The Leading Difference

Hannah Went | Co-Founder, TruDiagnostic | Pioneering Epigenetics, Transforming Healthcare, & Making Science Accessible

Hannah Went, a pioneer in epigenetics, is the co-founder of TruDiagnostic and founder of Everything Epigentics. She shares her journey from the early days of TruDiagnostic to its burgeoning role in healthcare. She reflects on the rapid evolution of epigenetics, the challenges of making groundbreaking science accessible, and the gratifying shift towards mainstream acceptance. Hannah also delves into her personal growth, emphasizing the transformative impact of "The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership" and her desire to be remembered as loving and impactful. 
Guest links: trudiagnostic.com | everythingepigenetics.com
Charity supported: Equal Justice Initiative
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 041 - Hannah Went
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Hannah Went. Hannah has a lifelong passion for longevity and breakthrough disruptive technologies that drive radical improvement to the human condition. She attended the University of Kentucky and graduated with a degree in biology. During that time, she had multiple research internships studying cell signaling and cell biology. After graduation, she worked for the International Peptide Society as their Director of Research and Content. Through work in the integrative medicine industry, Hannah saw an opportunity for a methylation based age diagnostics and started TruDiagnostics in 2020. TruDiagnostic is a company focused on array based methylation diagnostics for life extension and preventative healthcare serving functional medicine providers. TruDiagnostic has a commitment to research with over 30 approved clinical trials investigating the epigenetic methylation changes of longevity and health interventions. Since TruDiagnostics' inception, they have created one of the world's largest private epigenetic health databases with over 75, 000 patients tested to date. Hannah has since created Everything Epigenetics, where she shares insights on how DNA regulation has an impact on your health.
All right, well, welcome to the show, Hannah. I'm so excited to talk with you today. Thanks for taking some time.
[00:02:14] Hannah Went: Thanks, Lindsey. I'm excited to speak with you.
[00:02:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, would you mind starting off by sharing a little bit about yourself and your background and what led you to MedTech?
[00:02:25] Hannah Went: Yes, absolutely. I've known since I was a little girl that I've always been interested in science, how the world works, how the body works. I remember being a little girl and going in our backyard, lifting up rocks, finding roly-polies and worms and getting all down and dirty. I was definitely a tom girl, if you will, growing up. I love sports. I loved connecting with people. So I also loved the social aspect of understanding how the body works as well. And I was very athletic growing up. So I played track soccer, basketball, sports all year round, essentially. I knew I wasn't good enough though, to go to like a D1 or probably even D2 college for sports.
So I was like, "All right, well, I'll just go to a larger university, maybe play some club soccer and really focus on my academic route." And I ended up going to University of Kentucky. It wasn't too far from me. I'm just from Ohio, north of Dayton, a small town called Piqua. And I did end up playing soccer, club soccer there, got involved in a lot of other activities. Ended up actually going into veterinary work, animal science. UK has a really good program for that. They have a really good agriculture department. I ended up shadowing a vet one summer and I hated it. It was one veterinarian clinic. So a lot of work, a lot of late hours. And I knew I wanted to have a family growing up.
So I was like, "Eh, let me just switch to general biology. Let me just open my doors." And fast forward to senior year. I was really interested in genetics and you know, how do we have these predispositions that are passed on throughout our family? How does that affect our health outcomes essentially? So I applied to genetic counseling school, which is a very new program. It's a master's program. It is where you get your master's essentially in genetics and counseling. So it's like the best of both worlds, exactly what I loved growing up. You have the science aspect, but you're sitting down and helping people actually understand their risk. Applied to school, Lindsey, and didn't end up getting in. So I was like, "Oh, I'm heartbroken. I'm still super young. My life's over!" type of deal, a big eye roll ,and thought it was the end of the world.
But really where my career took a huge turning point was at that failure point. I took a job, my best friend got me a position at a compounding pharmacy in Nicholasville, Kentucky, which is just a little bit South of Lexington. And that was when I was opened up into this entire medtech space of healthcare providers and the integrative functional medicine journey who were focusing on healthcare, like true healthcare, not sick care, not taking care of sick people when they're already sick, they're already doomed and just trying to bill them for all of these medications through insurance. So that's really how I've gotten to where I am today.
[00:05:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that is so cool. Well, first of all, thank you for sharing a little bit about your background. It was fun to even hear about your childhood and how that theme of interest in all those different aspects has woven its way through your story. And I would love to hear a little bit more then about, okay, so what does present day look like and how did you end up where you are?
[00:05:43] Hannah Went: Yes, so I'll try and keep it short and concise. So this pharmacy was very innovative. It was the fourth fastest growing healthcare company in the nation in 2019. And it's really focused on the unique peptide products. It was again a compounding pharmacy by trade, meaning you can compound anything in all different dosing as long as you have a prescription from a healthcare provider by it. They grew really fast. So, you know, we always had regulatory agencies come check in, make sure we were doing everything correctly, which we absolutely were. But there was always this worry that these products made people feel better, but there wasn't a lot of quantitative data behind it.
So we were like, "All right. Well, what can we measure in clinical trials and institution review boards to really prove to people out there, 'Hey, these are having a massive underlying biological effect on people.' They don't just feel better." We used to joke and say, "People can become tan, they can become skinny, they can increase their libido from these products, but they also actually save people's life." They stabilize insulin sensitivity. They can help people lose weight who have metabolic disease. They can mediate a lot of the effects of specific autoimmune diseases. So there are massive impacts that these products had.
And we're like, "All right, well, if you had one test, like if you could measure one thing that really relates to all of those items I just mentioned, it's aging," right? These age related diseases. So, "how do you even measure age" is the follow up question and you can do that in all sorts of different ways. But there are actually these DNA regulation markers, like these on and off switches, called your epigenetics that seems to be the best way to measure aging.
So we really started measuring and doing clinical trials with these epigenetic aging biomarkers to prove the efficacy of these products. And what we ended up doing is just selling the pharmacy in 2019. It became-- oh-- pretty boring, I guess, for lack of a better word, because there were new rules and regulations in place by regulators on what you can and cannot compound. And then you have built my company now, TruDiagnostic, from the ground up. We have our laboratory in Lexington, Kentucky, and we started out with one goal, which was essentially to offer the best age testing. And now we're doing a lot of different things. So that's what I'm really involved in now on a day to day basis.
[00:08:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Well, thank you for sharing about that. And okay, so, so you embrace this entrepreneurial endeavor, which is a whole second set of-- I mean, obviously you have all the skills from your experience and your education and whatnot, but then to compound that with owning your own business and then setting up a brick and mortar, it's an actual lab and whatnot. How was that transition? Did you feel prepared for it? Did it catch you off guard? What was that like?
[00:08:38] Hannah Went: We were kind of creating TruDiagnostic behind the scene when we had the pharmacy. So like end of 2019, we were really creating it. But I do think it caught me off guard looking back where it was like, "Okay, pharmacy sold, full time TruDiagnostic. How the heck do we set up this lab at the beginning of 2020?" It was go mode. So we bought a building in Lexington. It was an old insurance building. We completely knocked out the top floor, which was offices, carpeted, not usable lab space and built the lab again, like I mentioned, from the ground up. So I joke and say, "I'm a construction worker. I was an interior designer." I was doing all of these other things. And of course I had a lot of amazing people helping me all throughout the way, but testing SOPs for standard operating procedures, creating those.
I remember the first day we were running samples in like trialing the protocol. I was here till 5am because we were thawing things and freezing things as part of the protocol and didn't even realize that was part of the step once we started to get into it. So yeah, it definitely took me off guard. And I think furthermore, we launched right before COVID 19. So it was the worst timing in history to launch. And you know, we did it anyways. And then the first year and a half, two years, it was a lot of follow up. It was a lot of cold calling. It was chasing or following up with these healthcare providers to use these kits that we sent out because we did a really nice promotion to get the product out there, but it was hard to balance because when COVID 19, this nasty pandemic, came into the U. S., you almost felt guilty asking the healthcare providers to focus on anything else, right? You're like, "That is not what you should be worrying about right now." So it was definitely hard to balance.
[00:10:23] Lindsey Dinneen: And yeah, my goodness. And honestly what resonated with me too is, you know, you're talking about, you've worn so many hats, obviously, as a business owner and setting this up. And I used to joke that, when I had a brick and mortar business and I was like, "On any given day, I'm everything from the CEO to the janitor."
[00:10:40] Hannah Went: I can relate. I can definitely relate to that. I remember we needed some kind of-- I don't even know what we need this for-- it was like some type of part that had to regulate water temperature or something like that. So a traditional thermometer wouldn't work. I remember I drove across the street to a pet store and I got something that belonged in a fish tank. And I'm like, " I don't even know if this will, will work." But I mean, we are just piecing everything together. It was like you were doing yet literally everything and anything that you could just because you wanted it to work so bad. You had that passion, that, that push. And you realized that the end goal in mind, which for us, it's really just to help our people, you know, people who are working with us, and our clients, whether that's anyone from now a healthcare provider offering our services or a researcher or academic collaboration, it's someone doing third party processing at our lab or even down to the end consumer client patient, whatever you'd like to call them that come directly to our website and do our testing.
[00:11:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Great. And that actually addresses my next question, which was going to be, so do you only work with healthcare providers? Is it a B2B enterprise? But it sounds like you also do the B2C and you can sell directly to them, to people who are interested.
[00:11:55] Hannah Went: Definitely. Yeah. When we opened, we had that one goal in mind, which is what we knew, which were our healthcare providers that we really transitioned from the pharmacy over to TruDiagnostic. So that was like our main customer at the time. And I think we completed that goal of offering the best aging diagnostic tools at the end of last year with a large study we did with Harvard.
But now what we've noticed and, of course-- we kind of got lucky in this sense, we would have never imagined where we are now-- is that epigenetics, these DNA markers, these on and off switches are really great for creating new and novel biomarkers. So you can predict almost anything with them. You can predict even how much you've smoked across your entire lifetime, how much alcohol you've consumed, your zip code based on where you live, just because of the environment you're exposed to and your behaviors in that environment.
So it's pretty crazy, obviously we, we didn't expect that and I mean it's just being really blown up and everywhere you, you look, I mean it's related to every aspect of life and of course changeable as well. So even, providers who are using this test on a patient once, they'll retest them every 6 to 12 months. And then of course people coming from our website, we just released actually a subscription model a couple days ago so people can start to retest this in more of a hands off fashion. even every three to four months if they wanted to.
[00:13:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. So when somebody does your test and they get the results, is this something that you walk them through and say, okay "Here's where things stand now. If you make these tweaks, here's how things could stand?" Or how does it work from that perspective?
[00:13:34] Hannah Went: Definitely. So just to walk you through the process, you would get your kit, we'd ship it to you, you would prick your finger. So just a little blood spot card about the size of a quarter, you ship that sample back to our lab in Lexington and we get results back to you in about two to three weeks from the time we receive it. Then you would get all these different age related reports, some of those characteristic and trait based reports I mentioned, like this smoking and alcohol. And we, we do, so we can project you out saying, "Hey, if you still stay on this trend, whether it's aging faster or aging younger, here's where you're, where you'll be in six months, 12 months."
So it may be exciting to some, it may be scary to some, depending on where they are. Regardless, it's changeable. So if anyone's listening and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I don't want to know that. I'm so scared." If you've tested your genetics, that's in my opinion, even scarier. That doesn't change, right? You know your risk, you know your predisposition. So, this can all be mitigated through lifestyle factors, through supplements, medications, procedural based therapies as well. So we do give you recommendations on the report on what to do. You can absolutely again take it by yourself, but we can always help you and connect you with a healthcare provider if you're really wanting to go on this journey.
But I always say, Lindsey, the first test is really fun. It's sexy. It's really trendy right now. But it doesn't mean much. It's just a baseline. It's telling you where you are, just like your hormones and your CBC panel, your second test is more important than your first third, more than the second fourth, more than the third. And so on and so forth.
[00:15:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Yeah. And you addressed something else that I was going to ask. So when people are interested, they'd like to do it, but they have this like, "Ooh, I don't know if I really want to know," how do you help overcome that? Is it because things are changeable? Like everything can be changed?
[00:15:26] Hannah Went: Yeah. Yeah. I'll even give you to an extent, I would say most of it, right. For the purpose of this conversation, yes. There are of course some exceptions, but my grandmother, for example, passed away from Alzheimer's when I was senior in high school. Right after that happened and what started some of my interest in genetics is I went and got my genes tested. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that was awful to watch her go through. Am I doomed, right? Am I going to have that same risk?" And my results came back. Well, I have this specific snip. It's a single nucleotide polymorphism. So this specific variant on my genes that's APOE 3-4. So this means I'm at a more increased risk to have Alzheimer's, and even at a younger age as well. I would say you have an even further increased risk if you're at APOE 4/4. So I'm not the worst, but I'm the second worst, essentially, and I'm like, "Well, this obviously isn't good. But this can't be it, right? This can't be the end of this story."
And you hear a lot of people say that too, people with metabolic disease or diabetes in their family. And, they may shrug and just say, "Oh, well, you know, I can eat whatever I want, right? I don't have to work out, like I'm doomed anyways, type of thing." And we know now that's not true, right? You're no longer really the victim of your genetic predisposition that we may have thought due to these epigenetic changes or the fact that it's changeable. So there are even peer reviewed published papers that come out showing estrogen, so optimizing your hormone levels can actually reduce your risk of Alzheimer's from an epigenetic standpoint along with everything else, exercising, eating very healthy, no artificial foods, flavoring. So you're, of course, always going to have that genetic risk, but you also have all of these other types of risks and you have this epigenetic risk, which should really be the main focus, because you're in the driver's seat again. You're no longer in the passenger seat. And that's really empowering to have all of that knowledge.
[00:17:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I know that the test is really important in terms of telling an individual exactly what's going on and how things can change, but in doing all this research and data collection, are there certain lifestyle things that pretty much everybody regardless should pay attention to. Is that a thing?
[00:17:45] Hannah Went: Of course, that's the multimillion dollar question and a very frequent one that we get. And the answer is, "Sure, yes and no, kind of, maybe so." And what I mean by that is you can look at all of these general population studies that come out, right? These clinical trials and look at what really moved the needle. But again, those are populational trials, so you really need to find out what works for you. I can tell you what works for me.
There is a study on this, which is why I wanted to try it first. So again, you can start to maybe trial some things based on results that are already out there, but I've tested my aging before and what I've noticed that really slows it down is caloric restriction. So it's not necessarily intermittent fasting or time restricted feeding or skipping an entire meal, it's just continual, 10 percent caloric restriction. So if you're on a 2000 caloric based diet, take out about 200 calories, which if you're eating healthier anyways, you may not even be hitting your intake of calories based on your metabolic rate and what your specific goals are. And I've noticed that helps slow down my aging.
I've also noticed that I need to do more aerobic based exercises. So things like VO2 max, increasing FEV1, we can actually quantify those on our test. So really VO2 max is your oxygen uptake, so how much oxygen you can get into the body. Your FEV1 is your forced expiratory volume, so how much oxygen you can get out in and out of your lungs. Swimmers have a really good VO2 max and FEV1. So I noticed I was doing maybe too much like weightlifting, too much HIIT type of workouts. So you can get a lot of feedback from those reports. So for me, personally, that's what works.
[00:19:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. That's great. That is amazing what you can test and gain knowledge about and then make those changes based off of. So on your LinkedIn profile, something that I was really intrigued by is you are a founding member of an organization, I believe, called Opscotch. Did I get that right? Okay. And one thing that really stood out to me, and I'd love to just hear your take on the organization as a whole, but you said part of your mission is to make biohacking accessible to everyone. And I really appreciated that. And I'm curious if you would share a little bit maybe more about that.
[00:20:05] Hannah Went: Yeah. Obscotch is a really cool community. So it is really democratizing the way healthcare I think has been viewed, even healthcare, like the model where we should go towards rather than that sick care. So it's making it a lot less scary. And I know that the founders of Obscotch, Spencer Coppin and Matt Christensen, and they're amazing people. They really set up this community as a way for people to have a support system. I think it can be really scary when you're entering really optimizing your overall health, what do you do? You see all of these ads, what protein should you take? What supplements should you take? They're just everywhere. Whose supplements really match the label? There are a lot of studies that show, that they don't even have promised ingredients on the label included in the supplement itself. So it's really confusing. And then you go down these rabbit holes and after a while, you don't know what you're looking at.
So if you're part of this community, you can choose to get a Whoop and to start tracking a lot of these markers. You probably know the quote by Peter Drucker, "You can't manage what you're not measuring," so they measure a lot of things. They do the biological age testing through TruDiagnostic, and then they do some other laboratory based testing as well. So there's different levels of the membership that you can actually get depending on how involved you want to be, but they also do these monthly quarterly type of challenges. So it could be to get your Whoop fitness score above 12 for 15 days of the month. So again, it really encourages people to come together and I love that community aspect of it. They've done a really nice job. And again, are just amazing people there. They're located in Canada too.
[00:21:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, nice. Yeah. So taking ownership of your health, but within a community, which makes it a lot, well, more fun, at least.
[00:21:54] Hannah Went: Yeah. And the community is awesome. That's probably a really good group for you to even look into, Lindsey. It's a lot of founders and entrepreneurs and people who have like wild backgrounds. And they're from all over the world too. So it's not just like, oh, you have to be in Canada. They do have a lot of like local meetups in Canada, which is really cool for things like cold plunging or running or, you know, scheduling dinners or seeing like Andrew Huberman, he was in town like a couple of months ago or something. So they put together the events and they also send you even like recommended podcast or YouTube videos to watch. So it's really curated health information if you're looking to optimize your own health.
[00:22:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Amazing. Yeah. And then, so another thing that I really enjoyed reading about you and your experience is, you mentioned that you appreciate taking complex scientific ideas and translating them into narratives that resonate with the intended audience. And I love that, and I think that's really important, but I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your process in doing that, translating very technical engineering science speak into maybe what other people who aren't in that world could relate to.
[00:23:14] Hannah Went: Yeah, definitely. So I have my personal company too, called Everything Epigenetics. So this is a, something TruDiagnostic wanted to do for a while is just educate others on epigenetics and what that means because there's a lot of education lacking out there. There's not much you can find. With all things that kind of got pushed under the rug in our early days, but I was just, " Screw it. I'll just make it mine." And I set up all of the social, the website domain and didn't do much with it for the first couple of months. And I was like, "Okay, I really want to get into this." And I think I started it at the end of 2022, so almost two years, which is crazy to say.
And, I used it as a way to really keep myself honest and involved in the research. So I'm not as involved in our research on a day to day. So I work with a lot of postdocs or PhDs who have created epigenetic algorithms or interpretations. And basically, hopefully break those conversations down for people to easily understand. It's still very high science and not as applicable, so it can be tough sometimes. But my real goal is just educating those on this massive paradigm shift we're seeing with epigenetics in terms of not only taking over traditional lab testing, but just medicine in general. I mean, it's causing a massive wave and really, I think, flipping our understanding of how this field works, how even really the body works.
So I don't monetize that at all. It's just something I do on the side. I have a podcast that runs every other week. And then I also am pretty active on Instagram doing these Journal Club Friday kind of spiels. That's where it's usually a video that's anywhere, I think, they're at least 90 seconds, but 90 seconds to four minutes long, just highlighting some type of research paper in the space and trying to do it in really simple terms that way people can understand it.
So it's not maybe always going to be applicable to everyday life. I think it's absolutely going to get there where we are able to measure epigenetics, see our exact plan, have everything served us on a silver platter. But we're a little bit far away from that now. And I think that's can be really frustrating to some people, but I think it's also as equally as exciting. And you have to keep in mind that this came out after the iPhone, after the first iPhone. So it only came out about, or I would say only became popularized about 10 years ago, which is very new. So we just have to be a little bit patient.
[00:25:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's fair. Well, thank you for helping translate some of these crazy things into more digestible pieces of information for those of us who maybe don't have that same background. So I do appreciate that.
[00:26:05] Hannah Went: Yeah, of course. It's really fun to just continue the conversation and start to break these complex ideas down.
[00:26:12] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, within your journey you know, as a scientist and researcher and entrepreneur and everything else, are there any moments that stand out to you that, that really affirm to you that you were in the right place at the right time in the right industry?
[00:26:34] Hannah Went: Ooh, that's a good question. I, I think yeah, I think probably a couple months ago, three months ago. So, we've actually joined with some other clinics on really pushing forward epigenetics. And I think we're starting to see everything coming together. So I think it is hopefully becoming mainstream. And that is just huge, because the vision for epigenetic testing is to be able to use one blood spot card, so really simple, easy collection method at a really cheap cost and getting every single biomarker back that you could possibly imagine: clinical lab values, hormones, inflammatory markers, vitamin levels, minerals, proteins, metabolites.
And I think, I remember just a couple months ago, when we really started to get an increased volume and testing, more healthcare providers just saying yes and super open to this idea. So I usually spend my day to day on calls with healthcare providers or our partnerships that we have with, whether it be wholesale or like resellers of these kits. And people are just starting to get it more. Like I remember at the beginning of TruDiagnostic, we always had to set up a call with every single account. It was, Hey, start from the top. What is epigenetics? Even before epigenetics, what is aging? How do you measure this? This is a really weird idea.
And now we're starting to see where people set up accounts with us and they don't even set up a call and they just start ordering, right? Or they set up a call and they're like, "Hey, I know what aging is. I know what epigenetics is. Help me market this to my patients. How do I sell this?" So, so we're starting to see that change and that's definitely not been overnight. To answer your question, right time, right room with the right people. But I think probably at the beginning of this year is when we started to really see that change, which has been super exciting.
[00:28:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that is. It is because it's hard to-- it's great to educate-- but it is hard when that is your entire job day in and day out. And eventually maybe the science will catch up or the understanding of the science will catch up so that you finally get to this, you know, "we're getting there" stage.
[00:28:54] Hannah Went: I think it's hard, yeah, because you know, with us we speak with the healthcare providers. We speak with the academics, but we may not actually be seeing the end user, the end patient. So sometimes it can be hard. It's like, "Hey, what difference are we actually making?" And that can be a little bit of a pain point or a struggle. I think not so much anymore because our providers will come back and give us case studies or, you know, talk to us about some of their findings, which is really exciting. And that, continues to expand as we do these clinical trials and dive deeper into the research.
But I think we're TruDiagnostics sits right now is just an awesome opportunity because we are in between collaborators in terms of universities and academics and healthcare providers and patients. So we really bridge that gap as new algorithms, as new research is happening. We really do feel like we're at the centerfold and it's our responsibility to push that out to healthcare providers because there's no one really there to merge the two. So we'll start to see our type of healthcare providers we work with are willing to try anything, and willing to want the newest, latest, and greatest information as well to test on their patients. So they make for a really great group.
[00:30:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's incredible. And it's so great to hear about the ability to bridge the gap between an individual being able to take ownership of their own health versus-- doctors are amazing. I'm so thankful for every medical person-- but also it's nice to be able to feel a little bit empowered to take ownership as well. So I appreciate that you're able to start bridging the gap and, and help them make be more accessible. So that's great.
[00:30:30] Hannah Went: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
[00:30:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, so, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach your masterclass on anything you want. It can be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:30:47] Hannah Went: Ooh. What would I choose to teach and why? I think the ,there's a book that's really good that I think everyone should read and it's called "The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership." And have you ever heard of it before, Lindsey?
[00:31:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Nope, but I'm writing it down.
[00:31:02] Hannah Went: Yeah. It's awesome. So there, there are a couple of authors on the book, but yeah, Jim Dethmer, he would previously go to all of these companies and understand how their leadership worked. And it's a super readable book, super short, breaks it down in all of these chunks, depending on what you want to really focus on. He actually came and spoke to our company and it was really cool to learn from him about this. He doesn't do it much anymore. So, we felt very special to, to be able to have him. And It can act in all areas of your life. So it's not necessarily just leadership . It really extrapolates out to relationships, whether it be a romantic one, or not, or kind of a family one. It is really I think changed my outlook on a lot of things in life.
So I think I would want to teach something that has to do with that, that book. Jim's wife actually does a lot of the Enneagram work too. So the Enneagram test and understanding really your, kind of, why you're wired the way you are almost. Everyone has this conception of life. And you get to learn more about the way people think and how they work and why they do the things they do. So everyone did that test, the Enneagram test, in our company, and you can start to see these patterns and things. And it's just very useful information and it just makes everyone, I think, work together and flow together a little bit better too, which is awesome.
[00:32:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. It sounds like a great masterclass and I have it written down. I'm going to, I'm going to look it up right after so I can secure my copy. Yeah. So, and then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? .
[00:32:39] Hannah Went: Oh, how do I wish to be remembered? Hopefully as someone who is loving and fun and taught the world something. Doesn't necessarily have to be epigenetics related, but I think people probably see me right now as someone who is like very busy running around all of the time, going from place to place, and I don't think I like that. That's just what I think my interpretation of me maybe would be from the outside. But it doesn't feel like I'm busy, right? It feels like I'm doing the things that I want to do right now and I don't think I necessarily even like the word busy, right? What does that mean? Everyone's busy. Everyone's doing something to a degree. So, yeah, I just want to be remembered as fun, loving you know, I think would also be remembered, though, just as hardworking, determined and yeah, willing to work hard to reach specific goals.
[00:33:32] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:33:41] Hannah Went: Just my family, my husband, my sisters, my mom, my stepdad, everyone. So I get to hang out with them next weekend. I'm super, super excited. We'll be with them at their lake house. So I'm excited to be with the family.
[00:33:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Oh yeah. That's going to be wonderful. Well, Hannah, this has been such a great conversation and I so appreciate your spending some time with me today and sharing about your incredible journey and everything that's coming up too. And I'm so excited for you and for this mission and to see the company continue to grow and expand, so I do really appreciate you. being here. And we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial. So thank you for choosing that organization to support and we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.
[00:34:49] Hannah Went: Awesome. Thank you, Lindsey. I appreciate your time.
[00:34:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely, you too. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two and we will catch you next time.
[00:35:06] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Ruba Sarris Sawaya | Managing Partner, MediStrat360 | Commercialization, Advocacy for Women in MedTech, & Industry Leadership

