Doug Kelly gave new meaning to the colloquialism “putting your own skin in the game.” The phrase normally applies to an investor willing to risk his or her own money as a clear vote of confidence in a company with a still undetermined future. However Kelly, general partner at Alloy Ventures, put his actual skin into the game in December. Bald most of his adult life, Kelly chose to undergo a hair transplant procedure using the ARTAS system, the robotic hair retrieval system manufactured by Restoration Robotics Inc., one of his own portfolio companies. Kelly never was comfortable with his baldness, but he was less comfortable with the surgical options available to remedy it. His decision to undergo the procedure using the ARTAS robot only happened because he had confidence that the new device could reliably produce the result he wanted.
Kelly’s change of heart is an early indicator of a robotic revolution Restoration Robotics might be bringing to the aesthetics industry. In recent years, companies like Accuray Inc.,