The Leading Difference

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MedTech Leaders Changing Lives for a Better World

  1. 5 ngày trước

    Staci Miller | Founder, Gen UX Consulting | The Intersection of Human Factors, MedTech Innovation, & Building a Resilient Career

    Staci Miller, founder of Gen UX Consulting, shares her winding path from fashion design and psychology to human factors engineering in MedTech. Staci explains what human factors is—through stories from World War II aviation and modern healthcare—and why the FDA now mandates usability work to reduce catastrophic use errors. She breaks down formative versus summative/validation studies, the role of risk documentation (URRA/UFMEA), and why founders should think about usability as early as they think about risk. Staci also opens up about the challenge of starting a second business after losing her first in 2008, how she built Gen UX from $0, and the leadership lessons behind year-over-year growth.   Guest links: https://www.genuxconsulting.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/gen-ux-consulting/  Charity supported: Feeding America Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 081 - Staci Miller [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 delighted to welcome as my guest, Staci Miller. Staci is the founder at Gen UX Consulting. Her expertise is in applying user-focused research to develop innovative solutions, and it's essential to the growth of any technology organization. As a detail-oriented and tenacious executive in human factors engineering and UX design, she has a proven record of elevating the end user experience and achieving targeted client outcomes. She has created innovative medtech and big tech solutions through a comprehensive user-centered development process, leveraging artificial intelligence and industry agnostic design tools to optimize products and services. In her current role with Gen UX, she's a key leader facilitating strategic company growth plans and service offerings while managing the capacity and workflow of the UX HF design team. Well, Staci, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to talk with you today. [00:01:49] Staci Miller: Me too. I've been looking forward to it all week, so I'm very excited to be here. And I don't know what the day has in store. I, I know that there was like a, a, a kit that you sent out and I didn't read it on purpose, so everything's gonna be organic. [00:02:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Those are my favorite conversations anyway, so I'll take it and run. Some people I know really love to have the questions ahead of time, and others are just like, "Yeah, I don't want to know. I'm just gonna go off the cuff. Here we go." So, brilliant. All right, well, let's start, if you don't mind, by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:02:24] Staci Miller: That is, those are my favorite questions. So, I have a background in fashion design, psychology. I spent most of my classes in cognitive psych, but it wasn't like a difference of degree, it was just psychology. And then I have a master's degree in human factors and ergonomics. So I went the psychology route and the design route. That's kind of my background. So when I graduated my master's degree, through my master's program, I was able to intern for both years and one was in tech, big tech. I interviewed and landed a, great one year long internship at Samsung, which was actually supposed to be just three months, and I stayed there for a full year. So they kept me through my whole, my whole semester, which is something they don't normally do, which was really fun. I mostly just said, "Hey, can I stay here for the year?" And they're like, "Great, no problem. Sure. We'll figure it out like that seems like a good option. We like you, you like us. Cool. We'll do that." And my second internship was in medical device at a company called Interface and Analysis. My, that was actually my internship. My second one was at Samsung, so I got to really look in like I, I guess you got the curtain. If you think about Wonderland and Oz and the curtain and being able to pull back the curtain between both industries, what did I like better? I ended up liking medical better, mostly because the research was more structured and not necessarily conversations about, "Yeah, so how do you feel about that? Did you like it?" Like to me, that's not really. What I would consider the best opportunity to gain data. Data to me, like there has to be like a clear objective as to what you're doing, the whys behind it, and what do you wanna learn. And I found that in, when I worked with engineers in medtech, they definitely had things that they wanted to learn, whereas in tech, they just had so much money. They were like, "Yeah, let's just see what people think about this." And I'm. Okay. And then when I would be really structured and I was working with people who didn't have backgrounds in research, had very strong, very good backgrounds in design, like legitimately awesome, they were leading the research and they were missing the boat. So the narratives started to be focused on the N of one. This one person said this really interesting thing, so let's base our whole design off of what they said. And I'm like, "Dude, wait a second. Wait a second. All of them said this thing about the design though, and like we have four or five data points about when you ask this question." They're like, "Yeah, but that's not interesting." And I was like, "Okay, keep my mouth shut. I got it. Move on." Like from that moment forward, I, it wasn't like "Staci, don't talk, it was more like this is how we design based on the narratives that we've learned how to, how to research on." And so it wasn't as I would say-- it wasn't considering the actual 360 view of the user. It was considering the really cool thing that happened this one time that was like totally an outlier. And it happened consistently when I was working in big tech. So I was like, uh, medtech, probably more my speed. And then my first job was at Abbott. [00:05:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. [00:05:40] Staci Miller: And I ended up there. Yeah, [00:05:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay, great. Well. [00:05:42] Staci Miller: Cool. [00:05:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Lots of questions based on this incredible background. I want to go back a little bit. So fashion design, was this something that you grew up thinking, "Oh, this is what I wanna do and be okay?" Right. All right, so... [00:05:57] Staci Miller: it's all I ever wanted and I did that. So... [00:06:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:06:02] Staci Miller: That's a, that's a great question. I think that my interest in fashion peaked around when I was 12 years old and during the time, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, and I was so fascinated by how beautiful these women were. And, and fashion was a thing in the nineties. There was like a lot of Dolce and Gabana around, and I loved it. And I couldn't wait to get my new print of Vogue every, every season. I loved Harper's Bizarre, and I would just pull pictures out of these models and what they were wearing. And then I would start you know, freehanding stuff and things like that. And I think a lot of people do that when they're really interested in clothing and things like that. And if you really think about it, fashion is art that people wear. So I was very attracted to that part of it. And it's all I wanted to do. So after high school, I went to FIDM and studied fashion design. And right outta FIDM, I started my first company in fashion design, and I was a clothing manufacturer, and we had 500 open doors in the United States and in Canada, and I was hoping to expand, but unfortunately 2008 hit and they hit it hard and fast and I lost most of my managing capital in the year that I think was my tipping point. So it was the, the year that I finally got a lot of traction and had a lot of repeat business and a lot of new business as well. And a lot of those new businesses just refused orders. Just from the east coast to the west, and it was just tons of money out that wasn't gonna come in. So there was really no way to, make that work after that, like I lost literally all the money I had in my business in like the span of, I would say three, four weeks. It was just mortifyingly scary. But I was young and people who are young are resilient and they move on and they find a new dream. And it took me a minute, like I didn't really know what the french toast I was gonna do. And I was like, well, I was still planning on staying in fashion and long, short, I was offered a job to do and run production for a one, a different company. So make sure that their goods were produced on time. Deal with the, the timing of all the orders, making sure the product line. So it was basically operations for manufacturing. And I was super excited about the job and I moved back to my parents' house at the time because things were just that tight financially for me. My parents were like, "Yeah, just, you know, come back, we'll figure it out." And I remember saying to my

