Medsider: Learn from Medtech and Healthtech Founders and CEOs

Scott Nelson
  • 4.7 (70)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Semiweekly

Learn from the brightest CEOs in medtech and healthtech. That's our primary goal with Medsider. We unpack the strategies, tactics, and secrets behind the most successful startups. Join tens of thousands of ambitious doers and get access to the top medical device and health technology thought leaders.

  1. Building Clinical Evidence Around Your Target Market: Interview with Teal Health CEO Kara Egan

    6d ago

    Building Clinical Evidence Around Your Target Market: Interview with Teal Health CEO Kara Egan

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Kara Egan, founder and CEO of Teal Health. Teal Health is the company behind the first FDA-authorized at-home cervical cancer screening wand. Before founding Teal, Kara worked in healthcare and software investing at .406 Ventures and Emergence Capital, and held product and marketing roles at Zendesk and Stitch Labs.   In this interview, Kara discusses building support and follow-up into at-home screening, how Teal expanded its comparative clinical study to support broader market adoption, and how healthcare incentives, reimbursement, and institutional trust shape new care models. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Kara Egan, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like! KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (02:49) - Kara’s background in health technology investing and software that shaped Teal’s consumer-first approach (05:14) - How Teal turned the traditional Pap smear into the first FDA-authorized at-home screening product (07:30) - Turning at-home testing, telehealth, and clinician follow-up into a single care experience (13:48) - Raising Teal’s first $1M with mockups and consumer-grade design (22:17) - Teal’s comparative study that matched physician-collected screening with 96% sensitivity (23:40) - How asking women what they actually wanted changed Teal’s view of the market opportunity (32:05) - “Take off the healthcare hat” — Kara’s framework for fundraising, incentives, and commercialization (41:48) - What investors actually care about beyond the company’s mission

    56 min
  2. Solving for Healthcare’s Broken Doorway: Interview with OnMed CEO Karthik Ganesh

    Jun 1

    Solving for Healthcare’s Broken Doorway: Interview with OnMed CEO Karthik Ganesh

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Karthik Ganesh, CEO of OnMed. OnMed is the healthcare technology company behind OnMed CareStation, a “Clinic-in-a-Box” designed to expand access to primary and urgent care.  Before OnMed, Karthik served as CEO of EmpiRx Health, leading the company through rapid growth and a successful private equity transaction in 2021. Throughout his career, he’s held leadership roles at QualCare, CareAllies, and Aetna, and advised healthcare organizations through Deloitte and EY. In this interview, Karthik discusses why hybrid care models still require a human touch, how enterprise healthcare buyers evaluate value propositions differently, why brand and culture should shape execution early, and how operating under constraints can sharpen innovation. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Karthik Ganesh, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like! KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (03:04) - Karthik’s obsession with healthcare access, and the “broken doorway” problem behind OnMed (05:51) - How OnMed combines telemedicine and brick-and-mortar care into a “Clinic in a Box” (09:04) - The OnMed metrics that surprised Karthik most, including a 37% patient return rate, and the reasons behind the company’s success (09:22) - What OnMed designed differently after realizing that patients approach healthcare with their guard up (15:27) - The pitfalls of B2C healthcare and how OnMed was built as a B2B company by intention (22:01) - How Karthik reshaped OnMed around clarity, structure, and high performers (30:23) - What “brand” actually means to Karthik (39:37) - How OnMed tailored its value proposition for payers, providers, employers, and universities (45:45) - Karthik’s fundraising philosophy: constraints keep companies inventive

    51 min
  3. Meeting Patients Where They Are: Interview with Clairity CEO Dr. Connie Lehman

    May 26

    Meeting Patients Where They Are: Interview with Clairity CEO Dr. Connie Lehman

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Dr. Connie Lehman, founder and CEO of Clairity. Clairity is the first FDA-authorized AI platform that predicts a woman's five-year risk of developing breast cancer using only a routine screening mammogram. A physician scientist with over 300 peer-reviewed publications, Connie is a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Breast Imaging Specialist at Massachusetts General Brigham (on leave). She holds an MD and PhD from Yale and was named to Forbes' 50 Over 50 Innovators and TIME 100 World’s Most Influential Leaders in Health. In this interview, Connie discusses her experience translating academic research into a commercially viable startup, the massive undertaking of generating clinical evidence when you’re creating a new category, and how Clairity is approaching adoption on two fronts: fitting into physician workflows and building access pathways for patients. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Connie Lehman, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like! KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (03:04) - The broken screening paradigm Connie saw in clinic — and the gap that became Clairity (05:09) - How Clairity rolls the clock back from detection to predicting risk in healthy women (07:31) - Why "more data is better" turned out to be wrong and how that shaped Clairity's product scope (21:57) - How physicians can translate grant-generating discipline into building a company (24:56) - What 18 months of pre-sub meetings revealed about navigating a de novo pathway (26:49) - Why Clairity validated its technology in over 250,000 mammograms when FDA required far less (34:43) - How Connie flipped the natural question from "how can doctors offer this?" to "how can women access it?" (43:47) - How relationships, not pitches, drove Clairity’s $43M Series B