Ruba Sarris Sawaya is a distinguished medtech executive with over 20 years of experience. Ruba discusses her journey from pre-med research to leading roles in market access strategy and consulting for medical device companies. She emphasizes the importance of curiosity, lifelong learning, and strategic thinking in her career. Ruba shares insights on women's empowerment in a male-dominated industry and the significance of broadening skillsets beyond assigned roles.
Guest links: www.MediStrat360.com | www.rizlabhealth.com 
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 CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 040 - Ruba Sarris Sawaya
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
Welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Ruba Sarris Sawaya. Ruba is a medtech executive who has been passionately committed to the medtech industry over the last 20 years. She is a leader with a reputation for cultivating loyal, engaged, and collaborative teams and who carries a visionary mindset with the ability to conceptualize and execute effective strategies that have contributed to transformative growth and innovation in the medtech space.
She is currently leading market access strategy for RizLab Health portable diagnostics devices, enabling access for patients with the greatest healthcare disparities. Concurrently, she is the managing partner for MediStrat360, medical device consulting firm with a mission to accelerate the journey from concept to market for groundbreaking medical devices.
Her educational background includes a bachelor of arts from Austin College with a major in biology and a double minor in chemistry and physics, a master's in public health in epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center, in addition to her acceptance and completion of the leadership studies program at the highly competitive Posey Leadership Institute. Ruba brings a wealth of corporate strategy expertise, and a track record enabling successful device commercialization and market access.
All right. Welcome to the show, Ruba. I'm so excited to talk with you today.
[00:02:16] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Thank you very much, Lindsey. I'm excited to be here. I appreciated the invite.
[00:02:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure. Oh, absolutely. I'm so glad we got connected. So I was wondering if you could start by telling us just a little bit about yourself and your background and maybe what led you to medtech.
[00:02:32] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: So, I mean, I've spent the last 20 years working explicitly and specifically focused on medtech, dedicated to commercialization of really cool technologies that have a profound impact on patients' lives. And I'm grateful for the opportunity this career gave me to work on some really disruptive technologies and collaborate with some brilliant minds across the industry. I had a front row seat to seeing how the incredible impact to the medtech industry can have on transforming healthcare. So what brought me into it, I initially wanted to go to med school, like a lot of people. I covered all of the basics and then graduated.
And then, I was doing preclinical research at UT Southwestern Medical Center. And I completed all the requirements for pre med the summer before, took the MCATs, did all of it. The summer before I was supposed to start, decided I had a soft heart and that may not be the best decision. And so there was a moment there of, I'm going to start with research and kind of see where I go. And ended up working with a lot of reps and connected with a lot of people within the medical device industry.
So I started looking for jobs 'cause it felt like the perfect opportunity with the intent that the pre med thing was this sincerely and authentically with a focus on wanting to help patients, right? And the beautiful opportunity med device provided me is that it enabled me to do that without the risks and consequences tied to direct patient care. That soft empathy piece or the super empathy piece on mine wasn't at risk from that standpoint.
So I was doing research at UT Southwestern in the physiology department, interacting and engaging from a folks working on trials perspective and then medical devices that were being used at that medical center and then started applying for jobs within medtech. Took one managing preclinical research way back when at Orthofix, transitioned and got promoted to running clinical affairs there, and then got promoted again and managed clinical affairs, government affairs, health economics outcomes, research and reimbursement for that organization. And that was a really long time ago and then moved into different career roles from there. But that's the story on that one.
[00:04:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's incredible. So, okay. So let's bring it up to present day, and you are doing some fractional work and I know that you have, I'm sure quite a full schedule just in looking at your LinkedIn profile. I could see that you're extremely active in many avenues and I just love to hear some of what you're up to these days.
[00:05:13] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: So I'm currently leading market access strategy and advising for a diagnostics company called RizLab Health, and they have a portable hemo analyzer that's really focused on enabling access for patients with the greatest healthcare disparities, which is really cool. I'm the managing partner for MediStrat360, so it's a consulting firm hyper focused on just medical device and accelerating that journey from concept to market for disruptive groundbreaking medical devices.
So those are the two things that I'm currently focused on, and then I have some senior advising positions for quality regulatory and clinical for a couple of additional companies, one that's focused on sleep apnea devices. And that one's under an NDA. And then another diagnostics company. So I've got four fractional-- with RizLabs is to focus on device commercialization, go to market strategy. And then the focus for some of the other ones very much centered around regulatory clinical quality.
[00:06:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Yeah. So, so with that you mentioned that you were doing this preclinical research and decided to switch gears a little bit. And now you've got such a, an amazing breadth of skill sets and experience and expertise. And I'm kind of wondering, within medtech, what was the journey like to learning, all these different aspects that now you are such an expert in. For example, say regulatory.
[00:06:43] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: I think for me, because you don't see that often, you see a lot of folks that start in one specific area with respect to medtech, and they develop a pretty comprehensive depth in that area over the span of 20 years. I would argue that I've had an extraordinary career and that has not been my journey. And that has not been my journey mainly because I took roles within companies that were either smaller or midsize, and there was always a willingness to proactively volunteer, not even volunteer, but proactively volunteer, raise my hand when people left or when certain gaps existed that needed to be filled, and then proactively choosing to look at issues that were going on within an organization more holistically outside of my department.
So just because my roles and responsibilities said I covered clinical didn't change the fact that I paid attention to a dynamic that said, there are reimbursement challenges that are happening. One, we were getting coverage and pushback from an insurance company tied to certain devices, engaging with an industry coalition to try and get some of those policies overturned, and recognizing that the information that I gained as a result of that experience identified certain gaps for the evidence portfolio for clinical affairs.
So how did that happen? I think that happened because I had a habit of, I'm choosing to pay attention to what the organization needed and choosing to see the links for the existing roles and responsibilities that I had, and how they bridged across the organization. And then being proactive, quite frankly, about when I was really dedicated to every company I worked for and readily dedicated to the mission that they had and choosing to take roles that I may not have been ready for or may not have had full core competencies for in an effort to support that organization. So in a lot of cases I took it on and I was, I became an obsession and I learned everything I could and I addressed certain gaps by bringing in additional expertise with the intent that we still got the organization's mission accomplished in spite of the deficiencies or gaps or turnover that was going on.
[00:08:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Yeah, that's incredible. I love that. You have been so curious and eager to learn and willing to step outside your roles and responsibilities and seek to understand what the organization needs. I'm sure that really helps now with your consulting work, because you're probably way better able to, and equipped to, find those gaps that you mentioned in a company's strategy or whatnot. And so I, what a strength to be able to bring that breadth of knowledge.
[00:09:34] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: It's interesting when clients approach me about a dynamic that says, "We have this challenge." It is a prism where that challenge ties to different additional facets of the organization or facets of their market commercialization strategy. So we end up providing value and feedback that's not only solving the problem they came to us with, but providing recommendations that have an impact across different facets within that organization or within that product commercialization strategy. And I'm telling you it's, it is, that is one, I would argue, differentiating value prop that I bring to the table on the consulting side is offering that feedback where it's not it's not one sided. It's got depth to it and it touches different dimensions because we're not looking at it just within the scope of the problem as it's presented.
[00:10:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. That's great. That's something very unique to be able to offer. And so, you know, that curiosity and growth mindset, willingness to fill in the gaps and figure out how to, where did that come from? Have you always been a very sort of curious, eager to learn, lifelong learner type individual, or is that something you developed over time?
[00:10:50] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Both, I'll say both. The lifelong learner piece, definitely a part of my personality my whole life, one. Two, I will also say I was lucky in having some phenomenal mentors and strategic leaders that drove that value and the importance of that value, and enforcing us to see the bigger picture and think more holistically. And so I started out with that as part of who I am. And then on top of that, it was further reinforced by having some fantastic leaders that I was lucky enough to work with and for that emphasized the importance of that.
[00:11:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And, you've mentioned having some amazing leaders that were in positions to really help mentor and guide and lead. And I'm wondering, what are some of the most impactful pieces of advice that you've received from leaders that you look up to and or now as accomplished leader yourself, what do you see as being some of the best pieces of leadership advice?
[00:11:54] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: So I'm gonna I'm gonna share with you some of my favorites on what makes a good leader and things to pay attention to as a good leader. So to me, anybody who's trying to explore a leadership role within medtech-- it's to everything we just talked about-- it's unbelievably important to choose to see beyond the expected. So have a deep understanding. If you're a project manager for R&D and you want to get promoted to, you want to move up the ladder, you having a deep understanding of the technical aspects of medical device is important, but it's just as important to cultivate a deep understanding of not only the technical, but the technical and business aspects. So the willingness to learn beyond the scope that you are assigned to, the willingness to recognize the importance of strategic thinking, is really important from a leadership standpoint.
Additional aspects that are important with respect to strategic thinking, don't be afraid to voice ideas, but be strategic about how and when you do that. So navigating a leadership role to me really requires developing a good acumen on knowing when to assert your ideas and when to hold back, learning how to read different situations and understand the dynamics at play. I think some of the most important advice I was ever given was that we all, especially when you join a new organization, we all have a proclivity for wanting to prove our value or demonstrate our value as soon as possible.
And some of the best advice I've given that I've passed along is to be strategic, is to be really good about proactively recognizing when it's a good opportunity for you to do that. And when you're better off holding back and listening and observing and understanding the dynamics of play and choosing your moments wisely on when you make impactful contributions, right? Doing that, you maximize the effectiveness of the input you provide and the influence that you end up having and sometimes holding back initially, choosing to observe and listen gives you insights that better inform your strategy for what to do or how to do it.
Building a network is also really important. That's another really good piece of leadership advice. We tend to keep our head down. Early on in my career, I definitely did that. I treat networking and the relationship management as a mandatory part of the job with roles I've had where I'm within an organization and outside of that. So I think that part is unbelievably important for leadership and success. And it's not just the creating a network offers job opportunities. It's creating a network offers opportunities to seek advice and to learn and to stay plugged in from an industry standpoint. So continuous learning is about being proactive and seeking those opportunities to challenge my current thinking, quite frankly, and expand my horizons from that standpoint.
[00:14:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh my goodness. That was so much great advice. Thank you for sharing all of that. I think even the first thing you said, I really appreciated about, see beyond the expected. And I think that's such, I have never heard it put quite like that before, and I really like that of your willingness to go beyond your scope, so that you keep learning and I like your idea of continuing to even challenge your own beliefs and thoughts and processes. All those things. If you can keep doing that, then you're growing, you're learning, you can't stay stagnant that way. So yeah, I appreciate that advice a lot.
[00:15:38] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: One, to be clear, it comes from tons of mistakes made and lessons learned over a couple of decades for starting out in a technical role and a technical career. Those are common mistakes I see made, which is you're presenting to management on a project update, and the tendency for us technical folks, for people that started their careers out in science, is to very much focus on the technical aspects of what are going on without taking into account how that information is being presented, the impact that it's having on the politics and the different players in the room and their intent. So it's choosing to see things in a different light than the way that you're used to processing them is very important. Strategic thinking. It's different.
[00:16:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And being willing, like you said, to look beyond and to approach things in a different way and maybe take a step back sometimes. Say, "Okay, I need to keep observing before I dive in with my solutions."
[00:16:43] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Well, and take stretch rules. I think that's the other thing from a career development. Nobody owns your career. You own that. And If you love medtech, if you love whatever your profession may be, if your goal is advancement and leadership positions within that, but then that profession or that role, it's recognizing that you have to learn other things beyond just R&D if your goal is to manage a division or manage a sector . So I think, it's saying you're going to fulfill your roles and responsibilities and focus on accomplishing those goals, but be selfish about raising your hand for stretch opportunities that provide you exposure to other areas and dimensions of medtech that are outside of your scope, right? With the intent that you're getting that exposure is unbelievably important.
[00:17:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yes, I could not agree more. One thing that I noticed from just looking at your LinkedIn profile is you are very passionate about a lot of issues facing our society, our community. And, I saw some speaking opportunities and things where you focus on women's empowerment and whatnot. And I was wondering if you might share a little bit about your passions outside of work that do speak to it. So even with women's empowerment, encouraging women in the medtech field and whatnot, because we have listeners who might really appreciate some of your perspective and advice on that. Would you be willing to share?
[00:18:14] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Let's be very frank and transparent. I'm a woman that's been predominantly working in a male industry, and I've had some wonderful experiences, but I've also been granted some wonderful obstacles that tested my resilience and determination. I learned over time to see those challenges as an opportunity to strengthen my resolve and even my commitment. And so to me, a few pieces of advice to empower women as they navigate their own paths in leadership is to embrace your unique perspective. I think as women, we bring diverse experiences and insights to the table. And we should never underestimate the value of that viewpoint that we bring as women, right?
Early in my career, and I've run into a lot of women that feel this pressure, to posture, to present themselves with a set of characteristics that are more akin to male dominated characteristics versus owning their executive presence, and recognizing the value they bring in authenticity for presenting who they are authentically and not underestimating the value of their own viewpoint versus others complying with the mass or succumbing to the pressure. So I think it's unbelievably important to honor and respect and embrace that unique perspective that you bring as a woman, trusting your instincts and not being afraid to voice your ideas.
But again, unbelievably important to be strategic about when you choose to do that. And that piece of advice applies across both. And I think women have a tendency to coming into, especially high level, higher level management roles, a desire to want to prove our worth and prove we have a seat at the table. You have earned the right to sit at that table by default of the fact that you have been offered the job and you have it. Be smart, strategic about when and how you choose to weigh in, recognizing the politics at that same table, right? Is important.
And then advocating for yourself and others to the point that you made about, I do quite a bit of speaking. I am on a mission to drive transformative technologies within healthcare. I'm also on a secondary mission to enable an increase in the number of extraordinary women and their commitment to that mission, right? So advocacy, empowerment, education, training on communications and engagement for women is a focus and how I choose to spend my time with the intent that I sincerely believe the more women that you have, more women and more diversity, quite frankly, that you can have in medtech, the better devices and the higher the impact that you can have with respect to innovation in medtech and an impact that MedTech can have on healthcare. So to me, that is a focus.
[00:21:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and I very much appreciate your perspective and your willingness to share about it. And the fact that this is a mission for you. So, thank you for continuing to support and elevate women in medtech, 'cause it's a need. And to your point, I appreciate you saying that women bring a unique perspective. And so that can be your superpower and you don't need to shrink.
[00:21:37] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: 100 percent and authenticity, Lindsey. I think women bring a unique perspective and value the power of authenticity. Resist the urge to position or posture or present yourself as "A" because you believe that "A" is what they want to see. There is unbelievable power in an executive presence of a woman leader that is authentic in the way she presents herself.
[00:22:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, could not agree more. Yeah, so, your career has been so interesting and I love the running theme of you being willing to continue to learn and grow and step out of the current role so that you can fill in the gaps. And I'm wondering if there are any moments that stand out to you where it just made you go, "Wow, I am really in the right place, at the right time, in the right industry."
[00:22:36] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: So there's been a few of those, but I think one of the most memorable was when-- I have had a few leadership roles within Medtronic, and there's an annual event that gets held there where patients will are willing to share their stories with company employees. And listening to those stories, you realize what a difference we were making to the daily lives of those individuals. It was unbelievably moving and it gives you a renewed sense of hope. So we all in that office, especially, it's an extraordinary group of people that are working unbelievably hard and all of us were running at 90 and it's a constant hurricane of work, right? You lose sight. of how those hundred little activities we do every day are contributing in a transformational way to the lives of others. And sitting through that two hour testimonial set with those patients was a really emotional experience that kind of puts everything in perspective. That was a good what seven years plus now since I sat through that and it still resonates with me. I still think about it all the time.
[00:23:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really powerful too, to have those moments of realizing the impact that you're making and it is easy to get caught up in the daily grind. And, and forget that, oh my goodness is actually, this impacts somebody's life.
[00:24:05] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: It brings it to focus, Lindsey. I loved that whole experience because, and I'm telling you, on the days when getting up in the morning is a little harder than others, it's a nice reminder to just force myself to recalibrate against that. And that we tolerate the craziness, we tolerate the difficulties, we tolerate the barriers and the more difficult days because we have an impact on the back end of the lives of other human beings. And that's the reason I've stayed in medtech for the last 20. There's something extraordinary about that. The ability to do that for someone else is amazing.
[00:24:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, it's a gift and it's something to come back to when the days are hard and long and frustrating, because you really do know what you're doing matters. Yeah.
[00:24:52] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Exactly right.
[00:24:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It could be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be related to it. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:25:15] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Honestly, I would teach exactly what I'm, a lot of the time I'm teaching now, which is device commercialization. And, to your earlier question about give me a couple of things that inspired you and told you were right where you needed to be, I taught a course at University of New Mexico, their innovation center a few weeks ago. And one of the nicest comments I've ever gotten from a career perspective is somebody came up to me afterwards and said, "I've been working with folks for a decade plus, and this is the first time in my life I have gotten such a good training that I walked out having a solid understanding of how these pieces tie together from a regulatory perspective and commercialization perspective." So what would I teach exactly what I'm what a lot of the time I'm teaching now from a consulting perspective, which is device commercialization. I picked a career that, that I'm lit up by and that I'm inspired by. I'd be doing the exact same thing, Lindsey. I wouldn't change a thing.
[00:26:13] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's so great.
[00:26:16] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Yeah.
[00:26:18] Lindsey Dinneen: That's very special. I love that. Yeah. Okay. And then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:26:26] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: That I do quite a bit of mentoring. That I had an impact, that I inspired a group of people to maintain this mission to transforming healthcare. It's not just putting out and launching additional devices. It's sincerely a focus on looking at the areas across our healthcare system here in the U. S. and otherwise, and looking for opportunities to change the dynamic in a positive way. So after I die, what I want to be remembered for that the folks that I have, and I've taken on quite a bit over 20 years that I've tried to help grow and advance career wise that I inspired them to keep doing this. And I inspired them to do it well, and do it with integrity and do it right.
[00:27:16] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah, absolutely. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:27:27] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: I mean, personal, probably my cat. We have a British short hair that has an insanely cute face and it's impossible-- I don't care how stressful of a day I've had-- impossible not to crack a smile thinking about that fluff ball. So yeah, our cat for sure.
[00:27:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my word, I love that. Animals are the best.
[00:27:49] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Yes, well, and she's a recent addition. So we've had her a year. And it is definitely the stress buster.
[00:27:57] Lindsey Dinneen: That's perfect.
[00:27:59] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: For sure.
[00:28:00] Lindsey Dinneen: That's perfect. Animals are inherently just happiness. Well, this has been an incredible conversation. I am so thankful for your willingness to share about your background and what you're up to now, but especially all of your advice. It was so packed full of just amazing pieces of advice to take away. And I really appreciate that you're willing to share all of that with us. So, gosh, thank you so much for your time and thank you for being here and and doing that. I really appreciate it.
[00:28:33] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: Well, and likewise, thank you for doing this again. I'm a huge advocate for getting more folks and more people and more women and more individuals involved in medtech, and recognizing the phenomenal opportunities that medtech brings from a career standpoint. And so thank you for doing this because you're spreading that message and educating people on other career options besides, you know, firefighter, doctor, lawyer, engineer. So we appreciate what you're doing too, Lindsey, this is great.
[00:29:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you. That made my day
[00:29:05] Ruba Sarris Sawaya: It's important. We got to spread the message.
[00:29:09] Lindsey Dinneen: it's very true. It's very true. And we are so 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. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support, and we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
[00:29:55] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Harout Markarian | Founder, MARKBOTIX | Empowering Independence with Assistive Robotics & His Passion for Helping People

Harout Markarian, founder and CEO of MARKBOTIX, shares his journey from Lebanon to the US, transitioning from a professional basketball player to a skilled roboticist. He discusses his educational background in mechanical engineering, robotics, and business, leading to the creation of MARKBOTIX. The company develops GRACE, an assistive robot for the elderly and disabled, aiming to reduce falls and improve quality of life. Harout's passion for engineering and helping people drives his mission to enhance independent living and accessibility.
Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haroutmarkarian/ | https://www.markbotix.com/
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 CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 039 - Harout Markarian
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce to you as my guest today, Harout Markarian. Harout is the founder and CEO of MARKBOTIX, an innovative assistive robotics startup focused on transforming care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities.
Harout, a skilled roboticist with multiple patents, holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, a master's in robotics, and an MBA. His professional path has been marked by significant leadership roles in engineering at top firms, including the Boeing company, where he designed the air refueling flight controls algorithm for the Boeing C 17.
At MARKBOTIX, Harout's team is developing GRACE, Ground Robotic Assistant for Care Enablement, robot designed to reduce risks of falls, hospital readmission rates, and caregiver burnout, while providing support for everyday tasks. Under his leadership, MARKBOTIX has garnered significant interest, including over a hundred letters of intent from various facilities and is currently involved in beta testing with organizations like the VA Hospital.
Harout is also a published author and speaker, advocating for the right use of robotics to improve independent living and accessibility through his book, "Mobility and Inclusion." His work extends beyond business as he actively contributes to the community, particularly through support for organizations aiding the elderly and individuals with mobility challenges.
All right. Well, welcome Harout. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to talk with you.
[00:02:23] Harout Markarian: Likewise.
[00:02:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Well, I wondered if you wouldn't mind starting off by just telling us a little bit about who you are and a little bit about your background and maybe how you got into medtech.
[00:02:36] Harout Markarian: Sure. So I, I am an immigrant from Lebanon, a former professional basketball player, danced ballet for a little bit, and at one point ,my parents decided to immigrate to the United States. Needless to say that my academic career was a tremendously suffering when I was busy with the basketballs and the ballet dances of the world. So, so when they decided to immigrate to the United States. States. I was strongly against it, but deep down I knew that my parents always did things for the benefit of me and my sister. So, unwillingly I followed them. I came to the United States in 2008. I was 23, about to be 24 years old.
And at that time, basically everything that I knew disappeared from my life. Everything that was normal to me disappeared. So I had to do something. I had no money. My parents didn't come with money. So I had to support, I had to help, so I worked full time as a waiter and I was also going to school full time to continue my undergrad in mechanical engineering. Mind you that I already completed three years of engineering back in Lebanon. When I got here, they said, "Oh the institution that you attended is not accredited." And my luck, I guess the institution got accredited a year after I left.
[00:04:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, no.
[00:04:05] Harout Markarian: But it was a blessing in disguise. As I said, I wasn't the best student at the time. So the grades were reflective of that too. So, now that everything is no, no more distractions were in my life, I focused on my studies, finished three years of undergrad in mechanical engineering in a year and a half. My GPA went from 1. 8 to 3. 5 by the time I graduated. And during my final year when I was developing the senior design with my team, I experienced a tremendous shift in my life because I was part of this project where we built a six foot tall, fully autonomous robot. And we won the first place internationally in the autonomous unmanned system vehicle international competition.
And that was a really a shift in my career in the way I viewed engineering, I viewed education, because up until that point, it was just to satisfy my parents. I'm like, "Here you go. This is the paper you wanted. Get off my back." But ,but right after that, it was like, okay, I want to know more about this robotics world because I really enjoyed it and I'm very curious individual. So robotics has different disciplines, sub disciplines I should say. So there's a mechanical design team, there's the cognition vision team, there's the electrical team, there's a navigation team. So, and I wanted to learn it all and I got involved with everything. And I really enjoyed it.
So I ended up pursuing my master's immediately right after I graduated my bachelor's degree. I pursued my master's in robotics, and I was the only one in my cohort or not just cohort, in that year, that opted out of the, the comprehensive exam and wanted to do a thesis dissertation. Because I really enjoyed it. For me, theory alone doesn't mean anything. I need to see it in application. And that's kind of how I pursued it. I was able to build a stair climbing wheelchair. And that's a scale prototype of a stair climbing wheelchair that I presented it to my thesis committee and I learned a lot. I learned a lot and I graduated, but mind you at this time, I'm already working, I'm five years into my, my career in aerospace and defense. So things are going well. Really nothing medtech or healthcare related in my life yet. Except for that stair climbing wheelchair.
And, and the reason for that is because I had the opportunity to work with a severely paralyzed person on brain computer interface technology that allowed him to propel his wheelchair through his thoughts. And when I got signed up to this project, I said, "Oh, moving things with your thoughts. That's cool. Let's do it." So, but I was approaching it like so mindlessly, if you will, because I didn't understand the impact that could have on individuals, especially individuals with disabilities, individual with limited mobility and elderly and everything in between.
So while we were testing this technology with this individual, it required some training, basically. It's like an electrode that attaches to your skull. So it's a helmet that you wear. And as you think thoughts, it transfers to electrical signals that moves, that propels the wheelchair, moves the motors, right? A very simplistic way of explanation, of course. And, I was trying to test it by myself. So wearing the helmet, trying to move this wheelchair one way or the other. And it was very difficult because it's not second nature to me. I don't, I'm not a wheelchair user. So I, that's not a thing in my mind, but for this individual who was a paraplegic, it was, that was his legs basically. So for him, it was very second nature, right? So, and he got on there and I put the helmet on, set up everything for him and he was driving his wheelchair like I drive my car. That, that, that's how second nature it was for him. And for a moment there, I felt like I was the one with the disability. I couldn't even move a freaking wheelchair with my, so that was a big lesson for me in terms of understanding how limited we can be in, in different aspects of our lives, right?
So, at that point I was, that was the first time I realized when I saw how independence and accessibility, what it meant to that individual. That was the first time in my life I said that I want to start a robotics company to help people become more independent. So, so to, to make their environment more accessible for them and to o for the elderly, to have them age with dignity. And that was the purpose. But nothing happened. I just continued with my life, with my job in the aerospace and defense industry.
And then sometime later I decided, okay, I think I have a decent background in the technical side of things. I don't know much about business. Let's go get an MBA. So, so, so I went back to school. I did MBA at Pepperdine University. And I loved it because Pepperdine, at least the cohort that I was in and the teacher that I had, everybody was industry professionals and had their PhDs in their respective fields. So it wasn't, I wasn't just learning theory. I was learning how to apply that theory to real world problems. And that's how I learned that. That's where I thrive, right. And once, once I graduated with my my master's degree from Pepperdine, I, next day I went and incorporated the company. Literally the next day I went there and I was like, "Okay, I'm going to incorporate the company." And that's how MARKBOTIX was born.
I'm not a hundred percent medtech. I'm approaching medtech from a different angle, if you will. But part of that, when I incorporated the company, I didn't really know what products or service I was really gonna offer. I knew who I wanted to serve, who were the people with disabilities, elderly, people in home cares, assisted living facilities. But I didn't know how to best serve them and with what. So I took a year and a half of going around and talking to people, basically doing customer discovery.
And part of that customer discovery session, I stumbled upon the Ground Robotic Assistant for Care Enablement, which we call GRACE now. And all that robot does it initially, at least all that it did, was to pick items up, retrieve items for individuals so they don't risk a fall and then now they're in back in hospital or they injured something. And we're talking about fragile people, right? So when they injure something, the repercussions from it is really could, it could be hefty basically. And as I kept on talking to people, I built this prototype that retrieves items initially, and I tested it with over 300 people, and the more I tested it, the more apparent the need was. People were actually helping me feature up. So, we started with item retrieval, it went to real time video and audio interaction, remote operability, and other stuff that were included in the robot that right now is in development mode.
And that's brings me to today where we're raising our first round of funding to bring this to life. We have a bunch of letters of intents from assisted living facilities and somewhere along the way that the DOD got interested in it. We got in contact with the Veterans Hospital. So everybody seems very interested in working with us. So we're, so today we're raising our first round of funding to bring this to life.
[00:11:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my goodness. That's incredible. Well, there's so much to your story. I'm so excited to dive in deeper. But first of all, congratulations on your company and its success and the interest, and I'm so excited because I know you're going to be helping so many people and there's such a need for it. So kudos.
[00:12:18] Harout Markarian: That's the goal. Yep. Thank you.
[00:12:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, okay. So your story is so interesting and it has so many different twists and turns. And I'm kind of curious, especially knowing, you started off with basketball and ballet and you did your academics of course, but maybe that wasn't quite the focus, could eight year old you have ever pictured you now doing what you're doing?
[00:12:44] Harout Markarian: No. So two things. So I knew I wanted to be an engineer, even though I didn't know what that meant at that time. Ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to be an engineer, but I can confidently tell you that I didn't know what that meant. I just, my dad was a mechanic body shop person. He was an entrepreneur. He has his own place. So I thought that was, that's what I was going to be doing if I studied engineering. So that was stupid I was. The other thing is that, no, I mean, my dad was also a professional basketball player.
[00:13:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay.
[00:13:15] Harout Markarian: So, so having those two in mind, eight year old me would never picture me being here today, let alone leaving the country, right?
[00:13:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So, do you still do anything with either basketball or ballet or has?
[00:13:29] Harout Markarian: No, I don't actually want. So once I left both ballet or dancing in general and basketball, I just completely abandoned it.
[00:13:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Ah, okay. Fair enough. Do you miss it?
[00:13:43] Harout Markarian: No, I don't, because I mean, it was good while I did it and I did it for a long period, I mean, relatively long period of time. So I did dancing for about 10, 12 years. And basketball, I did it from 16 when I went to professional to 23 years, 23 years old. I mean, relatively short career. But for me, my biggest passion was basketball. Just seeing my dad play, and then me being in that world. It was the biggest passion, and when it was taken away from me, or however you want to look at it, or I gave it up. I didn't give it up. I didn't want to give it up. Even long after it was over, I didn't want to accept that was not part of my life anymore. I was passionless for a while. So, finding that robotics world where I'm interested in something again, was a big shift for me.
[00:14:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. That's a really big deal. And that is hard, but I feel like it speaks a lot also to your resilience and your willingness to, to change and to pivot, as much as that word is overused. But you know, the thing is you have such a growth mindset, clearly. I mean, you're such a lifelong learner, you've gone and done the things that you wanted to do, but those aren't easy things that you've decided to do and you've had such a robust career so far. I mean, I love the fact that I think you're such a great testament to the ability to keep learning and keep enhancing your skillsets and keep going even when it is frustrating or you feel like you've lost this crucial part of you, but you still are able to keep going and do something amazing with your life. I think that's...
[00:15:24] Harout Markarian: Absolutely.
[00:15:25] Lindsey Dinneen: ...courage.
[00:15:26] Harout Markarian: I mean, I mean, you have to do that because the only constant in your life is change. So you either adapt or you just fall behind and become miserable. And everything bad that goes, that follows that, right? So, if you don't change, time is moving forward, so you're just falling behind.
[00:15:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You started off in your career working for others and you had a amazing experiences, it sounds like, with very well known companies and brands, and then you switched to starting your own business and I know you got your MBA and I'm sure that helps you feel more prepared, but I do feel like there's often this-- once you actually do it, how much you have to learn on the job, so to speak. So I would love if you wouldn't mind speaking about your entrepreneurial journey and how that has changed and grown over time.
[00:16:15] Harout Markarian: Yeah, so, so I'll tell you that college education doesn't mean that you're going to be able to thrive in the business world, right? Whether it's a technical side of thing or the business side of things. Unless you dive in there and do it yourself, you're just going to be dumber than a bag of rocks. So, I'm sorry for the expression, but that's that's how it is. Basically what engineering taught me is how to figure things out. They didn't teach me to find a job and hit the road running with that job, right. So everywhere I went, every company I worked for, I had to restart from scratch, go into my baggage of tools that college education gave me and depending on these knowledges, just figure out how to do my current job today and how to learn more. Because what you learn in school is just a baseline thing. It's just nothing really.
And nowadays you can learn anything and everything online. I would even argue that nowadays, unless you're a doctor or an engineer a lawyer, maybe you don't really have to go to school. Everything else can be learned online. And there's a lot of resources today that back 10, 15 years ago, we didn't have. So on the job learning is the most real thing anyone can ever think of. Pepperdine came really close because I did my actual business plan to the company that I'm building today, I did it at Pepperdine. So it was a benefit for me because I studied, I got my education at the same time I worked on my business, so that's why I liked it a lot. But don't think that you're going to go to college and you're going to take a job.
And all employers know, by the way, all employers know that they're going to teach you a lot when they hire you, they're just hiring you based on, I don't know, your enthusiasm, the willingness to learn, willingness to be adaptable, your demeanor, your behavior. That's what they're hiring. And I'm a Director of Engineering right now at different companies. So I hire people all the time. So that I don't hire them. I don't expect them to know things. I expect them to know basic things, but I don't expect them to hit the ground running regardless of where they are in their career.
[00:18:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure. Sure. So when you stepped into this, this entrepreneurial journey, and you're the owner of a company, you are the leader of this vision-- did you find that to be a relatively easy transition because of the past experiences that you'd had? Or was that element of stepping into this high leadership role, was that, yeah, difficult in any way?
[00:18:56] Harout Markarian: In different things that I tried in my life, I felt like I was always adaptable. I was always willing to learn. And I never quit. I failed a lot, but I never quit. Right? So I feel like that definitely contributed to, to how I'm managing myself in this role. Is it easy? It's not easy at all. It's difficult. Whoever tells you starting a company, building a company is easy, it's out of their mind, especially in the beginning stages. Because having other people get on board and see your vision, it's the toughest challenge a founder can embark on. So if you overcome that, then you definitely have what it takes to lead a company.
[00:19:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. And so are there any moments that stand out to you as you've started this company or even prior to that, where it just kind of confirmed to you, "Yes, I am in the right industry, at the right time for a purpose." Was there like a moment that you thought, "Wow, this is why I'm here."
[00:20:05] Harout Markarian: Well, first and foremost, I pray to God every day. I asked God for his guidance. If it's not part of his plans, please give me a sign. So I just go do something else, right? And till now he didn't give me any sign to abandoning it, but or I'm that, I'm just that's too but that i'm not realizing it but no, that's that's my first go to right? I always embark on my day, on my journey, by asking God to guide me through it. Having said that, the countless numbers of interviews and research that I've done-- and this, mind you, this is not leveraged research-- this is me talking to people one on one. So over 1000 interviews over the past year and a half, or almost two years talking to people, it was reassuring to me that, okay, this is needed and I'm going to be helping a lot of people.
And that's really what kept me on this journey. Just now I feel responsible for all the people I talked to. I have a responsibility to see this through. If I focus on the competitors, the market, the investment, the investor, then I would give up long time ago. Then that's not the right way because the market, the investor, the Investment, they didn't do the work I did in terms of talking to the end user and how it's going to benefit them. So they don't really know that, they don't understand that. So it's my job to, we talked about vision, it's my job to clarify the vision to the investor, in this case. So it sees that how many people is going to benefit from this. So that was the reassuring factor. Conducting that customer discovery was so important. Because that sets the expectations for myself and everyone I talk to.
[00:21:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. I think it's helpful, so helpful to have those moments, something to hold on to when it does get hard because it's inevitably going to get hard and frustrating and discouraging at times. So being able to go, "Oh, wow. But I know this is impacting people. And if I don't do it, will anybody else?" That's, but that's powerful to motivate you.
[00:22:22] Harout Markarian: Yeah, and I mean, I want more people to do what I'm doing because the market supports it, right? Just, we're talking right now, a little left brain, right? Logic. The market supports it, there's gonna be more people older people. The elderly population is increasing, is going to get bigger. So there should be more companies like mine addressing the same need because one or two or three companies are not going to be able to close the gap.
[00:22:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So what are you most looking forward to both perhaps personally and then professionally with your business? What is on the horizon that you're excited about?
[00:23:02] Harout Markarian: Personally, I just want to enjoy my family, enjoy my wife, my kids, my parents before they're gone, because of everyone, everyone's going to leave at one point. So I would love to have some quality time with my parents, with my kids, with my wife. That's on the personal side. That's what's really meaningful to me.
On the business side, I just want to add value to people. Hopefully this will be the vehicle, how I'd be able to do that. And as I said, I feel like I have the responsibility right now to see this through just because of all the conversations that I've had with people with different disabilities, with different challenges that this technology could help them overcome that.
[00:23:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And it's exciting. You're in a really exciting growth phase too. So there's a lot to, a lot to be joyful about, I suppose.
[00:23:54] Harout Markarian: Yeah.
[00:23:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's amazing. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It could be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:24:12] Harout Markarian: For them to be connected with God more because I feel like, and I don't know if I'm the right person to teach that, right? But because everything else doesn't matter. Everything else is temporary. I think the divine is, is the only thing that is not temporary. Your spirit, your soul is the only thing that is not temporary. Your challenges, your difficulties, your tough times, your good times, your money, your lack of money, all of that is temporary. What's not temporary is your soul and spirit and what happens to it afterwards. So, a lot of people today are behind social media and the fakeness of the world. And that's what I want to separate myself from, and see if I had the opportunity, I would just teach people to be more authentic and more connected to God.
[00:24:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:25:05] Harout Markarian: I don't know if I want to be remembered, but if I do good to people, if I serve people in this world, in my time here hopefully I'll I please my God. And that's what's important to me, because pleasing God is serving others. So that's what it means to me. If I do that, then hopefully I'm pleasing God and helping people in the way. That's my thing.
I don't know what being remembered means really who's remembering me, right? That's the question that I always ask and I wasn't always I didn't always think this way. I didn't always think this way. I always said to myself, okay, I want to be remembered like this great athlete, for example, right, when I played basketball. Or I want to be remembered like the person who founded the biggest assisted robotics company in the world. All that doesn't mean anything, because all that is material stuff, in my humble opinion. And I'm not saying I'm right, right? This is how I think. As, as long as I'm serving others, I'm helping others, hopefully doing it in a gracious way, that's what I'm looking for.
[00:26:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that's incredible and that's, I frankly wish that more people felt that way. So I think that's a, I
[00:26:15] Harout Markarian: Well, I, it's a hard thing to do and I'm not saying I'm doing it perfectly. Sometimes we have a lot of distractions. That's not the norm So if we follow what's around us, then we're not going to think that way and I struggle with it too. So I constantly strive to keep myself true to what I just said right now.
[00:26:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yep. There you go. And then, final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:26:42] Harout Markarian: Oh, my kids. My son is five, my daughter is two ,and they're hilarious, even when they're a pain in my ass, so. So, sometimes the things they say is, and then, I like to also I'm a light guy. I like to think that I'm a light guy, so everything is a joke to me. I don't take a lot of things seriously. So I'm always giving people hard time kind of in a humorous way. So I like to pick on my wife, pick on my sisters. So these kinds of things make me smile. Sometimes it's stupid. Sometimes it's makes others smile to you, but it's just light stuff. I just enjoy my life, enjoy the time I have with the people I love the most.
[00:27:20] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's fantastic. Yeah, well, first of all, again, thank you so much for sharing your story and your insights. And, it's so interesting to me how you have had such resilience and a growth mindset and now discovered this sense of humor as well. I mean, I'm sure that helped exponentially as you had to go through so many different iterations or stages or seasons, whatever you want to call it of your life. And some of them sounds quite difficult. So I just want to say thank you for sharing that story and thank you for talking about it and giving inspiration and hope to somebody else who might also be in maybe a transition period or something like that, where it might be a little harder. So I, anyway, just... thank you.
[00:28:05] Harout Markarian: And I, I don't downplay the challenges, right? Of course I recognize them, but I just choose to take it lightly because as I said, nothing is permanent. Everything is temporary, so don't think too much about it. Just, pray and move along.
[00:28:23] Lindsey Dinneen: That should be on a t shirt that you sell or something.
[00:28:26] Harout Markarian: Yeah, that's a good idea. I might I'm that might be merchandise. I'll say I sell on MARKBOTIX's website.
[00:28:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Please do. That's amazing. I love it. Oh my gosh. That's so fun. Well, this has been such a great conversation. I've enjoyed it so much and I'm very appreciative of you spending some time with me today and talking, and we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today. And that is 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. So thank you for choosing that charity to support, and we just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.
[00:29:11] Harout Markarian: Thank you so much. And thank you for your time as well, Lindsey.
[00:29:14] 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 would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
[00:29:25] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Ashley Mooneyham & Jennie Lynch | Co-Founders, Momease | Bridging Science, Motherhood, & Femtech

