The life of Derek Herrera is a story of adaptability and resilience. The founder and CEO of Bright Uro was able to pivot from an elite Marine officer to a medical device entrepreneur. His life, so far, is nothing short of incredible.
Derek served in the U.S. military as a Marine infantry and special operations officer. Unfortunately, while deployed in the Middle East, he sustained injuries during an enemy firefight in Afghanistan in 2012, leaving him paralyzed chest down.
After medically retiring in 2014, Derek earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He’s also started several medical device companies, such as Spinal Singularity–now known as UroDev Medical– and Habit Camera.
Derek established his latest venture, Bright Uro, in 2021. The California-based company is developing innovative, user-friendly urologic diagnostic tools and devices.
Bright Uro has closed on a seed round of financing and is rapidly making progress on their Glean Urodynamics System, which aims to replace the traditional, invasive diagnostic exam used by clinicians to determine lower urinary tract function. Bright Uro’s device is a more comfortable, efficient, and accurate tool that may significantly impact the diagnosis and treatment of lower urinary tract conditions.
In this episode of Medsider, Derek shares his journey in the competitive medical technology arena, from leveraging his personal experience to drive innovation, and pursuing meaningful work, to successfully bringing a medical device to market.
Key Learnings From Derek’s Experience
- Leverage your personal experience, or close connection, to the problem you’re trying to solve. When developing medical devices, an intimate knowledge of patient or clinician challenges can be a powerful motivator and provide valuable insights into your target market.
- To set your medtech startup up for success, you must carefully tread the line between efficiency and maximizing opportunities for success. From top to bottom, it’s imperative that each person on your team clearly understands their role and the impact it has on the company’s goals.
- Be ruthless with your decision making during product development. Incorporating only the most necessary features and having a clear picture of how you will navigate the regulatory landscape is crucial if you want to successfully launch your device in a cost-efficient way.
Derek served as an elite Marine officer in the U.S. military before suffering debilitating injuries while in the line of duty. Using his personal experience, he founded UroDev Medical, Habit Camera, and Bright Uro. His latest venture aims to develop and launch an innovative urology device that’s meant to replace an invasive bladder diagnostic test that hasn’t changed in decades.
Using Personal Experience as a Catalyst for Innovation
Derek didn’t end up in the world of medical devices following a eureka moment. His personal experience and challenges have pushed him to truly understand the needs of clinicians and patients.
After sustaining debilitating injuries in Afghanistan, mobility wasn’t his only challenge. Derek also grappled with bladder management issues daily and became obsessed with trying to solve the problem. This led him to start UroDev, makers of a fully internal, in-dwelling urinary catheter designed for adult males with urinary retention.
His new company, Bright Uro, aims to replace an outdated and invasive way to assess bladder function. The current diagnostic, which has been used for over 50 years, involves sticking a catheter into a patient’s bladder, which is then hooked up to a laptop and an infusion pump. The test collects medical data using a method that’s not physiologic and a machine that’s cumbersome and expensive.
“Urodynamic monitoring today is like halter monitoring was ten years ago. And so we want to be like iRhythm, which is a wearable ECG monitoring company, the company that kind of revolutionized wearable ECG monitoring,” Derek says. “We're going to be like iRhythm for Urology and make all the same changes that they've made for the types of patients that we can serve.”
While not the original inventor of the technology, Derek demonstrates the importance of adaptability and resilience in one’s personal and professional life. He leveraged his experience as a patient to develop a medical device that could help others in similar situations.
Likewise, he tapped into strong ecosystems and networks to access valuable resources and expertise. This was demonstrated when he re-domiciled his first company in Minneapolis, considered the hub of urology device innovation.
“There's just a center of gravity of talent and experience there that if you haven't tapped into and you're in urology, you should start to do that because they know a lot more than me. I've been in the industry for almost ten years, but these people have been here way longer than I have. We're fortunate to have access to that network,” Derek says.
The Importance of Alignment in Executing Meaningful Work
Derek and his team are working on a low-cost miniature sensor for the bladder that will allow clinicians to collect more physiologic data to diagnose and determine the proper treatment. The flexible sensor is designed to stay in a patient’s bladder for a certain period, and after it’s removed, clinicians can download the data wirelessly.
Bright Uro is using in-depth patient feedback to drive innovation. Its technology is more user-friendly and can provide more useful information to clinicians.
“It's going to create a significant enhancement in the diagnostic yield from the data that we can provide. And as a diagnostic company, that's how we can create value, Derek says. Specifically, things like informing the treatment pathway and potentially improving outcomes from those therapies. Getting the right patients the right treatment at the right time. That's where we want to go with this technology.”
