When the casting crew for reality TV show America’s Greatest Makers wants you on their show, they make sure you know it. Cooper Bierscheid, NDSU grad and the founder of Fargo-based startup Protosthetics, found this out earlier this year when he was blasted on all communication fronts for a casting call.

“An executive sent me an e-mail, phone call, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter — all at once,” Bierscheid said. “I thought, ‘what do they want?'”

Turns out they want Protosthetics on their show. Last week, Bierscheid and Tiegen had their first interview, stamped with the approval of the casting call executive. Should they move forward they will travel to Los Angeles to meet the executive producers and Intel executive team.

America’s Greatest Makers is a TBS reality show which premiered this April. It’s similar to hits like The Voice, Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model– but instead of wannabe popstars, style icons, and Tyra Banks, the competitors are tech geeks on a mission to market their inventions.

At the beginning of each season, 24 teams travel to Los Angeles to pitch their wearable or smart devices to a panel of judges (Intel CEO Brian Krzanich; serial entrepreneur, angel investor, musician, and comedian Kevin Pereira; media personality and creator of Future File, Carol Roth). They then go into a series of Battle Rounds, working to fine-tune their products, until the 24 is narrowed down to the top five teams.

The surviving five win $100,000 each, and continue to battle it out for the $1 million grand prize.

Last season’s winning makers were the team behind Grush, a smart toothbrush that transforms the tooth brushing from a chore into an interactive game for kids using Bluetooth technology.

For Protosthetics, the show comes in the midst of a wild year. In September 2015, Cooper Bierscheid  won the Spark your Startup competition in Barnesville, a prize which included $10,000 to set up shop in the small town. In November, his team grew to two with the addition of Josh Teigen. In January, Bierscheid traveled to Haiti to deliver a prosthetic to a man born without an arm.

Protosthetics first gained national attention when they developed a 3D-printed arm called the PAL which they could market for around $400 — a shockingly low cost compared to the average market price for a prosthetic which hovers around $30,000. Since then they have continued to move forward with their products, most recently with the release of a waterproof prosthetic leg called the Amphibian. Now they even have an intern.

The logical next step for a startup that has done it all in a matter of months?

Reality show stardom.

To be on the show does have a few requirements. For instance, each team entering the call for casting of America’s Greatest Makers Season 2 is required to integrate one piece of Intel technology into their product idea.

But Bierscheid is already thinking of ideas. It’d be hard to integrate an Intel chip into a product like the PAL… but, “I could do it,” he says.

 

Other makers interested in applying or learning more can do so here.