Justin Hafner

Justin Hafner is a repeat founder with deep experience at the intersection of science, technology, and venture creation. Before Ateklo, he built Kinotek Inc., an FDA listed medical technology company whose platform scaled to 100,000+ patients and 1,000+ clinicians in the first 18 months of FDA listing. Under his leadership, Kinotek pioneered a new industry standard vital sign for human movement, achieved triple digit month over month growth in its first revenue year, raised over $6M in venture capital, and led its transition to private equity ownership in 2023.

Trained as a kinesiologist, engineer, and technologist, he has repeatedly translated frontier science into products. In his early career he discovered his passion for building by open sourcing research side projects like a software program to convert 2D MRI images into anatomically correct 3D models and helping pioneer computer vision systems for unsighted navigation.

Beyond company building, Justin has helped shape startup ecosystems by representing early stage founders before the state's $1B+ COVID recovery budget process, has helped design and build incubators and accelerators (Roux Institute & leAD HealthTech), and continues to mentor startups through Techstars and other national accelerators. His direct experience with the problem Ateklo aims to solve, combined with a passion for frontier science, operating discipline, ecosystem building, and venture execution, positions Justin to lead Ateklo in its mission to close the human machine collaboration gap.