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    Spencer Jones | Founder, XO Medtech & MedtechVendors.com | MedTech Innovation, AI Integration, & Building Community

    Spencer Jones, Founder of XO Medtech and MedtechVendors.com, shares how frontline nursing experiences led him to patent vascular access innovations and ultimately take devices from idea to FDA clearance and product launch. Spencer walks through learning business fundamentals through accelerators, raising early funding, and building sales and distribution networks, then explains why launching a digital-first, AI-native ecosystem has enabled faster, leaner execution than traditional medtech pathways. Spencer also discusses leadership, clear communication, and why AI adoption is essential to accelerate and de-risk early-stage medtech.  Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/medtech-innovation/ | www.xomedtech.com | https://medtechvendors.com/  Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 080 - Spencer Jones [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 delighted to welcome to the show Spencer Jones. Spencer is the founder at XO Medtech and MedTechvendors.com. He is an RN, MedTech entrepreneur with 12 years of med device leadership. He's a two time med device CEO with 10 plus patents under his belt and has taken devices from idea to FDA clearance and product launch. Spencer has built sales and distribution networks, led product development teams, and raised over 10 million in VC and Angel Capital. Spencer founded XO MedTech in 2024 to create a digital first medtech ecosystem, deploy AI native tools for medtech operators through medtechvendors.com and cultivate the next generation of medtech innovators. All right, Spencer, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. [00:01:43] Spencer Jones: Thank you for having me, Lindsey. I'm very, very excited to be here. Like it's, it's always more fun to be a guest than it is to host the pod, so absolutely thrilled to be a guest on the pod. Thank you for having me. [00:01:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Absolutely. Well, yeah, let's just, if you won't, don't mind just sharing a little bit about yourself, your background and what led you to medtech. [00:02:04] Spencer Jones: Yeah. Born and raised in Arkansas. I've lived, I traveled a ton and lived in Memphis and whatnot, but grew up in a healthcare household. Dad did anesthesia for, what was it, 36 years or something at the same place. So I thought I was gonna be a CRNA, like actually started pre-med. Took chemistry my freshman year while I was, you know, it was just, I got a C and I was like, maybe, maybe med school's not for me. But but anyways, did the nursing school thing, got out, started working, pretty quickly, knew if you've ever spent any amount of time in frontline healthcare, you just kind of get, it's like a barrage of things that suck. It's just, especially nursing, the devices you're using are commoditized. Like just the workflows are bad. You know, people, it's, healthcare is very broken. Every, it's no secret. Everybody says that. Everybody knows that. So anyways, I noticed pretty quickly that hey, like why isn't this better? Why can't this be like this? And, you know, kind of had that mindset. And before I could even go through like critical care enough to apply to a CRNA school, ended up patenting some devices in the vascular access space. Really leveraged accelerator programs and the entrepreneurial support organizations that were in my area, in my region to, I call it that get that dirt money, which is like the before the seed, you know, your pre kind of, your pre-seed /seed you know, before the pre-seed money. And, and also like the business training, right? Like I wasn't formally trained on business stuff like that. So did that. Did the venture capital hamster wheel a little bit, took a, you know, device through class two de novo clearance. Was doing ride-alongs training, sales reps, doing marketing stuff, you know, managing our ip, managing clinical you know, 300 patient RCT that we had to do in the middle of COVID, launched the product and then past couple years, I left, left that company in 2022. Products still on the market and they got, you know, clearance in, in Europe now and et cetera, et cetera. But just been working more in laparoscopic spine or laparoscopic surgery orthopedic spine and then doing some like consulting projects and, and things like that. And then yeah, XO Medtech and Medtech Vendors that's been. You know, for the past two years, like a big focus. And I know we're gonna talk more about