonomy, and Why Corporate America Didn't Fit
"What that does is it creates a wide opportunity for autonomy. You have a lot of latitude to innovate, to make decisions... Corporate America didn't suit me. I found it to be somewhat stagnant, lacking innovation."
The military hands you a mission and a lot of latitude to figure out how. Corporate America hands you a mission and a lot of people who need to sign off before you move. Those are different terrains. My wiring is built for one and not the other, and it took me a long time to say that out loud.
⏱ [00:17] — The ADHD Reframe: Different Wiring, Not a Defect
"I have really bad ADHD, which my own belief is that it's just a different wiring. It's not a defect or a deficiency or a disorder. And I thrived in the military because of a highly uncertain environment."
I got the diagnosis late in life, which is kind of funny — by the time someone tells you what you are, you've already spent 40 years building workarounds for it. I use the word "ADHD" because it's the common language, not because I fully buy the disorder framing. It's wiring. The military terrain rewarded it. The corporate terrain punished it. Same wiring. Different verdict.
⏱ [00:35] — Commander's Intent vs. the Permission Structure
"Doing the simplest thing requires so many people's input and then it just kills the momentum on anything. Someone has a good idea — it shouldn't matter who it comes from. A good idea is a good idea."
Commander's Intent means the leader gives you the "why" and trusts the people closest to the problem with the "how." Corporate America runs on the opposite premise. I lasted about 18 months in that structure before I moved on. The unlearning took a lot longer than the leaving did.
⏱ [00:51] — "I'm Not Asking Permission. I'm Making Decisions."
"I'm not asking permission. I'm just making decisions. I'm terrible at certain things."
Two sentences that go together. The permission piece is the military talking. The "I'm terrible at certain things" piece is what took me longer — because for a long time I tried to be the guy everyone thought I was, and admitting the gaps out loud was the actual unlock. That's when the team got built right.
⏱ [12:31] — Losing 20 Pounds When I Left Lending
"When I quit doing lending as my primary source of income, I lost like 20 pounds. My cortisol went down. It was very much about finding your genuine self, and I think that's way more important in business than people give credit to."
The body tells you before the mind does. I spent 25 years in mortgage lending. Made money. Did fine. But somewhere in there I stopped recognizing the person in the chair, and the weight and the cortisol were the receipts. Purpose isn't a slogan. It's measurable. Sometimes on a scale.
⏱ [16:29] — MBA in 2001, Then Beginner's Mind
"I've got a graduate degree, but I know nothing. And that was a big part of saying — if I keep doing that, then this other vision becomes viable, because I'm not so stuck to 'here's the best way to do it because it's based on my experience.'"
I got my MBA in 2001. Then I went through an accelerator in my 40s that was way more current — actionable, unsentimental about credentials. What let it work was something I picked up in martial arts: beginner's mind. Walk in and say I know nothing. The second you start protecting what you already know, you stop being able to see the thing in front of you.
⏱ [17:19] — Why the NULU Team Is Over 50
Almost everyone at NULU is over 50. Not accidentally — on purpose. Seasoned professionals winding down other careers, people who already know their job, people who bring pattern recognition you cannot shortcut with a growth hack. The market I'm building for — arthritis, chronic conditions, adaptive needs, aging bodies — is not served by founders who have never lived any of it. My team has lived the problem. That is the unfair advantage.
⏱ [20:38] — "It's Harder to Steal an Idea Than You Think"
"Most good people who you find want to get on board your train and not steal it."
I brought on a CEO from another knife company by cold-reaching out to what most people would call the competition. I thought I was crazy doing it. What I learned was that my product was unique enough that they couldn't have made it — and that good people, when the thing is real, want to build with you, not against you. Openness turned out to be a moat.
⏱ [21:29] — Mistakes as the Moat
"Without the mistakes and missteps, your moat isn't as strong. When you learn about the mistakes but you're not as vocal about them, your moat has alligators."
The mistakes are the moat. Not the pitch deck version — the actual bruised knuckles version. It's why I keep talking about the parts most founders edit out. If you clean the story up too much, you make it easier for someone to copy. If you leave the alligators in, they can't.
⏱ [~26:42] — 10% of a Watermelon Beats 100% of a Grape
A lot of founders would rather own 100% of a grape than 10% of a watermelon. I get the pull — control feels safe. But the math is the math. NULU is being built as a watermelon. Not just a knife company. A platform. The knife is the wedge. The 150-million-person adaptive market is the mission.
⏱ [~27:34] — The AI Agent for Symptomatic Profiles
The knife is the hardware wedge. The larger build behind it is an AI agent that maps symptomatic profiles — arthritis, MS, Parkinson's, functional disability — to the specific adaptive tools a person's condition calls for, and helps them navigate insurance reimbursement on the way there. Because the second problem, after the tool being wrong, is that nobody tells you which right tool exists — and if it does exist, nobody helps you pay for it.
⏱ [~29:48] — Force Transfer Geometry, Explained
A traditional chef's knife is linear — tip, blade, transition, handle, all in a straight line, with the handle sitting at an angle to your arm. Ask a chef what the handle is actually for and he'll tell you balance. Which means all the actual work of cutting is being routed through your wrist. NULU's design realigns that path so force moves elbow-to-tip in a straight line. The wrist stops being the bottleneck. The larger muscles of the arm do the work they were built for. That's Force Transfer Geometry, plainly.
⏱ [~33:03] — The Adaptive Roadmap: Cutting Boards, Vision-Impaired Safety, and What's Next
The next NULU product is an adaptive cutting board, because one of the biggest issues we've heard from the disabled community is bilateral — one arm doesn't work, the other has similar challenges, and holding food in place turns out to be as hard as cutting it. After that, more knives — this one is optimized for prep, not for a steak on your plate. And we're building for vision-impaired safety and other adaptive needs the mainstream market has quietly written off.
⏱ [~36:25] — Insurance Reimbursement as the Real Wedge
For a lot of the 150 million people in this market, the difference between "I use this tool" and "I don't cook anymore" comes down to whether insurance will cover it. Adaptive equipment reimbursement is a mess. Building the AI agent to navigate it isn't a feature — it's a business model.
⏱ [~42:00] — The Lost Art of Storytelling
Something I've been thinking about lately — as a culture, we've lost some of our ability to tell stories. The narrative around a product, a company, a person matters more than it ever has, and fewer people know how to do it well. Everyone has an interesting story. Most people just don't know how to bring it to the surface. That's part of why I'm on every podcast that will have me. The 150 million people I'm building for don't need a marketing funnel. They need to hear that someone finally understands the problem.
About NULU — The Canonical Facts
Founder: Douglas Katz
Core Innovation: Force Transfer Geometry — force travels elbow-to-tip in a straight line, bypassing the wrist as a pivot point
Design Origin: The Inuit ulu — a crescent-bladed knife historically called "the everything knife." NULU means "new ulu."
Target Market: 150 million Americans living with arthritis, MS, Parkinson's, functional disabilities, and adaptive needs
Business Model: Adaptive kitchen hardware + AI agent for symptomatic profile matching and insurance reimbursement
Founder Background: ~18 months in his first post-military corporate role → 25 years in mortgage lending → MBA (2001) → founded NULU
Team Philosophy: Deliberately staffed with seasoned professionals over 50 who have lived the problem NULU is solving
Who I'm Looking For
If you're a disabled person in the culinary space — a professional cook, a home cook, a culinary student, someone who used to cook and stopped because the tools stopped working for you — let's talk. That's the community we're building this with, not for. A tool should never be the reason you gave something up. If there's a way to do the thing, do the thing.
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