While citing the large potential impact of developing medical devices, Derek points to the challenges and uncertainties in the medtech industry, resulting in exciting, challenging, and rewarding moments for entrepreneurs.
“You have to be really ruthless and judicious with how you deploy capital,drawing the line on every single thing that you spend a minuteor a dime on,” Derek says.
Derek also believes it’s critical to establish alignment and collaboration within a startup medical device or health technology company. Employees at all levels need to understand their specific role in helping the company achieve its mission and vision.
He advocates for medtech startups to find a good balance between efficiency and maximizing the opportunities for success and using the company’s long-term goals as a compass for actions that can make a positive difference.
Why Efficient Product Development is Critical for Medical Device Startups
Rapid iteration is always one of the primary goals of an early-stage medical device company, but there is always a constant pull on how much time and effort is spent on perfecting a solution or determining what’s acceptable.
To optimize decision-making, Derek emphasizes the importance of understanding and navigating regulatory and reimbursement processes.
“There should be a plan for how it's going to get approved, what the regulatory path is, and what the market opportunity is, Derek says. Before you invest time in building something, make sure you know what to build. Make sure it solves a real problem for patients and clinicians. Ask them. They'll tell you if they think it sounds great or not.”
Derek has spent a lot of time understanding the regulatory and reimbursement landscapes because he knows that getting clearance in a timely fashion is paramount. And ensuring that your device will be reimbursed by insurers is critical to understanding the commercial potential.
To efficiently bring a product to market, Derek reminds entrepreneurs to minimize feature complexity. Be ruthless in deciding which features are necessary and which can be left out. At Bright Uro, this framework has been crucial to Derek and his team.
To fire on all cylinders, Derek believes hiring the right people is probably the most important ingredient for startup success. As a founder or CEO, you need to be overzealous about finding the right employees, tapping into the best consultants, and seeking the help of the right investors. A company will not achieve its goals and objectives without the right people.
“Begin with the end in mind and be ready to go the distance. Because you can't control when or if someone's going to want to acquire you,” Derek says.
Startups must have a long-term vision. Entrepreneurs must be ready to go the distance. Be persistent in the face of challenges and setbacks. Amid adversity, be resilient.
“Innovate or die, right? Rapidly iterate. That's the only way to survive as a startup. And so that's the biggest lesson I've learned and continue to try to push forward with every day,” Derek adds.
The life of Derek Herrera is a story of adaptability and resilience. The founder and CEO of Bright Uro was able to pivot from an elite Marine officer to a medical device entrepreneur. His life, so far, is nothing short of incredible.
Derek served in the U.S. military as a Marine infantry and special operations officer. Unfortunately, while deployed in the Middle East, he sustained injuries during an enemy firefight in Afghanistan in 2012, leaving him paralyzed chest down.
After medically retiring in 2014, Derek earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He’s also started several medical device companies, such as Spinal Singularity–now known as UroDev Medical– and Habit Camera.
Derek established his latest venture, Bright Uro, in 2021. The California-based company is developing innovative, user-friendly urologic diagnostic tools and devices.
Bright Uro has closed on a seed round of financing and is rapidly making progress on their Glean Urodynamics System, which aims to replace the traditional, invasive diagnostic exam used by clinicians to determine lower urinary tract function. Bright Uro’s device is a more comfortable, efficient, and accurate tool that may significantly impact the diagnosis and treatment of lower urinary tract conditions.
In this episode of Medsider, Derek shares his journey in the competitive medical technology arena, from leveraging his personal experience to drive innovation, and pursuing meaningful work, to successfully bringing a medical device to market.
Key Learnings From Derek’s Experience
- Leverage your personal experience, or close connection, to the problem you’re trying to solve. When developing medical devices, an intimate knowledge of patient or clinician challenges can be a powerful motivator and provide valuable insights into your target market.
- To set your medtech startup up for success, you must carefully tread the line between efficiency and maximizing opportunities for success. From top to bottom, it’s imperative that each person on your team clearly understands their role and the impact it has on the company’s goals.
- Be ruthless with your decision making during product development. Incorporating only the most necessary features and having a clear picture of how you will navigate the regulatory landscape is crucial if you want to successfully launch your device in a cost-efficient way.
Derek served as an elite Marine officer in the U.S. military before suffering debilitating injuries while in the line of duty. Using his personal experience, he founded UroDev Medical, Habit Camera, and Bright Uro. His latest venture aims to develop and launch an innovative urology device that’s meant to replace an invasive bladder diagnostic test that hasn’t changed in decades.
Using Personal Experience as a Catalyst for Innovation
Derek didn’t end up in the world of medical devices following a eureka moment. His personal experience and challenges have pushed him to truly understand the needs of clinicians and patients.