that, but yeah. So it's just been, it's been a great journey. Medtech is one of my --I love it and hate it at the same time, but I wouldn't wanna be doing anything else, frankly. So. [00:04:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. That's a great intro. Okay. You were, I really, I enjoyed how you sort of went straight from okay, so, so "I, you know, started the career, started in the industry, and then I, I, you know, got a bunch of patents." What were the ideas for the patents? Where did those come from? If we could just go back, how did that, what was that inspiration like? [00:04:39] Spencer Jones: Yeah. So I was night shift, med-surg, big, pretty big hospital in Little Rock. It was like one of the, one of the bigger ones in Little Rock, St. Vincent's, which is like CHI, St. Vincent, et cetera. And like one of my patients --well the, the very first one was a dual lumen peripheral IV. A patient has a peripheral IV in, I need to get a blood draw. They're like, "Go stick his other arm." I'm like, "Why can't we get it out of his, you know, IV that's in his, that's in his forearm?" And, and they were like, "Well, you, you know, you don't want to contaminate, you know, the thing." And I was like, "Oh, okay. That kind of makes sense." And I was like, well, PICC lines have two lumens. So you know, I was like, why couldn't, you know, why couldn't we just have a second lumen on, you know? And I was like, do those exist? And they didn't really exist. There was kind of one that existed, but it was more of like a longer extended dwell peripheral and you know, you kind of needed ultrasound to place it. You didn't really place, you know, normal nurses on the floor weren't gonna place it. And so I kind of, that one was just sheer-- I experienced something that I was like, "Dude, you're kidding me. There's gotta be a better way to do this." You know what I mean? And you know, kind of similar approach in that one. We, you know, that was the very first one so I was like doing these drawings on note cards and then like meeting with a patent attorney and I was like, did that provisional filing and wrote the patent myself and the claims and all this stuff. And the guy thought I was like, just " Okay, yeah, I'll, I'll file the provisional for you, bro, whatever." Filed the provisional, you know, ended up like going to a different attorney 'cause that guy was kind of just not taking me seriously. And so, ended up going to a different person, filed a non-pro provisional, started raising all this money, and that original attorney reached out later, was like, "Oh, so glad, glad to see blah, blah, blah." I was like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." But then the second one, I, which was Safe Break Vascular, had the, it's kind of similar. Patient was like, had patients pulling out their IVs, pulling out lines, you know, and it's a million things. It's, it's walkie talkie, so like Alzheimer's, dementia, memory care type stuff. You, it's TBIs, it's agitation, sundowners. It's, you're coming off medication, you're drowsy, you forget, you're hooked up. You need to go to the bathroom. You trip on it. The nurse trips on the tubing. There's like a million reasons how, you know. Where mechanical force can get applied to an IV line. And same thing, I was just like, man, like this, it, it feels holding on for dear life is like the wrong approach because skin is only so strong. You get skin tears. Adhesives, you only want them to be so, you know, so, so strong. And it just, you know, it, wrapping it up, then you can't assess the site, you can get infiltration. So it didn't feel like any of the options we had were great. That one, I started to do patent research literally on the floor at the hospital. Like that night. I was like, I, 'cause I knew enough then found someone that had patented it. Like same exact concept. It was a nurse. And design was bad. Like the design, it had springs in it and it was just like not manufacturable and not a good design, but there were like conceptually it was like spot on. And then there were some elements of it that I was like, this would be very useful to have if I was gonna like actually do this. So me and somebody I'd met, and in accelerator program, we bought the patent from 'em for 20 grand which was a steal of a deal. It was like 10K up front, 10K after 18 months. And yeah. And then we turned around and raised a, you know, million dollar see

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    Kat Hurd | Founder & CEO, Med Tech Collective | Shaping Industry Leaders & Enhancing Patient Outcomes through Sales Excellence