    50 min
  4. Translating Academic IP into a Medtech Startup: Interview with Echopoint Medical CEO Antony Odell

    May 18

    Translating Academic IP into a Medtech Startup: Interview with Echopoint Medical CEO Antony Odell

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Antony Odell, co-founder and CEO of Echopoint Medical. Echopoint is a London-based UCL spinout developing iKOr, an optical microcatheter for coronary diagnostics. Antony brings over 30 years of medtech experience across Johnson & Johnson, Fresenius, and Stryker, before transitioning into startups as CEO of Tayside Flow Technologies and Tissue Regenix. He holds a BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry. In this interview, Antony discusses translating academic IP into a commercial device, choosing early clinical sites to balance speed and learning, managing non-dilutive funding as a long-term discipline, and outlines the most important responsibilities of an early-stage medtech CEO. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Antony Odell, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like! KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (03:06) - How Antony’s career centered on translating clinical insights into commercial reality (05:54) - What Echopoint's iKOr does, and why 40% of cath lab patients leave without a diagnosis (12:13) - How Echopoint landed its first U.S. clinical site, and what that means for the company (13:48) - What to assess before spinning out an academic idea, and why clinician input is the first real test (20:14) - Why Echopoint chose Barts over typical sites for its first-in-human study (22:58) - How getting too close to one clinical site can lead to dangerous groupthink (30:54) - Why non-dilutive funding belongs on the board agenda permanently (39:54) - How CEOs should manage boards, control information flow, and avoid becoming a “glorified note-taker”

    52 min
  5. Why Early Revenue is the Most Credible Proof in Medtech: Interview with restor3d CEO Kurt Jacobus

    May 12

    Why Early Revenue is the Most Credible Proof in Medtech: Interview with restor3d CEO Kurt Jacobus

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Kurt Jacobus, co-founder and CEO of restor3d. restor3d provides patient-specific orthopedic implants using 3D printing and advanced software. Kurt has over two decades of experience in medtech entrepreneurship, including successful exits to Enovis and NuVasive. Prior to his career in medical devices, Kurt was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and is an Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech.  In this interview, Kurt discusses how restor3d used the FDA's 520(b) pathway to generate revenue and regulatory proof simultaneously, why self-regulating beyond FDA requirements makes submissions a competitive barrier, and how to approach investor relationships and board construction with long-term thinking. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Kurt Jacobus. KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (03:21) - How Kurt went from wanting to build race cars to 20 years of orthopedic entrepreneurship (06:03) - How restor3d’s patient-specific implants challenge the “8 sizes fit 8 billion people” model (15:36) - Why early-stage companies should “ring the cash register” as soon as possible (17:16) - How a 520(b) pathway helped restor3d generate revenue before full FDA clearance (31:48) - How restor3d treats every FDA submission like a PhD thesis and holds itself to standards beyond what regulators ask for (35:24) - What Kurt learned from restor3d’s limited market release (40:03) - How Kurt raised is last$100M+ round, and why fundraising is really a networking game (45:13) - What makes a great board, and how the wrong one can quietly derail a company

    55 min
  6. Finding the Clinical Need Hiding in Plain Sight: Interview with LightForce CEO Alfred Griffin

    May 4

    Finding the Clinical Need Hiding in Plain Sight: Interview with LightForce CEO Alfred Griffin

