Diane Bouis | MedTech Innovator | Connection & Mentorship, ”Switching,” & Being a ”Nerd in a Suit”

Diane Bouis is a scientist-turned-startup leader and ecosystem connector with MedTech Innovator. In this episode, she shares how accelerator programs can make a big difference in the success of a medtech startup, her passion for mentoring scientists leaving academia, her unique ability to "switch" easily and effectively, and why she self-identifies as a "nerd in a suit."

Guest links: https://medtechinnovator.org/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-bouis/

Charity supported: Save the Children

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host: Lindsey Dinneen
Editor: Tim Oliphant
Producer: Velentium

 

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Episode 008 - Diane Bouis

Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey with Velentium and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

Hello and welcome to the Leading Difference Podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce to you as my guest today, Diane Bouis. Diane is a scientist turned startup leader and ecosystem connector. She is the director of the US Program of MedTech Innovator, which is the largest accelerator for MedTech in the world. Diane, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited you're here.

Diane Bouis: I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, I would love if you would just start by introducing us to you. Let us know a little bit about yourself and your background, kind of what led you to this industry and this field.

Diane Bouis: Thanks for that question. Quite a few years ago. I told my parents at age 14 that I wanted to become a medical scientist and solve HIV/ AIDS, and cancer. No lack of ambition there. And I'll say unfortunately, I have not managed to solve either of these two problems so far. But I became a medical scientist, did my PhD in the Netherlands and then moved to the US right after my PhD to do a postdoc at University of Michigan. So, classic scientist trajectory, you do a PhD, you go to the US to do a postdoc and then you go back to Europe to become a professor.

I'm originally from France and so, so any European country would've done, but really loved it, loved the research that I was doing in cardiovascular research and stuck around and eventually left academic research by way of an MBA. And discovered startups and discovered the fact that science and business folks don't always speak the same language. And I often jokingly describe it as the dichotomy between the scientists who look at the business people just as suits, and the business people who look at the scientists as nerds. And so I always say, I'm a nerd in a suit. I am business and science, and that's an excellent place to be. So my motivation remains to save lives, but it has broadened a little bit from two very specific diseases to saving and improving lives across the industry.

Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. And oh my goodness. Yeah, you were definitely ambitious right from the get-go. I love it. I love it. And I love how your path has changed along the way, but you have clearly stayed open to all sorts of different opportunities and that has led you to experience some really amazing things, and like you said, you get to be a part of a lot of different discoveries and innovations and I think that's awesome. Well, thanks for telling us a little bit about your background. I am curious what you do now and how has that all come about?

Diane Bouis: So I'll take a step back and tell you a little bit about MedTech Innovator. And I appreciate that you mentioned in your introduction. We're the largest accelerator for MedTech in the world. And MedTech Innovator has been around for a decade. I am rather new into my job. I'm less than a year with the organization, so I don't really have merit in building this fantastic organization. However, we run an accelerator program between the month of June and October. But taking that a step back to, to really where we are and what we do. We work with startups in MedTech and we define that as medical devices and healthcare IT. And we work with startups in MedTech between the seed stage and the series C, so that's a very broad swath, I would say our cohorts are roughly split in two between the earlier stages, so seed and series A. And the later stages, B and C. And we work closely with our strategic partners. MedTech Innovator is a nonprofit, and so we're not asking for equity, we're not asking folks to relocate. We are really the conduit to great partners and mentors. And that is with great names in the industry and as well as investors. Basically, we connect you to people who can help you get to the next level. That's what an accelerator does, and we do it uniquely in MedTech.

And so I run the US program. That is the largest one, the flagship one. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the other two programs. We have an Asia-Pacific program that Sakeena Tan runs out of Singapore. And we have a BioTools program that Ayelet Marom runs. She's also in LA and so, specifically BioTools and MedTech innovator, we're in the same geography. We are working very closely together as we are recruiting startups. BioTools is adjacent and between the two programs, sometimes the applications overlap. MedTech is anything that impacts patients, whereas the BioTools application could be a startup that is in research tools or that is in platform technologies for personalized medicine. So those are the three programs. That's that's really where we play. And I personally run the West program, which means finding great startups, soliciting applications from great startups, and then facilitating some of the review. We have fantastic partners and reviewers and judges as well as then creating the program that really helps those companies accelerate.

Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you so much for that background, because that does provide a lot of context for our conversation and obviously for the amazing work that MedTech Innovator does and I can personally say from having attended just one event last year, that included some of the MTI companies that are part of this experience-- oh my goodness. I mean, it was so inspiring to hear from these inventors who are coming up with just amazing, life-changing devices. And wow, those stories must inspire you every day.

Diane Bouis: I agree. I always say I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business: saving or improving lives. And the inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. And so I get to work with the greatest people.

Lindsey Dinneen: Well, so you mentioned a little bit when you were talking about your background, and I think this is a great thing to touch on, there can, not always, but there can often be a little bit of a disconnect between what you referred to as suits versus, did you say nerds or geeks?

Diane Bouis: I said nerds. I self-identify as a nerd.

Lindsey Dinneen: Okay, perfect. So what have you found that has really helped bridge the gap between those two, especially for, say these brilliant scientists and nerds, who, you know, have fantastic ideas, but maybe don't have as much of the business background to really bring those ideas to market , to actually market them, so that people can actually know that they exist and things. So, how has your interconnectedness of those two elements played out through your own career and as you are now in this role.

Diane Bouis: There's a couple of things that come to mind. One: it is very hard for all of us to know what we don't know. And so if I know, I don't know something, I can seek knowledge. I can ask someone questions. I can go and find a book and read it. I can get a course. If I don't know that I don't know, something, that's much harder. And so, every single one of us can strive to uncover the unknown unknowns. And one of the ways to do that is to surround yourself with people who are somewhat different from you and who know different things than you.

And so to come back to the inventor who has found a really fascinating phenomenon or who has invented a really interesting device but may not know a good way to get it into the world, to bring it into the market. In many ways, it's a matter of asking questions because when I meet someone for the first time, I don't know if they have perhaps previously held commercialization positions and know what they're talking about or not. And so asking questions: " who would use this? Do you know what the need is out there?" Depending on the situation and the level of comfort, it crystallizes to "who cares?" but saying, "who cares?" can feel adversarial. And so you've gotta pick your words wisely there.

But asking questions and learning and than bringing up the concept of the unknown unknowns to simply put that out there, you, and I say you in this case, to an inventor, maybe the world leader in a particular area of science. And while during my days in the lab, I was definitely very conversant in my particular scientific niche, I also recognize that there are areas of science that I'm not that conversant about, and so everybody understands that they're very good at something and maybe less good at other things. And so just opening that conversation. Once we both agree, maybe you don't quite know how to get to market, then we can have the conversation around, "okay, well what are the resources available to you here and elsewhere to learn about this and to learn what you might be missing?" And then sometimes I can connect someone to resources, accelerators are a good one, but very often there's grant funding opportunities. There are local economic development entities. There are other entrepreneurs. There are entrepreneurial organizations from whom you might be able to learn a thing or two. We learn a lot from our peers and so even recognizing that you may need a peer group can be helpful.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. So I'm curious, is there a particular moment that stands out to you because it clearly confirmed that this was the right career for you?

Diane Bouis: I will say for me, there have been several interesting moments of change and getting into accelerators was not an obvious choice. While a lot of our world was was slowing down due to the pandemic, I had the opportunity to help someone I know design a curriculum for a digital health accelerator and had a ton of fun with that. That person knew that I've done programming. I co-founded a healthcare hackathon nonprofit. I've run events that help healthcare innovators in many different ways. And so they knew that I could help with that and and so I did. And I had a ton of fun designing a curriculum and running a curriculum. And while that was supposed to be a one-off during the pandemic in my spare time, I recognized I had a ton of fun with it. And I think whenever, in our careers we realize, I'm doing something that is valuable, that people appreciate and that I'm really enjoying, ask yourself, is there a job where I can do more of that or where I can do that all the time? And so I, I did what any reasonable person would do. I Googled top "10 medtech accelerators." Lo and behold, as you would imagine the top result was MedTech Innovator and I had run across some social media posts from MedTech Innovator before so it wasn't completely new, but I thought, "gee, that seems to be the right organization for me, let me reach out to them." And I'm very fortunate that a little over a year later, here I am.

Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. What a great story. Do more of what you love when you can. Well, now obviously you have held a variety of different positions throughout your career, and it sounds like leadership has been a running thread, and so I'm curious, how would you define leadership or what does leadership mean to you?

