YouTuber JerryRigEverything couldn’t justify spending $20,000 on an off-road wheelchair, so he welded two e-bikes together to build one for his paralyzed girlfriend. Now, his company sells $999 wheelchair

YouTuber Zack Nelson, better known for his channel JerryRigEverything, which tore apart every piece of electronics he could get his hands on to “review technology from the inside,” decided to start a YouTube channel after losing his job at a cell phone store.

In 2012, when he opened the YouTube channel, which now has over 10 million subscribers with over 1.6k videos, Zack was only hoping to earn 10 cents a day. His early videos were on Jeep repairs, wrecking smartphones, testing their durability, and sometimes assembling them back together.

Other than his shining figures on YouTube, Zack is also the creator of a company called NotaWheelchair, which he built from his YouTube earnings and sells affordable wheelchairs starting from a thousand dollars.


Another important part of the story is that in 2020, when commercially available off-road wheelchairs at the time cost around $20,000, according to Utah Business, he launched “The Rig,” priced around $5000. In April this year, he again disrupted the mobility market by launching “The Paradox Project,” which sells custom manual wheelchairs under $1,000.

A DIY wheelchair for a hiking date

Zack’s wife, Cambry, whom he met eight years ago because of a dating app glitch, was paralyzed in an equestrian accident at the age of 18. She had been a lifelong athlete, but her mobility became restricted by the limitations of conventional wheelchairs, particularly on grass, gravel, and uneven trails, and Zach noticed it.

He eventually came up with the idea of building an off-road wheelchair using two electric bikes. “I secretly built this off-road wheelchair by tying 2 electric bikes together with a seat in the center - kind of like a chariot of sorts,” Nelson explained in a video.

The couple even used the makeshift wheelchair to hike the iconic “Y” mountain in Provo, Utah, on a date.

Nelson filmed the entire building process and uploaded it to his YouTube channel. Impressed by its 20 mile/hour speed and 20-mile range, the video attracted questions from viewers, many of whom wanted to know why such wheelchairs were not available commercially at a more affordable price.

The couple made a wheelchair company

The response was probably one of the reasons that encouraged Nelson to take the project further. In 2020, he and Cambry launched Not A Wheelchair in Spanish Fork, Utah, to make off-road mobility equipment more accessible.

Their first major product, The Rig, an electric all-terrain wheelchair that could travel across surfaces that traditional wheelchairs cannot easily navigate, was sold for under $5,000 (now it's $5,999).

“Normal off-road wheelchairs can cost anywhere from $10,000-20,000. This Not A Wheelchair only costs $4,750, which is half the price and twice the specs of a normal off-road wheelchair,” Nelson explained in a 2020 video introducing the Rig.


According to Utah Business, the YouTube audience became an important part of the company's product development process. Viewers of the YouTube channel shared feedback, suggested improvements, and eventually helped Nelson understand demand for the product.

Cambry said the invention also changed how she viewed her own future.

“I had this tunnel vision of what my life was,” she told Utah Business. “Zack opened it up with The Rig, and it opened my eyes to a lot of different possibilities. It felt like a piece of me had come back.”

A $999 wheelchair and a different business model

The company later released Paradox Project, a customized manual wheelchair that starts at $999. “Paradox wheelchair isn't a one-size-fits-all; it's super custom, with over 16 quintillion different unique options to choose from. Every person is different, and so is every wheelchair,” Nelson announced in an April 2026 video announcing the affordable manual wheelchair.

The company's approach also differs from that of many traditional startups,as they used the earnings from his YouTube channel to finance the business, rather than relying on any venture capitalists. “The best thing about having a YouTube channel is we don't need advertising,” he told Utah Business.

He has his own rationale for not seeking outside funding. “I've always been very nervous that the minute we bring in outside funding, we would lose our ability to make inexpensive wheelchairs,” he said. Adding, “When someone needs a product to survive, you can charge whatever you want for it, and they have to pay for it, and I don’t feel like that’s the right thing to do.”

According to Utah Business, Nelson expects the company to break even in late 2026 or early 2027. In Jack’s case, it's one of the finest examples of when a creator can capitalize on content and vice versa and make the situation a win-win for consumers, creators, and companies.