After sustaining debilitating injuries in Afghanistan, mobility wasn’t his only challenge. Derek also grappled with bladder management issues daily and became obsessed with trying to solve the problem. This led him to start UroDev, makers of a fully internal, in-dwelling urinary catheter designed for adult males with urinary retention.
His new company, Bright Uro, aims to replace an outdated and invasive way to assess bladder function. The current diagnostic, which has been used for over 50 years, involves sticking a catheter into a patient’s bladder, which is then hooked up to a laptop and an infusion pump. The test collects medical data using a method that’s not physiologic and a machine that’s cumbersome and expensive.
“Urodynamic monitoring today is like halter monitoring was ten years ago. And so we want to be like iRhythm, which is a wearable ECG monitoring company, the company that kind of revolutionized wearable ECG monitoring,” Derek says. “We're going to be like iRhythm for Urology and make all the same changes that they've made for the types of patients that we can serve.”
While not the original inventor of the technology, Derek demonstrates the importance of adaptability and resilience in one’s personal and professional life. He leveraged his experience as a patient to develop a medical device that could help others in similar situations.
Likewise, he tapped into strong ecosystems and networks to access valuable resources and expertise. This was demonstrated when he re-domiciled his first company in Minneapolis, considered the hub of urology device innovation.
“There's just a center of gravity of talent and experience there that if you haven't tapped into and you're in urology, you should start to do that because they know a lot more than me. I've been in the industry for almost ten years, but these people have been here way longer than I have. We're fortunate to have access to that network,” Derek says.
The Importance of Alignment in Executing Meaningful Work
Derek and his team are working on a low-cost miniature sensor for the bladder that will allow clinicians to collect more physiologic data to diagnose and determine the proper treatment. The flexible sensor is designed to stay in a patient’s bladder for a certain period, and after it’s removed, clinicians can download the data wirelessly.
Bright Uro is using in-depth patient feedback to drive innovation. Its technology is more user-friendly and can provide more useful information to clinicians.
“It's going to create a significant enhancement in the diagnostic yield from the data that we can provide. And as a diagnostic company, that's how we can create value, Derek says. Specifically, things like informing the treatment pathway and potentially improving outcomes from those therapies. Getting the right patients the right treatment at the right time. That's where we want to go with this technology.”
While citing the large potential impact of developing medical devices, Derek points to the challenges and uncertainties in the medtech industry, resulting in exciting, challenging, and rewarding moments for entrepreneurs.
“You have to be really ruthless and judicious with how you deploy capital,drawing the line on every single thing that you spend a minuteor a dime on,” Derek says.
Derek also believes it’s critical to establish alignment and collaboration within a startup medical device or health technology company. Employees at all levels need to understand their specific role in helping the company achieve its mission and vision.
He advocates for medtech startups to find a good balance between efficiency and maximizing the opportunities for success and using the company’s long-term goals as a compass for actions that can make a positive difference.
Why Efficient Product Development is Critical for Medical Device Startups
Rapid iteration is always one of the primary goals of an early-stage medical device company, but there is always a constant pull on how much time and effort is spent on perfecting a solution or determining what’s acceptable.
To optimize decision-making, Derek emphasizes the importance of understanding and navigating regulatory and reimbursement processes.
“There should be a plan for how it's going to get approved, what the regulatory path is, and what the market opportunity is, Derek says. Before you invest time in building something, make sure you know what to build. Make sure it solves a real problem for patients and clinicians. Ask them. They'll tell you if they think it sounds great or not.”
Derek has spent a lot of time understanding the regulatory and reimbursement landscapes because he knows that getting clearance in a timely fashion is paramount. And ensuring that your device will be reimbursed by insurers is critical to understanding the commercial potential.
To efficiently bring a product to market, Derek reminds entrepreneurs to minimize feature complexity. Be ruthless in deciding which features are necessary and which can be left out. At Bright Uro, this framework has been crucial to Derek and his team.
To fire on all cylinders, Derek believes hiring the right people is probably the most important ingredient for startup success. As a founder or CEO, you need to be overzealous about finding the right employees, tapping into the best consultants, and seeking the help of the right investors. A company will not achieve its goals and objectives without the right people.
“Begin with the end in mind and be ready to go the distance. Because you can't control when or if someone's going to want to acquire you,” Derek says.
Startups must have a long-term vision. Entrepreneurs must be ready to go the distance. Be persistent in the face of challenges and setbacks. Amid adversity, be resilient.
“Innovate or die, right? Rapidly iterate. That's the only way to survive as a startup. And so that's the biggest lesson I've learned and continue to try to push forward with every day,” Derek adds.