Diane Bouis: I would say leadership is defining a shared goal and aligning one's self and one's actions to it, which then in turn also means aligning a team towards those goals. And so when the goals are very clear, we can all move in unison towards them. A friend of mine once said, "just hire great people and get out of the way." And I think that is correct, but that only works if you have a great shared vision where everybody intuitively knows we're all moving in this direction, therefore this is the correct action even if I don't have the opportunity to ask you for direct feedback. And so give a lot of feedback in the beginning and then align to that shared vision that we're all pursuing. So, to summarize, set a shared vision and and then go after it together.

Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Very good. Yeah. And then what would be your best piece of advice for someone who maybe is early on in their career or is looking for the next step or whatnot, then they're interested in obtaining a leadership role within the medtech industry. What would you say to someone who might be wanting to do that?

Diane Bouis: The advice I always give to my mentees is, of course, get your name out there. And so say yes to opportunities, even if it's not immediately obvious how they will benefit you and in ways that are somewhat transparently self-serving. When you have opportunities to, for example, participate in ecosystem events. When you can give advice to a budding startup, when you have an opportunity to be on a panel or in a speaking role at a conference, those are ways in which you can showcase your leadership in the field, showcase the leadership, thought leadership of your organization. That's one of the ways a rising manager, a rising person in our industry really can get out there. I would also highly recommend joining professional organizations and joining a committee. It is about giving back to the industry, but it is also about the other members of that committee. We are at the same time, a large industry as well as an industry small enough where you will encounter people again, maybe not next year, but maybe 2, 3, 5 years from now. And so, be a good citizen and involve yourself in things that are directly useful to you professionally, as well as not immediately useful to you, but perhaps useful to others. It's a great practice to grow oneself, but it's also leading by example for the people you work with. Just because telling people to do something is one, doing it is the other. People will observe what you do and what you prioritize and will make similar choices.

Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. So, being a model, even if you are not yet in that position, but you are modeling the kinds of behavior that a good leader would want to exude anyway, so you can start doing that no matter what your job title is or where you are in your career.

Diane Bouis: I would agree especially , with the complexities in the MedTech industry, nobody knows everything and we sometimes don't know what other people know. And so, speaking up when you have knowledge that could benefit someone, is really helpful. I consider that as I still mentor scientists leaving academia. I consider that one of the biggest differences between academia and the business world. In academia, you only speak up when you truly know. In the business world, nobody has time for that, to wait until the last person might have gotten enough data to make a call. And so if you know something, speak up. There's opportunity to be heard. And if you have something to contribute, it would be a mistake to not contribute it. Together, we can truly make a bigger difference than individually.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. I love that advice. And I'm curious because you've mentioned you don't know what you don't know, adopting kind of a growth mindset and your own continuous learning and growing as a person. And I'm curious, as a leader, how do you prioritize your own learning and growing?

Diane Bouis: While I was still a scientist and contemplating getting an MBA, a friend of mine who had walked that path from PhD to MBA before suggested spending 10 to 20% of one's time on personal growth and personal growth is sometimes giving back to the ecosystem. So sometimes that's giving somebody else career advice, but also spending time reading something that is not directly pertinent to your work. And so, it can be a newsletter from a different industry. It can be a scientific article, it can be a book. Often concepts from other industries can really help. And so, making sure that you take the time to grow yourself beyond just the ability to make interesting small talk at the next conference, but really thinking about what the future looks like, the future of our industry, but your personal future and the world can lead to choices of books, of courses, of where is the world going to be in 10 years, and where do I want to be in 10 years? And the answers to those questions should lead to a couple of steps to do every week, every month to keep growing.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Good advice. Thank you for sharing that. So for fun, imagine someone were to offer you a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It doesn't have to be in your industry. It absolutely could be if you'd like, what would you choose to teach and why?