Ashley Mooneyham and Jennie Lynch are the co-founders of Momease. Ashley, a PhD-trained scientist and melanoma survivor, shares her journey from cancer biology research to developing an innovative breast pump solution inspired by her own motherhood challenges. Jennie, a serial nonprofit entrepreneur, discusses her transition to the MedTech industry and the importance of supporting new mothers. Together, they highlight their mission to create a pumping bra with warmth and massage, aiming to improve the breastfeeding experience for women. Their story is one of passion, innovation, and dedication to advancing women's health.
 
Guest links: https://www.momeasesolutions.com/ | www.linkedin.com/company/momeasesolutions/ | www.instagram.com/momease_solutions/ | https://www.facebook.com/MomeaseSolutionsInc/
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 CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 038 - Ashley Mooneyham & Jennie Lynch
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guests today. They are Ashley Mooneyham and Jennie Lynch. Ashley is the CEO and co founder of Momease with experience as a mother and as a PhD trained scientist to lead research and development. Jennie is the president and co founder of Momease. She is a serial entrepreneur in the nonprofit space with customer base experience leading operations.
Well, thank you so much for being here, Ashley and Jennie. I'm so excited to speak with both of you today.
[00:01:33] Ashley Mooneyham: Thank you.
[00:01:34] Jennie Lynch: Yeah, thank you for having us.
[00:01:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing just a little bit about yourself, your background, and maybe what led you to MedTech. Ashley, do you want to start us off and we'll go from there?
 
[00:01:48] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah, sure. So my background is in kind of your traditional laboratory research science. I did choose to pursue a PhD in cancer biology, and that was motivated both by my own personal experiences as a melanoma survivor, as well as, of course, knowing so many people who suffer from cancer and are impacted by cancer. I really wanted to make a difference there. And I very much intentionally chose a laboratory for my thesis work that focused on ovarian cancer research because I've always been really passionate about how scientific discovery can impact human health. And of course, as we're all aware, women's health kind of lags behind. So we need more women in science to be asking those questions and pursuing those answers when it comes to translating scientific discovery into impacting women clinical outcomes.
And I really enjoyed my thesis work, but I felt far from making that clinical impact. I was doing the traditional bench work, working with mice in the basement of my university, and I just wanted to get a bit closer to the action. So after my PhD, I became a medical writer at Superior Medical Experts, which is a Minnesota small business focused on medical writing and research support. And I actually was quickly promoted to their Director of Grants, where I helped small businesses in the medical device industry pursue federal grant funding to de risk their medical innovation. So I got to learn a lot of varieties of discipline within scientific medical device and technology innovation, and got really excited at helping them secure funding to see their idea come to life. And I've actually worked with a few companies that since working with them have made it to clinical use of their innovative technology, which was super rewarding.
Then in April 2021, I had my daughter, she's 3 years old now. And I kind of naively thought it would be easy to go back to work after that experience. But a huge pain point in my going back to work was. trying to maintain my breast milk supply for her via the breast pump. So that kind of leads into the origins of Momease solutions, but I'll save that for after Jennie gets a chance to introduce herself as well.
[00:04:12] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Thank you. Jennie?
[00:04:15] Jennie Lynch: Yeah, so my background is I'm a serial non profit entrepreneur. So I founded two Minnesota based non profits focused on child development and family well being. So mostly doing the business operations and development for those two non profit organizations. The first one is Monarch Montessori School, a traditional children's house Montessori that's really rooted in the literature that supports best pedagogies for optimal child development, as well as Kaleidoscope Learning. That's my second non profit, which is a family community and resource center, just a one stop shop for families to be able to get all the best practices associated with raising their children ages birth to six years old.
I frequently work with the population that is going to be Momease solutions' customer base. So I love working with mothers, women who are pregnant or newly postpartum and are going through the very wonderful, but very precarious kind of transition into motherhood. So that's kind of where my background is. I do not have a medtech background. But I'm somebody who's really passionate about looking at the literature when it's related to child development. So what is the optimal strategy in order to really nurture a person's early development related to cognitive, physical, social, emotional development. I originally got connected with Ashley through Mutual Business Connections and I instantly loved the idea. I saw how it would be used by the women who I currently work with and just really recognized that it was a really special product. So I officially joined the team in 2023.
[00:06:05] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Nice. Well, congrats. How exciting. Yeah. So I love it. So would you mind telling us a little bit more about Momease and just maybe the origin story.
[00:06:19] Ashley Mooneyham: So yeah. So like I said, I had my daughter in April of 2021. I was able to nurse her without issue for eight weeks during my maternity leave and I was so excited about that because the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, they all recommend exclusive breast milk nutrition through six months of age. To Jennie's point to try to promote the health of our next generation with cognitive ability and various health indications that research shows are improved with that breast milk nutrition. And I really wanted that for my daughter if I could achieve it. I was grateful to not have issues nursing, but when I went back to work, I thought kind of naively that I would be able to use the breast pump to continue to feed her breast milk, even though I was remote and away.
And unfortunately, that was not the case, which is a super common issue with women. I had to pump three or four sessions to get one bottle for my daughter, so I was really working overtime, trying to do enough breast pump sessions to maintain my breast milk supply. And I was sitting at the breast pump for far too long, usually 20 to 30 minutes a session, increasing the suction power to a level that caused discomfort just in my attempt to provide my daughter with the nutrition I felt that she needed. And I was really frustrated by that because I knew, based on my successful nursing journey, that I did provide enough breast milk for her. I simply wasn't able to collect it. So the issue was with the collection mechanism.
And with my background in science, I immediately sought answers. How can I improve this experience, just for me personally, on the onset. And I did find academic studies that showed if you apply a warm compress while using a breast pump, you get more milk in less time. If you use a hand massage technique while using a breast pump, you get more milk in less time. And anecdotally, that was true. If I applied a warm compress, if I put pressure on my breasts while using a suction based breast pump, it worked. And that made sense to me because a nursing infant is doing a lot more than sucking breast milk. They're also using the warmth of their mouths and the pressure of their jaw and hands in a combination to efficiently nurse. So adding these elements back in made perfect sense.
The issue is it's not convenient. Using a breast pump is already not convenient and having all of these extra tasks while using a breast pump certainly wasn't convenient. So I literally went to Google and looked for a product that could warm and massage the breasts while I was using a breast pump in order to maintain these improved results. And I didn't find one. And I was really shocked by that. I was like, "How could this not exist when there is evidence that it works?" And I'm having personal anecdotal experience that it works. I was so disappointed.
And I sat with that disappointment for a couple of months and then realized, "Well, it doesn't exist because people like me just sit disappointed." You kind of have to get up and get going to solve the problems, especially that you see personally. And the whole first year of business before we had a lot of funding in the door, I made sure to broadly collect women's experiences with the breast pump, and I learned really quickly that I was not alone.
Our first customer discovery survey received 1, 200 responses in 24 hours, which is incredible and unexpected. I just put it out over my personal Facebook to start and it got picked up and got a lot of responses. And that alone, I think, really speaks to how passionate women are about wanting a solution and how desperate they are for wanting a solution. And every day that keeps Jennie and I going. Every day that we pitch this, every day that we talk about this, more and more women say how much this is needed and how much they're rooting for us. And that, that's our big motivation.
[00:10:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Wow. That is incredible. Thank you for sharing that story. And even the, I love the personal connection, but then the fact that just within 24 hours, like you said, of your own personal network, you've got this amazing response of all these women saying, "Yes, I am in the same boat or I've experienced this. Please help." I love that. So then Jennie, you're coming into this from your business development, business strategy background. And I'm wondering, how have you been able to to bring Momease along as it continues to grow and opportunities continue to come for it. And then what are you excited about as we go towards the future?
[00:11:06] Jennie Lynch: Yeah. So that's a really good question. Momease is pre launch. So, I'm continuously just having conversations with mothers, continue to get that feedback, that customer discovery. Again, being pre launched most of my focus at the moment is long term business development strategies. So just thinking about those things ahead of time, but also just day to day operational things. I'm definitely excited as we move towards launch of the product. I think that I would love to see this product in people's hands. We're currently prototyping. So just seeing women use it, as well as getting their initial feedback is something I'm just very excited about.
[00:11:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. So in this pre launch stage, I know you have a bazillion things going on, I'm sure, and there's lots to think about and a lot of exciting things happening, but what's the next step for you at this point? You have some funding, it sounds like, but now what's coming up, the very next thing?
[00:12:08] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah. So I don't know that we've said explicitly, but just in case anyone isn't aware, we are trying to create a pumping bra with built in warmth and massage. So that's the product that we're seeking to create. And we did receive funding last year from the National Institutes of Health to pursue this, which is really exciting. So the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded us a Phase I grant to do the prototyping that we're currently underway with and achieve our proof of concept ahead of validating it and then launching the product.
So right now we're definitely in that proof of concept prototyping phase. We have seen promising early results that we were hoping to see. And now it's a matter of kind of fine tuning the product at this early stage so that when it hits the market it's more than functional, it's convenient to use. We want this to be very clear that it is a product with integrity that was also designed by a mother for mothers, designed by women for women. I think that is something that this market is looking for, and women's products are booming right now. So I feel like this is right place, right time for us to enter and hit that inflection point.
[00:13:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, congratulations on all of the success so far. I know it's not been an easy road. I'm sure there have been lots of late nights and stressful days, but you're doing it. So that's amazing. And thank you for bringing this to market because it's so needed. And I'm curious, is your goal to be able to provide this directly to consumers? Are you hoping to have an intermediary? What are your thoughts with that? Because I'm sure some people are so excited to go, "When is this going to be real?"
[00:13:59] Ashley Mooneyham: That's such a good question.
[00:14:00] Jennie Lynch: Yeah, absolutely. So we have two ways we would love to enter the market. The first one is traditional business to consumer channels, so sales directly through our website, maybe at brick and mortar stores, big box stores, boutiques, being listed on online retailer websites. Just the traditional ways you can get a consumer good into your hands. The second channel is more business to business. We would love to sell directly to NICU units. We have heard from NICU units or individuals who work in NICU units that this is something that would be really beneficial, as well as we would love to reach out to breast pump manufacturers who might be interested in bundling our product with their breast pumps to have that kit mothers can buy right away that will have a synergistic effect right from the get go. So those are two go to market strategies.
[00:14:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Well, that is very exciting. So as you've been going on this journey, and I'm sure you've had amazing days. I'm sure you've had some discouraging days. Are there any moments that stand out to you as really clarifying to you that you are in the right place at the right time doing what you are meant to do?
[00:15:18] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah, absolutely. I think one that I already mentioned was that first customer discovery survey. That's one of the first things I did after formally launching this business. And it's been a through line ever since. It's a touch point that we can constantly go back to that validates why we're doing what we're doing and that it's worth pursuing.
And then shortly after that, I did start participating in pitch competitions where I was able to present this idea more widely. And the first competition that we ever entered was the HyVee Opportunity Summit, which was hosted at US Bank Stadium. And we were selected as, I think, a top nine finalist to pitch from over 900 applicants. And during that pitch contest, we took home grand prize. So out of the top nine, we got the number one prize slot. And I distinctly remember getting down from that stage so shocked that we were able to secure the grand prize our first pitch competition, but feeling so proud that what we're trying to do resonated and literally women came up to us with tears in their eyes.
And I, it just, it was so buoying. It really felt like, "Oh, this is something that matters. It's something that is beyond a solution for just myself." But 97 percent of our survey responders said that they were dissatisfied with the breast pump. And that's such an incredible dissatisfaction rate for such an essential piece of technology.
So those were two big wins for us early on. And then later last year when we were able to receive validation also from this huge federal scientific body that what we're doing is beyond like a feel good mission. It has scientific merit. It has significant potential to impact not only women's health, but human health by nourishing that next generation. That was a big win as well. And we're so excited for all of that collective experience to be really able to dig in this year to the research and development and start to make this idea a reality.
[00:17:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And Jennie?
[00:17:30] Jennie Lynch: Yeah, kind of echoing Ashley, she hit some of our big milestones in 2023. This year, I've had a couple friends and family members who've had little ones, and it's just been really interesting seeing a lot of my friends and how they're coming into motherhood. And how this product is something that they're probably not going to be using it for this child, but maybe in the future. And they're just really excited for us to be able to launch our product and for them to use it in the future. So that's something, just that verbal reassurance from our community is something that I think is what keeps us going.
[00:18:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course, that makes so much sense, and I'm so glad you have that, so much social proof, the stories of the people who are coming up to you, and then you've also, like you said, have this tangible grant that really did help say, "Yeah, this is very important, this is very needed," and I'm sure those things really help on the difficult days, so I'm so glad you have all of that.
But speaking of difficult days, I am wondering, in this journey, I'm sure there have been lots of ups and downs. What are some of the things that you have maybe been surprised about as you have gone about this new journey? And I know, Jennie, there's a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors in your background, but just in general, when you're getting into a new thing, there's always unexpected things that pop up. So just curious as anything come up for you yet?
[00:19:02] Jennie Lynch: Something that I have found unexpected and slightly challenging at times, something that Ashley and I constantly are thinking about is, how we're kind of in this in between space where we're kind of known as a consumer good, yet we are a medical device, and it's been really hard to communicate some of the challenges related to being in that in between space with a lot of either investors or cheerleaders or people who are just interested in our product. We're more complicated than that average consumer good, yet we're not going to be put into the body. We're not as technical as maybe other medical devices that are on the market. So we really are in this in between space and there aren't too many players who are as well, at least that we've come across in our own journey. So that is a weird thing that we've run into is how do we effectively communicate where we are on the market and the importance of the product.
[00:19:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And Ashley?
[00:20:01] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah. Jennie hit the nail on the head that continues to be a thorn in our side, but we are getting better and better at navigating this middle ground and explaining that's actually our secret sauce in a lot of ways, that we're not a simple consumer good, and we're not a complicated medical device. We exist in this elegant in between to hopefully be that solution. And then I think just what a lot of founders can relate to, the only other major challenge is fundraising for the effort and being really careful with the funds that we have raised to make sure that we can go as far as possible and really time the spends strategically. So that's been something that we're constantly evaluating, making sure that we're using our funds responsibly and constantly have our eye on future fundraise efforts to make sure that there's no major gap in funding that could hinder our progress. And I will just say having a co founder like Jennie through this experience has made every challenge much more bearable. So, I'm so glad that we get to go through it together. The hard days are much easier having a co founder like Jennie by my side and the good days are even more fun to celebrate.
[00:21:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. So you both are absolute powerhouse women. I got to take a look at your LinkedIn profiles and I was just really admiring everything that you have done in your past, your education, your expertise, and then your commitment to community and the fact that you're still actively volunteering and you're doing all of these things. And it really struck me as not only incredibly impressive, but also I just have to ask, do you sleep?
[00:21:42] Ashley Mooneyham: I mean, I have a two month old at home, so no. But I will say, that gives me extra waking hours in the day, so that's always good. I don't know how Jennie does it.
[00:21:55] Jennie Lynch: Man, I think similar to Ashley, I do have a good support network and I think that makes all the difference. I don't think that I could achieve what I have without the friends and family who continue to uplift me. So that's what keeps me going too.
[00:22:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Good reminder about the importance of community, absolutely. That's phenomenal. What is your top piece of advice you have for other women medtech founders specifically, or women medtech leaders.
[00:22:27] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah. I mean, it's something I constantly think about and learned through this journey is that being a woman founder is a strength. It's not a weakness. You don't need to justify being a woman founder. You don't need to justify pursuing a women's health problem with a women's health solution. I actually think all of that is a strength. And the second I stopped defending myself as a founder and defending my product and instead presented it as the opportunity it is and found like minded, passionate individuals like Jennie to join the journey, the more success we had. So I would just encourage all women founders, women entrepreneurs to remind yourself that you are doing something exceptionally valuable and your perspective is exceptionally valuable. And it's not something that you need to make excuses for or feel like you need to be on the back foot about.
[00:23:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Jennie, do you have anything to add to that as well?
[00:23:29] Jennie Lynch: Wow. Yeah, absolutely. The main takeaway that I have since starting entrepreneurship is create a community with people around you who will continue to support you. And mostly what I mean by that is Ashley and I have already established a community, both in Minnesota and nationally, that incorporates women health founders, and the amount of just brainstorming and good ideas that we get bouncing ideas off of one another is really wonderful. And it's great being able to connect with women who are in a similar position.
[00:24:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you both. Yeah, so pivoting the conversation a little bit, just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It could be in your industry, could be about what you're currently doing, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:24:27] Ashley Mooneyham: Well, I can give an industry specific answer right away if Jennie wants a couple more minutes to think. This might be the more boring answer, but Jennie leads an exciting life, so she can back end this with something more fun. But like I said, my expertise originally was in helping companies secure that non dilutive grant funding. Honestly, I want to spread that message more to small businesses, because I hear over and over again how much funding ends up being a barrier to small businesses, especially in the earliest stages of ideation and de risking whatever it is that they think matters and should be introduced to the market space. And that ends up stopping so many great ideas from getting a chance even to move forward in the market.
So I am constantly working on this now without a million dollars, but if I had a million dollars I'd love to just be able to spread that message more, especially to the businesses that have that mission and heart behind them. So right now there's that White House initiative, as well as the National Institutes of Health Initiative to fund women's health research. Every female entrepreneur I meet in women's health, you can't get me to stop talking about federal grant funding and pursuing grant funding to really maintain ownership over your idea, ownership over that direction, which is going to be important for any founder, but particularly those that are trying to represent disadvantaged populations or underrepresented populations. You get to maintain your ownership and you get to de risk your idea so that you can move it forward. That's just where my mind goes to right away.
[00:26:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, excellent. Very needed too, so.
[00:26:13] Jennie Lynch: I guess if I had to teach a master class, I can come in with something a little bit more fun. So a couple years back, I spent a lot of time traveling. I was doing the digital nomad thing, so maybe a master class on all the ins and outs that come with how to work. And live on the road and you know how to organize your life a little bit to make that a little bit more streamlined. There was some trial and error for a couple years and I have this wealth of knowledge that's all living in my head, but it would be really cool to bring that to life in a master class, I think.
[00:26:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Yes, as a digital nomad myself, I fully understand what you're talking about and getting, that learning curve can be a little steep sometimes accidentally you think, "Oh yeah, I'm prepared."
[00:27:03] Jennie Lynch: Yeah, exactly. You never know what, what's going to come up when you're traveling around.
[00:27:09] Lindsey Dinneen: I always say there's never a dull moment. And then, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:27:17] Ashley Mooneyham: Jennie, your turn to go first.
[00:27:20] Jennie Lynch: Sure, I can go first. Yeah, well, I guess if there was something that I would love for, I would love to be known as a very loving person, a kind friend, somebody who's always positive, and gives everybody the benefit of the doubt. I guess a distinct characteristic that I would love to be remembered for is maybe what my partner calls "activator energy." I really love just immediately tackling a project, bringing something from zero to one. So if I had one characteristic, it would be that kind of activator energy characteristic.
[00:27:56] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that.
[00:27:58] Ashley Mooneyham: I do too. And that's a perfect answer. Yeah, I agree with Jennie. What matters most are those interpersonal relationships and connections that you have in close community with. Those are the things that matter most to me. It's way more important to be a good wife, good mother, good friend, good daughter in the time that we have. But also obviously, I'm hoping with Momease to leave a legacy that does make an impact in women's health one way or another. And I try to keep that in perspective with our business goals always that any win that we have is a win for women's health. Anything that we achieve is validation that funding women's health is worth it and that this field is worth pursuing. And I hope that it continues to improve after our journey ends with Momease, wherever that ending point is. And I hope that's a way that we can leave our thumbprint outside of our families with something a bit greater.
[00:28:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Those are beautiful answers. Yeah, and then my final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:29:11] Ashley Mooneyham: Well, my answer is easy. I have children, so that's obviously a joy in my life. And another thing that keeps me going every day, I want my kids to know that if they have an idea that you should bet on yourself and pursue it. And I hope that I can model that for them, even in an uncertain, scary landscape like entrepreneurship. So yeah, grateful for my kids. I have a daughter and a son.
[00:29:38] Jennie Lynch: For me, it's just a nice cup of coffee, but immediate smile.
[00:29:44] Lindsey Dinneen: I can relate to that, especially in the morning first thing when you're just like trying to get recombobulated and here we go.
[00:29:52] Jennie Lynch: Absolutely.
[00:29:53] Ashley Mooneyham: Yeah, that first cup isn't even a smile. It's just necessity. And then if I get an afternoon cup, that's where then the joy comes in.
[00:30:01] Jennie Lynch: Yes.
[00:30:02] Lindsey Dinneen: That's fantastic. That's amazing. Well, thank you both so very much for spending some time with me today and sharing your stories and your advice, and I am so excited to see Momease continue to succeed, and I love what you're doing, and this is so needed, and you have this wide open space for it, and that's insane, but I'm so thankful that you guys are taking the time and the effort and the funds and everything to make it come to life because it is so needed. So, gosh, just thank you for what you're doing.
[00:30:36] Ashley Mooneyham: Thank you for being a platform.
[00:30:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course, and we are so 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. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support, and also thank you for continuing to work to change lives for a better world. We're grateful, and I wish you the most amazing continued success.
[00:31:11] Ashley Mooneyham: Thank you.
[00:31:12] Jennie Lynch: Thank you.
[00:31:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am at the moment, I would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, continue to spread the word about these amazing innovations, and we will catch you next time.
[00:31:31] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Dr. Shoreh Ershadi | Founder, ANTIAGING Institute of California | Apoptosis, Clinical Excellence, & Women in Science