    Kat Hurd, executive coach and founder/CEO of Med Tech Collective, shares how nearly two decades in medical device sales and leadership, including at Boston Scientific and Saluda Medical, shaped her mission to help reps and leaders build influence, ownership, and long-term career momentum in complex, high-stakes environments. Kat explains why strong clinical partnership can elevate sales conversations into trusted-advisor relationships that impact outcomes, and outlines how she coaches individuals, trains teams, and supports go-to-market strategy. She also dives into the distinct challenges women face when navigating rooms where they’re “the only,” the career accelerant of mentorship versus sponsorship, and practical ways to break into medtech by identifying gaps and learning the industry’s language.    Guest links: https://kathurd.com/   Charity supported: Save the Children Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 079 - Kat Hurd [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 delighted to welcome today Kat Hurd. Kat is an executive coach and the founder of MedTech Collective, where she helps medical device sales reps and leaders build influence, ownership, and long-term career momentum in complex, high stakes environments. With nearly two decades of real world experience in medical device sales and leadership, including senior roles at Boston Scientific and Saluda Medical, Kat brings a rare blend of commercial rigor, strategic insight, and credibility earned in the field based in Arizona. Kat is a speaker, advisor and coach who believes that when sales reps and leaders learn to own their voice, their business and their influence, the ripple effects extend far beyond individual success, shaping teams, cultures, and the future of the industry itself. Kat, welcome. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm super excited to speak with you. [00:01:45] Kat Hurd: Thank you so much for having me, Lindsey. It is an honor. I always love these conversations. [00:01:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Well, if you don't mind just starting off by sharing a little bit about who you are, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:01:58] Kat Hurd: Yeah, absolutely. Well, medtech, I like to say it's always, I was kind of born into it. So my mom is a nurse and she ran a medical clinic when I was in middle school and high school. So truly I would go to the clinic after school and, if, if actually we didn't have school, I remember one of the days sitting in a pharmaceutical rep lunch presentation, so I really got exposed before I even knew what it was. Even in that moment, I wish I'd understood more of what that rep was doing and really dug deep. You know, I thought I was gonna go to school and be a doctor, and then I quickly realized I didn't like freshman bio. And I wanted something where I could have an impact but still have some flexibility. So I actually, my to, to take you back to like how this all started, my background, sports medicine and so my undergrad and graduate degrees are in exercise science. I used to be taping ankles and rehabbing knee injuries and doing all of those things. And then I got exposure through that of being in the operating room when our athletes would have, you know, the injuries that were being surgically repaired, and that was really where I got that secondary introduction into medical device and started having conversations with other people who'd made the transition from athletic training where you have a ton of, you know, in insight into the human body and understanding of the medical world. And moving that into the sales arena. And so I met with someone in Iowa City. I'm a University of Iowa grad, and he was running the western half of the US for Boston Scientific at the time. And one thing led to another, led to me flying to Arizona and interviewing and then moving their site unseen really. I was there for, you know, max of 24 hours total in my interview process. And I just packed two suitcases and said "I wanna break into medical device." And that was in 2010. And I just fell in love with the industry and the therapy. So I was in neuromodulation working directly with spinal cord stimulator patients and started as a clinical specialist, and then I really quickly realized the way to have very clear impact on patients and providers was really actually to be in that sales role and be the one directing the support, directing the resources. And in neuromodulation, because you're in the OR and actually programming the stimulator, you're also kind of supporting the patient's care, which for me was right in my wheelhouse. And then I moved into leadership. And you know what you really wanna know is probably how did I land where I am now? And so I spent 10 years or 11 actually at Boston Scientific. And then moved to Saluda Medical, so to commercialize a small Australian based startup here in the US, which was such a fun and unique opportunity. And I always knew that was gonna be more of a three to five year play, and I just had it on my heart that I wanted to build a business to help reps be better reps, because I believe that the quality of care and the quality of outcomes is also directly tied to the partnerships and the caliber of the industry that supports the therapies. [00:05:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. I love that. And I have so many questions as a result, but okay, let's start a little bit with what you're doing now and then maybe, we'll, we'll get to some of the other stuff as well, but, so you're supporting reps, and I think you said something really impactful about a lot of the patient outcomes kind of goes back to how, how the reps can be the best they can be. So I'm curious what all goes into that for you and what kind of training or coaching do you provide? [00:05:31] Kat Hurd: Absolutely. You know, I really, I saw that squarely and believed it when I was a sales rep myself. So I spent the first six years of my career on the sales side of things, and then moved into being a sales leader. And as a sales leader and then an area Vice President Saluda, it was the thing that I saw of like our teams and our people that excelled the most, weren't just the best salespeople, but they were the people that understood how to, for lack of a better word, leverage that clinical and patient experience into the entirety of the sales process and sales cycle. So good clinical care and driving good sales conversations, levels up the partnership and really creating this layer of, not just being a partner, but being a trusted advisor with the providers that you work with. So how that translates into my business now, 'cause oftentimes, you know, I get the question of like, why did you leave a burgeoning career? I had one physician who was like, "You were gonna be a CEO. Like, why'd you leave medtech?" I'm like, "I didn't leave. I'm just doing it differently," because I saw so strongly and so clearly that having the right resources as a sales rep and at the right time as a sales rep changes your career. I was lucky to have great mentors, but there's things that if I had had the right support and resources at the right time, I could have been even, you know, faster or more impactful in my results. And so that's what I do now. What my business looks like now is really, you know, threefold. So I work directly with sales reps who, not through their companies, but they'll come to me directly and we do sales and leadership coaching. So working on the strategies in their business, how they're, you know, clinically supporting. But, you know, I, I leave the clinical nuts and bolts to the organization because I'm not an expert, and that, unless it's spinal cord stimulation, then we can talk that for days. But you know, really how they're leveraging their clinical prowess into their sales process and building systems for success. And then I work directly with companies helping train and elevate their talent, both on the sales and leadership level. Then I also have an arm of my business where I do, and that's kind of more of the consulting arm of my business. I also help with sales strategy and go to market strategy. And then I also do more of like corporate speaking. So keynotes and workshops and seminars really focused on both how do you build and grow your career in medtech, particularly as a woman, because we know there's just not a lot of us. And you know, part of what I'm so passionate about is helping everyone and raising the caliber of talent everywhere, but also making sure that women have the structure, the resources, and the idea of the systems that they need to create so they can go as far as they want to. Doesn't mean they have to go all the way to the C-suite level if that's not what they want, but to ensure that they have the representation and the pathway in f

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    Emily Muir | Director of Sales & Marketing, Ontogen Medtech | Building Success Through Fostering Relationships & Non-Linear Pathways

