Unstoppable: How Step Tranovich made incredible accomplishments despite suffering a loss of hand function
By: Authority Magazine
Tags: Business

Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is really an honor. Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My whole life I’ve been a bit of a boundary-pusher and an inventor at the same time. In 2013 I graduated from the George Washington University with degrees in electrical engineering and physics. I then moved out west to San Francisco, getting involved in the booming tech industry. In my free time during these years, I started the activist group Loud & Queer, along with a few other boundary-pushing groups and events series. Tech during the day, art and activism at night. Then it all came to an end when I started suffering from Lyme disease.

Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the story surrounding how you became disabled or became ill? What mental shift did you make to not let that “stop you”?

It was a crazy and scary time. It continues to be, but particularly so at the beginning before anyone knew what was going on.

One day in late 2018 I noticed my arms were in pain and my hands were a little numb after a long workday at the computer. Every day it started to increase, until one month later I could no longer use a computer and I was forced to leave my tech job. At first I thought it was carpal tunnel. But then the numbness spread to my feet.

It was crazy. None of the doctors I went to could tell me what was going on. I had no idea if I would be like this forever, or if I was even going to live. My future was a blank slate. It was terrifying, but also freeing in a sense. I became extremely grateful for what I had and extremely open to what the future had to hold.

This gratitude was the major mental shift that allowed me to move beyond the initial grief of disability. It reminded me that, regardless of the future, right now I was alive. And that’s something awesome.

The second major mental shift was realizing that this wasn’t something to ignore or push past. It was something to learn from, and possibly even something that could help me. I think a lot of founders fail because they try to do everything all the time. But I couldn’t push my body like that anymore. I could do one, maybe two things a day for my business. And so I made sure those were the things that counted most. I don’t know where I would be now without the focus my disability gave me.

Can you tell our readers about the accomplishments you have been able to make despite your disability or illness ?

Before I answer this I want to note that I have not done anything despite my disability. I have done everything with my disability. I do not have an adversarial relationship with my limitations; they are a part of me, a lens through which I view my world, and that is an important distinction.

With that said, I am very proud of the things which have happened over the past two years since I began my battle with Lyme disease. In fact, I’ve had more success in the past two years than any others in my life. I launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign as the first adult toy on their platform in seven years, funded in 12 hours and reaching over 3x our goal. I then turned that campaign into a lucrative company with product in major retailers and shipping all over the world. My company and I have been featured in dozens of publications and nominated for several awards, including myself being listed as one of Bitch Media’s 50 most impactful creators, artists, and activists of 2020. All of this, and simultaneously fulfilling my lifelong dream of recording my own music album, played by robots I designed to take the place of my hands, to be released early 2021.

What advice would you give to other people who have disabilities or limitations?

Accept your limitations. You don’t have to love your limitations, but it’s important to love yourself with your limitations. Listen to them, work with them, and find what wisdom they hold. One of the biggest reasons for failure is people try to do too much. When you listen to your disability and accept what you can no longer do, your path to success becomes all the clearer. What you can do is what you can do, and that clarity can be very freeing.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

So many people. I could never choose just one, it would be doing a disservice to the rest. Thank you so much Theo, Quinn, and Xander for being my hands in the early days when I really had no use of my own. Thank you Ola for wanting to explore some experimental engineering with me. Thank you Stefanos, William, Misha, and Ariel for the incredible community you build and for letting me and CLF be part of it. And thank you Arthur for helping me not get too ahead of myself along the way. I know you didn’t ask me for a list, but I really am just too grateful for too many people to not give you one.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

One of the incredible things about CLF is how much it in itself is a vehicle for social change. We are bringing gender equality, sexuality quality, and trans awareness into stores and other arenas where these ideas are only beginning to take hold. Every time Cosmopolitan or Authority etc. write about us, it normalizes non-binary identities and healthy sexual expression.

The amount of inbound messages we get on our social media pages from people sharing how deeply our work has impacted them, we actually have to carve space out of every week just to thank them for their messages. I don’t want them to stop though! All the love is a sign that we are doing the right thing, and it’s what I love most about what I’ve created.

Can you share “5 things I wish people understood or knew about people with physical limitations” and why.

Disability isn’t something to ‘overcome’, it’s simply a part of our lives. People with physical limitations are extremely capable, sometimes the most capable people, often in ways you wouldn’t expect. Just because you don’t understand it or see it, doesn’t mean someone’s disability isn’t real. People achieving success with physical limitations deserve respect, but not surprise. All of this is true for people with mental limitations as well.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?

For every challenge, pain, or problem, there is an equal and opposite opportunity. Do not be blinded by difficulty. Seek opportunity.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this :-)

I would love to chat with any VCs who aren’t too wrapped up in morality clauses to invest in the extremely lucrative world of sex tech. CLF is already very profitable and not looking for funding, but I have a few other projects up my sleeves that could be a great bit of fun to chat about over lunch.

Also, any amazing LGBTQ+ creators or entrepreneurs. Elliot Page or Jonathan Van Ness? I’m always up for a good chat!