Dean Kamen Reinvents Coke's Soda Fountain

The inventor of life-saving medical devices sees Coca-Cola's new Freestyle fountain as a way to make progress on his plan to deliver potable water to kids worldwide

Coca-Cola's Freestyle soft-drink fountain offers 100 beverage choices. Coca-Cola

By Jessie Scanlon

Inventor Dean Kamen has segued to helping Coke with its new drink dispenser. Coca-Cola

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On Sept. 29, Dean Kamen—the maverick inventor behind the Segway and the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics, and the multimillionaire founder of DEKA Research & Development—stood before a small audience at the AMC Parkway Pointe theater in Atlanta to speak publicly for the first time about a recent collaboration. And it was a surprising one: The man known for developing life-saving medical devices had teamed up with Coca-Cola (KO) on the beverage giant's much-touted, next-generation soda fountain: the Freestyle.

Why was Kamen busying himself on a soft-drink dispenser? It brings to mind Steve Jobs's reputed question to PepsiCo (PEP) then-president and future Apple (AAPL) CEO John Sculley: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" Kamen falls in the latter camp, but he says he saw in Coca-Cola, and in the innovative Freestyle project specifically, a way to advance two of his change-the-world projects.

One of these—a nonprofit named FIRST, which is aimed at encouraging kids' interest in science and technology—actually forged the initial link, when Kamen asked Coca-Cola about becoming a FIRST sponsor six years ago. (That relationship continues—Coke was one of 14 sponsors of FIRST's 2009 Robotics Competition in April, though neither party will reveal any dollar amounts.) That's how Kamen got to know Nilang Patel, the head of Coca-Cola's research lab.

In early 2005, Patel's team started thinking about how to reinvent the company's fountain business, which controlled 75% of the market but hadn't changed much in decades. Knowing Kamen's reputation as a clever inventor, Patel approached him. Kamen was happy to develop closer ties with a FIRST sponsor, and he saw Coke as a potential future partner in his plan to deliver potable water to kids in the developing world, his other world-changing project.

Adapting Chemotherapy Technology

Kamen's immediate assignment, though, was to help re-engineer the fountain. "Measuring fluids, mixing fluids, moving fluids—that's what we do," says Kamen, 58. "Coca-Cola is used to delivering liters, while I was used to working at 10 to the minus ninth"—or 1 billionth—"of a liter, but the problems that Nilang and I work on are similar."

Patel and Kamen's engineering teams put together a rough prototype in February 2005 and presented it to Coke's business development team three months later. "We had seen a growing disconnect between our portfolio of brands and the eight choices we could offer at the fountain," says Gene Farrell, who joined the Freestyle team in mid-2005 and now serves as vice-president of the jet innovation program at Coca-Cola North America. "[Then CEO Neville] Isdell immediately saw the opportunity to reinvent the fountain business and create a dynamic new consumer experience."

Using technology adapted from systems that Kamen's DEKA previously had developed to deliver small but steady doses of chemotherapy drugs, the Freestyle can combine tiny amounts of concentrated ingredients, stored in cartridges, with carbonated water and sweetener to mix a beverage on the spot. Each new machine gives customers a choice of up to 100 different soft drinks, from favorites such as Coke Classic to customized offerings like grape Fanta. That's a 12 1/2-fold increase from the selections at most machines found in fast-food restaurants and movie theaters today.

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