Kloepfer had been looking for a science fair project to complete during his sophomore year of high school. During that time the Aurora theater shooting occurred just 5 minutes from where he lived and that’s when he thought about finding a way to use technology to solve the problem of gun violence.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickdaso/2017/10/31/from-start-to-startup-kai-and-biofire-technologies/

Kloepfer went through 150 prototype revisions to build a working biometric scanner on a firearm that would only fire if the persons fingerprint matched the gun owners. He was so burnt out by the end of his sophomore year and estimated that he would need $50,000 to create a functioning fingerprint sensor that he could integrate into the smart gun.

Kloepfer applied to a Smart Tech challenge hosted the Smart Tech Foundation and in the summer after his junior year he got an email with a $50,000 grant to support his work. The capital Allowed him to continue his research rest of high school and he then took a gap year before his freshman year at MIT to continue working on his smart gun technology.

Right before Kloepfer entered MIT as a freshman, his research became a full-fledged startup and Biofire Technologies was born. Kloepfer has found it challenging to work as a full-time entrepreneur while also being a full-time MIT student.

Biofire hired aerospace and defense engineers to help with their approach towards making the smart gun and also testing it. They also use trusted experts and reviewers on YouTube and podcasts to review and promote the product. Biofire is currently just a small team but they are on track to hiring a few others to help Kloepfer in his question to reduce suicide due to firearms.

As his company grows Kloepfer relays on the expertise of aerospace and defense engineers combined with the billions of dollars of technology development in other industries and all the money they have raised in fundraising to create the Biofire smart gun that will become available to the public for safe home defense.

kloepfer spent 1,500 hours experimenting with pistols that his mother bought for him in order to develop his prototype.

https://www.5280.com/inside-biofire-and-the-mind-that-created-the-worlds-first-smart-gun/

Kai Kloepfer now has his Biofire’s headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado where they continue to work on their mission to give gun owners better tools for reducing gun injuries and deaths, especially among children and teens. https://www.builtincolorado.com/company/biofire

Biofire raised $30 million in fundraising for their company to grow and expand. They finally have started getting the product out on the market thanks to all the fundraising and all the work that went into creating the smart gun. They have 1000s of preorders that they are going to fulfill once they start sending the smart guns out.

Kai Kloepfer made the Forbes magazine 30 under 30 in 2017 for consumer technology which further promoted his product and kind of introduced what he was doing to the world and what he is doing for gun safety.