Diane Bouis: I think, I would enjoy designing a masterclass in switching, and that might sound funny at first, but I have come to realize that is something that I happen to be quite good at and that not everybody else is good at. And switching for me can be switching between different industries. I've worked industry agnostic almost for the past decade while I come from the biomedical sector. And so I can bring an analogy out of agricultural technology or petroleum refining that someone in the medical industry may not have thought about. So that's switching in terms of switching industries. But far more personally, I happen to be a speaker of several languages. I speak both French and German to my parents, and that's where the accent is from that, that usually tricks somebody up. So it's worth saying. And what I've realized since a very young age is many people speak languages quite well. I happen to be really good at switching and translating in real time, and so I can keep up a conversation with 2, 3, 4 people in 2, 3, 4 different languages simultaneously. And so switching is often the hard part and learning and teaching to really seamlessly go from one language to another or one area of science or a business to another, I think is a useful skill more of us could have. Now I would need at least a month to actually really design that course, but it would be a ton of fun. I think I'd enjoy that.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh, well I love that. That sounds like a wonderful skill to have. It peaked my curiosity a little bit because you had mentioned before that transition and for yourself and helping other people with a transition from say, the academic world for scientists or whoever to transition out of that. And I'm wondering for yourself or the people that you mentor, and this is a huge, I would think, shift for anyone. I mean, I've undergone various shifts as well, and it's sometimes it kind of impacts your identity. Do you find that's a component, that is something that you would talk about, say in your masterclass or even that you talk about in real life in your mentoring other people? Is that a component of it that you have found has been something to consider as you're making these life changes, these switches?

Diane Bouis: Absolutely. That's a really great question. We spend the largest part of our waking time at work, and so what we do professionally largely defines us, for better or worse, and that also means that if we make substantial changes that will almost invariably impact how we see ourselves and how others see us. And both of those, how we see ourselves and how others see us have a big impact on our psyche and how we perform in what we do. So it's important to be cognizant of that. And for me, that first step was leaving academic science. I'd been a scientist for a decade, and so "I am a scientist" stops being true when you're an MBA student. So then you're a former scientist, but you haven't quite arrived to, what am I now? And so, so, how do you define yourself? And I will often say "I'm lean startup" and working with startups is far more who I am these days and how I define myself. So helping startups is really the nutshell. But how we define ourselves is important. And it's important to spend some time on it because what we signal to the world, and especially people earlier in their careers, where you have been is evident from your resume, but who you want to be your next step is yours to tell. And so that is really important. And the past informs the future, but doesn't automatically define it.

Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a subject that is not talked about a lot. But it is so important because it is, it's a huge component of making those switches and being able to make those switches effectively in terms of how you see yourself and like you said, how others see you. It does play a role and so it's nice to have honest conversations about that and, " let's think through that. Let's work through that." Thank you for sharing that. What is the one thing you wish to be remembered for after you leave this world?

Diane Bouis: I would say probably for caring. I care deeply and so most people and organizations and startups I interact with I cannot help but care, but that also often means I lean in and I, I truly do want to help sometimes in unconventional ways. Startups are unconventional, so caring. I think if there's one thing to be remembered for, it would be caring.

Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That is a wonderful thing to be remembered for. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?

Diane Bouis: I would say what fills me with joy and therefore makes me smile-- but it is a more profound feeling of joy-- it is good people coming out of the woodwork when asked. That is the very definition of community. Somebody needs help and asks, and the community comes to the rescue. I am part of a number of local communities, obviously with MedTech Innovator, for example, we just had a call earlier today with a 2022 cohort. So those are folks, most of them I haven't seen since October. And about 25 or so of the startups, of the 50 startups that went through the cohort, showed up just for updates. But then there's always someone who has a question as in, "Hey, have you heard of this conference? Hey, do you know someone who can help with this? Hey, do you know about this?" And there's always somebody who has an answer. And so it's community. It is asking for help and receiving help. That'll make my day every day of the week.

Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. What a great answer. I just absolutely love that. Well, I just wanna say thank you so, so very much for your time today. Thank you for sharing your advice, your insight a little bit more about MedTech Innovator and everything that they provide to this industry. I just really appreciate it. We are very honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Save the Children, which works to end the cycle of poverty by ensuring communities have the resources to provide children with a healthy, educational, and safe environment. That was Diane's choice of an organization to support. And I just wanna say thank you so very much for doing that, Diane, and we just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. So thank you again so much for being here today.

Diane Bouis: Thank you very much for having me.

Lindsey Dinneen: Of course, and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.

The Leading Difference podcast is brought to you by Velentium.

Velentium is a contract design and manufacturing firm specializing in the development, production and post-market support of diagnostic and therapeutic active medical devices, including implantables and wearables for neuromodulation and other class three indications.

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