Dr. Shoreh Ershadi is the founder of ANITAGING Institute of California and a renowned expert in clinical biochemistry and pharmacology with over 40 years of experience. Dr. Ershadi shares her compelling journey from Iran to the United States, highlighting her unexpected entry into medical technology and the numerous challenges she faced as a woman in science. From setting up clinical labs and pioneering AIDS testing to founding her own antiaging company, Dr. Ershadi discusses her relentless pursuit of scientific innovation and passion for improving human health. The conversation also touches on her entrepreneurial ventures, the role of art in her life, and her vision for a healthier future driven by natural apoptosis-promoting supplements.
Guest links: www.Apoptosis.us | www.facebook.com/apoptosisnutraceuticals | www.instagram.com/apoptosisnutraceuticals | www.threads.com/apoptosisnutraceuticals 
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 CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 037 - Dr. Shoreh Ershadi
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm so excited to introduce you to my guest, Dr. Shoreh Ershadi. With over 40 years of expertise in clinical biochemistry and pharmacology, Dr. Ershadi stands at the forefront of scientific innovation in the field of nutraceuticals and supplements. Board certified by the American Academy of Antiaging Medicine and holding dual doctorate degrees, Dr. Ershadi brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the world. Dr. Ershadi's distinguished credentials, including National Registry in Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology and American Society of Clinical Pathology certifications, underscore her dedication to precision and quality in laboratory practices. Her visionary leadership and unwavering passion for advancing human health has made her a trusted authority in the field.
All right. Well, Shoreh, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to speak with you.
[00:01:51] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to talk to you, especially that you're going to talk about medical technology. And that is something that I have been doing or working at for, I would say over 30 years, easy. 1988, I got my license in California. So it's what, 32 years?
[00:02:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Oh my goodness. Well, this leads perfectly into my first question and that is, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and how you got into medtech?
[00:02:29] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Okay. That is interesting because I was born in Iran and I studied pharmacology. And before I was graduated, the Department of Health in Iran was hiring pharmacists, pharmacologists. So we all went and took the exam and we passed the exam. We were still at the final stages of doing the thesis and going through final stages of graduation. And then they called me and a few other people for an interview. Apparently I had a high mark in the test, which I did not know.
So when we went for the interview, and I went to an American school and then later to a British school in Iran, so I was speaking English. At the interview, there was a gentleman who was back in Iran from United States, and he was a PhD in clinical biochemistry, and he asked me to read something in English. And I read it, and he thought that I had it by heart or something, so he flipped the book and found a more difficult page and said, "Okay, read this," and I read that, and he said, "Okay, I'm hiring you for the reference lab."
I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about, what was reference lab. I had no intention to even work for Department of Health because I was not even graduated at that time. And then they said, "Okay, start on such and such date." And when I went there the first day, he said he spoke in English and he said, "You're overqualified." Oh my God. What? I mean, it was funny. Without even planning to get into laboratory, I got into the reference lab of Department of Health. And what he was planning to do was to bring College of American Pathologists, the proficiency testing to all the laboratories in Iran. And he wanted someone who would speak English and who could communicate.
So first day of my job, I wrote a letter to College of American Pathologists and I said, "Hi, hello, I'm Shoreh Ershadi, I want to buy a thousand proficiency kits." And of course they responded. So just like that, I got into clinical laboratory. And I became the Director of the Quality Control for Department of Health. And that was before the revolution. So, that was my exciting start into laboratory.
[00:05:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that. And
[00:05:28] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Not voluntarily, but serendipitously, yes.
[00:05:34] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. So then at some point, you came to the U. S. and was that transition really difficult? Was it frustrating? Were you excited? Nervous?
[00:05:47] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: There was a part in between before coming to U. S. There was another test by W. H. O., World Health Organization. So I took that test and I passed that test and I got a scholarship to go to medical school in England to do a master's degree. And when I went there, I told them, "I already have a doctorate in pharmacology. I don't want master's. I want to do PhD." And after a few weeks, they said, "Okay, fine, go to PhD. You don't need to do master."
So I was in England for about four years. I did my PhD in clinical biochemistry. And I went back to Iran. That was exactly during the revolution. So while I was studying in England, the country in Iran was on fire. It was, things going crazy everywhere. But I went back and I got married. I had my son in Iran, and I was working in a clinical laboratory in one of the best hospitals in Iran, and it got very difficult for women to work. They were saying, " Now you have to wear a scarf. Now, you can't see male patients, you can only talk to female patients." It was not right.
So, 1984, I came to United States, I came to California, and with some friends in Iran who had a clinical laboratory, and they were here before me and had started a lab in Orange County, California. I started a branch of the lab in Westwood, in Los Angeles. So that was my first job or position and that was my entrepreneurial side, which now I wouldn't dare to start a life, but then I did.
[00:07:51] Lindsey Dinneen: You didn't know the difference then.
[00:07:53] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Well, yes, I didn't know. I mean, it was a lot easier, I would say. At that point. The lab was not even accepting Medicare or Medi Cal. It was private insurance. I was doing the billing. I was getting the information. I was drawing the patients. I was separating the samples and sending them to the reference lab that was actually running the tests. But I was doing stat CBCs and I was in a medical building and so all the doctors were so nice to send the samples down to me. It worked. So
[00:08:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Oh my.
[00:08:34] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Amazing. Yes. Now it sounds really amazing. It's surreal in a way. Yeah.
[00:08:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Well, so, so with that lab and embracing this entrepreneurial journey, and I'm so thankful it worked out so well for you, but were there any moments where you just thought, okay, I've, I, you have such an amazing background. You're so highly educated, you're brilliant. And then you're starting this entrepreneurial journey, which is kind of a different skill set in a way. How was that transition of becoming kind of your own boss and being in charge of everything?
[00:09:12] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: That was pure ignorance. I mean, now I can say then, I thought I knew what I was doing, but it was a fast learning. First that I was in a different country, that I had never been in the United States. Second, that I had a three year old son that I brought with me and my then husband never came, so I got a divorce and I became a single mom. So, and nobody else was from my family was here. So it was very difficult because I had to take him to daycare and then come work and then go pick him up. And then there was a war, the Iraq war had started in Iran and my parents were in Iran and I was going through a divorce, so it was turmoil. And I had to work and learn in a way it was good because it didn't give me time to think about anything else. It was just forward, no looking sideways, no looking backwards. It was just moving forward.
But then again, something else happened that made it even more interesting. One of the days that I was at the lab, some guy came and said, "CDL, Central Diagnostic Lab, is looking for a technical director and they've asked me to come and talk to you." I had absolutely no clue if anyone knew me or knew of me or it was the, I mean, a lot of things happened, which, I mean, I'm happy now, but then it changed my life tremendously.
And I don't think I've ever talked to anyone about this in this detail. So, Lindsey, I would say you're the first person I'm telling the story of my life. But anyways, I went for an interview and I got hired right away. I had the lab, so I hired someone to do the work that I was doing in the lab. And then I started working at CDL, Central Diagnostic Labs, which was the largest privately owned lab in the United States at that time. There were 1, 200 employees. So that was a very interesting experience on its own because I was introduced to a world that I did not even know what was going on.
So, and that was during AIDS testing. Bio-Rad had just come up with Western blot testing and we did the clinical trial, which was very easy in those days. We had AIDS patients and we had a lot of AIDS samples accumulated or saved frozen and we used them to validate the Western blot by Bio-Rad and I went on National TV 1988 and I said, "CDL is the first lab in the world that is doing a confirmation for HIV AIDS testing." So then, that was major.
[00:12:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.
[00:12:43] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: But then, then my family came. My father passed away here. It was, again, a lot of complications going on. And one of the other people that I knew asked me to go and partner with them in a lab. Again, my entrepreneurial part took over and I went for the partnership, and I started from scratch. I started Path Labs practically from scratch. There were two pathologists working with Los Alamitos Hospital, and I went there and I started a lab from just buying test tubes, buying, from absolutely nothing. I was there for six years, I think. six or eight years with Path Labs. That was not so successful.
After that, I went to Specialty Labs, which is now Quest. Specialty wanted to start a toxicology lab. So, Path Lab was sold. But there was no money made with the partnership and all that. So that was not a very successful six, eight years of my life. Specialty was good. I went to Specialty and I started Department of Toxicology. I don't know if you remember or you were familiar with specialty. Dr. Peters was there and he was the founder, James Peters. He did only immunology testing. They would receive samples and send out everything else to other labs and only do the immunological tests or some specialty tests.
When I started the toxicology department, we started getting samples from all over the world. We were running heavy metals and all that. We had an ICP MS and I started running ICP, and the main test that I developed there was measuring iron in the liver biopsy of patients with hemochromatosis. So we would get one spot, in tip of the needle of the liver and then do a measurement and measure the amount of toxicity with iron in hemochromatosis, which was great. I wrote a paper and we were working with Mayo Clinic and they developed the test. So that was very exciting. Then I started the automated lab because all the chemistry. And all the hematology was going out, was sent out. So that brought a lot of money into the lab, but that was not my lab. It was Dr. Peter's lab. It was wonderful. It was nice. But he was the entrepreneur there.
So in the year 2000, I started ANTIAGING Institute of California. After passing the specialist chemist license in California, I got National Registry in Certified Chemistry, Certified Toxicology, and then I took the board exam with American Academy of Antiaging Medicine. And that was again entrepreneurial and I started the company, that would be 25 years ago. I've done a lot of consultation. I've been director of lab during COVID. I went back to city health. And I was Director of City Health running 4, 000 COVID patients a night for airports, for schools, for traveling, for a lot of stuff.
And then I worked with Siemens Healthineers on regulations for IVDR. So all the kits that Siemens had, over 700 reagent kits that were sold to the laboratories, they need to get the CE mark to be able to be sold in Europe under the new IVDR regulations. And a lot of it had to go through FDA as well because FDA had to approve if there were any changes made to the kits. So I've done a lot of regulation works. I've done a lot of hands on COVID tests, covered it all.
Actually, something else that was very interesting. And this, for MedTechs, I would think this would be interesting to know that it's not just one position. And there's so much you can do, if you want to expand your horizon. For about a year, I helped set up extremely high complex laboratory for testing mother's milk, for making milk bank from mother's milk for NICU for children who were born early and the formulas did not work with them. Some of them were so tiny, less than a pound. And so mother's milk bank, it's called Prolacta Bioscience, the company. And I worked there to establish the clinical lab and to get a license for clear and stuff like that. So.
[00:18:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh!
[00:18:21] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: A lot of good work going into my up and down career, I would say.
[00:18:28] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. Well, first of all, I'm so honored that you were willing to share so much with me. That is. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate you being willing to talk about some of the amazing moments you've had and the really high, " Yay, we did this," but also some of the moments where it was a little bit tougher and even you being honest and transparent about, the one company didn't do as well as you would have hoped, but you kept going and you are a living testament to resilience and adaptation.
[00:18:59] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: There is no other choice. I would hope that people would have many choices. I mean, you always make choices in life. Even now, this is a choice to talk to you and I appreciate the opportunity because, if I would choose or if I wouldn't know about you, that would be a totally different episode in my life. So I'm open to take chances. You can say that with my experience, living in three different continents and moving and just leaving Iran and coming to us with a three year old, not being here ever before. And then, just jumping in and, but there was no other choice except for moving forward, or we can say, except for success. Because failure was not an option. What would I do? There was nowhere to go back. Sometimes you may have an option to make a U turn and say, "Okay, I don't like this. I want to do something else. I want to stay home." There was no option, no going back. So it was only forward.
[00:20:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, absolutely. So, coming here and like you said, having to move forward and I appreciated what you said, you kind of, you couldn't look to the side, you couldn't look back. You had to keep moving forward. How did you go about building a community that could support you, that you could be friends with, and colleagues with, and feel supported coming in from, not having that.
[00:20:36] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: And that was not very difficult. There were many difficult times during that, that I mean, I don't mind talking about it, being a woman, being a young woman, being from a different background there was a lot of resistance. And I see that today as well. I mean, I can't say, "Oh, here I'm in L. A. and Los Angeles is so easy." It's not. I am hoping that women would not maybe experience all the difficulties that I went through. But we're talking about 40 years ago. I came to The States actually July 22nd would be exactly 40 years. I left Iran July 1st, 1984. So this is the 40th anniversary.
Being a woman, I thought, when I went to England one of the first things, the professor was my direct supervisor when I worked with him. And I know you can see my face. This is 40 years later. I have no claims, but the professor told me, "You're a beautiful woman. Why do you want to study? Why are you here for PhD?" And I thought that was the greatest insult in my life. So I fought with that professor for four years.
[00:22:15] Lindsey Dinneen: No, I'm sorry.
[00:22:17] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: That wasn't easy, but it was so difficult to prove that I am not just a woman or a pretty girl or a young girl or a young woman, or. That was a major fight. I would say that was as difficult as fighting the revolution in Iran, because you wouldn't expect a British professor to say that to you. And I was the only girl, a PhD student, all the others were guys, and this was medical school. And to me, that was very surprising because when I went to University of Tehran, we had probably more girls than guys in the class. Girls were very prone to education in Iran, and they still are. There's still, I think, 60, 65 percent girls in universities, even here. But to hear that was very difficult. That experience repeated itself. in United States over and over till today that I can say I don't feel old. I'm antiaging, but now that I'm an old woman, I still feel that I have to prove myself that I am equal. And sometimes I would say I'm better, but, just to be honest and modest, you want to be treated equal. And that is very difficult.
[00:23:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And As much as I would wish things were improving rapidly, I'm not so sure that they are, but what have you found has been helpful in terms of, helping people understand who might come with a bias, but who, helping those people understand, "No I have this education. I am very capable." What are some strategies that you have found that have worked really well for you?
[00:24:22] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Not many. I have to be honest with you. I mean, if there are a few people, few women, a few even men who are, would be following the conversation, I want them to know that this is not easy. And maybe a part of my success is that I'm a fighter. And I didn't surrender, but I didn't smile my way up. I fought with everyone that went in that direction. And I don't want to get into details, but many of the stronger men would think that if they flirt with you, if they take you out, if they buy dinner for you, then you're going to do what they say.
And my story is, just, I have my guards up and I fought. I wouldn't recommend people to fight. Maybe they can find a better solution. I did not find many. Maybe the reason of working separate and starting my own company, maybe one of the major reasons was that I would not have to say yes to power that I did not want to say yes. I worked very hard. I worked hard, long hours. Medtechs, you have to stay there to get the results out.
One Christmas. I stayed from December 24th for I would say 72 hours in the lab, maybe two, three hours shower and sleep and go back because we had a lot of toxicology tests that were waiting and results had to go out. And the probe in the I-C-P-M-S was broken. There was no one to replace it during Christmas. It was, we had to borrow from somewhere, FedEx shipping it. Those things happen, you know that, and you have to work hard. It wasn't an easy journey to say, "Oh, I worked four hours a day." And they said, "Thank you. You're so good. Go home." It wasn't like that.
[00:26:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. Right. Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate you sharing that. And so one thing that was really interesting to me, I was looking at your LinkedIn profile and I see that art is a big part of your life in addition to the science and I saw you listed painting and sculpting and I'm wondering how-- well a couple of things-- how did you first get involved in art? And secondly, do you feel that is helpful in terms of having a sort of therapeutic thing to do that kind of maybe helps with some of those harder moments where it's a little frustrating?
[00:27:23] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Very helpful. But I was as a kid, I started painting at a very young age. And I was always coloring and painting and making things and all that. And my father, a very educated father, he had two master's degree from a University of Texas and came back to Iran. And that's why, we spoke English and we went to English school. So my father was educated and open minded, I can say. But he always said that "You should study art. And don't go to medicine, you'll get old." He passed away in 1988, and I always, when I started Antiaging, I always said "Okay, if you're looking, you will see that I'm antiaging, I didn't age, I went to medical school, I did all the studies."
But my logic, first that I love to do this, I mean, it wasn't just you know, forcing myself. I love science. And to this day I do a lot of research. I play with science. You can see the labels are all fancy. I do the paintings. I do all of that. But my logic, more than being scientific, was that this was a career and art would not be a self supporting career, even at younger age. But I always said that if I was a doctor, I could paint, but if I was an artist, I could not do the scientific part or the medical part that I was interested in.
But after the divorce, I was in a relationship for 14 years. And I was working hard, raising a son, being a single mother and all that. When that relationship ended after 14 years, the art just popped out. I started painting, sculpting. It was not under control. You can see that, things happen to me, things come out in a certain period. Maybe, I push them down, force them to stay within me, and then they just pop out in different directions. So art came out itself. But there was a period in between that there was no art. Maybe there was too much stress. Maybe there was a lot of, and right now there's no art. Right now it's more entrepreneurial, starting, scientific, all that. But the art pops out every now and then.
[00:30:07] Lindsey Dinneen: That's great. Yeah. So speaking of, what you're doing now, I was wondering if you could share a little bit about your company and maybe what you're excited about for its future as you continue along this path.
[00:30:19] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Okay. That is, this is now where all the passion is. So everything that I have forced inside for all my life is now just coming out into Apoptosis. Apoptosis is a Greek word and it means "falling of the leaves." In science apoptosis, if you Google it, you'll see it means "programmed cell death." So in our bodies in creation or creator or whichever you wanna put it, and I'm sure being a medtech and all the audience, they know there are thousands of reactions inside the body are happening for me just to sit here and breathe and talk. There are thousands and thousands of enzymes and catalysts and metals and oh, whatever is going on.
Programmed cell death or apoptosis is a main part of survival. So it's the future of antiaging because we all-- first of all that life expectancy is much longer now. Longevity is longer and younger people do not want to get old. So, at some point I would say my grandmother's generation and my mother is now 95 years old and she's, thank God, healthy and walking and all that, but even she does not want to get old. So, the image of being old and sick is combined together.
But we can age without being sick, without getting Alzheimer's, without losing our memory, without getting all these different kinds of diseases. And one major problem is cancer that was much higher with older people and now the statistic is showing that cancer is happening in younger and younger generations. So what apoptosis does is that it's a program in the body. I did not make it. I wish I did, but it's happening all the time. And apoptosis is getting rid of cancer cells, getting rid of damaged cells, getting rid of neurons that cannot connect and synapses with other neurons to take the message over. So if we encourage apoptosis, then all the damaged cells are removed just like falling leaves. They're removed from the body and they're replaced with new energized healthy new cells.
Every 10 years, our entire body is regenerated. So why do we get old? We should always stay at a 10 year age. So at 20 years old, we have recycled cells that even though we're growing, growth and youth is defined as between 20 to 25. From 25 to 30, it's sort of stable. There's a plateau. After 30, we start the aging process. So now, as 30 to 60, is still considered not so deep slip going down. It's sort of a plateau up to 60. And then after 60, 70, 80, 90, people are beginning to age. And it shows, I mean, with different diseases, with wrinkles, with memory loss, with all that.
So what I'm doing, I'm using nature's product, plant based products, and this has been proven in science that these plants support apoptosis. So, as we get older, just like all the other reactions, apoptosis does not happen at its ultimate way that it should happen. But if we encourage it, for example, we have here, this one is brain beet. This is all beet roots, and it's an organic product. It's all plant based, but it releases nitric oxide. And it works the same way that Viagra works, but it opens all the arteries, it opens the circulation to the brain, to the heart, so why not use it? Why not promote apoptosis the way nature has programmed it in our body, just help it to work better. So that is all my passion right now.
[00:35:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Excellent. Well, I love that. Thank you for sharing a little bit about it. I'm excited for our listeners to go and learn more about it and, see how they can maybe also take part in the antiaging movement.
[00:35:41] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Yes, they can partner with us and I would be thrilled. Actually, this is something that maybe I have learned during the long life experience, is that the more partners you have, the more friends you have, the more you share your knowledge, the better it is. Because at some point, it was like people wanted to keep everything to themselves and they didn't want to share or, but right now it's totally different. If they go to Apoptosis.us, they can go to the science section, they can read the papers. And if they would like to partner, I'll be thrilled to work with as many people as possible and take the message out. Yeah, this is a healthy message. This is something that we should all be talking about.
[00:36:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed, we should. Yes. Thank you. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. It can be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach?
[00:36:56] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Well, the million dollar would be great.
[00:36:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed.
[00:37:00] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Yes. Yeah. Would we all want that. But yes, I think that right now, as I said, I would use the million dollars to talk about apoptosis all over because I see even young children, every time I see St. Jude's children, and thank you for your donation to Save the Children. I admire that. And I'm hoping that all the children in the world would have a good, healthy future. The world is crazy. You can look at it right now and see that, I can say my experience has been crazy. It doesn't get any better. It's always up and down. Things are happening all over everywhere in the world. And I would like to talk about health, talk about antiaging, talk about Apoptosis and educate more and more of the young people to learn and to avoid all the toxins that we are creating and we have created, with what we're doing with industry and go back to a plant based life, go back to nature, enjoy nature, go back to art, if possible, all the good things that we can do with our lives.
[00:38:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, absolutely. And then, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:38:29] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Oh, wow. That's a very difficult... a fighter? Survivor? Yep. Strong women? I would support women all the way. Now in Iran, they're saying, Woman Life Freedom. I'm sure you've heard about that. And I cannot tolerate, to see women covered all over with a window to see outside. To me, that is very disturbing. So I would like to see equal opportunity for women and I would like to maybe be remembered as a survivor.
[00:39:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, absolutely. And then, final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:39:24] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Oh, my granddaughter and my grandson. Yes, I have a five year old granddaughter. Her name is Julia and she is my sunshine. She is my life. The grandson is three months old. He's still too young, but he's getting there.
[00:39:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Aw!
[00:39:48] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Getting emotional.
[00:39:51] Lindsey Dinneen: I'm so glad. It's that's beautiful. That's wonderful.
[00:39:56] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Yes, that is continuation of the fight. That is when you see that what you've done is worth the fight, worth the hard work.
[00:40:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Well, this has been amazing. I so appreciate you telling your story and sharing some of it that maybe you haven't done before, and that's I feel very honored.
[00:40:23] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Yes.
[00:40:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you. Thank you for trusting me.
[00:40:28] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Well, thank you for bringing all of this out. This has been sitting there suffocating, maybe.
[00:40:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:40:37] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Thank you.
[00:40:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. And we are so honored, you mentioned this, but 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. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. And we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.
[00:41:06] Dr. Shoreh Ershadi: Thank you so much, and thank you for having me, and thank you for making me tell the story. Thank you, Lindsey.
[00:41:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And thank you also so much to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we'll catch you next time.
[00:41:29] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Tom Salemi | Editorial Director, DeviceTalks | MedTech Storytelling, Event Collaboration, & the Power of Connection

Tom Salemi, editorial director of DeviceTalks shares his accidental yet fulfilling journey into the medtech industry. Tom reveals his passion for storytelling, building communities, and highlighting the human aspect of medical device innovation. He discusses the evolution of DeviceTalks, its focus on collaboration and education, and the importance of personal connections within the industry. 
 