    Emily Muir, Director of Sales & Marketing at Ontogen Medtech, shares how a non-linear path from retail merchandising to dental implants, optical, and a medtech startup became her superpower for building relationships and driving growth. Emily explains what it takes to break into medical device sales, from self-directed learning and curiosity to finding mentors and giving yourself grace through the learning curve. She also discusses what she’s building at Ontogen: a Chicago-area CDMO that supports medtech innovators from early design and brainstorming through quality, regulatory, and contract manufacturing, with an emphasis on trust and long-term partnership.  Guest links: www.linkedin.com/in/esmuir  Charity supported: Save the Children Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 078 - Emily Muir [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 delighted to welcome as my guest, Emily Muir. Emily serves as the Director of Sales and marketing at Ontogen Medtech. Her work focuses on enhancing business performance through strategic new business sales and channel partner collaborations. Throughout her career, she has developed expertise in business reviews, retail strategies, and employee training. Her goal is to contribute to organizational success by leveraging her skills in building partnerships, and driving growth across competitive markets. All right, well, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here today, Emily. Thanks for being here. [00:01:31] Emily Muir: Thank you so much for having me, Lindsey. I'm so excited to be here. [00:01:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yes. Well, absolutely thrilled to have you on and I was just wondering if you'd start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background and what led you to medtech. [00:01:48] Emily Muir: Oh yeah, this is gonna be a good one. I would love to. So, full name. My name is Emily Muir. I am the Director of Sales and Marketing at Ontogen Medtech. We're located in the suburbs of Chicago and Ontogen Medtech is a contract development and manufacturing company that helps medtech innovators really bring their visions and their devices to life. My path to this position is not linear, however, not even close, which I've really come to view as my superpower. Really started out in retail merchandising, my degree in retail merchandising, and I started merchandising women's shoes and handbags in probably every department store in the Midwest that you can think of. So I know where all the good deals are, essentially. Yes, which is great to have if you're a girlfriend of mine. But about 10 years into that, I pivoted into medical device sales. I'm starting to cut my teeth on dental implant sales. And then I moved into the optical space and now seeing how really the sauce is made with product development. And really, I fell in love with the industry being able to have an impact on a patient's life, see it in real time, educating their physicians and staff. And really the complexity that comes with that is really what stole my heart. So along the way, I worked at a startup called Avulux. They're a migraine lens company, and that's really where I caught that startup bug like a lot of people do. This really gave me wonderful insight into what makes startup companies successful, really from a commercial standpoint. And then in late 2025, I left and joined Ontogen MedTech, and now I'm here building our entire sales and marketing function from the ground up, which is a daunting challenge and task. And that's kind of what I thrive on. So they really nailed it, in my opinion, the right candidate for the position here. But, you know, outside of work, I really love to foster dogs. I'm very passionate about rescuing dogs. I have two rescues of my own, and there's something about giving a second chance to something that's really been overlooked that really resonates with me. And personally I really love watching the rescue dogs decompress and really melt into incredible companions. Truly, I just think that they need the right partner and the right environment in order to thrive and be successful. [00:04:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that. And so I'm curious-- I have so many questions of course, but okay, so we're gonna start with the, well, I guess we'll go back first. So you started with retail merchandising and you worked for a lot of different corporations. What were some of the lessons that you learned for that, and during all those experiences that translated really well into medtech sales and now marketing and whatnot? [00:05:07] Emily Muir: One word, relationships. Those are crucial. Working in the back rooms of department stores, as a retail merchandising rep, you had to figure out who to talk to quickly. Who was the right person, you know, was it a sales rep to promote your product on the floor? How did I get frontline exposure? And do I need to get out there and get dirty to sell my product? Fostering those relationships really helped me understand how to be successful in sales, and that is something through and through no matter what industry you are in, and especially in the medtech product development, you, you have to have strong relationships in order to get your point of view across, in order to effectively communicate your value proposition and to know who to talk to help founders find you. There are so many, there are so many people building in this space and you always hear the noise out there of people saying, "You need to find the right partners. You need to find the right support." And who's gonna help you determine that, who's truly gonna help lead you through all of this? It's finding the people that have the direct access to the founders to help them get into your pipeline so that you can really have that direct experience with them and help them bring their products to life. So if I don't know who those players are and they can't find me, I can't be successful in my role at all. So that's, that is something I always think about coming into this every single day. What can I give to someone else? Who can I talk to? What part of my network can I reach out to so that I can give the right resources, I can give the right message, and we can all grow collectively. [00:07:13] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. And I think to your point, it is so important to nurture those relationships, as in general, I would say that's just good life advice. But at the same time, yeah, but at the same time, I would say what I appreciate about this industry is that yes, there's so many players in this space and it's huge, but at the same time it feels small. So your relationships really do matter in terms of like how you're coming across, how you're perceived, but just in general building that know, like, and trust factor, which again, is really important for your sales and marketing strategy too. So yeah, I love the fact that's a key thing that you took away. And, you know, sometimes I feel like things in our past that aren't directly related to what we're doing now might feel, I don't know, like, "Oh, I don't, what did I get from that? Or how does this help me?" But to your point, so many skills learned along the way that help you now, yeah. [00:08:09] Emily Muir: Absolutely. I, you know, when I made the decision to go from the retail merchandising world in a hard pivot into medical device sales, I really had to step back and say, "Oh, okay. What are those transferable skills that I can use to, to get me there? You know, what do I already know in terms of a process that I can parlay into this, and how can I create that story so that, you know, that my future boss, the recruiter is going to understand where I've been and where I want to go." So that, that was crucial. The story of that is crucial in order to help someone else understand how to leverage you within their company too. [00:08:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So, okay, so let's talk about maybe that transition too between having worked in maybe larger corporations or for larger companies and then going from that to startup life, which is often an adjustment. So I'd just be curious to know how has that been and what lessons have you learned from that journey? [00:09:23] Emily Muir: Oh yeah. That there really is, 'cause I did go from a very large company. I worked for Esler Luxottica for six years as a sales rep for them. One of the, you know, arguably the largest player in the optical world to, to a startup. And what I really took away is that, well, some of the lessons of working in a big company really do work while coming into a startup life. And that is really how do you self-direct yourself and learn because in a big company, you know, sometimes there isn't always someone there to hold your hand and navigate that. And, you know, I did the same thing from n