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Alfred Griffin, co-founder and CEO of LightForce. LightForce is the developer of the world's first fully customized 3D-printed bracket system directly personalized for each patient's digital treatment plan. Alfred holds a DMD and PhD in Craniofacial Biology from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed his orthodontic residency at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he currently serves as faculty and the Board of Fellows. An ABO-certified practicing orthodontist, he continues to see patients every month while running the company. In this interview, Alfred shares how applying existing technology to an overlooked market can unlock a larger opportunity, how adoption friction is a design problem, and why scaling a new category requires treating operations as a core product investment. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Alfred Griffin. KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (02:43) - How growing up in a family of dentists shaped Alfred’s path into orthodontics (07:41) - How LightForce uses digital planning and 3D printing to create fully customized braces (08:48) - Why LightForce isn’t a brilliant idea, but an obvious fix for the teen braces market that aligners missed (12:19) - How LightForce is like Google Maps for teeth, eliminating detours and removing inefficiencies (17:30) - How Alfred built LightForce around his clinical strengths and hired for experience to round out the gaps (30:56) - The 3-part secret to LightForce adoption by physicians (36:42) - How Alfred approaches fundraising, matching investors to the company’s stage and needs (41:51) - About LightForce’s digital factories and why they’re the company’s core moat

    51 min
  7. Regulatory Rigor as a Competitive Moat: Interview with Osteoboost CEO Laura Yecies

    Apr 6

    Regulatory Rigor as a Competitive Moat: Interview with Osteoboost CEO Laura Yecies

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Laura Yecies, CEO of Osteoboost. Osteoboost is the first FDA-cleared drug-free prescription treatment for osteopenia in postmenopausal women. Laura brings over 30 years of experience across technology, digital health, and medical innovation, with a focus on overlooked gaps in women's health. She previously served as CEO of SugarSync (acquired by J2 Global), Catchsold (sold to Apple), and Neurosync, a neurotechnology company.  In this interview, Laura discusses why choosing a Class II prescription path creates a regulatory moat, how designing for daily comfort and a frictionless experience drives commercialization, and how channeling early patient demand turned a waitlist into a launch strategy. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Laura Yecies. KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (02:49) - An overview of Laura’s background and her transition from consumer tech to medtech (04:53) - The problem Osteoboost is solving — and why bone health remains a massive unmet need (08:31) - How Osteoboost designed its device with the consumer experience in mind (15:44) - Why Osteoboost chose a Class II regulatory pathway over an easier path (19:50) - How to design clinical trials that reflect real-world use and drive patient compliance (25:01) - How early demand and a waitlist validated strong consumer pull before full commercialization (28:48) - Why Laura believed the problem wasn’t demand — it was lack of options (33:57) - How patients can become a powerful “sales force” in healthcare (38:20) - Why shifting consumer behavior is making self-pay more viable — with reimbursement coming later

    54 min
  8. What It Takes to Win Physician Confidence: Interview with Secure Closure CEO Stephen Belcher

    Mar 30

    What It Takes to Win Physician Confidence: Interview with Secure Closure CEO Stephen Belcher

    In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Stephen Belcher, co-founder and CEO of Secure Closure. Secure Closure is developing Quattro-Close, a device designed for large-bore femoral access sites. Trained as a veterinarian, Stephen has spent more than 25 years in the medical device industry, with deep experience in vascular access and closure technologies. He previously held commercial and marketing roles at Abbott Vascular, Edwards Lifesciences, and Teleflex, where he was involved in launching key closure devices, including ProGlide, StarClose, SAPIEN 3, and MANTA. In this interview, Stephen discusses what actually drives physician adoption in high-stakes procedural fields, how real-world clinical and patient challenges should shape device design decisions, and what early-stage fundraising looks like when traditional medtech VCs are increasingly committing capital at later stages. Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. And if you’re ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization. These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass. If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Stephen Belcher. KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW (02:52) - An overview of Stephen Belcher’s background and the journey that led him to founding Secure Closure (08:04) - How Quattro-Close works, using a purse-string suture and extravascular clip for reliable closure and artery preservation (13:53) - Stephen's lessons learned from large strategics and how he simplifies them for a startup (19:22) - How Stephen spent nearly a decade iterating on the device through failures, funding gaps, and small incremental progress (23:36) - Why physician adoption depends on consistent outcomes, not early excitement or new features (28:10) - How Quattro-Close is designed around the real unmet need, reducing complications while preserving the artery for future procedures (34:14) - His approach to first-in-human, site selection, and generating data that can stand up to FDA scrutiny (40:31) - How Stephen navigates early fundraising

    51 min
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4.7
out of 5
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Learn from the brightest CEOs in medtech and healthtech. That's our primary goal with Medsider. We unpack the strategies, tactics, and secrets behind the most successful startups. Join tens of thousands of ambitious doers and get access to the top medical device and health technology thought leaders.

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