Guest links: devicetalks.com
Charity supported: Feeding America
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 036 - Tom Salemi
Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey 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 back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey and I am so excited to be speaking with my guests today. Tom Salemi. Tom is the editorial director of DeviceTalks. He tells medtech stories with wonder, humor, and great respect. He hosts podcasts, conducts video interviews and organizes events, both virtual and in-person to ensure our innovative medtech ecosystem stays strong and saves lives.
All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Tom. I'm so excited to talk with you this morning.
Tom Salemi: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. It's great to be on this other side of the podcast interview experience.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing just a little bit about yourself and your background and how you wandered into medtech.
Tom Salemi: Sure. I'm a Massachusetts native, lived here my whole life. Always was aware of the healthcare industry, but I can't say I had a long time love for it or anything like that. My parents were not doctors. I am not an engineer, nor ever could be, but I did go to journalism school. And I wasn't quite sure why, it just always appealed to me. I went to visit a newspaper once, the Boston Herald, and I fell in love with the newsroom. It just seemed like the most fun place to be in the world. So I wanted to work there for a living, but later on, I think I found out it was more, I really enjoy building communities and that's gonna, I think, develop later on.
I found my way into medtech quite accidentally. I was at a local paper in Massachusetts and wanted to get a job at the Boston Business Journal 'cause I was tired of covering city council meetings and planning board meetings about the height of fences and things like that. And the only beat that was open was healthcare. And at the time, this was '97, that included all the Boston hospitals, the biotechs, and the medical device companies. So it was a lot, but it was intriguing. And, I'll say my parents at the time were older and starting to see doctors more and more. So I was like, "Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to understand that industry a bit better."
So I took the job at the Business Journal and then that led to an invitation to edit a venture capital newsletter that focused again, broadly on healthcare. So, that was in '98, it's called Venture Capital and Healthcare. Very very descriptive name. And from there, I just really grew to love medtech. I mean, biotech, is of course bigger and fascinating in its own right, but I never quite understood the whole molecule thing, whereas devices, you could see what this thing did and what it looked like. And how the pump worked and why I moved the blood this way or that way. It was just I think an easier and a better story for me to tell. So that's how I wandered my way into healthcare and into medical devices.
Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Well, and now with DeviceTalks, can you tell us a little bit about DeviceTalks, and maybe a little bit about what you're excited about for it for the future? Because I know there's just so much in the works and it just keeps growing and it's so exciting to watch.
Tom Salemi: Yeah, no, it's been an interesting development. So I joined actually DeviceTalks in 2019. It existed prior to me. It's been around for 10 years or so. It was a sort of the events business related to the Mass Device news site. So, prior to that, I was writing for magazines, wrote for InVivo and Startup. And then decided in 2014, I was I was done with writing. I just wanted to do something different. And at the same time, the company that acquired our magazine decided they wanna lay off the editorial staff. So it was it was quite a good bit of timing for me 'cause I don't think I ever would've got off the branch without a little boot in the butt.
So I started doing conferences for a smaller company, medical device conferences, and podcasts. And then the opportunity to join DeviceTalks again happened in 2019 to, to run their three meetings. Of course, 2020 came around. I joined November, 2019, four months later the world shut down and we didn't have our events. So, we pivoted and launched our podcasts and our webinars and went back to events in 2022. DeviceTalks' mission has been really focused on the people who make medical devices, who design them, who manufacture them, who get them through the regulatory process. Anyone who touches a medical device from inception to handling it to a physician to have it implanted in a patient. We try to track that whole process. We do a bit of sort of the venture capital stuff, which was where my interests were lying previously. But DeviceTalks' goal is really again, to focus on the engineers and manufacturing folks, those who were really on the front lines of making medical devices.
DeviceTalks has sort of morphed over time from just an events business to our podcast business, which is not only our weekly podcast, but we're working with a lot of the major OEMs to help them tell their stories through podcasts. We're continuing to roll out new series focused on specific OEMs or specific areas. We'll have a neuro one coming out soon. We'll have a structural heart one coming out soon. And we still, the DeviceTalks Tuesdays program that we launched in May 2020, because we couldn't meet the person, we did virtual like everybody else. I thought it would be something that would go away when we went back to in person, but it's only grown. So we'll continue. We continue to do about 35 of those a year. We take a month off in August and then a few days here and there for holidays. But next year we're going to be expanding that to bring some more kind of issues and OEM oriented conversations. So people seem to have responded to the opportunities to talk about medtech all the time and to listen to medtech all the time. So, as the host of a podcast, it's a pretty great time to be producing stories like these.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit about DeviceTalks and its trajectory. It's so exciting to see how it continues to grow and evolve over time. And yeah, it's been interesting to watch how so many companies have changed, obviously because of the pandemic, but then sometimes it's been a really interesting change where, what you thought was going to happen doesn't actually happen the way, but it's exciting. And, you just keep moving with it. So that's great.
Tom Salemi: I was listening to the first podcast we did in March 2020,. Chris Newmark and I were talking about, "Well, what does this mean? Like, are we not going to go to meetings? Are we going to have these conversations online? Like digitally? That's crazy. That doesn't make any sense." And we just literally described the world today, but we were both just flabbergasted, "This is nuts. This is just not going to work." So you're right. Things are evolved quickly.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And it's great. So, you're coming at the medtech industry from a really unique perspective, and you are telling stories and sharing stories about people's, incredible devices and innovations and the journey from concept to actually producing something. And I'm curious how does that storytelling process work for you? Like how do you go about finding the hidden gems within a founder's story, and then being able to take that and really run with it so that it's not just a matter of, "Hey, this device is incredible. Look at all the shiny, cool, amazing things it does. But here's the purpose and the reason behind that, too."
Tom Salemi: That's a good question. I mean, I, like you, start the podcast with the stories about the guests, 'cause I'm really intrigued by their path into medtech. 'Cause I don't think it's, we know the industry itself isn't extraordinarily sexy. It's not on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. We're not talking about, well, these stupid app names that are missing vowels and people seem to get excited about it. We're a very kind of, I don't know, low key industry, but we're the industry, the people who make these devices, are literally saving lives.
So I think the guests that we talk to, you know, come to it come to this industry for a purpose. You obviously can build a very successful career for yourself. But I really do enjoy trying to find out what that why is and how it came to be, how it came to lead to a career in medtech. And then I really focused down on, we've all had those moments where we've made life decisions and we could have gone this way or that way. And we chose that way. And it worked out, but what was that? What was the thought process at that fork in the road? And why was that decision made? 'Cause I think really, I think that's something that everyone can connect with.
I remember talking with Mike Mahoney, the CEO of Boston Scientific at DeviceTalks Boston last year, talking about his indecision as to whether he was going to take the job at Boston Scientific. He was obviously a senior medtech guy at J& J. Why leave J& J for Boston Scientific, which was struggling at the time? And he just told this great story of how he had hired a consultant to review the situation and to give him a recommendation. The consultant was like, "No way, man, stay at J& J, you're doing great." And he was going to interview at Boston with the intention, I think, of saying no. And then he just took a moment and walked off and just looked in a mirror and said, "Do you want to do this or not?" And he said, "Yeah, I want to do this." And he just went for it and look what happened.
So, I think finding those human moments in medtech is important because, more so than tech, in other industries, I think it is a very human industry because, again, people are here for a personal reason. Many people have personal stories as to why they entered medtech. Talk to people who have lost childhood friends, when they were teenagers and that drove them to medtech, obviously the state of our parents, in my case, draws you here. I think very often there's a compassionate thread. I mean, sometimes people just, maybe they go into sales 'cause they see the cars in the parking lot of, and I think there's that and that's fine too, but I think those people also come around to, "Oh wait, this is, I can have my cake and eat it too. I can actually do some good while doing well." So, I do like to focus on the human part of our industry. And I think it's one that needs to be told more because too often it's a conversation focused on FDA approvals or recalls, and we're just talking about the machinery and not the people who make it.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Very well said. And I completely agree with you. I think there's, oftentimes a little bit of, because to your point, it's not sort of on the front pages every day. And I will venture to say that sometimes when it is, it's for the reasons we don't want it to be. So, so it's so important to tell these stories. And the thing is, I came in from also from an outside perspective and my background is marketing and business development, business strategy. And so when I came in, it was a whole new world as well. And one thing that I realized is from an outside perspective, sometimes there's this sort of unfair stigma about people are in it solely for the money. And honestly, It's a really hard industry to be in if that's your only goal. So I think, telling these stories about these founders and the why behind it is just so compelling. And I love being able to do that. I'm so glad that you do that all the time as well. Yeah.
Tom Salemi: Yeah, no it's just, those are things that need to be reported on and focused on more, so I'm glad we're both shining a light on it.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So, okay. So I know that DeviceTalks, it has so many different facets to it. One of the really interesting things that you guys do is put on events. And I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to that process and even just there, there are a number of different industry events available, but DeviceTalks pretty special. So I was wondering if you could talk to a little bit about that element and what makes it unique. Yeah.
Tom Salemi: Yeah. No. So when I joined in 2019, I came aboard to help find a direction, a different direction for the meetings to focus it more on the engineering and the device making, which was going to be challenging for me. 'Cause my, again, I really focused more on who raised series A, and who raised series B, and who's a late stage investor, and who's an early stage investor. And for me, for a long time prior, medical device coverage was just, you report on the company's financings, your report on their FDA approval. And then, I don't know, all that stuff in between and who knows what happens there.
So, COVID in a way presented an opportunity because we were able to focus on the podcasts and really give me an opportunity to learn about the industry, to learn about the engineering and the manufacturing about it, but also to get to know the device companies themselves and the comms teams there. So, by the time we resumed things in 2022, it sort of afforded me the opportunity to really work with the comms teams at the big companies, and the engineers and the folks who had on podcast, and try to get those stories that we told on the podcast on stage and maybe a grander fashion. Maybe there's a PowerPoint vote. Maybe there's two or three people who can talk about pulse field ablation, who can talk about the orthopedic business, who can talk about surgical robotics. So DeviceTalks, although we include some of that in our conversations, partnership and financing, especially in Boston, we've got The Medtech Innovator there and they run a great innovation, sort of forum investment forum. I just love working with Paul Grand and I love The Medtech Innovator crowd.
And I still love startups, the folks who start companies are just absolutely insane in a good way. God bless them. I love it. And so, but I really wanted to give an opportunity for the Strykers, for the Boston Scientifics, for the Medtronics to come and sit down in sort of a collegial atmosphere and say, "Look, this is, this is the device we're working on. These were the challenges we had in developing it. This is how we're looking at the patient population." And just go over different challenges that that they had overcome. So it really, I think, is an opportunity for everyone to sit down and talk about the designing, the making, even the selling. We're actually getting more into the selling of medical devices to talk about the business of medical devices in a very, almost. I don't want-- collegiate sounds weird-- but just a very educational, sort of open setting.
So we'll do, we have our keynotes, we'll have our big CEO keynotes. We'll have a venture panel from time to time. And like I said, we'd love to have the startups present, especially in Boston with MedTech innovator. We do that a little less of that at DeviceTalks West, but our bread and butter can sit continues to be engineering and manufacturing. And we really want folks to come down and talk about the intricacies behind their very cool and important and lifesaving devices, so people walk away with a better understanding of how to make their life saving device. And hopefully if they've taken the time to get to know this person who's achieved something great, and maybe they connect on LinkedIn, and it leads to a company being started five or six or 10 years down the road or two or three years down the road. Who knows? So we're all about again, open conversations about medical device development and about fostering the opportunity for personal connection as well.
Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Well, and I love your focus on collaboration, and education and that, the knowledge is shareable and it's really important and I think it's really impressive that you've created an atmosphere where people do want to come and share and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of their process and being able to share those stories, like you said, could very well inspire the next generation of innovators because it's important to be honest and transparent when you can be. So I think that's really incredible that you've fostered this atmosphere that, that leads to that. So.
Tom Salemi: No, thank you. No, and I'm really grateful to those companies that take advantage. Sometimes folks will come and maybe their presentation is a little scripted. But I think just having that person in the room, the Chief Technology Officer or the Director of Engineering for some valve program is important. And it just gives people, I think as much as-- if I were to create a pie chart for the importance of stuff that goes with a bar graph that happens on stage versus like the 10 minutes after someone's on stage, it's probably the bars are probably pretty close.
I'm not sure which is more important, but I think just getting everybody together and we've actually, I initially fought this, I'll admit it, but first couple of conferences, we had like five minutes in between sessions 'cause I just wanted to pack so much in. This year, our conference team was like, "Can we do 15 minutes?" And I was like, "No!" If you add it up, you've probably lost like 30 minutes of programming, but the 15 minutes was really great for just to give people some comfortable time to like, "Hey, I heard what you said about X. Here's something I'm working on, what do you think about that?"
I think that those kinds of conversations are are very important and you can lead it up. You can leave it up to serendipity that, "Oh, if I'm at the conference and the Chief Technology Officer from major medtech is going to be there, I'll bump into him in the cocktail reception," but it's not always easy to do. So we try to, we really try to foster those connections so people get the insights they need and go home with some really positive insights and feedback.
Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah, I absolutely love what your company does for that. That's incredible.
Tom Salemi: Thank you.
Lindsey Dinneen: So along your journey, have there been any moments where it stood out to you that you had this realization that "Yes, I am in the right industry at the right time." And just something, like a story that you got to share or something that just made you go, "Oh yes, I'm in the right place here."
Tom Salemi: Interesting question. I mean, I have a lot of those moments. Some of those singular moments, I think, some are a just collective moment. Like I've said before, when I was covering the Newburyport City Council, there was literally a moment where they were arguing about the distance-- I was there supposed to be covering this meeting-- and they were talking about the height of fences. And I literally got up and just left. And I was like, "I can't spend, I don't want to dedicate another minute of my life to this." And I've never done anything like that before. I am this Joe Earnest, like I'm gonna stay to the end and make sure it goes. I had the whole journalism thing going on. But I was just like, "I just can't spend my life doing this."
I've never, ever had that moment in medtech. I've never come to work and said, "Why am I writing about this? Or why am I talking to this person? Or what, what is this even about? What's the point?" I've never even thought that. And I would have that conversation if I were covering insurance or even, when I was at my newsletter, got a company by Dow Jones. And I thought my only path up was really to like get into news wires and start covering earnings and things like that. And I was like, " I don't want to be covering earnings and being measured by like, did I beat AP or whomever or Bloomberg by 35 seconds?" No, that's not what I want to do. I want to write about cool tech and talk to cool people. So that's when I left Dow Jones and joined EnVivo and Startup, cause I really wanted to focus on medtech.
But, there are a lot of those moments where I'm really glad to be doing what I'm doing and there's singular moments too, where, I'm sitting in a plane and I look across the aisle and the woman next to me is just reading an EnVivo Magazine and she's got my article open. And I'm like, ah, I just want to tap her in the shoulder. " What do you think? What do you think about Right Medical, huh? Pretty interesting stuff, huh?" That was very cool.
I remember interviewing Kevin Lobo at the early medtech conference I did in Minnesota. It just went super well. He's a really great guy to talk to and very easy to talk to, very open and honest, and will answer any question. But just getting off the stage was like, "Wow, that was a lot of fun. I want to go up and do another one." Which is weird, 'cause I wasn't a big stage guy before, but I don't know, the opportunity to dig and find some cool stories and really see the humanity in these medical device folks is a great challenge and a great privilege for me. I'm really blessed to have the access that I have. So I'm very grateful.
Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Oh my gosh, I loved that so much. And yeah, I totally, it would be hard not to go, "Hey, what do you think?"
Tom Salemi: Exactly, right? Yeah. Then what? Then like, "Oh yeah." Then she's like, "Sure. Sure. You're Tom Salemi." And then it gets really weird. "Oh really?" I let it be, but it's one of those forks in the road moments. What would have happened if I just asked her if she liked the right medical story and maybe who knows? I don't know.
Lindsey Dinneen: That's so great.
Tom Salemi: I might've had, I might've met a future CEO and then had a great story to tell with her someday. So.
Lindsey Dinneen: It's still a possibility.
Tom Salemi: it still happen.
Lindsey Dinneen: Maybe you'll run into again.
Tom Salemi: She's hearing this, maybe. She's like, "Wait a minute, I did read an EnVivo Magazine on the plane once next to some weird guy who was..."
Lindsey Dinneen: "...weirdly watching me while I was reading it."
Tom Salemi: Exactly, while was reading a magazine.
Lindsey Dinneen: That's so funny. I love it. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
Tom Salemi: Wow. People say "that's a great question" to me all the time. And I always like, "I don't really have that many great questions. Like one or two of them are great!" But that's a good, that's a really great question. Oh, wow. I think For me, learning to speak publicly and enjoy the time on stage, I think has been a real blessing for me. So, and I know a lot of people have that ability as well. I think that would be great thing to, to share with folks.
But I think moreover, I mean, it's crazy to me that like people look to me like some sort of storytelling expert where I really just like, it's like, "You're really interesting. I'm not conjuring magic. You have a great story that you just don't know exists. I'm not some wizard who's just waving my wand and saying something in broken Latin and it all happens. It's all in you." And I wish folks could look inside and see their own stories and see the stories of others as well. And they're probably too busy designing that next great device that they don't really have that ability to look inward.
But, I think helping people identify their own stories, not necessarily to tell them in a podcast form, but just to have a better sense of, of who they are. I mean, I've talked to a few people who like you, I'll say, "Oh, I'll start the conversation learning about you." And they'll say, "Well, I'm boring. Just talk about the company." And I said, "You're not boring. I've never talked to a boring person." Believe me, like everyone has great stories and everyone has great decisions that they made and, it's just a matter of telling it, or at least knowing those stories are in there.
So, because I can't teach on anything of technical value, I guess I'll focus on that. Just helping people identify their own stories and and sharing them in the world in a way that's appropriate for them. Again, they don't have to have a YouTube channel, but they could just say, "Hey, I do important work. I'm interesting. And, I've made a difference in the world." That's pretty awesome.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Well, I love that. And I actually think the wizardry component of it comes in with allowing people to feel safe enough to tell their stories, and comfortable, because it can be harder, especially when you're maybe telling a story that is challenging for you, that talks about something where maybe things didn't go the way that you hoped they would, or you failed at something. And so, so giving people, providing that safe space, basically, to allow people to share those stories and encourage it is, I think you've got that wizardry component.
Tom Salemi: Oh, I appreciate that. And that's a great point. And I think, like with the keynotes, when you're talking with someone who's willing to trust you a bit and say, "Look, when I do keynotes," I'm like, "Look, these are the things I want to talk about." Just allow me to, if I hear something interesting, I go, "Wait a minute, can I just pull that thread a moment," and just to have someone trust you that you're not going to take it in a really weird way, that you're going to see the positive, I think, is when you really have done your job and have a great keynote. Those are the moments, especially like at a conference where people walk away and say, "That was great."
Keynotes should be really great and interesting. They can be informative as well, but if you're just focusing on, why you designed this over that and why that, why it's important to help people with this dreadful disease, all of that's important, but I think the stories that really resonate with people are the ones when they, where the people in the audience can really form a connection with the person on stage. I think that's when you really hit the home run. So, just trying to do that.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point, another component that you do really well and that I think is important in that sort of wizardry aspect, is the respecting and honoring of the person's choosing to tell that story. So it is, like you said, drawing out the positive and honoring the fact that they've decided to share with you. And so therefore they continue to feel safe, and respected in sharing their insights and stories and whatnot. So I think you're absolutely right that it has to have multi layer components. And, and I love your thing. You've never met a boring person. That's so great. That's so true.
Tom Salemi: It's true. I mean, just talk to people. My son is going to be an engineer and he's like already 10 times smarter than I am technically. I teach him how to jump a car battery and he's explained to me, "Oh yeah, that's why the red has to be attached to the black." And I'm like, "I don't know that. I just know red and black. Don't tell me why the battery works. I don't really need to know that. I just need to know how not to set my car on fire." That's where my technical knowledge. But there are people in the world who understand how things work. And I just-- that's witchcraft. To understand, why planes fly and why batteries work. That stuff's amazing to me.
Lindsey Dinneen: I agree. I agree. All right. And so, on a bit of a more serious note, how would you like to be remembered after you leave this world?
Tom Salemi: Oh, wow. I mean, like I said at the start, I got into journalism cause I thought it would be fun. And I was also a shy kid and I didn't want to be in a cubicle all my life, 'cause I think, I don't think I'd ever climb out of it. I wanted to really force myself into the world. But then I came to realize that what I really liked was helping people connect and I think that's becoming harder and harder for people to do, not to get too heavy about it, but I think there are a lot of lonely people in the world who aren't finding connection or the connections they are finding aren't necessarily the most productive.
So I hope, I hope I, I ease that somewhat and I'm always --just last week, actually, I got a couple of great messages and I don't get a ton of these. It's just weird timing, but someone who said that they enjoy the podcast, and they're college students, and they went into biomed because of the podcast. They joined a startup competition. It's like, "Wow. I, with my stupid stories, I had an impact on someone in a positive fashion!" And I told this person, " Great. When you invent the lifesaving technology," I said, "I will take total credit because I'm the one who stirred you into medical devices."
I'm getting a few of those nice messaging, and it's, I hope that people remember that, we have a lot more in common... I hope people will think that I've reminded people that we have a lot more in common than we do differences, and that we have a lot more positivity to rally around the negativity. And it's the only way we're going to get things done in this world is if we're working together on it. So if I could help that happen a little bit, I think I'd be happy with that as a life lived.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And thanks for sharing that story. That's incredible. That is so exciting.
Tom Salemi: I'm so grateful. I told him, I'm so grateful that person wrote, "thank you so much," 'cause that, yeah, that people don't do that very frequently. So it's awesome.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
Tom Salemi: Huh. My first thought was my, my kids just seeing them find their way through life, seeing them find the things that energize them. It's great when you see that. Dogs, of course would be a good one.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.
Tom Salemi: I love a good dog. I don't know, everything that's coming to mind, it sounds kind of corny. I mean, obviously when you see people take a kindness on somebody else, or be kind to someone else when they don't need to be, I think is extraordinarily uplifting. So my kids, my dogs, my dog, any dog, actually most dogs will do...
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.
Tom Salemi: Yeah. But my dog in particular, but no, I think I just, those moments that, unfortunately, we're not shining enough light on where people are overly kind and helpful to each other. I think we need to see more of that at this time.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Agreed. Well, I think that's phenomenal. I, I also am a huge dog lover. So anytime, I mean, really, it's like an instant happiness.
Tom Salemi: Yeah.
Lindsey Dinneen: Instant. So happy. So. Yeah, they are the best. Well, I just want to say this has been an incredible conversation. It's been so great to get to know you a little bit and also get to know a little bit more about the incredible work that DeviceTalks is doing. So I just want to thank you so much for being here and being willing to share your stories. This has been great.
Tom Salemi: Oh, thank you so much. It was an honor to be asked. It doesn't happen frequently and it was-- you've got some great questions. I may steal a couple of them. So.
Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, thank you again. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger. And they also advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you for choosing that organization to support and thank you for all the work you do to change lives for a better world.
Tom Salemi: Okay. Thank you so much.
Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you also to our listeners. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Jennifer L. Horspool | Founder, Engagement PR & Marketing | Turning Innovations into Brands, Effective PR, & The Future of AI in MedTech

Jennifer L. Horspool, a communication and public relations expert, global brand strategist, and founder of Engagement PR & Marketing, shares her journey from aspiring scientist to a leading figure in MedTech PR, emphasizing the importance of storytelling, branding, and patient persistence in the industry. She highlights how she helps startups and Fortune 100 companies turn their innovative ideas into well-known brands. Jennifer also discusses the transformative role of AI in MedTech and PR, providing valuable insights and practical advice for startups looking to make their mark.
 