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    Omar Ford | Editor in Chief, MD+DI | Navigating Medtech Journalism, Storytelling in Healthcare, & Personal Growth

    Omar Ford, Editor in Chief of MD+DI, shares his journey from small-town print journalism to covering medtech, and the steep learning curve that taught him how to find the real story behind press releases, FDA pathways, and industry trends. Omar explains how thinking like a “contemporary medtech historian” helps connect past events to present innovations, and why curiosity—and an unusually open, helpful industry—accelerated his growth. He reflects on defining leadership moments, imposter syndrome, and the mentors who shaped his style, plus memorable conversations from his Let’s Talk Medtech podcast.   Guest links: omar.ford@informa.com | https://www.mddionline.com/  Charity supported: March of Dimes Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 078 - Omar Ford [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 delighted to welcome as my guest Omar Ford. Omar is an experienced Editor in Chief, currently at MD+DI, with a demonstrated history of working in the medical device industry. Skilled in medical devices, technical writing, marketing, strategic planning, and marketing strategy, he also has a strong media and communication professional background with a bachelor's degree focused in journalism from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Well, hello, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here today. Thank you for being here, Omar. [00:01:28] Omar Ford: Lindsey, I'm excited to be here as well. You know, I have been prepping for this all week, and then all the little notes and all the things I took down, I said, "You know what? I wanna give her the original experience," so I'm gonna chuck 'em to the side and we're just gonna do this off the top of my head. How's that? [00:01:43] Lindsey Dinneen: That's perfect. My favorite. [00:01:46] Omar Ford: Awesome. Awesome. [00:01:48] Lindsey Dinneen: That's how conversations work in real life. I feel like this shouldn't be any different, so, great. [00:01:53] Omar Ford: Agree. Agreed. [00:01:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Love it. All right, so would you mind starting off by telling us just a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech specifically? [00:02:02] Omar Ford: Oh wow. So that is an interesting story what led me to medtech. But a little bit about myself first. So, I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2001 as a print journalism major. And, my goal was to go into newspapers, you know, I wanted to go into-- I wanted to be that next print journalist 'cause I had a face for radio, right? I had a face for print, you know, wasn't the, the, the broadcast type. And so I, I did small newspapers for a few years and then this magical thing called marriage happened. And, I was looking at the salary that I made as a print journalist, and it just, it, it just wasn't enough to sustain a family. So, was looking at branching into something else. And back then, we had the, the, the classified ads in the newspaper where they would actually advertise jobs, and I and my wife pointed this one out to me and it was a, a job about it was a job for a company called AHC Media and they had a publication called Medical Device Daily, and that was around, I wanna say 2007. And she said, "Why don't you try it? You know it the pay--" 'cause they advertised the pay there too back, back then-- she said, "The pay is much more than, you know, being, you know, a newspaper reporter. You can, you can leave that, that's something that you could do to, to support the family." And I said, "Yeah, yeah, why don't I try it?" And a lot, there were a lot of adjacencies, so I jumped on it and, you know, got hired and left the newspaper behind. And that was in 2007 and I've been with medtech ever since, so it's been an incredible journey. It's been one that you kinda, you know, once you jump in, there's like a, a steep learning curve, but if you manage to stay in for a few years, you can, you can really learn a lot about the industry. [00:03:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Lots of questions. I'll start with that learning curve because I was just thinking about this. [00:04:00] Omar Ford: Yes. Yes. Go ahead. [00:04:01] Lindsey Dinneen: So, okay. So you go from, I might imagine a more generalist approach to all sorts of different topics, to... [00:04:09] Omar Ford: mm-hmm. [00:04:10] Lindsey Dinneen: ...a really crazy niche industry where somebody can say a full sentence and. If you're not from the industry, you're like, "Mm-hmm." [00:04:18] Omar Ford: Yes. [00:04:19] Lindsey Dinneen: So what was that like for you and how did you, how did you navigate that, that steep learning curve and your own personal growth so that you could, you know, really speak to the industry? [00:04:32] Omar Ford: So going back to the head nod, "Um, mm-hmm," a lot of my interviews were like that at the very beginning. But I remember the Editor in Chief of, of Medical Device Daily. He's now deceased-- Don Long-- he pulled me to the side one day and he said, "Omar, each of these companies has a story. You want to be able to tell that story." You know, you look at it from a business sense, and then you drill down into the innovations. You know, when you get a press release from a company such as a Boston Scientific or an Abbott Laboratories, or a Medtronic, you wanna drill down in the press release and look at what the news is. But you also wanna look at the story that they've been telling up until now about that product or about that sector that they're in. You know, if they're looking to get approval for a device, you know, was it easy for them to go through clinical trials? Was this something that bombed a couple times or that was rejected by FDA? Each company has a story about their innovation, right? And you look at the company as your sources, like your, like they're your county commissioners or they're your --I'm going back to my newspaper days-- or they're your board of education members. You know, each company has a personality like that. And you try to hone in on that and you look for those adjacencies and then you kinda fill things in as you go along. The other thing that helps is traveling to some of the trade shows and talking to the people and meeting them face to face, because back when I started, we had this wonderful thing called a landline, a telephone, and we could call people and get messages, right? There were no teams calls or no Skype or anything like that, or, or Zoom. And in fact, I don't think they're Skype anymore. But you know, you didn't have that, so you just heard a person's voice, but when you met them face to face, when you talked about some of these innovations, when you saw how passionate they were or when you could read some of their body language or when you could say, "Hey, can you kind of take the time and talk to me about this," and make that personal connection, it helps you understand the science a little bit more. It helps you understand what they're trying to communicate a whole lot more. And that kind of rounded out that steep learning curve. But I like to tell people all the time, when I first started, I didn't know a 510K from a PMA. You know, I struggled to explain that one time to our, our sales manager back when I was with AHC Media and Medical Device Daily. But if you can stay in this industry long enough and if you can you know, just focus long enough on the content material and have an understanding of the companies that you're, you're talking to and see them each having an individual story, you know, and, and also finding the conflict that the companies might have too, that helps round that, that, that steep learning curve down out a a whole lot. A whole lot. [00:07:44] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's, that's great advice. And also something I was thinking about is the more that you get into the industry too, you know, curiosity solves so much, right? [00:07:59] Omar Ford: Yes. [00:07:59] Lindsey Dinneen: The more that you can just be curious and ask questions. And I've found-- and I'd be curious about your own experience with this-- but I found that this industry is extremely helpful. Like if you go with a genuine desire to learn and grow, people are like, "Great, how can I help you?" [00:08:17] Omar Ford: Now, that is one thing that I will testify to and I will say was different from reporting, doing beat reporting because when I was working with the small newspapers, it was all about holding back information. It was all about, "I don't wanna talk to you about this." But this industry, when you talk to people, when you show a level of interest and the ability to understand, they will talk to you for days and they are very, very helpful. So that is ano--, I'm, I'm glad you brought that up because that is a, a another level that really, really helps to understand this industry a lot.

