Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Knives have always been a part of your life, whether it was in the field on a deployment or just something you took pride in using. But now, injuries, arthritis are just years of wear and tear make using them harder than it used to be. Now, what if there was a way to get that control back, to use a blade with confidence again?

Today’s guest, Doug Katz, is a West Point grad disabled Army veteran and an adaptive product innovator who is revolutionizing the way we use knives. His creation, the NuLu knife is helping people of all abilities cook safely and effectively. So stick around because this conversation isn’t just. About a knife.

It’s about, uh, regaining independence, dignity, and the ability to keep doing what you love. Uh, but before we dive in, head on over to Drive On Podcast dot com slash subscribe to get my top five favorite episodes sent straight to your inbox. And not only that, you’ll get updated [00:01:00] anytime a new episode is released.

So you’re always in the know. Um, let’s get into it.

Doug, I wanna welcome you to the show. Really glad to have you

Douglas Katz: Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Scott DeLuzio: it. Yeah, absolutely. So, um. Let’s start with, um, you know, maybe if you could just share a little bit about your background, your time in the military, uh, you know, that, that type of thing. Just to, you know, I always like to start it off with, with stuff like that, just to kind of give people an idea of who they’re talking to and you know, a little bit about who you are first, and then, and we’ll get, get into and, you know, kind of,

Douglas Katz: you want the origin story before the heroic stuff. Uh, so I was actually the first in the military from my family. Uh, I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And uh, you know, it’s funny, I’ve looked back on why did I go into the military, uh, and it’s hard, right? You look back, you’re a different person when you’re 18.

Uh, but it was the Reagan era, the time of Red Dawn, like all that kinda stuff, right? So, uh, you know, I think I really felt that calling. I, [00:02:00] um, wanted to be sort of in the thick of it. My first goal, I wanted to be a Marine, uh, and I had an ROTC scholarship for that. And then I had an awesome guidance counselor who basically was like, Hey, do you know about the academies?

I knew nothing about them. So, uh, I actually still was on that Marine. I wanted to, you know, go that way. I went to the Naval Academies summer session. And was lucky enough to, um, not get my appointment there from my, from my senator or congressman. They pointed me to go to West Point where I had never visited.

Uh, so my first experience at West Point, uh, was, ’cause I flew there alone actually. It was, it was kind of funny. Uh, and to this day, there’s a gentleman, my classmate, who we didn’t know each other, like, they had an area where we were all eating dinner. Then people whose parents weren’t dropping him off. And he was a guy.

I had dinner with that that night before we went in and we were both cared shitless. And, uh, I still, to this day, at every reunion we sit down and have a drink. But, so went to West Point [00:03:00] from 89 to 93. Uh, had a really great experience there. You know, I joke there’s a, there’s a way that they. Grade cadets coming in, right?

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