Top 20 under 40: VALD Performance CEO Laurie Malone

Part of a new wave of Queensland tech businesses, this Brisbane-based company is set to revolutionise physiotherapy globally with a wave of innovative products.

Brisbane’s VALD Performance is part of a wave of Queensland sport-based start-ups making it big on the international field.

Started in 2014, VALD has grown from seven employees at the start of last year to just over 50 now and is about to launch a new tech product it hopes will revolutionise physiotherapy globally.

Its first product was a high-quality portable hamstring testing device — the NordBord — created by two QUT scientists which is now used by more than 500 elite sports teams worldwide.

“In May 2015, we did our first one page plan to have 500 NordBords globally in five years and we did 500 in three years, alongside developing and acquiring three other technologies,” CEO Laurie Malone, 34, says.

VALD Performance CEO Laurie Malone (right) and Michael Eggleton demonstrate the NordBord. Picture: AAP/Richard Walker

“Some would say our big, hairy, audacious goal was probably too low but I can assure you when we wrote that down on a bit of paper it was very, very scary.”

Malone says VALD is now set to launch an allied health brand that will take the company’s elite sports testing systems and make it affordable and accessible for everyday patient rehabilitation.

The new venture, called HumanTrack, assesses human movement and guides patients through rehabilitation exercises and has been rolled out already to scores of physios.

“We like to think we are one of the first companies to take expensive sports tech and make it affordable and bring it into healthtech,” Malone says.

VALD plans to add another 30 staff over the next 12 months.