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    Lisa Jacobs | President, eCential Robotics & Founder, STRIPES | Creating Mission-Driven Success in MedTech

    Lisa Jacobs is the President of US eCential Robotics and the Founder of STRIPES Women in MedTech. Lisa shares how her path evolved from registered dietitian, ballerina, gymnast, and NFL cheerleader into a two-decade MedTech commercialization career focused on bringing surgical technology—robotics and navigation—from concept to clinical adoption. She explains her consulting-based approach to sales centered on solving surgeons’ real problems, and her leadership philosophy of creating clarity, trust, accountability, and momentum without being a “know-it-all.” Lisa also unpacks why she founded STRIPES, a global nonprofit with 3,000 members offering mentorship, networking, and education to support women navigating growth, career transitions, and negotiation.  Guest links: https://www.stripes.network/  Charity supported: Safe Horizon Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 076 - Lisa Jacobs [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 delighted to welcome my guest, Lisa Jacobs. Lisa is the president of US eCential Robotics, as well as the CEO of STRIPES, which is a networking organization for women in MedTech. With expertise in medical device sales, she's a high performing executive sales leader, known for formulating and executing scalable strategies to accelerate business expansion, revenue generation, and team development in startup turnaround and rapid growth environments across domestic and global markets. All right, Lisa, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. [00:01:30] Lisa Jacobs: Thank you so much for having me. [00:01:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. I'd love if you would start off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:01:40] Lisa Jacobs: Of course. Yeah. So I've been a medtech executive and commercialization leader for more than two decades. My experience has been in bringing surgical technology from concept to widespread clinical adoption. Also, my career is really focused on startups with high growth and complex environments. Everything from early stage robotics to scaling global platforms across the US market. Today I serve as president of North America for eCential Robotics, where I oversee commercialization, surgeon adoptions, partnerships with implant partners, market strategy, and open platform surgical navigation ecosystem. In parallel, I'm the founder of STRIPES Women in Medtech, which is a global non-profit, created a support, connect and elevate women across the industry. I spent my career sitting at the intersection of innovation, people, and execution, and I care deeply about building businesses that are both high performing and human centered. [00:02:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice. Okay, so going back to, let's say growing up, did you always think that you might an interest in or a future career in healthcare, health techs, things like that? Or did this sort of evolve over time? [00:03:03] Lisa Jacobs: It evolved over time, actually. My degree, I'm a registered dietician by trade. And I was a ballerina, so I always thought I was gonna open a dance studio. So it's been, it was a complete pivot from what I went to college for and what I thought I was gonna do growing up. [00:03:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, we have to dive into the ballerina aspect, obviously, since I am too. So, so did you dance all the way through high school, college, beyond? [00:03:32] Lisa Jacobs: Yes, I danced through high school and college. I was also a gymnast. And then I became an NFL cheerleader in my, when I was 18 years old for the Patriots. So that's kind of where it took me. So then, you know, when I, after college, I decided I was gonna be a starving ballerina, but it's always been my passion and love. So I'm still very into fitness and wellness and definitely do Pilates and yoga and try to keep that part of my life alive. But I always miss dancing and wonder what would've happened if I went down that path, yeah. [00:04:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Well, the good thing is you can always still do some kind of dancing or support it or however you, so it's it's not gone. [00:04:19] Lisa Jacobs: Yep. It's around my house. Yeah. Yeah, [00:04:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Exactly. Okay. And so nutrition. Okay, so did that evolve because you were a dancer and interested in that kind of wellness aspect or? [00:04:32] Lisa Jacobs: It was, you know, I'm Portuguese, so there is obesity in my family and I had to work really hard to stay thin for dance, gymnastics and, you know, cheerleading. So, you know, at cheerleading I used to get weighed in, so I was always exercising and trying to find what was right to eat and I didn't wanna hop on the diet fat. So I studied nutrition because of that. And throughout my dance career, I found a lot of girls who were either