Guest links: https://engagementpr.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferlhorspool/ | https://www.facebook.com/EngagementPR
Charity supported: Paw Prints in the Sand
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 035 - Jennifer L. Horspool
Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey 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 back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, [00:01:00] Jennifer L. Hoorspool. Jennifer is a communication and public relations expert, a global brand strategist, international speaker, and founder of Engagement PR and Marketing. As a brand growth and turnaround specialist, Jennifer has been employing her skills in PR, media, marketing, and messaging for more than three decades to grow companies from vision to multimillion dollars and "turn best kept secret brands into the go to experts of their industries." Jennifer works with companies of all sizes from startups to Fortune 100. She's been working with medtech, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies for more than 15 years, and has helped to bring some pretty cool products to market.
All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Jennifer. I'm so excited to speak with you today.
Jennifer Hoorspool: Thank you, Lindsey. I'm so honored to be here. I'm excited.
Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Well, would you mind starting off by telling us just a little bit about yourself and your background and maybe what led you to MedTech?
Jennifer Horspool: [00:02:00] Sure thing, actually. So I've been running Engagement PR and Marketing since 2015. I've actually been in the field of public relations marketing since the nineties, right? I'm 24 years old. I don't know how that mouth works. I don't really have to do numbers. I do words. Healthcare has been my vertical deep for all those 30 years, right? I've worked with some other people outside of health care, but for the most part, health care. I started off doing a lot in patient services and really like direct to consumer about health and wellness and stuff like that. And then got into drug approvals but from a PR perspective, right? So bringing drugs to life. And then that led me into devices, medtech. And then as AI has expanded, it's just been really fascinating in the medtech world. And I've gotten to work with medtech that does need FDA approval and medtech that does not need FDA approval.
So there's all different kinds of stuff. And one of the most fascinating things that I've gotten to do is work with a couple of different contract [00:03:00] research organizations. And so those are the companies that hold the hands of the inventors so that they can get their products through the FDA and to market in the United States. It's a fascinating journey. There's all kinds of different avenues to go down. And it's just been really spectacular of the things that I've gotten to learn in the inventors and getting inside the inventor's minds.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I can only imagine. Well, thank you so much for sharing a little bit about your background and whatnot. And so, okay. So I'm curious when you first, maybe as a kid, like would seven year old Jennifer have said, this is what I want to do with my life, or did seven year old Jennifer not know yet?
Jennifer Horspool: Well, seven year old Jennifer thought she was going to be a scientist. I was the girl that had all the, like the, I made my own soaps. I made my own potions and lotions. I did not think of myself as a witch. I thought of myself as a science, a scientist. And so I was always inventing this and inventing that and [00:04:00] constantly spilling things on my poor mom's brand new floor. And, you know, "Mom, I cleaned it up as quickly as possible," you know.
Lindsey Dinneen: Oh
Jennifer Horspool: No, I've always enjoyed science and I've just found it to be fascinating. And then and then I got lost along the way. I forgot about science. Quite honestly, I was taking it, but like those were hard and communication just came so easily to me. And then it became more about storytelling. And so I love to tell stories and one thing after another, I got into branding and brand building. And this is like in the nineties is when that terminology kind of first started maturing outside of your brand mark, which is your logo.
Before the, like the early nineties, early to mid nineties, we talked everything about a brand was really just your brand mark was your logo. We thought that was a brand. And then we came down to, no, it's actually-- the brand is the emotional components of who you are and who you are as a company and all the different things. And so I got to get into all of that and I got all into the words and the storytelling and the feelings and emotions of it. And now I got to represent [00:05:00] scientists. And so it's really been a really good match because I think I'm a natural communicator.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's wonderful. And I think it's so helpful sometimes to bridge the gap because you have that background and that interest in science. And sometimes perhaps not all scientists can communicate as well as they want to maybe those of us who don't have that background and do need to understand what it is you're bringing to market so that we can purchase it.
Jennifer Horspool: Right, right, right. And it's uncomplicating the complications that they find simple, right? So it's, how do you take that scientific language and turn it into common language that everyone can get behind? And so, I've always said like really smart people can simplify everything.
Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah. I, there's a saying that something along the lines of "simple isn't easy, but simple is worth it." And I...
Jennifer Horspool: I love it.
Lindsey Dinneen: ...think a really good thing to, to remind yourself of is, when you can simplify processes or communication or whatnot, it [00:06:00] is worth it in the long run, even though, you know, like that famous, was it Mark Twain, who said something like, "I didn't have time to write a short letter..."
Jennifer Horspool: Yeah, "...so I had to write a long one." Exactly. Exactly. Because it's the truth, you know? And that's funny because in marketing all the time, they're like, "I need 11 words to fit right here." And people don't understand that it's much harder to write 11 words about something than it is to write 700. 700 is I get to explain it all. 11, I have to be impactful and those words really matter. And so it's actually much more difficult to write 11 impactful words than it is to write 700.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, it is. I love that. That's a good analogy too. So now what are you currently doing and excited about and what are you looking forward to as you continue to build the business and move forward?
Jennifer Horspool: Yeah. So because we do marketing, PR, branding, brand experience, love to work with brand new startups, love to [00:07:00] help them get their whole-- figure out that whole identity, get their websites going. Everything that's in the beginning, you would be surprised at how many emotions are tied into that first coming out brand. And it, people think it matters so much and it does matter, right? But it's like sometimes, "Get out what you know right now. Let's get something up. And then as your science matures, we can mature your brand. We can mature your website."
First thing we want to do is get something out there where we can start getting presence, getting you seen, known, trusted, and found, right? Getting found is the most important thing, and it's not the easiest, right? So, so there's all these different strategies that you do to get found first by your name, you know, by who you are, your company name, the founders' names, and also by what you do or what your promise of your technology is going to do.
And so I really enjoy working with people at all stages. I've, I've had the great fortune of [00:08:00] working with startups that are unfunded, startups that are funded, and then all the way through to Fortune 14 companies, right? So the entire gamut, I know who and how to work with. with. And we work with all of them. But our sweet spot really is in just either just launching or have already launched and are just starting getting ready to get known, really building that brand and pulling people to you, to your sites, to your social media, to the studies that you're doing, to all the different things so that we build that rise. And then you're found more easily because at the end of the day, if you're the best kept secret, you could have the best science in the world, but then no one gets to use it. So we take you from the best kept secret to the best known experts in the industry.
Lindsey Dinneen: Ooh, I love that. Nice.
Jennifer Horspool: Thank you.
Lindsey Dinneen: And I think it's so true too, because I think sometimes working with engineers, for instance, who are beyond brilliant and sometimes there's this, [00:09:00] there can be a disconnect of, "Well, it's so great. Like the product is so great and it should just be known." And we're like, "Yes, you're right. It should be, but there actually has to be a process to go through." Cause unfortunately the whole, "if you build it, they will come..."
Jennifer Horspool: Yeah, that movie threw everybody for a loop when websites came about because all of a sudden everybody thought, "Oh, if I build it, they will come." And it's like, no, that's a movie. The dream, if you remember, it was the dream field.
Lindsey Dinneen: Right.
Jennifer Horspool: So if you build it, then you have to market it so that they even know to come. And there's a lot of variety, like it really, it should be. fun. And it needs to be fun first and foremost, right? Like the excitement, you know, there's an acronym that I do about media. How do you get in the media, MEDIA, right? So your message is your magnet. The "M" is your Message. Your message is your magnet and your magnet is your magic that really pulls people to you. And then the "E" is Excitement. You have to deliver it with excitement cause if you're not excited about it, [00:10:00] how is anybody else going to be? But that passion really pulls people to why this is such an exciting breakthrough. What's it going to do that's different than something that's on the market today.
Then you have to distinguish yourself. The "D" in media is that: Distinguish. How are you different than what's already on the market? Why is that important? You know, you have to be interesting. The "I" is Interesting. It's like you deliver it with excitement. But how are you differentiating from everyone else? You have to distinguish yourself. You have to describe what's so important. How is it interesting. And then you really do that for your Audience. Who is the main target audience? And it's easy when your audience niche is small, but when people see it as a broad alternative to a lot of things, they get clustered, right?
Like, it's like, "Oh my goodness gracious. No, it's all these people. It's everyone." And the sad part is when you serve everyone, then you have to still niche [00:11:00] down into little buckets because everyone is not listening the same way. And when you start talking to everyone, you start talking to no one because it's too generic. People don't know to stop and listen. The whole thing is you're trying to stop that scroll. Everything, it doesn't matter if it's your video, if it's a meme, if it's a white paper, if it's your blog, whatever it is, we're all in the same scrolls right now, right? It doesn't matter if it's social media or on email or you're trying to stop that scroll. How do you get them to open your thing? And really, so the MEDIA: the message, the excitement, you know, all of that just really comes into play.
Lindsey Dinneen: That was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. You're obviously brilliant at all of this and I really appreciate that summary. I could not stop nodding my head because I was just like " yes." So thank you. And I love your acronym. That's perfect. Oh my goodness. Easy to remember. So what are some of the challenges or roadblocks that you see, [00:12:00] maybe especially with some of these startups, because a lot of startups are listening to this podcast. And so speaking of niching down, speaking to your people, but so, so what advice would you have? What kinds of challenges and roadblocks do you see? And what kind of advice would you have for somebody who is in this situation of, "Okay, I'm ready to start being known. I don't want this to be a secret anymore." What do you see and how can they overcome some of those issues? Thanks.
Jennifer Horspool: Yeah, that's an excellent question because patience is a virtue still today and we have less and less of it. Right? We think like, "We've been working on this for a year and a half and here we are, ta da!" And everybody's gonna be like, "Oh my god, they're here!" Right? You know what I mean? But that's not really how it is. We all, we have trust issues. issues. And in today's world, because there's so much online and because we have so much accessibility and because there's always new things being invented all the time, where's the credibility, right? So, and even if you're [00:13:00] the most credible person in the world, where's the credibility in the product? Where's the credibility in your launch? Where's the credibility?
And sometimes it's much slower to ramp up than you want it to be than, you think it's going to be. So the first initial, sometimes even press releases or outreach to media introductions to media, and you might get interviews, you might get like all different kinds of things where you're seeing a lot of groundswell, but it hasn't turned into stories yet. It hasn't turned into articles on the web. And it's very frustrating because you're like, "I gave them my time. I gave them all my expertise. I was as transparent and authentic as possible. I shared all this, like, where's our story?"
But they might still be just accumulating information on you and watching and waiting. They're seeing how your science matures because if they come out with it, it's an endorsement by their publication that this is authentic, that this is a real thing. And so, especially in credible publications, which is what you're trying to get into, right? And so [00:14:00] they're waiting and watching for the right time to release your story. They might interview you three, four, five times, collecting the data, building up the story before they actually cover you, before they actually release the interview notes, before they actually do something that you can really use on your site and to build out your stuff.
So in the meantime, you do the media interviews. You build the relationship with your key media who are writing about your topics. And you really, that's what you're doing is building the relationship. You're making them feel comfortable enough with you, your science, the results, your white papers, like everything that you're putting out, all of your studies, especially if you're presenting, by all means, share that with your media without necessarily expectation. You want the expectation, right? You want the story to come out of it, of course. But they might still be just collecting information and building up your [00:15:00] file and then what, once it happens, it could be something grandiose. It could be something really great that then you can really use.
And then don't be afraid to repurpose these when you get stories. Don't be a one and done. "Oh my God, we were the Wall Street Journal. Here it is." You're done. I think it's 8%, you know of LinkedIn followers even see your posts or even if they're exposed to your post, whether or not they're on social media that day. And it goes through down and through your feed. It's still in your social media, but repurpose it all the time. Pull out quotes from it, pull out interesting tidbits, share your infographics, like share that thing. Don't be afraid like 20, 30, 40 times throughout the year, you can take one study and really dissect it and share different pieces to it. Different people are going to see it. They're going to absorb the, and the same people are going to absorb it differently each time. It's like watching your favorite movie over and over again, and you grab new tidbits every time you're like, "I never even noticed that before." It's the same kind of concept with your [00:16:00] science.
Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, brilliant. Thank you. That was great. I really appreciate you sharing that advice with us too. Yeah, and I think to your point, it is hard to be patient because you're so excited about whatever it is that you're building and working on. And patience is such a wonderful thing to keep in mind. Like it's okay, you know, it will come just, you know, one step at a time.
Jennifer Horspool: When you get started on your marketing, it can take like three, four months before you really are starting to see real results because it's like AB testing all the time, right? What are people responding to? What are they not responding to? It's kind of the same thing with traditional media when you're trying to get in with a media.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Well, so I'm curious, are there any moments or a series of moments that stand out to you because they clearly reminded you why you chose this field and why you're specifically doing it for healthcare, medtech and whatnot.
Jennifer Horspool: So I think I feel like we're at kind of a pivotal point in health care right now. It's been [00:17:00] very much like one specific way. We've been a pill popping society for lack of a better way of putting it. We all wanted a pill to solve all of our problems. In fact, there was some show in the nineties and it was like all about the year 2025. And we were such a pill popping society that by the year 2025, you pressed a button and this pill came out and that was your entire meal. And you took your pill and that was your meal. And you just went on, you had all the proper nutrition. Like we thought, "Oh, we're not even gonna have to bother to eat anymore."
Well, foodies hadn't really come about yet. So foodies came about and they're like, "No we want to eat. Eating is the great part. Like, why would you take that away? Nobody wants to eat a pill." So I think with medtech, where it, is we're able now, especially combining it with AI, is that we're able to create new things that, that test the body in new ways. We're able to create new things that show us like even where your body's misaligned. And the part that's so important about the way your body is aligned is that has to do with nutrient delivery. [00:18:00] It has to do with injuries.
Most injuries we think, "Oh, it's because I was playing soccer and I twisted my knee this way." But it was actually because, well, your hip and your ankle were out of joint to begin with. You went and you played soccer and your body was already misaligned. You slept wrong or you had poor posture while you were watching television. You got all cranked up the wrong way. And then you went out and you played basketball, cause you always play basketball on Saturdays, cause you're a weekend warrior. Weekend warriors are the ones that get the most injuries. And that's because we don't do the training all the way along. And then you go out and you play and then you have injuries. So it's like getting ahead of all those things. Medtech today has such an opportunity to change the entire trajectory of the way we look and analyze the body, that I think there's no more fascinating industry than medtech right now.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh, I love that. And Thank you for sharing a little bit about some of the, even the technology that you get exposed to too, because that is [00:19:00] just so cool. And I am curious, you mentioned at the beginning how, and this is a hot topic because it's on everyone's mind, of how is AI impacting medtech? And I'd be curious to know how AI is impacting even the work that you do for medtech and healthcare.
Jennifer Horspool: Right. So two totally different things, right? Like when you say AI, to anybody today, they just go, "Oh, ChatGPT, right?"
Lindsey Dinneen: Right, right.
Jennifer Horspool: There's so much more than ChatGPT, right? I've been fortunate, I've actually been working with AI for 15 plus years because we didn't call it AI back then. We called it different things. We just talked about what it did. We didn't say, well, "the artificial intelligence is putting it together." Like we didn't do that. It's a term now, right? What we talked about was the application of it and taking all this data and getting the analysis out in an intelligent analysis that's going to help people. Or now [00:20:00] you can use AI processes that were developed for something else. You can plug and play it into your application and it can vascularize things that never were vascularized before. I mean, that's one of the things in certain types of medtech that people are working on galore is really in creating 3D printing organs, for example, 3D printing life saving aspects.
I'm working with one company and they're developing a, it's a 3D printed bio biopolymer wrap that actually, it's got bio absorbable materials. There's just, there's new materials, there's new stuff, there's new technologies. And AI is really the ability to speed up data analysis, the ability to combine mass amounts of data or mass amounts of processes and simplify it into something that humans can do, but nowhere near at the speed. So we're taking things that might have taken three months or three years, and we're able to get it down to three seconds or even [00:21:00] less.
We're able to take things like military applications or there's the God awful bombings that are going on, how are we getting medical care to areas where they're so remote that there's no medical care? So AI is actually able to connect things up where there is no technology. There's no wifi, there's no this, there's no that, but then you can do x rays and you can actually get your x rays and upload them and get them, get a diagnosis. get like intelligent insight back when you don't have access to the internet and to other things. And so it's really, AI is the ability to dream bigger and make those dreams actually truly happen.
And then in my field, It's a really great way to never have to start with a blank piece of paper. The blank piece of paper is the hardest thing in the world to start with AI right now, especially if you're going like ChatGPT, it's great for content. It's not so great for context yet. You still have to personalize [00:22:00] everything. Never take what AI does and just use it straight out. Everyone knows, first of all, everyone knows the way it writes. So then you just look lazy. And you look like you didn't really share your own stuff. No one cares what AI had to say. They care what you, the expert, had to say.
So, we do a lot of ghostwriting. We write a lot in other people's words. We might take it to AI to get that started or maybe get some ideas. It's fabulous for ideas for blog posts. It's fabulous for ideas for social media. It's fabulous for ideas, you know, then take those ideas. It's fabulous to get started, but not to finish. You need to take it and spend a good hour with it and really make it yours.
Lindsey Dinneen: absolutely, wonderful, thank you for sharing a little bit about that too, I, it's just always such an interesting, it will be a discussion point for years and years, probably forever, I don't know, but it is so exciting, I love the way that you described it too, of being able to not approach it out of a fear [00:23:00] or concern, but approach it out of, "Oh my goodness, I can actually make these dreams come true. And I can have a bigger, even more positive..."
Jennifer Horspool: ...impact, right? We, every, we're looking for impact and it's really, don't be afraid of it. I talked to some people and they're like, "Well, everything we do is just so personalized." Everyone wants to think that everything is so different, what we do is so unique. I know everybody's is so unique. It's so unique. We're all the same uniquely, but...
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
Jennifer Horspool: ...we're all uniquely the same. I don't know, you know, whichever way you want to put it. But it's really about amplifying who you are. You can take it and create avatars to let it think in a certain person's tone. And then you can feed it that avatar. And you're saying like, you're telling it, "I want you to be this avatar, in this way of thinking with this tone and these personas, these personality traits" that you're giving it, "I want you to create now. something spectacular" and it can give you something that could might, it might even be 70, 80 percent done, right? But just never take it [00:24:00] straight out and just plain old use it.
But what it's also really good for is in finding gaps, right? Where you're like, "Here's everything I know about this and here's everything I know about this. Why aren't they, why aren't they working together? Find the gaps in this for me." Excellent at doing that, especially in medtech, where you can really then find out like what's happening today. What are the problems that we have with the medtech that's out there today. If you want a product, but you want it to go even bigger, maybe you want to change standard of care somehow by making something, taking what we have now and amplifying it to a whole another realm where you're taking the aspects of maybe three other products and you're marrying it with standard of care today. And you're saying, "this is how it's going to go that much better." It will find all those gaps for you, right?
You can create programs. There are AI program writers that you tell them, "I need this as my end result and they can design a program that's intelligent, that continues to [00:25:00] learn." There's a, another gentleman that I've been working with and he developed, it basically helps you make decisions and it helps you weigh all the decisions. And it's not like it's so profound that you couldn't have done it on your own, but you don't do it on your own, right? You plug the things in and now you get the answers back. And that's AI.
Lindsey Dinneen: Ooh, fascinating too. That is so cool. Yeah. I mean, the possibilities are endless and it's just the beginning, so it's going to be exciting to, to stay on it. Yeah. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want, could be in your industry, but doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach?
Jennifer Horspool: That is a fascinating question. I would talk about-- I, I would talk about the power of being you. You know, we are, we're born uniquely us. That is the one thing where you really do get to own the unique. You are [00:26:00] uniquely you for a reason. I grew up in the seventies and eighties. Like I said, I'm 24 years old. I'm sure you know that math. But it wasn't the time for girl power. It really was not the time for girl power. And then girl power came about and it was so great because watching the transition of girls into sports and really owning sports, right? And girls into science and STEM, like now females are owning STEM and there's femtech. Femtech is a real, true industry, not just a word, but an entire industry. And that is how are we serving women?
So we've been marketing to women for years because women are the caretakers of the family, but we haven't been taking care of those women. We've been empowering those women to take care of their families. So it's, we've been shamed, " Oh, you can't be conceited. If you love yourself, you're conceited." That's what growing up in the seventies and eighties was like, it was very much about, you're not allowed to love yourself and loving yourself in today's world, as we know, is the key to everything.
[00:27:00] And so the more uniquely and fantastically you are you, the better innovations you're going to bring to your life, to the people who know you, to the scientific world, if that's where you belong. You didn't get into science by accident. You didn't get into inventing by accident. That is part of what is uniquely you. You have a curious mind. And one of the things that we forget to do, we do it in science all the time. The hypothesis is designed to be proven incorrect. Incorrect. We think, "Oh, I'm trying to prove my science." No, you're trying to prove it incorrect. And if you can't prove it incorrect, the assumption is that it must be true until we can find something else or something better.
The same thing applies to your life. The same thing applies to yourself. And in fact, I'm going to challenge, but the same thing applies into the way that you're researching your politics. The same thing applies to the research and you're applying to your beliefs about everything in life. And if you can start to say that, "This is my [00:28:00] current hypothesis. This is what I believe based on all these things. And I haven't been able to prove myself wrong. Therefore, I believe these to be true." And if you start researching everything like that, you're going to find so many more discoveries in life and you're going to find so much more of your sweet spot and where, what makes you really happy and find your people who are going to go on this journey with you. And so I think that's what I would like to do. And thank you for the million dollars.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah! Well, that's a brilliant sounding masterclass, and I totally want to sign up, so let me know when you offer it, because I'll be there.
Jennifer Horspool: You got it.
Lindsey Dinneen: And then, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
Jennifer Horspool: Gosh, that's another nice question. I think as an empowering person who helps people to see the value in being truly and authentically themselves. I think the more we really embrace who we [00:29:00] are and all of our flaws and all of our own cuckoo, cause everybody gets some. We love to point the finger, right? And one of the, one of the greatest things I learned, and I don't even remember which coach I learned it from, but you know, when you're pointing the finger at everyone else, you've got three more pointing back at you. And so the most empowering thing about that is it puts you in charge. And that means it puts you in charge of being able to fix anything. And so, yeah, that.
Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah. Excellent. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
Jennifer Horspool: My dog, Bruno.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yay.
Jennifer Horspool: My dog, Bruno. He's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. He was homeless. He was sleeping under my friend's truck for about three weeks. She posted, "Hey, I have to find this guy his forever home." And and we met and it's just been a fabulous engagement ever since. He's the greatest thing ever.
Lindsey Dinneen: So sweet. I love that. Dogs are the best. [00:30:00] They're perfect companions.
Jennifer Horspool: Yeah.
Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Well.
Jennifer Horspool: He's spoiled now. He went from outside to a couch and a bed and all these other beds and he's a happy guy.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I love it. I love it. That deserves some love and attention and, yeah, pampering.
Jennifer Horspool: Right.
Lindsey Dinneen: That's phenomenal. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for being here today. Seriously, it was value after value. It was nonstop amazing advice, amazing insight. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Paw Prints in the Sand. Paw Prints in the Sand Animal Rescue is an all animal foster based animal welfare organization with a mission to give at risk animals a second chance at life by providing medical care behavior training and loving forever homes. Thank you for choosing that organization to support! Thank you for joining us and thank you for everything that you do to change lives for a better world.
Jennifer Horspool: Thank you. [00:31:00] And thank you for doing this. This was fantastic. I really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you and talk medtech to all the scientists out there. It's one of my favorites. It's always fascinating. And thank you for doing the podcast. It's fantastic.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, excellent. And for those startups and founders that might need some assistance, where could they find you?
Jennifer Horspool: Email me at jennifer at engagementpr. com or or just go to engagementpr. com, fill out the form or you can go to LinkedIn, Jennifer L. Hoorspool, everywhere I am, get my L in the middle. It's I say, whether it's my middle initial or my last name, please put the L, it's really important.
Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Excellent. Sounds good. Well, again, thank you for being here. And thank you also to our listeners. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
Jennifer Horspool: You're the best.
 
Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by [00:32:00] Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Dasha Tyshlek | Founder, StratCraft | Entrepreneurship in MedTech, Technology Communication, & Innovative Problem Solving

Dasha Tyshlek, founder of StratCraft and strategic advisor to life science and healthcare tech companies, shares her inspiring journey from a dance teacher to a leading entrepreneur in MedTech. She discusses her passion for technology and problem-solving, and how she helps companies innovate and commercialize groundbreaking products. Dasha also highlights her podcast, "Biomedical Frontiers," which showcases transformative technologies and offers hope for the future of healthcare. Tune in for a compelling conversation on entrepreneurship, innovation, and making a difference in the world. 
 
Guest links: http://stratcraftpartners.com | https://rss.com/podcasts/biomedicalfrontiers/ | https://www.engineering.virginia.edu/centers-institutes/coulter-center-translational-research/podcast 
Charity supported: Polaris Project
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 034 - Dasha Tyshlek
Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey 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 be speaking with my guest today, Dasha Tyshlek. [00:01:00] Growing up, Dasha knew she wanted to become an entrepreneur, leading people to change the world through innovative products and services. Her love for technology and problem solving led her to study engineering science, focusing on biomedical engineering and product development at the University of Virginia.
Today, Dasha is the founder, president, and chief strategic advisor of StratCraft, and is a strategic partner for growing life science and healthcare technology companies. Dasha has developed a strategy for advanced manufacturing spinouts such as Core Composites and MicroAnt GPS. She has led company wide strategy development and unique growth initiatives across multiple high tech industries, including biomedical device, pharmaceutical, translational research, automotive, financial, satellite, and defense.
Dasha is the director and host of "Biomedical Frontiers: Stories with Innovators in Healthcare," a life sciences and biotechnology commercialization podcast hosted by the Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Foundation at University of Virginia, and she is a lecturer [00:02:00] at University of Virginia's Biomedical Engineering Department. Due to her deep technical understanding and ability to forge complex, multi company partnerships and agreements, she is a sought after advisor to innovative companies working to commercialize their new technologies.
All right, Dasha. Thank you so much for being here.
Dasha Tyshlek: Lindsey, it's such a pleasure.
Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, I was wondering if you would be willing to start off by just telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the medical device field and what led you to what you're doing today.
Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that's been a defining trajectory in my life is, is entrepreneurial pursuit. And I actually started out, I think you and I connected on this earlier, as a dance teacher early on in my life and decided even in high school since I was learning dance to, to try coming up with my own dance aerobics programs and try to pitch that to local Golds [00:03:00] Gyms.
And so that, that's been something I've, I've endorsed and participated in and tested out various forms of entrepreneurship over my life. But I'm also an engineer and I love interesting new technologies and the scientific approach to problem solving, kind of methodical, process driven, deeply curious ways of creating solutions.
And so, when I started my engineering degree, I met some people who were entrepreneurial engineers. And that really excited me that you could be a technologist who is working on solving a problem and you're not doing it just to then maybe write a paper and hope somebody notices, but then you do the steps necessary, bring the team together, find the customer, and, and then do it, do that transition, that bridging.
And so that really put me on a path even when I was studying to start exploring that. And I got to [00:04:00] participate with an organization called Venture Well, which is really famous for supporting STEM entrepreneurship even at undergraduate level. And at my university, I worked to create an organization that would help sprout kind of entrepreneurial innovation roots into the student community. So we created a Maker Space. We hosted a Medical Hackathon took people to startup trips to visit companies that were doing new technology developments. And, and also did some expos and speakers and things like that to expose students.
And that had some really great success. A lot of people got very involved. A lot of the people that went through that with me are now entrepreneurs themselves-- not all medical device entrepreneurs, although most of them were biomedical engineers-- but all of them, very entrepreneurial, and working on some really interesting technologies now, so I think that's that's kind of the defining piece of where my career began.
And then today I'm [00:05:00] consulting and helping companies, particularly companies with large portfolios of new technologies, who are trying to come up with ways to commercialize products, come up with that strategy for commercialization, taking one product, one technology at a time.
Lindsey Dinneen: Wow, that is an amazing backstory. Thank you for sharing all of that with me. And it is so cool to see how, first of all the synergy, the fact that you did have a dance background as well. And you were so entrepreneurial, even back then in creating this program. So I do have to ask, did that program ever get sold to a gym or to anyone. Have you developed it? Did you fully do that?
Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, I actually had two Golds Gyms that I taught on a regular basis two different types of programs. And then since I was already a teacher with Golds Gym, they wanted to introduce some other dance programs from kind of well known brands. So they picked me as their [00:06:00] flagship dance instructor. So I actually ended up picking up some new classes and certifications through that.
I also had a private class, just my dentist and her friends wanted to do dance, but they didn't want to enroll in a gym. So I was like, "Here, I'll come over, you know, everybody pitch in, here's the price and I'll just bring the gear and everybody dances at someone's living room." So we even had and they were all really busy women. So. So I think it worked well for them to just, you know, be in the neighborhood and use a living room rather than have to kind of travel.
So you know, and, and we did, did some, there was two Golds Gyms, but there was also I was a substitute teacher and actually partnered with another dance trainer who was testing out ballroom dancing for people with disabilities. And so I was his like dance partner demo. So I just got to explore so many different opportunities through that and kind of see how you do business development and relationship management and new product rollouts and have to get, you know, prove that my class will bring in new [00:07:00] customers. So it was very fun.
Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that is incredible. I absolutely love that. Oh my goodness. So, so you have always had this entrepreneurial bent, but then of course, like you said you've also-- you're so curious. You like exploring you like learning new things and you're clearly not afraid to go out and pitch those ideas to whoever will listen. So I'm curious, how did you come to the pathway of "I want to be an engineer. I want to go to school for this and develop that skill set as well." Because it's not that they're not compatible. They obviously are. But a lot of times people don't necessarily put the two together. So I'm curious how that worked for you.
Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, when, when I was-- so, deciding to be an engineer was a little bit tough. I, I really like chemistry and I thought maybe to go into the chemistry side of things. But a lot of the people in my family are engineers. My grandmother is an engineer. Both my parents have kind of a practical math backgrounds. So, there was a lot of engineering in the [00:08:00] background of my family. And it seemed to me that the engineering focused a little bit more on kind of what's here and now, what you can build now. Science may be focused more on fundamental discovery. And so that that seemed to be kind of the difference for me is is I thought, "I'm probably like a little bit more like practical here and now rather than thinking in these like 20 year timelines."
And so I think it was just a better personality fit. And then once I got into engineering school, that turned out to be really a great fit because I loved learning about the technology. I loved working with other engineers who were very building, creating, designing oriented. And the way that you look at problems and investigate in engineering is very similar to scientific approach, but also tends to be then, you have to then think through, "Okay, great, we found out how this spring works or something like that, but how do you use this spring to do something now in the world?" And so I, I love that [00:09:00] translation from kind of, "We have a technology, we have an approach to, it has to work for people in the world in reality."
Lindsey Dinneen: It's so interesting because I love talking to people who are multi passionate and have a lot of different avenues that they have pursued over the years because I do think, overall, the more generalist you can be-- not that you shouldn't really hone in on some specifics-- but the more that you can have a lot of general experience and knowledge and skill sets, it seems to all end up working really well together in the end. And it helps you be a little more creative maybe when you're solving problems or approaching a new idea or a difficult conundrum and you're going, "Okay, well, you know what's interesting is, I have this background in science and engineering, and I have this background in dance and entrepreneurship and then blending it all together." I just love the stories of how it comes together.
Dasha Tyshlek: One of the things I learned when I was [00:10:00] in engineering school is, for a lot of the projects-- so I took some project types of courses, and the first one I did that was like a year long course-- what I learned is, first semester, there was somebody to train me how to do the thing, but then everybody left the class, and I was the only one left. And so, the second semester on the project, I was basically spearheading, like, this kind of modeling project, and I had only been doing it for a few months. And I noticed right in that project that I was able to keep a team really organized, really clearly articulate goals, and at the end of the project, aside from the technical work that I was doing on it, I was actually the person synthesizing the results and communicating.
And it led me to think, "Is there something there that's a real strength for me? And should I be doubling down on that?" And that, that's an area I've pursued a lot in my career is technology communication: clearly articulating what we're trying to achieve at the onset, developing requirements, [00:11:00] understanding the use case, et cetera.
And then on the back side of it, once we've developed something, there's an entire kind of art and science to it, to talking about technology because there's a lot of detail. A lot of the people who work in the detail of the technology want to share that science and process. But a lot of the people who then make decisions want to hear other information about the technology that might not relate to how it works or how it was built.
And so by, by actually having some of those experiences in engineering school, I was able to see that this technology communication and crafting of project goals was something that was really needed for engineering teams, and it really benefited when there was an engineer who was doing that, but you had to be in a different mindset and develop a different set of skills in addition to the design work.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Now, when you, and thank you for sharing that. I love that, that bringing it all together and again, how things work [00:12:00] together to help you. I, and I'm curious. So you are, you were so well prepared, from an outside perspective at least, to go out on your own and become this high level, amazing consultant for these companies. Did you also feel ready, or was it still this sort of leap of faith when you said, "Okay, I'm going to go in, full time for myself."
Dasha Tyshlek: No, I was, I was very ready. I think, like any entrepreneur, I'm going through a process of discovery by learning exactly what it is my customer really needs help with, what industries and specific technologies I'm able to bring my skills to the best. And also what types of companies are looking for help I provide. So I can't say that I knew all of that information when I started out, but I had a good experience in, in the role I left.
When, when I started my business, having had walked into an engineering company that had great innovative products, but was sort of [00:13:00] underperforming in the market relative to their potential and the quality of the technology they provided and going through the process systematically of creating a company strategy with them helping them understand what pieces were missing from their business development side, and working through the marketing and the business side of things to help them better articulate their technologies. But also taking a look at the portfolio of technologies and recognizing that some of the technologies there didn't quite fit their main business model, but were really valuable, helping them figure out a path to get those out to market separate of their company, but in a way that still contributed to the overall value of the business.
And after I did that, I had several years of success and meaningful impact to look back on. And I said, "I've done it, I've proven it in one place." But in my experience doing this, I just kept meeting more and more companies [00:14:00] that struggled with a similar kind of problem. They had all the innovation. They had an amazing, talented engineering team, but they either lacked focus on which products had the most potential, or they would develop a lot of stuff that they didn't know how to move forward into the market. And so I could see the problem all around me. I was solving it. And so, after I've done enough at one company. I said, "Okay, I see the need and I know that I have the skills to solve it. Now I just need to kind of open that up and create a firm around this concept that helps other companies succeed in the same way."
Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. And so since starting your own consultancy, what has been maybe one of the most impactful, or things that really stand out to you as one of the most exciting things that you've gotten a chance to work [00:15:00] on? What kind of goes, "Oh, this is why I'm doing it this way in this industry."
Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah. So, just generally, I get to meet so many interesting innovators who are changing, particularly healthcare. There are very interesting transformative technologies coming to the market that utilize virtual reality, that utilize AI technologies, to do things we weren't previously able to do in medicine to make me visualize your body in a way that no amount of human brain power could have done because of the way these models can work with data.
But the project or the specific thing that I think I am most excited about in terms of its general impact is, it's called Biomedical Frontiers: Stories with Innovators in Healthcare. And it's a podcast i'm producing on behalf of University of Virginia's Coulter Center for [00:16:00] Translational Research. It's a center that focuses specifically on biomedical research that has potential for commercialization, or you could say translation, into the clinic, and they fund that research. They help with the business development efforts to bring that research into the world.
And the podcast supports that mission by both highlighting the technologies that are a part of that portfolio, as well as that are connected to that portfolio, but also by educating people not only on the process of invention and the process of innovation in the medical and life sciences industry, but I think, very importantly, about what is coming: the hope and the good news about some of the incredible things that are coming to the market and to the world to help solve some of our intractable problems. So, I think in terms of human impact, that's probably the, something that I'm working on with, with a tremendous [00:17:00] vision that is available to all to participate in, to listen or, to be interviewed on.
Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent, excellent. And can you just share a little bit too about your experience becoming a podcast host because you have kind of an interesting, unique story with that. And then how can people listen to this podcast? Where is it available?
Dasha Tyshlek: Yes, of course. So public speaking and presenting technology, something that I've been interested in for a long time. And even before I started my business, in the Director of Marketing kind of roles that I've done, I've realized that video and audio communication, kind of deep diving in technology, helping create content that educates people because in a lot of engineering, even deep engineering technology areas-- you're working with other engineers who are deep in some technology area that you don't necessarily understand. There's a lot of miscommunication that happens because of that and podcasts are just such a [00:18:00] powerful way to bring more education and deep conversations about various topics, including very niche topics into the world.
So I've kind of experimented with interviewing video interviews for some time now. But when I started my business, I was working alongside another business, Sales Chasers, and the founder of that business, Michelle Page, she and I were just kind of throwing around ideas. How do you grow your business? How do you find customers? What things we were interested in? We started kind of collaborating because you know, when you're starting a business, it's just you and headphones and your computer and it you know, you kind of miss-- especially if you're in a business development communicator role-- you're like, "Ah, I need people." I'm, I, I need some, some sort of co working to go on because it's, it's too lonely. So she and I were each other's co workers in that way, kind of similar stages in our, in our different consulting firms.
So she and I decided to do a project called Go Go Grow, focusing [00:19:00] on business to business scaling with each of us coming up with some lesson plans on kind of key frameworks, tools, or ideas that are really important to business to business type of business growth. And so she and I developed that Go Go Grow together and put out a season focusing on kind of the fundamentals that we think are the most important, with some interviews of experts as well as some content that she and I kind of lesson planned together. And she's continuing on with that into other kinds of topics, but I was already working on this podcast, and I was teaching at University of Virginia, a class in the biomedical engineering department focused on engineers' professional development skills.
And so when I was talking to my co lecturer who is the professor at the University and the head of the Culture Translational Research Center, he had this idea of "We should do a podcast." And I said, "Let [00:20:00] me help you. Can I please do this?" So I created a vision for what we could do, tying his foundations' mission and the goals that we were both pursuing in the class in terms of professional development for biomedical engineers. And then presented it to the engineering department, to the biomedical engineering department, and that's how we got started.
Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Well, thank you for sharing that. And yes, please go check out her podcast. It's going to be just really informative. You'll learn a lot and you'll also get a lot of inspiration, like she said, about the fact that there's so many new amazing technologies emerging, there's a lot of reason for hope and optimism, and that's a good reminder, especially nowadays. So absolutely. Well, I'm curious, are there any moments or any one moment that stands out to you as just this [00:21:00] realization that you chose the right industry, you chose medtech for a reason, that it just kind of clicked into place, "Yes, this is why I'm here."
Dasha Tyshlek: I think there's been a couple small moments, but each meaningful. I think when I got my first client that was really outside of my existing network. It was somebody I met through the work I was doing of developing my business, and not somebody who I'd previously known or worked with or anything like that. I think that was a real key moment. That's like a line that you cross. You're like, "Okay, this is not about my network or the people who sort of know me. My value and the skills are clear. I can clearly articulate them to somebody else, and somebody else can put the trust in me to help them deliver something." So I think that was one is that first client that's sort of outside of of anybody you knew at the moment you started your business. [00:22:00]
I think the second one was really landing my first kind of big client, a company that really does a lot of technologies and they're not necessarily like a startup. They're mature. They have a lot of technology. They have a lot of process. That was, that was something that was like, "Okay, now I know that I'm starting to get into the kinds of companies that I'm envisioning helping and they are seeing the value that I can provide them back. So we're in agreement and it's starting to make sense."
I think the third moment was when, so I have an analyst on my team. I also have some different suppliers and people, other consultants that I work with, so kind of distributed network plus starting to build my internal team. And the first time a client approached me to actually hire somebody, my junior consultant, from my team on a project based on something that this person did for a project that I was primarily working on. And so really starting to [00:23:00] see that some of the processes and systems and ideas I'm putting in place, that it's no longer just because of me, but now it's starting to say, it's because of the company and, and their skills that other people on my team have that, you know, knowing that I manage them and knowing their skills, they, they want to hire them and me because of them. Now I know that I'm moving beyond sort of sole openership and into-- there's a company here and we're developing a shared capability. So that sort of reinforces the vision and opens up a lot of possibilities.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That is incredible. First of all, you know, congratulations because it's hard enough when you venture out on your own, but then to go ahead and have so much success and I'm sure-- you know, you have that daily grind so it's not always all sunshine and rainbows-- but to be able to grow your team and to have that moment of, "Oh my goodness, this is a company. It's not just me now, it's a company and there's other team members and we're all providing such [00:24:00] value to our clients." That is amazing. Congratulations. That is just the first step. So I'm really excited for you.
Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you. Yes, me too.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything that you want. It can be in your industry. It doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
Dasha Tyshlek: Oh, that's a tough one. I actually have a competing hobby that I would probably choose from, and that is how to set up a wonderful backyard garden that produces food and flowers for the season. I think we I think we need more backyard gardens and more gardeners. But I think I would have to spend that entire million dollars on getting people to attend.
So maybe not the best choice of a million dollars, but professionally speaking, I think I would love to teach about setting up frameworks [00:25:00] for thinking about-- any kind of problem really-- but business development related problems. I think there's, there's a lot of really great frameworks out there teaching people how to use them in order to anchor your thinking and your decision making in kind of a shared understanding of priorities that requires a framework. So we could start with the frameworks that exist, but teaching people how to think outside the box and create their own framework for the situation, how to be basically their own strategy consultant in PowerPoint or on paper and help them think through problems that are complex and chaotic by creating frameworks would be, I think, really valuable to many people. I don't think it's taught very often. And certainly it's it's such a huge leg up on any kind of problem solving that you have to do to be able to kind of anchor yourself in a structure before you go and start making [00:26:00] decisions.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I love that. I love that idea too, because especially something that you said really struck a chord with me about solving the idea of chaotic and overwhelming problems and creating a framework for that. There's so much of life is, I mean, life is a learning curve, right? So there's so many times where it might be very helpful to approach even a personal problem or a personal challenge that comes up with the idea of a framework where you can say, "Okay. Yes, this feels overwhelming and anxiety inducing, and whatever other big feelings you have about it that make it feel so overwhelming you can't even get started." But what if you think about it in terms of a framework and how could that help you take it out of all of the emotion, maybe, and help you transform it into, okay, this can be resolved is some creative problem solving strategy. I think that'd be amazing.
Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, and sometimes [00:27:00] when you put things in a framework, you discover that either pieces of information that you need to actually make a decision or a path forward are just missing. You put it in a framework, you're like, "Oh, of course, it makes sense, I'm missing this whole thing of information." Or, alternatively, so it can actually stimulate that aspect of creative thinking, but also it can prompt more idea generation. And, and I do find sometimes-- it's like the problem diagnosis-- sometimes if I come into a scenario where there's a lot of confusion about, "What do we do? How do we move forward? What product should we choose? What business model should we choose?"
The first thing to do is to create a framework for decision making because, you go and you do the research and you get the information, you still don't know which one to do because the information by itself, you know-- unless the information's like there's zero opportunity here, but there's never information like that. The information's always that there's some pros over here, and some [00:28:00] pros over here, and some cons, and some cons. So without the framework you just drown in the amount of knowledge. Facts without a framework don't lead to a decision, they just lead to a lot of facts.
So learning how to step back, when do you actually go back to a framework, and how do you create a framework for this situation, because sometimes it feels like you don't have a framework for this situation, the situation's unique. But you can then come up with your own framework, merging ideas from other frameworks, or utilizing your own creative skills to kind of draw up a structure within which you can make decisions. So. I think that would be, that would be a very fun master class.
Lindsey Dinneen: It would be fun and super valuable So I'll sign up for that when you give that Well, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
Dasha Tyshlek: I always focus on three areas of growth for myself. When people ask me what I want to be, I think "kinder, wiser, and more courageous" is what I want to be over time. And [00:29:00] so I would hope that, I don't know that those things have a definite end, but if I can be remembered as having worked towards that in a way that people felt in their lives, then that will be good.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's a beautiful answer and finally, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
Dasha Tyshlek: Flowers. I love, especially on the side of the road, when you're driving somewhere, and sometimes you see that nowadays on highways, there's been some wildflower planting. That's just so good. It's good for the environment, it's beautiful on the eyes, it's good for the bees. So, so always happy to see more flowers being planted for a more beautiful world.
Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. Great answer. Well, thank you so very much for joining me today, Dasha. This has been such a pleasure, and I'm just so impressed with you and [00:30:00] everything that you're bringing to the world to help these amazing companies become even more effective, and this creative problem solving that you bring to it with your frameworks and whatnot. So, I just want to say, you know, a huge kudos to you for everything that you're doing: the podcast, I hope that all of my listeners go and check hers out as well. And yeah, just thanks for being here.
Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you for having me.
Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. And we wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.
Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you very much, and thank you for that donation on my behalf.
Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yeah. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning [00:31:00] in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, we would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit [00:32:00] velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Holly Rockweiler | CEO, Madorra | Women's Postmenopausal Health, Entrepreneurship, & Human Connection via Communication

