Interviews

After graduating from medical school, Dr. Eric Fain intended to take year before his internship to work at a startup company. But then, he discovered his passion for medtech. Eric has since held key roles throughout the industry, spanning clinical, regulatory, R&D, sales, and marketing for both startups and major players like St. Jude Medical and Abbott. Today, as CEO and President of Procyrion, he's leading the development of an advanced percutaneous mechanical circulatory support device. In this interview, Eric shares his expertise in managing startup finances, attracting investors through strategic planning, drawing up clear clinical roadmaps, and engaging with payers to catalyze commercialization.

Trent Reutiman has 25 years of leadership experience in medtech with a particular focus on minimally invasive interventional therapies. As the CEO of Mercator, Trent and his team have developed microinfusion devices with the unique ability to locally and directly deliver targeted therapeutics during catheter-based interventions where mechanical therapy isn’t sufficient. In this interview, Trent talks about the importance of generating data, how to balance commercial efforts with clinical initiatives, and why meticulous management is critical for successful commercialization.

Marissa Fayer, with over two decades of experience in the medtech sector, is the CEO of DeepLook Medical, developers of AI-powered diagnostic tools that help radiologists detect cancerous lesions in dense tissue. In this interview, Marissa talks about the basics of product development, how to build iteratively, tips on identifying ideal regulatory pathways, and how she picks her advisors and board members.

Dan Rose’s career in medtech features pivotal roles at Direct Flow, Sequana Medical, and Medtronic, culminating in his position as CEO of LimFlow, which recently exited to Inari Medical. In this interview, Dan shares his extensive wisdom on M&A transactions, engaging with investors while maintaining business autonomy, the importance of developing with the ‘average user’ in mind, and the significance of early dialogue with regulatory bodies.

Ahmed Zobi, founder and CEO of Syntr Health Technologies, and his team have developed an automated microfat processing system for use in aesthetics and plastic surgery. The FDA-cleared SyntrFuge device allows clinicians to harvest patients’ adipose tissue and then reinject it as processed microfat within minutes into the desired area, eliminating the use of fillers. SynterFuge has the potential to be applied in other fields like wound care, orthopedics, podiatry, dermatology, and many more. In this interview, Ahmed shares his ideas on the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, how to operate in a lean fashion, why he puts regulatory clearance above all, and how he managed to be the youngest candidate to ever receive a phase 1 SBIR grant.

Bill Snyder, CEO of Vivante Health, and his team are commercializing an all-in-one digital platform for digestive health conditions. GIThrive is a platform that combines data-driven technology with a team of physicians, registered dietitians, and health coaches to deliver personalized care. In this interview, Bill talks about the importance of finding where your company stands in the overall healthcare ecosystem, why clinical outcomes and sorting out reimbursement are critical to survival, and his experiences raising capital for Vivante.