Meet Holly Rockweiler, CEO of Madorra. This episode explores the transformative journey of Madorra from a Stanford Biodesign fellowship project to a pioneering force in women's health aiming to revolutionize the treatment of vaginal atrophy and dryness without hormones. Holly's story is not just about groundbreaking medical devices, but also about the passion and determination that drive the quest for better healthcare solutions. Through engaging storytelling, this episode unveils the challenges and triumphs of bringing novel technologies to market, the power of female leadership in STEM, and the broader impact of MedTech on improving lives. 
Guest links: www.madorra.com | https://www.linkedin.com/company/madorra-inc-/| https://www.facebook.com/MadorraMedical | https://twitter.com/MadorraMedical
Charity supported: Equal Justice Initiative
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 033 - Holly Rockweiler
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
[00:00:51] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I'm so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Holly Rockweiler. Holly is co-founder and CEO of Madorra, a woman's health company dedicated to changing the treatment paradigm for vaginal atrophy and dryness. She co-founded Madorra as a spin out of the Stanford Biodesign fellowship, where she implemented ethnographic research to identify unmet clinical needs and define user market and product requirements for solutions and women's health, urology, and infectious disease. Prior to Biodesign, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Boston Scientific, where she developed therapies to enable more efficient care for patients living with heart failure. Her preclinical and clinical research has led to more than 20 pending and issued patents. Holly holds an MS and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Welcome, Holly. It's so wonderful to have you here today. Thanks so much for joining us.
[00:01:49] Holly Rockweiler: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind starting off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your background and maybe what led you to the medtech industry.
[00:02:02] Holly Rockweiler: Sure. So let's see. So my background is in biomedical engineering. I majored in biomedical engineering. Maybe I can say why, like I, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer. I felt like, well, first of all, as a woman in math and science growing up, when I did every teacher told me to be an engineer, but I didn't really know what that meant until I got to college, but I liked it. Pursued engineering and I started undecided, but very quickly found that I was, most just excited about the problems in the biomedical engineering field. I remember one of my classes was like "calculate the torque of a drill on a tooth," I was like, "Wow, that's amazing. I think I found it."
[00:02:41] So majored in biomedical engineering, got my master's and bachelor's at Wash U in St. Louis, and then I went to work for Boston Scientific. And so they are a medical device company. And so that's obviously how I got into it, but I did seek that out. When I was thinking about what did I want to do, I thought about... chemistry was never an area I felt very strongly about. I liked stuff I could hold in my hands and really conceptualize. And so I think that's what led me more in the device road and then had a incredible opportunity to work at Boston Scientific.
[00:03:15] And so I worked there for several years in their implantable cardiac division. So that's pacemakers and ICDs, working in the research department. So that was also really cool because we were on the front end helping to define the next generation products and was able to also work very cross functionally. So just because research conceived of an idea didn't mean it was going to be in the product development had to help it go forward, and obviously we were keyed in very closely with the marketing team to understand. What were the needs that we were solving.
[00:03:45] So it was an incredible introduction to our industry. And then I decided that I wanted to try a smaller company. There was just some broader themes of working in a large company that didn't totally jive for me. And so I was like, "Well, I don't know the first thing about startups." So I had heard about the Stanford Biodesign program, which is where I went next. And the company that I started, Madorra, is a spin out of that program.
[00:04:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Okay, so your path is really cool, and I love that you are an engineer, and I love your passion behind it too, just hearing you talk about that one random problem and your excitement about it. I adore that. I do. Because that is not my leaning. So whenever I hear somebody just get really excited about that kind of thing, I'm like, "Yes, tell me more."
[00:04:40] Holly Rockweiler: Well, then you're in the right field too, I would say.
[00:04:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. So, yeah. I'm just curious. Okay. So, so going back just a little bit, you started off at Boston Scientific and kind of developed this appreciation for the medical device space and innovation. And then with Stanford Biodesign, can you tell me a little bit about being a part of that and then how you were able to spin off into your own company? I mean, that's not, that's like a one sentence thing that you put in there, but I know that it took a lot of work, and I'd just love to hear about that process, and your experience.
[00:05:17] Holly Rockweiler: So, absolutely. So, the Stanford Biodesign program has many different facets. I was part of the fellowship, but they also have classes they teach and books and online resources. And then other universities have kind of sister programs around the world, frankly. So I was very interested in joining the program, like I said, to kind of-- what I was telling myself was like a way to dip my toe in the water of what a smaller company would be like. Now that's not at all what Stanford pitches the biodesign program as. Really what it is a an academic training program for an innovation process. And that's what they teach you. Now there are a lot of companies that end up spinning out of it.
[00:05:56] And so I thought, "Well, maybe, like I said, this is a way to dip my toe in the water, but also if I decided to come back to a larger company setting, this skill set still would be highly useful given what I want to do in my career. So that's what I set out to do. And so the program I love, I think is fantastic. It's as described initially, it's this innovation process and they teach you that in a very hands on way. So first you start with really understanding and building a list of unmet needs, and so that starts by looking for problems in Stanford Hospital. You kind of have this unfettered access as an engineer. It was the 1st time I had that, you know, observe and ask questions and talk to physicians and patients and other health care professionals and then. you end up with, obviously, a long list of problems that you can find, just like any, anywhere in the world, right? This could happen. But also this, in healthcare, it happens.
[00:06:55] And then you translate those problems into what the program calls need statements, to really-- there's a lot packed into that, but once you have those, then you spend the bulk of the program actually learning how to filter that long list of problems down into a couple key top unmet needs that you're working on. And so again, this is their goal is academic. They want to teach them their product is the people. They want to teach people this process and have them go out and share this process and use it to be successful in whatever, you know, vein they end up going down.
[00:07:32] And so I was like, I was just having a conversation with my husband this weekend. I was like, we were talking about something interpersonal and I said, "Well, the unmet need here really is..." So it certainly has, you know, I've drank the Kool Aid completely and love to share it. So, but anyways, so, but what happens because you're working hands on these projects you very often, which was the case for myself and my co founders, by the end of the year, you may have something that you're pretty passionate about.
[00:08:00] And so what has now become my about me description is working in women's health. I had no idea how passionate I would be about. I feel like I kind of backed my way into it, but now kind of reviewing that history, it's like, "Oh, maybe I was always kind of destined for this given my interest in, in, you know, activism." So kind of combining all of this together is what led us here. So, spinning it out was a consequence of having a lot of hard work with my team throughout the year. And we had other projects too, but this became the one that kind of survived every stage gate. And we ended up spinning out. into the company, Madorra.
[00:08:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing a little bit about that. And also, I love the crossover into real life, not that's not real life, but I do your daily life as well. Oh my gosh. That's great. I'm going to start doing that. Okay, so can we talk now a little bit about your company and the product that you've developed and where you're kind of looking to take it in the future?
[00:09:05] Holly Rockweiler: Certainly. So, again, being born out of Stanford, we started with an unmet need around creating a treatment for vaginal dryness and atrophy for postmenopausal women that didn't rely on hormones. So this is a problem that I had never heard of before we literally met patients with this problem and talk to providers about this problem. And as we started researching, "Wow, up to 75 percent of all postmenopausal women are dealing with some, you know, degree of this. How have we not heard of this before?" That is a striking number of people.
[00:09:39] And so as we continued to do our research, very quickly learned the gold standard treatment here is hormone therapy, but even though this market is huge, only 7 percent of the market is using hormones today. And so that... there's a lot of reasons why, but that's really what motivated us to say, "Wow. There needs to be another option." Because if you don't want hormones right now, the only other FDA cleared product or category for treating this are over the counter lubricants and moisturizers. And those are like, both of the products that exist today are really, those categories are really great, but they're not enough.
[00:10:16] And again, with 43 million women in the United States with this problem, like we need more than just those two categories. And it really felt like no one had really looked at this. I mean, hormones, again, are a good solution for the patients who want to or can use them. But for patients who can't, for example, breast cancer survivors, they're stuck with, you know, just kind of subsisting off these over the counter products that really are not enough when your case is more moderate or severe.
[00:10:43] And so we said, "Well, let's look at this and see if there's a better way or, you know, something we could combine," and ended up developing the idea for what is now the main product that we're developing at Madorra, which is a home use device that uses ultrasound to really rekindle the body's natural lubricating process. And so our whole goal has been to be very supportive of the other products in this category. We think hormones should be used more often than they are, frankly, but that women shouldn't have to make a compromise. If they don't want to use hormones, then they should have other options, and that's where we come in.
[00:11:21] So our product, we will, it's not on the market yet. We're working towards that, but when it's out there, what we envision is a prescription happens from the gynecologist, and then the patient uses the product at home on a regular basis to, like I said, kind of revitalize that natural process. And what patients have told us they like about this is that It is restarting their own natural lubrication rather than some exogenous hormone or chemical. And there's less of a kind of a goop ick factor, you know, than having to use these over the counter things, which again, they like say that not to say that those don't have their place because they absolutely do, but it's not enough.
[00:12:01] And so, we're pre FDA clearance, but we have a breakthrough designation from FDA. So that's feather in our cap and will help us get through the agency more expeditiously. And we have done several clinical trials and look forward. We've published one of those trials in our first manuscript, and we look forward to putting more of our data out there to help really lay the foundation to say, "Yeah, ultrasound is an appropriate approach to treating this and has virtually no side effects." So this should be a great option to be available to as many people as possible.
[00:12:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that is incredible. Oh my goodness. Well, yeah, first of all, again, you know, it boggles my mind and it probably shouldn't anymore, but it continues to when you tell me statistics like this, that 75 percent of women who've are in this situation or have this concern or whatnot. And you're just think, you're addressing it in a way that's so innovative. And yet that hasn't really been addressed yet and it happens again and again with healthcare for women. And I'm wondering, you know, you mentioned earlier being very passionate about this. So I'm wondering if you can speak a little bit to fem tech and women's health and how you're involved in helping to push the conversation forward 'cause I know that can be a little challenging at times.
[00:13:23] Holly Rockweiler: Absolutely. Yeah. And well, it's super fascinating too, because we spun out of Stanford in 2014. So we're coming up on 10 years here and the conversation is so different today than it was just, well, just 10 years. I mean, it was a decade, but it feels like yesterday. Like a lot has changed. When we first were starting Femtech wasn't a hashtag, like that was not a conversation. And people would say like, "Ooh, that's a niche." Yeah. And that doesn't happen anymore, which is really great. So while that's, that's certainly progress, so we should acknowledge that and be proud of everyone who's worked towards creating that progress. So I think what's been interesting, though, it's like the pace of progress, maybe?
[00:14:09] So it's very exciting to know that there are, for instance, obviously I spend a lot of my time fundraising, there are women's health focused venture groups now. They, that's fantastic. That we just need bigger and bigger funds to be focused on that. We just need more and more We need more of everything, right? I mean, one of many things I've been very surprised to learn is how little training physicians get on menopause specifically. And so that has to change. And so there's just like a lot.
[00:14:40] And so to the point of activism, like there's a lot to say, and so I think, it's... being raised by parents who are feminists, that helps, I think, me just start by saying, "Well, no, this shouldn't be . We can do better, and we will do better." So that's helpful, and I think that's also what really keeps me going-- obviously, every job is hard, and in our startup world, this is certainly a lot emotional rollercoaster. And so when I think about when I have harder days, it's like, "Wow." We've had patients tell us, for example, "I can't believe you're even paying attention to this. I can't believe you're listening to what I have to say." And so one, that's disturbing that's, as little as it's needed to make someone feel better. Secondly, it's "Wow, we can have such an impact by just being out there." So like the fact that we exists, I always think is helpful and that we do things like this and have open conversations about vaginal health for an aging population.
[00:15:39] I will also say that, a year ago at the Super Bowl last year, there was an ad for a hot flash drug. And so that's like, you know, the world stage, menopause is being discussed. That was not happening 10 years ago. There is real progress being made. The last thing I want to say is that one thing I, I have also really appreciate about working in women's health and how supportive everyone is of everyone else. Every, anytime, even like our closest competitor, when I met their CEO, she was wonderful to me and, you know, shook my hand and said, "How can I help you?" And it's like, "Where else does that happen?" That's incredible. I think 'cause we all see there's a lot of work to be done. We can't do it alone. We want to support each other.
[00:16:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Yeah, that is something that I have really admired and appreciated about the medtech industry. I think because people are curious, and their mindset is very innovation problem solving, "how can I help?" It seems like even with competitors. Yes, we're maybe vying for similar people to sell to. However, there's this idea of camaraderie, which I don't find in a lot of industries. So yeah, to your point, I think it's really helpful to have those allies in the space because that's, it's a little different.
[00:16:53] Holly Rockweiler: Totally.
[00:16:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So yeah. And I, I love what you were saying about these conversations are happening more and they're becoming more mainstream and less embarrassing or taboo, which sounds hilarious because it's 50 percent of the population or whatever. But anyway, the point being, it is exciting to see this continue to move forward. And I'm wondering, even as a company, obviously your next big hurdle is getting that FDA approval, going to market and whatnot. But as you continue down the road, what other kinds of problems are you looking to solve? Or are you not even there yet? This is just like, "Let's start here. We'll get into that later."
[00:17:38] Holly Rockweiler: Yeah. No, it's a great question. I think like what kind of harkening back to the just the prior question about the community of women's health. It's like you can't go a day without finding five other problems that you want to solve. So absolutely. I think that yeah, I mean, like with Madorra, we are very focused obviously on this technology and developing it, but we certainly have a roadmap of where this technology could go and other ideas of where to take it. And then what I find fascinating is that there is no menopause "brand." Like no one owns menopause, which I, if I worked at Procter and Gamble or Kimberly Clark, I would be like, hopefully 15 years ago, I would have said, "Guys, let's do it." So it's very surprising to me. So I think there's a lot of opportunities.
[00:18:23] So would Madorra be that brand? I would love that. We would need a lot of other products that come together with us. So what I really see is a roll up in the future of multiple women's health products together. So I think that's exciting. In terms of, also a little bit maybe more broadly speaking, and this is no surprise to you, I'm sure, or your listeners, that reimbursement is an area that needs massive... I don't know, I was gonna say like overhauling, but that sounds pretty drastic.
[00:18:53] It just needs to be clearer and cleaner and simpler. In terms of a process. I'm not saying that we should be handing out reimbursement left and right, but any investor conversation I have is, we go there immediately. And it's like, "Okay, what's the path? Well, why do you think that's going to happen?" And when, you know, X, Y, Z, other company had this happen and I can, we have a good strategy. I think I have a good pitch, but, oh, just... it just is an area that is really murky, and given that's a really critical piece in any business is how are you going to get paid? That's an area that I think there's a lot of good work being done. It just moves at a pace that is painfully slow. I don't have anything insightful to say about it except that, thank you to the people who are working on it, and I support you. I think the TCEP program is a step in the right direction, but even that has been very slow, and not without its own issues, so.
[00:19:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Still work to be done, but thankful for the work that is being done.
[00:19:58] Holly Rockweiler: Well said. Yes.
[00:20:00] Lindsey Dinneen: So, yeah, so, okay. So obviously, listening to you speak about your background and about the industry, it's really clear how passionate you are about this. And I, I wonder if there are any moments or series of moments that stand out to you as kind of confirming that, "Yes, I am in the right place at the right time. I'm here for a reason."
[00:20:23] Holly Rockweiler: Oh, good question. Yeah. I'm trying to think like, there are plenty. There's plenty of times in the moment where it's like, "Of course, yes." And then there's like quickly like, "Oh, what's the next fire I'm trying to put out?" So it's hard to really think. I wish I had a super answer right away. I'm thinking, I guess I always come back to the patient and so like hearing-- so we've done some clinical trials in Australia and various team members of ours have gone over and been able to support the trials and be a part of them. And just hearing the stories that they bring back, it's just like, "Yes, we have to keep doing this."
[00:21:01] One of our employees was there and came back with a couple stories of one of them was just like after the study visit, the patient was speaking to her and was saying, "It's a conspiracy of silence. This is a huge problem. So many of us are suffering. We're so glad you're here." And then it's other things like we did, for instance, a human factors study that was really helpful to us. And we learned a lot from, and in that study, it was like patients came in to do mock use of the device so we could improve our training materials and also, you know, all parts of the user experience. And it was amazing to me.
[00:21:38] So patients, you know, participants, I should say, got zero benefit theoretically about being in that study. It was all for us to learn how to do this better. I mean, we did compensate them, but marginally, right? And so many people wanted to be in that study. And even if it was the early on patient who had-- I'm going to make it up. I had like, "Oh, the user manual didn't make sense to them" or something. They were still like, "I'm so glad to be here to help you because this product needs to be out there." And so it's like, " This is incredible. Yes!" And that part is really rewarding to me.
[00:22:09] For me, it's the patients and their feedback and just their enthusiasm. And then, I was gonna say also for the healthcare providers too, we have a lot of wonderful physicians that we work with and their support has been helpful. Like for instance, as I mentioned, we put a paper out there and one of our clinical advisors was highlight, or I think a couple of them highlighted to us that like, "We need to do a second paper on a specific subset of that data because it's super valuable and hasn't been out there before," which may be the clinicians do that for everything they do 'cause they, they know the scene and they know what needs to be published, but it just felt like we have a lot of people who really are rowing in the same direction and really want to make an impact like we do.
[00:22:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, wow. Yeah, that's incredible. Thank you for sharing those stories. I think, you know, as you alluded to earlier, because your role has so many components, because that's the space you're in and you've got so much going on, I think it's really compelling to have something to hold onto when it gets hard and go, "You know what? I remember that patient who was so thankful just to have the opportunity to be a part of it and just wait until this gets into the hands of so many more."
[00:23:15] Holly Rockweiler: Totally.
[00:23:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so for you, you know, you obviously have a very strong background in engineering and innovation. How was it for you going from that to also now being an entrepreneur, and having a business, and having to also learn all of those skills as well. How was that transition?
[00:23:42] Holly Rockweiler: Fun. I think that-- there's a lot of personal growth, and I've learned a lot about myself and what where I find passion. So I think there's definitely a lot of hard parts too, but what, well, one thing is that I think there's also a heavy dose of naivete that was important. I didn't know what I didn't know. And so here I am 10 years later I think, you know, in the beginning too, I was not... what do I say? I wasn't convinced, yeah, I wasn't convinced that I could be a CEO, that I should be or could be. And so I think that was, and is maybe still a definitely a continuous journey to it. So why is, why did I think that? What does that mean to me? And where am I now? That's been certainly a learning process.
[00:24:31] But that's also like why I said fun, because I, I get to do such a variety of, like, I get to have this opportunity to speak to you on this podcast. I get to work with our clinical advisors on a paper. And I also get to apply for grants. And there's a lot of hard things that come with all those things, but I feel like it's been a really, I don't know, just an incredible opportunity to have a job that It requires so many different things. It also requires me to do financial modeling, which I'm terrible-- well, was terrible at-- have learned and much better at, but also don't really love doing.
[00:25:04] So it teaches you what, what you might look for in a future chapter of your life as well. But I'm someone who really thrives on, I have a very curious mind. So trying new things and figuring out new things. And that, I think that curiosity is well satiated by an entrepreneur's life. The managing your own psychology is really difficult, but that's why you have a great community of people around you, both within the entrepreneur community and outside of it.
[00:25:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my word. I think I just need to take what you just said those last couple of sentences and just make it into a quote because that was so well articulated.
[00:25:45] Holly Rockweiler: Oh, thank you.
[00:25:47] Lindsey Dinneen: I cannot think of a better way to describe that journey. So thank you for, but also thank you for being vulnerable and willing to share that, because it is such a journey and it is a learning curve, but kudos to you for embracing it with an attitude of fun, like, "Let's just learn something new and it might not go great the first time, but that's okay. I'll try again."
[00:26:10] Holly Rockweiler: Yeah, I was thinking, I was like, "Well, if any of my investors are listening, I have gotten really good at a lot of these things, so y'all don't need to worry." But I do think that's maybe the blessing and the curse of being a first time entrepreneur. So I think, you know, there's certainly a lot of benefits for having done it before and knowing exactly what to expect. But I think with anything in maybe any regulated industry, or maybe any startup, really, there's always going to be curveballs. So that keeps you excited.
[00:26:41] Lindsey Dinneen: it's never boring. It keeps you on your toes. There's at least that.
[00:26:45] Holly Rockweiler: Yes, absolutely.
[00:26:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:27:04] Holly Rockweiler: Oh, that's interesting too. And that's a nice paycheck.
[00:27:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Right? I
[00:27:10] Holly Rockweiler: Let's see. It's getting right to what do I think I'm good enough at to teach a class about. So, I mean, I think one thing that I've been thinking about a lot recently is scientific communication and how, how different voices get amplified and how the kind of stereotypical scientific persona is, it's not the one that wants to be necessarily on social media with a gazillion followers and all these TikTok videos. So I think that I would like to teach the class in concert with, I have a lot of ideas of like, who would be a great way, who would be great people to collaborate with in order to teach or really to help promote more scientific discourse in a conversation that's appropriate and approachable for anyone.
[00:28:04] I think that obviously our country has faced a lot of division and I don't think that's really true. I think that a lot of that is-- well, there certainly is a lot of division. I don't mean that. I just mean that I think there's a path to human connection via communication and that, wouldn't it be cool if we could help bridge conversations. And obviously I'm, I am a scientist. I think of myself as a scientist, so I want to think about ways to provide other voices out there to be amplified as well, or perhaps amplify the right voices to help promote just a more enriched dialogue than what is often presented as the country's dialogue today.
[00:28:48] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that.
[00:28:50] Holly Rockweiler: It's kind of rambling. I can get back to you with my course description, but that's probably where I would go.
[00:28:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Syllabi due Tuesday. No, I think that is absolutely incredible. And I love that because I think that is something that's missing and there's some translation error that occurs. And one of the things that I'm passionate about is helping to bridge that gap between-- so I'm right on board with you-- but to bridge that gap between maybe taking some what are traditionally considered complex ideas, concepts, whatever, and distilling it down to a more accessible format. And because everyone learns differently, it's just helpful to have a wider range of options.
[00:29:35] Holly Rockweiler: Totally.
[00:29:36] Lindsey Dinneen: So I love what you would be passionate about sharing. I mean, I would sign up for that masterclass.
[00:29:41] Holly Rockweiler: You can help me teach it, I think.
[00:29:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Deal. We'll get back on that.
[00:29:45] Holly Rockweiler: Okay.
[00:29:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Yeah. How would you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:29:53] Holly Rockweiler: You have some great questions. Yeah, let's see. You know, I've honestly never thought about that. I think that I would, what would I want people... well, I think about like what I would want my friends to think. That, like, they were loved and that they hopefully shared that love broadly. But then, well, let's see, that's not really, like, remembering. Yeah, I guess, maybe it is. So, yeah. That I'm a lover, a curious person, and that I, there is a lot of beauty in the everyday, and so there's a lot to be excited about even on the hard days,
[00:30:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that. And then, final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:30:41] Holly Rockweiler: Certainly my family. I have a four year old son and he is, keeps me very present and cracks me up continuously. And so, my husband and I are very lucky to have him. And obviously my husband makes me laugh. A lot. And so I really appreciate them. And so even when, you know, the work day is hard, I feel really fortunate to have a very rich personal life outside of that. So my family and then my friends also.
[00:31:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yes. Of course. That's wonderful. And I'm so glad you have that amazing support system to bring that smile to your face, especially on the tough days.
[00:31:19] Holly Rockweiler: Absolutely.
[00:31:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, Holly, this has been a wonderful conversation. I'm so thankful for you and what you're doing in this space and the fact that you're tackling an issue that affects so many people, and that you're just bringing all this innovation to, and you're so passionate about sharing that in a way that resonates with people. So I just want to first say, you know, thank you so much for the work that you're doing. I know it's not easy and there are probably days where you, you just kind of want to, you know, toss something in the trash, but honestly, thank you for continuing to do the work you're doing. It's not nothing. And I want to appreciate that.
[00:31:59] Holly Rockweiler: Well, that is very kind. Thank you. And that means a lot. And thank you for doing what you're doing, too, to give people like me a chance to share, and also us to listen to others sharing their stories. And for asking, I will say, asking questions that are more about me as a whole person too. I think that when I've been in other conversations sometimes are really-- and there's nothing wrong with those, but it's fun to have, we can ask these questions. I'm like, "Wow, I would do some thinking this weekend about how I want to be remembered" because I've never thought about that.
[00:32:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. There you go. I love it. Well, and we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial. So thank you for choosing that organization to support, and we just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.
[00:32:59] Holly Rockweiler: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
[00:33:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Me too. And thank you so much for our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.
[00:33:16] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Mark Oreschnick | Evolve Engineering | Fractional Consulting, Leadership, & the Power of Networking

Mark Oreschnick, a MedTech industry leader and the founder of Evolve Engineering, shares his journey of nearly 30 years in engineering and leadership, starting in aerospace before landing in the medical device industry. With a passion for mentoring and helping startups, Mark discusses the importance of right-sizing staff and systems for success. This conversation not only showcases the human side of technology, but also highlights the power of networking and building relationships for personal and professional growth.
Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-oreschnick-82367a8/ | marko@evolve-engr.com| www.evolve-engr.com | https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14248328/
Charity supported: Feeding America
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 
PRODUCTION CREDITSHost: Lindsey DinneenEditing: Marketing WiseProducer: Velentium
 
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 032 - Mark Oreschnick
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] 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.
[00:00:28] 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.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
[00:00:50] Welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Mark Oreschnick. Mark is the founder, owner, and president of Evolve Engineering, LLC. With over 25 years working in and leading engineering and operations in small, such as four employees, to large, such as 15,000 plus employees, companies, he has gained valuable experience he will use to complete your project as efficiently as possible. Mark's career has focused on developing products, processes, people, and businesses. Mark, thank you so much for being here. I cannot wait to talk with you all about what you're doing and your background. So thanks for joining today.
[00:01:36] Mark Oreschnick: Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
[00:01:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing just a little bit about yourself and your background and maybe what led you to MedTech.
[00:01:47] Mark Oreschnick: Okay. I've been an engineer and leader for nearly 30 years. I started in the aerospace industry in college, and while I was an intern, I was offered a full time position to work as an engineer for my last year of college. So I did full time school and work, which I think very much set me up for my life in startups because I was sleeping about two and a half hours a night.
[00:02:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my word.
[00:02:16] Mark Oreschnick: So, after that, I just kept having bosses challenge me with a variety of different projects. I've designed and built buildings for two different companies, automated. Equipment doing 16 million packages in four months, shipping out of a company, totally different industry and 20 years ago, coming this Valentine's day, I started the medical device industry. So, I'm coming out of my 20th anniversary right now. And within the medical device industry, I've been in really large and really small companies, both on the operations and manufacturing side and the R&D side. And I'm currently working with my seventh startup. So that's, like I said, the world of startups I've really enjoyed.
[00:03:02] And now I've moved into consulting full time, and I'm working with startups as a fractional CTO. So I'll put together their technology roadmap, help build their R&D team, work with the founder on what I've learned from my experience. What are the good things to do? What are the bad things to do? And how to right size your staff and your systems to be successful.
[00:03:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's incredible. Well, thank you for sharing about that. It's so much fun to see how little bits of threads throughout your career kind of interweave, and then all of a sudden they've produced this really cool thing. And that's now you doing this on your own and consulting. And I just love hearing about that. Several things just stood out to me and I'm curious. Okay. So, so you said you sort of set yourself up for success by being like full time college student, full time working at the same time. And then yes-- so can you start by: where did this drive in this passion come from, because clearly your work ethic is astronomical and wonderful, so maybe start there.
[00:04:11] Mark Oreschnick: I would say it comes from my parents. Definitely did not grow up on the rich side. So everything that we had in our lives, we worked hard for. And I learned that if I wanted something, I needed to go out and get it. So, I think that was a good attitude that my parents put into me. And then they also, I won't say over expected things from us, but it was more, if you say you're going to do it, you're going to do it, figure out how to get it done. Just live up to what you say you're going to do. And that I think automatically put a drive behind me to just, all right, and you offered me a full time job. I'll be successful at it, but I'm graduating. So I got to be successful there and I'll just figure out how to make it happen.
[00:04:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And then you alluded to the two and a half hours of sleep a night. I hope that's still not the case moving forward.
[00:05:08] Mark Oreschnick: No, it's better than that now, but I've had 24 hour days as things come up throughout a career, and it's, you do what you need to at that point for your company and to get things done or you're having a team work extra hard. You get in there, you work with them, make sure that they're getting the support they need and they know you're there for them. So, sometimes it's insane. Other times you get to relax a little bit, but that's also, like I said, the life of a startup, you have your big pushes and then you get to relax for a little while and then you hit your next push.
[00:05:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, so true. It seems like you have quite a passion for helping startups in particular, and you obviously also have your own entrepreneurial bent and endeavors. And so where did the interest in helping startups in particular come about? Because I know that's a, can be a different skillset in terms of you often wear a lot of different hats and you end up pitching in so many different ways. So, so tell me about your heart with startups and entrepreneurship.
[00:06:17] Mark Oreschnick: Someone who has now become one of my best friends, we, my very first medical device job, I worked with him and when I left to go to another company, we looked for a position for him to join me. There wasn't a good fit, but a couple of years later, he went to a startup, which he had already been in startups previously, and asked me to come over and work with him there. And I came in, I saw that I could do a lot of things to help people. And that's kind of been my career also is how can I help people do things easier, better, just make their life easier. So if I saw a gap where there wasn't someone to jump in, I just jumped in and filled it. And that's what you do in a startup and it just really worked with my attitude of, I get to help a lot of people because, today I'll work on documentation with the quality side, next week I'll go build a fixture for production and whatever was needed at that moment. It let me get that joy of helping people.
[00:07:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh
[00:07:23] Mark Oreschnick: And that's ... If you get joy out of everything you do in work, it makes going to work really nice.
[00:07:29] Lindsey Dinneen: That is so true. I love that. That is so true. And so, you know, then you also have the skill sets to be able to help in lots and lots of different ways. And one common theme as I've been doing some of these interviews is that it seems like having that generalist background-- I mean, obviously you're highly specialized as an engineer. You're incredibly incredibly gifted and talented in that way. And you've built that skillset, but then you also have the opportunity to draw from multiple different industries that you've been a part of. So how has those various other kinds of influences in your life maybe contributed to your success now?
[00:08:13] Mark Oreschnick: I would say one of the ways that definitely benefited me a lot was getting into a non technical industry. The industry where I did the packaging automation and built my first building is called Consumer Fulfillment. Literally at that time, you were getting in buckets of mail, manually sorting it, data entering information into a computer, typing in UPC codes, like not technical, not anything like that. But it made me look at that world in a big picture format. And how could I help the process and make things flow from department to department much easier. And I just had to step back and kind of, all right. By making this process easier, I'm helping on the finance side. By making this less labor intensive, we have less workman comp.
[00:09:14] And it was just, what affects each piece of it? And as you kept digging deeper and deeper, you got to learn what the IT group did and how they could change the software to make it better. You'd figure out what the shipping companies are doing. We actually figured out how to load semis and make sure that the addresses were in the order of the post offices that they were going to. So the last bag onto the mail truck was the first bag that they took off. And we built that into our computer system so the trucks could drive direct and never have to backtrack or unload extra things. So it's just, you have to start looking at that big picture and you got to learn about every department to see how they all work together and make sure everyone's efficient, not just your little group.
[00:10:05] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and I love that approach. Being able to look beyond maybe what you feel like is the daily task or the task most important at hand and have that zoomed out view of, okay, this isn't just important for the success of this one department. It affects everybody else. And I love that. So now in your current role and in your current business with Evolve Engineering, you get to have that more eagle eye perspective again. Is that true? So when you're coming in, you're able to help?
[00:10:36] Mark Oreschnick: At the beginning, yes, if it's a new founder, and there tend to be two new founders that I've met lots of. They've, almost all of them have never been in a startup before. So that's a common theme. And they either come from not within the medical device industry or from a very large company within the medical device industry. So changing the mindset and getting real expectations and real realistic goals and budgets is where you kind of start with that. So I work with them to talk about, here's how much you can expect to spend on this project. Here's how long it's really going to take.
[00:11:21] If you're from a big company and you're still having five different computer systems that are managing your inventory and your sales and everything else, we're going to be running on QuickBooks and Excel, and that's what we're going to live by. Because if you want to put those systems in, you're going to hire 20 people to manage those systems rather than 10 people to get the product out the door. And get this design finished. So it's teaching them to just have a total different mindset about everything. And still knowing how all those systems have to work together. But trying to get it down onto the micro, basic scale, rather than going on to buying a great enterprise system, but we're not actually going to sell anything for five years, so we don't really need it.
[00:12:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing a little bit about the two different types of these startup leaders that you're encountering. And I'm wondering, so part of your role, it sounds like, is not just getting into the very specific nitty gritty details of the actual company operations and technology and whatnot, but it's also having a little bit of this even broader range of, how do I help you as the leader develop the skills and priorities that you need to. So it sounds like you're in a, you're in a very Diverse mentorship kind of role in addition to like, let's get down to the nitty gritties, but you're also helping them develop those skill sets. Yeah?
[00:13:00] Mark Oreschnick: Yep. That's my goal is to help them become a good leader of a startup and understand what it takes. And I met with a doctor who had found me on LinkedIn about his company. And I wasn't sure exactly what he wanted, but as we were talking through things, I told him, "if you plan on being the CEO, we are going to figure out what day you fire yourself from that position." I said, we will do it to save money in the beginning, but you're a doctor. Be a doctor. Let's bring in a professional CEO when we get to the point where you stop saving the company money and possibly cost us money." And, he didn't want to be the CEO.
[00:13:43] So it wasn't a conversation that had to be had, but trying to put the mindset of, you're a great inventor, kick me out of my job, become the company CTO, drive development once we get to that point. I'm totally fine with that because it's the best for the company and it'll get us to the sale of the company or commercialization spending the least amount of money and getting there as quickly as we can. So being part of it's, be open, have those conversations with people and do that type of mentorship in the beginning. And if somebody said, "no, I'm going to run this thing until the end, I'm going to be the greatest CEO." I probably know from the beginning, I'm not the one to work with them.
[00:14:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure. Yeah.
[00:14:33] Mark Oreschnick: We probably won't gel in the end.
[00:14:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And do you find that it's partly because perhaps the idea of, the things that got you to where you are not the same skill sets that are going to get you to the next level? Is it partially just because usually that somebody who comes up with this great idea and has the passion and the vision for the company can really get it off the ground and maybe get those first rounds of investment, but then they might not possess the skill sets to get them to continue growing and scaling. Is that part of it?
[00:15:10] Mark Oreschnick: That's 100%.
[00:15:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay.
[00:15:12] Mark Oreschnick: What normally it is and truly that passion in the beginning as the CEO gets your team driven. You get a lot done. It is a wonderful thing. But once you start to look at the commercialization and how do you grow a business, that creativity and passion don't directly translate. Now it's getting into nuts and bolts, black and white, a little more ruthless and you have to do what's right to make the company commercial.
[00:15:43] And the, I think it's lots of times not even ego of the founder. It's the passion. It's their baby, and they don't want to give up control and worry that somebody is going to ruin it. But that's why if you move yourself out, but stay within the leadership role in a different way, you're hand in hand with the CEO and you can move the company forward together rather than having a board kick you out because you're not doing your job and then you've lost all connection to your company.
[00:16:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Right.
[00:16:21] Mark Oreschnick: So I look at it as a, here's a way you can grow and you can learn from that CEO so the next time you do this, maybe you are the person who can take it another step, bring in the new CEO, one step farther down and finally you'll get to be that person who runs the company from start to finish, but you got to learn it. You got to live through it and protect your baby by moving into a different seat.
[00:16:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my goodness. Yeah. What a challenging thing to overcome. So it's helpful that's your perspective from the start so you can help people prepare for that and that this is actually a wonderful thing. It's a growth thing. It's not a demotion. It is not a, you are any less important. You aren't. You're as still as important, but you're just moving into a role that suits you and suits what the company needs. Yeah. That's really interesting.
[00:17:13] Mark Oreschnick: And there are some investors who, if they hear that day one, that you know you're the one to bring it up to a certain point and then you will transfer it that will give them more faith in you because they know that you understand where your skills are and that you need the commercialization person to move the company to sale and they're going to appreciate that.
[00:17:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And so with your consultancy now, can you tell me a little bit about how that came about? And then I'd also love to hear, because I know that you've started, or co-founded, a very successful networking group in Medical Alley. And I would love, if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about that, because that's a really cool opportunity for people in the area. But I would just love to hear a little bit about your origin story as well.
[00:18:04] Mark Oreschnick: So my origin actually started about eight years ago.
[00:18:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Aha.
[00:18:09] Mark Oreschnick: And the gentleman that I talked about who brought me into my first startup, we were at two different startups and he asked me if I could do a side project for him for his company to help it out. So I started Evolve Engineering.
[00:18:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay.
[00:18:25] Mark Oreschnick: And they brought me into interview to see if I was the right guy to do this project for them. And they liked my overall skill set and offered me a permanent position. So I wound up not consulting.
[00:18:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure.
[00:18:40] Mark Oreschnick: But it was something that I'd always thought, yeah, someday I'll get into this because one of the things great about startups is doing lots of short term projects. Even if your company lasts for seven years that you're there, you've jumped around a lot in it because that's what the company needed. So the idea of consulting and knowing that I'm going to be jumping around is exciting because you're always doing something new. So that got me hooked.
[00:19:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:19:09] Mark Oreschnick: And then I was with a startup and I was looking for, what do I want to do next. I knew it was time to be moving out of that startup. And I started researching consulting and got myself connected with a bunch of people. And then another company offered me a permanent position.
[00:19:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay.
[00:19:29] Mark Oreschnick: So that postponed me for about another 16 months. And then in late 2022, I made the decision that "No, it's really my passion. I want to get back helping as many startups as I can." And I just dove into it. One of my former employees became my first client. And then another group called me up of a bunch of employees that I used to work with at a different startup, and I started working with them. And then, like I'd mentioned, a doctor called me up, so I have a deal going with that company. And it's all these little pieces just coming together. And right now, I have two different companies that are submitting me for projects that they're just waiting on funding for. And someone that I connected with through this networking group. He called me up and said, "Hey Mark, in, in February, I'm going to need your help on one of my projects." So he used to be the founder of a startup. Now he's doing the exact same thing I'm doing and he's my competitor. And he called me up and said, "I want you to work with me."
[00:20:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Phenomenal.
[00:20:39] Mark Oreschnick: Yeah, it's good competition and those are the people that I still have around me are people I've worked with in the past or met in the past. We don't look at each other as competitors. It's, "You're going to be better at this one than me. So you take it and you'll tell me about one that I'm better at than you." So, so that's got me kind of up to today. And you had mentioned my networking group, which is called The Twin Cities Medical Device Networking Group. I was in a group pre COVID that actually died before COVID. So COVID wasn't the killer, but it made starting a new networking group a real challenge during COVID. I tried bringing the old group back. We had one event and then a new spike, and it died again.
[00:21:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:21:33] Mark Oreschnick: So working with one of the startup accelerators that I'm involved with, I went to a medical presentation that they were having a showcase about all of their startups that they were working with, and met a gentleman named Kris Bauerschmidt. And he and I actually already had a call scheduled for the next day through a different networking group and we just happened to run into each other in person. So we started off, we did the call the next day, and I toured his company a couple weeks later. And I brought up, "Hey, I'm thinking about starting a networking group." And he said, "Oh, I'd love to be a part of that, can I help you?" And that was on Thursday, so April 29th, which was a Saturday, I started the group. And it took about 16 days to get up to 100 people.
[00:22:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow.
[00:22:26] Mark Oreschnick: About another month to get to 200. And then it started slowing down a little bit. So now we're at eight and a half months since we started it, and we have almost 850 people.
[00:22:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow.
[00:22:39] Mark Oreschnick: So it's growing basically a hundred a month.
[00:22:42] Lindsey Dinneen: That's amazing. Congrats.
[00:22:45] Mark Oreschnick: So each month we just post on LinkedIn, "Hey, we're doing a happy hour at this brewery." People come out, get together. We normally have around 70 people show up to each of our events and people sit around and you talk a little bit of business, you know, "Hey, what do you do for a living? What cool projects are you working on?" that type of stuff. And many of these people have now got to the point of, "So how's your son's basketball game last night?" And we've become friends and we're building relationships. Business is going to come out of that naturally because now we've actually built trust in 70 other people that we meet, and really it's probably about 150 people rotate through our events, but there's always around 70 that show up. So this 150 out of 850 is getting to be a tighter network every month.
[00:23:40] Lindsey Dinneen: That's incredible.
[00:23:42] Mark Oreschnick: And out of that, we wound up doing a presentation at startup week, Kris and I, for other people, we did a panel discussion on Networking 101.
[00:23:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice.
[00:23:52] Mark Oreschnick: A college brought out their entrepreneur program and we had 20 plus students from that, and it was a total of, like, 80 people showed up to hear us talking about networking.
[00:24:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice.
[00:24:04] Mark Oreschnick: And that's one of the keys in the med device industry, or actually in any industry, network, know the people you're working with. If you ever get laid off, fired, you're in transition, you instantly have a group of people to go talk to. But the big thing that we've seen in our group, lots of the people are there really just to help.
[00:24:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:24:27] Mark Oreschnick: Much less about, "What can I get out of this," and it's, "What can I do for you?" So, it's really nice that, you know, people are saying, "Hey, let me introduce you to this recruiter. Hey, let me introduce you to this person. They might be able to help with your project." And it's much more of the giving side of things. And it gets kind of funny when you have two people who are both givers, who have are meeting for the first time and trying to talk about something, and both of them are trying to give and neither wants to receive.
[00:24:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.
[00:24:59] Mark Oreschnick: So eventually somebody has to just step out of the zone that they're in and say, "This person's honest and trying to be helpful. I need to accept that."
[00:25:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:25:11] Mark Oreschnick: It's quite funny when you start to see these interactions of people who really network on a regular basis and are out there just to meet and help people.
[00:25:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's incredible. And I love that. I love that that's the spirit of the group because I think a lot of times where networking groups can get challenging is it seems to be kind of the opposite. And it's sort of "what can I get from this group" versus "how can I give and contribute," but that's, that's such a part of who you are. In fact, you've recommended a couple of books to me that I have thoroughly enjoyed. And I wonder if you wouldn't mind telling a little bit about maybe how that philosophy has impacted even your own life and the way that you've approached your entrepreneurial endeavors and your networking endeavors. Would you like to share about that?
[00:26:02] Mark Oreschnick: Sure. So, similar to the words that I was just saying.
[00:26:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yup.
[00:26:07] Mark Oreschnick: I know the book she's talking about right off the bat and that is " The Go Giver" and it's tells the story of how somebody is out there trying to get sales and bugging everyone trying to get leads, trying to just close the deal, worrying about the end of the quarter. And eventually he meets a series of people who talk about being in things for the right reason, and you can't sell something to someone, someone has to want to buy from you. So you have to give them value, and then they will choose to purchase from you, because you cannot force a sale. You can't make somebody sign on that dotted line.
[00:26:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:26:56] Mark Oreschnick: So it's all about: connect with people, meet them, figure out how you can help them. Karma's going to come back, help you in the end. And I have definitely seen that in my career, you know, like I'd mentioned earlier, somebody who is a direct competitor of me calling me up and saying, "I want you to work on my project." I was trying to help him find investors at his last company. And I didn't have any stake in the game in that, but he seemed like a really good person doing a good thing. So I wanted to help him.
[00:27:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah!
[00:27:30] Mark Oreschnick: The thing that for me about "The Go-Giver," I read it and I went, "Okay, this reinforces what I've been doing. And here's a few ways I can do it a little bit better and a little more intentionally." So I highly recommend, read the book. The guy who I founded the networking group with, I gave him a copy. He absolutely loved it. He now recommends it out on LinkedIn. The author wound up seeing that we had been recommending it to people and connected with us and commented. So, and I'm actually in another group that has about 230 people, and the first time you meet with the founders of that group, they're going to say, "You need to go by "The Go Giver" and read it." So right off the bat, that's just their first conversation. It's kind of, "If you go forward with this attitude, your business will be successful."
[00:28:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:28:22] Mark Oreschnick: And then the other book, it's from the same authors and it's called, I believe, it's "The Go Giver Guide to Marriage."
[00:28:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Huh.
[00:28:29] Mark Oreschnick: And I actually read it while I was on my 10th anniversary with my wife in Napa. And it was again about intention. You can tell your spouse that you love them, you can tell them they're beautiful, all these things, but why are you doing that and making sure you do it with reason and not just because I should say I love you every time I walk out the door.
[00:28:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Right.
[00:28:55] Mark Oreschnick: And there are lots of really good tips in it that is just kind of, okay, I'm doing things good, but I can do it better. Here's a way to do it better. And it's the reminder of why you're in your relationship, why you love the other person. And it was a fun book to read. And the fact that I chose to do it on our anniversary weekend was a really good thing.
[00:29:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice.
[00:29:17] Mark Oreschnick: It was the right time to reinforce everything.
[00:29:19] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go, folks. Life and business advice all wrapped up into one. It is a great series of books. I recently finished "The Go Giver Leader" too and that's another brilliant book. I was listening to it on audio book and I kept having to rewind so that I could take notes because I was like, there are too many amazing quotable quotes in this book. It's,
[00:29:43] Mark Oreschnick: Yes.
[00:29:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Highly recommend. Yeah. So just out of curiosity, looking back over your life, do you think six year old Mark could have ever imagined being where you are now? Or is this engineering and business and creativity? Has this always been a thread of your life or has this evolved over time?
[00:30:07] Mark Oreschnick: So engineering and creativity, yes. The business side, no. If you would have asked six year old Mark, what he was going to be doing, I actually know the answer from my parents and I was going to be a garbage man.
[00:30:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes! Coolest job ever! You get to hang on!
[00:30:25] Mark Oreschnick: I love trucks. I loved big equipment and that part of me has never changed. I am a mechanic. I have two cars in my garage, one up on the lift, one underneath it. I'm always working on something mechanical. And that mechanical side of me, along with the creative side of me has helped me design different devices and keep that vision. And I know how things work on the inside, and now I can design something because I know the different pieces, and I can put them to use for a different reason. So one of my products was an upper arm orthotic that helped people eat and drink and do activities of daily living when they had upper limb weakness from muscular dystrophy. So I was able to watch a lady who couldn't put her, push her glasses up. She put our device on and held a bottle of water for three minutes.
[00:31:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh.
[00:31:19] Mark Oreschnick: Another lady went back to painting.
[00:31:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh.
[00:31:24] Mark Oreschnick: And she hadn't painted in five years since her injury. So, but it was a completely mechanical nut and bolt type system, my side of it that I worked on, and my brain just knew how to make that stuff work.
[00:31:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love it!
[00:31:41] Mark Oreschnick: That's from when I was a little kid building with Legos and working on lawn mowers and mini bikes, and it's never stopped.
[00:31:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Sure.
[00:31:52] Mark Oreschnick: The business side of things, I think it still fits with my analytical brain and, you know, you can have things in columns, things have a right way of doing it. There's a process to everything that just, so that aspect of it fits me, but no, I would have never thought of that when I was a kid.
[00:32:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Sure.
[00:32:10] Mark Oreschnick: It doesn't sound like fun to a six year old.
[00:32:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Well, I have to nerd out for just a minute because as a, I think I was maybe a little older than six years old, but for one of my early birthdays, it would have had to have been like seven or eight, or actually for Christmas, I asked for a bunch of office supplies, because I am that nerd and so I was like setting myself up to play office ever since I was six or seven. And I would have, I had my little fake phone and my little fake receipt thing. I, it was a blast. So yeah, I, I...
[00:32:48] Mark Oreschnick: And your organization skills have led through to this day.
[00:32:52] Lindsey Dinneen: I know. Yeah. Yeah. All the hard play worked out in the end. It's really paid off. So anyway, you've actually shared a couple of very touching moments, even those last two stories that you shared were really sweet. And I'm wondering if there are any moments like those that kind of stand out to you as reinforcing the idea that, "Hey, you're in the right industry doing the right thing at the right time."
[00:33:18] Mark Oreschnick: Yeah, they're definitely, I remember the first time that I had that moment. I had always thought once I got into medical device that I was in the right field. It fit me really well. It worked with how my brain worked. We have to do all these steps to prove everything because it's a human. We need to do the right stuff because we're dealing with people and we want to save lives, not hurt lives. But the first startup that I was in, we had a whole bunch of patient videos of interviews of patients that had used our, had our device used on them and how it affected their life.
[00:33:54] And the one that I always remember, there was an older gentleman who had bad circulation in his leg and a doctor told him he needed to have a below knee amputation. And he was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Luckily he didn't like his diagnosis and he got referred to a doctor who is using our product, and the doctor was able to go in and clear out the blockages in this gentleman's leg and get blood flowing to his foot again. So all of his sores healed, all of the swelling went away. His foot became normal again. And in a very short period of time, he went out, and golfed nine holes, pulling his bag. He walked for nine holes.
[00:34:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh.
[00:34:44] Mark Oreschnick: So he went from, "I'm going to have my leg chopped off and be in a wheelchair" to going back to the sport that he loved. And being able to actually walk, not even have to ride a cart.
[00:34:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow.
[00:34:57] Mark Oreschnick: That was that moment that's kind of, "Yep, I'm where I belong."
[00:35:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's a powerful story and what an amazing testament to the power of medtech and being able to be a part, even play a small part, in those developments and realize that you're impacting lives. Like there's, you hear these incredible stories of, you know, even if it's just one person, which it never just is, but even if it's just one person, you change their life. That's incredible. Yeah, nothing more rewarding.
[00:35:36] Mark Oreschnick: Yeah, I said, that story, I'm never going to forget. I can still picture the guy and this is 14, 15 years ago. So.
[00:35:46] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Well, so, so amazing and pivoting completely for fun. Very different. Okay. Imagine you were to be offered the opportunity to teach a masterclass on any subject you want. It can be in your industry. It doesn't have to be, but you're going to get paid a million dollars to do so. What would you choose to teach and why?
[00:36:11] Mark Oreschnick: So it's actually what we've already talked about and it would be networking. My experience with networking is it can have a huge effect on your career from day one. And luckily I've always liked talking to people. So I've been networking as long as I can remember, but people always say, "it's not what, you know, it's who you know." There is a, I'm going to say that should not be a truth. And if you actually live that way, there's a little problem there, because you should get the job because of what you know, and you should not take a job because it's just who you know and you're not qualified. But as long as you are qualified for that position, the who you know is going to introduce you to so many more opportunities, and if you go into all of those relationships trying to figure out how you can help others, people are naturally going to help you.
[00:37:10] But as a student, you know, one of the things from our networking one on one class, we had the student saying, "what do I have to give to people when I'm networking? I'm still in school. I just, I'm about to graduate." During the conversation, ask them the type of people they want to meet at that event. And when you're walking around talking to others, if you meet that person, bring them over and introduce them. You can be their ears and talk to more people for them. You always have something to give no matter what.
[00:37:46] Maybe they have a kid who's thinking about going to school and you could talk to their kid about what school you went to. You always have something. So going out, having that attitude, but every job I have gotten throughout my career, someone has introduced me to that position. My first internship was one of my lab partners in college. " I'm doing an internship. Would you like to meet my boss?" So yeah, I wasn't networking to do that, but we were friends from a class, so it was the who I knew.
[00:38:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:38:25] Mark Oreschnick: And every, like I said, every job has been that way. The doctors that found me on LinkedIn, they found me because of my posts about networking.
[00:38:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice.
[00:38:38] Mark Oreschnick: So direct indirect, my networking had me meet those doctors and turned into a client.
[00:38:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.
[00:38:47] Mark Oreschnick: So it's just, it always happens. Go out, meet people, talk to them, learn how to do things out of the goodness of your heart, and it will take you a very long way in your career. And when I think of people you and I both know that we've worked with, how many relationships have those people made throughout their lives that have now become business? It's just always happening. And so, yeah, that would be my courses to, especially with young engineers, young anyone, teach them, "You're getting into industries, start networking, learn the people in your company, learn the people at your suppliers, build your network, be good." And it will help you.
[00:39:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And be a go giver. I love it. Yeah. I love that. That's a great idea for a masterclass and it does not surprise me at all that's what you chose.
[00:39:44] Mark Oreschnick: Yeah. So during startup week, I did two classes. It was the networking and "Key Considerations When Starting a Medical Device Company."
[00:39:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Yeah. That seems accurate. Phenomenal. Phenomenal.
[00:40:00] Mark Oreschnick: Go to your strengths.
[00:40:01] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Okay. How do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:40:10] Mark Oreschnick: Definitely want to be known as someone who took care of his family because family is obviously important, but within my career, I was the guy that helped. Whatever it was, I figured out a way to help people.
[00:40:25] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that.
[00:40:26] Mark Oreschnick: So.
[00:40:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Absolutely. Okay. And final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:40:36] Mark Oreschnick: My daughter.
[00:40:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Aww.
[00:40:39] Mark Oreschnick: So, that's an easy one. I have a 17 year old daughter. And I'm the first person to have a female in my family. I'm one of three brothers. My brothers have three sons and then I have the daughter who's the youngest of all of us. So I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm Mr. Mechanical. I love working on things. I love nuts and bolts and stuff." When she was two, she grabbed a screwdriver when I was working on the refrigerator and put it on the screw. So it's kind of, okay, there's my kid. She's definitely mine. And as I've watched her growing up, she has the same analytical mind as me, likes to divide things into even sections, things must be uniform, must be organized. But as she's growing up into a young woman, she is now a member of our church's youth group and she is a mentor to all of the other students. So she goes out and works with other kids and helps them at camp and does confirmation and she's just become a really good person. So looking at her, always smile.
[00:41:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's so special. Yes, and you're her up for massive success and sounds like she's just a lovely human, so.
[00:42:06] Mark Oreschnick: She is.
[00:42:08] Lindsey Dinneen: That's incredible. Well, this has been so much fun, Mark. I am so thankful for you and your time today. And, you know, we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger. And also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support and...
[00:42:40] Mark Oreschnick: Thank you.
[00:42:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and thank you so much for everything that you're doing. I just wish you such continued success with your business, with your networking group as you work to change lives for a better world.
[00:42:54] Mark Oreschnick: Thank you very much for having me on. I enjoyed this.
[00:42:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. And thank you so much to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two and we will catch you next time.
[00:43:10] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.