anorexic or bulimic or a combination of both. And it really, and one of my friends did die from anorexia, so I dove in deep into the study of that and how to help people. [00:05:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And you're still helping people all the time. You're in medtech and you're doing amazing work. So do you mind sharing a little bit about, yeah, your current role and maybe sort of the leadership journey that took you there? [00:05:36] Lisa Jacobs: Sure. My current role is with an open platform, which was based out of France. And I'm bringing, I just opened an office in Franklin, Tennessee. It's just been a year to this month. So, our technology is differentiating in robotics and navigation. And I remember earlier in my career when I stood in the operating room watching a surgeon place a complex implant using a navigation system I helped bring to market, I realized my work was directly impacting patient outcomes, but also easing the mental load of the surgeon with navigation. And still today you hear that surgeons want navigation to decrease their mental load and robotics to decrease their physical load. So that moment crystallized something for me. I didn't wanna just sell products. I wanted to build platforms that changed possibility in medtech to give a rare opportunity to blend science, engineering, technology, and give experience to surgeons that would help them directly to help patients. So it's hard to imagine doing anything else now that has such an impact. [00:06:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I I can, I understand how-- it's really cool to be a part of mission-driven organizations, which is something that I actually wanted to talk with you about because I know that you are very mission-centric and you care a lot about making a difference and and being helpful and and so I was just wondering where did that come from, was this a core belief of yours sort of throughout your whole life, or how did that evolve too? [00:07:22] Lisa Jacobs: I think it was embedded with me, with my parents. Both of my parents were incredibly helpful to neighbors, community, family. I come from a big family and my father would always go out and help anyone who needed it. And my mother was the same, you know, all of my friends wanted to come to my house to hang out with my mother 'cause she would take care of everyone, drive them to any games or anything they had. So, it was just, I think a core belief with the way I was raised. [00:07:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And then it's something that, I think, is so helpful 'cause it continues to drive and motivate as you go along throughout your career and you've had such a wide variety of experiences. So tell us a little bit more about your approach to selling. I was, I was reading a little bit on your LinkedIn profile and it mentioned that you prefer to have kind of a consulting approach, I think to, to selling. And I was curious if you could expound on that a bit? [00:08:24] Lisa Jacobs: Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of salespeople are taught to sell on features and benefits, right? You go in, you have a widget. You're talking about your widget. You're trying to get them to use whatever you're trying to sell, but they don't listen to the surgeon's need and ask doctor, surgeon-- whoever you're selling to-- your client's needs about what are their problems they currently have? How do you solve for their problems? What are you bringing to the table to help them either in the operating room or in their clinic. And I think it has to be more natural and more conversational instead of selling on features and benefits. You need to know who you're talking to and do your homework before you enter the room or even try to sell to that person. But what problem are you trying to solve for? And I think too many times people go to sales training and you learn your surgical technique. You learn your features and benefits and you learn your pitch, but it's not conversational

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    Logan McKnight | Founder, GoodKnight Consulting | Leadership Evolution, MedTech Innovation, & Impactful Coaching

    Logan McKnight is the founder of GoodKnight Consulting and a strategic advisor to MedTech executives navigating growth, leadership challenges, and operational complexity. Logan shares her nearly 20-year journey from pre-med to neuromonitoring technologist to CEO, and explains why she now focuses on helping leaders build teams that scale without sacrificing culture or burning out. She discusses lessons learned managing remote surgical service teams, why “simple scales,” and how mission, vision, and values enable better decisions and hiring beyond gut instinct.  Guest links: https://www.goodknightconsulting.net/ Charity supported: ASPCA Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 075 - Logan McKnight [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 am delighted to welcome Logan McKnight. Logan is the founder of GoodKnight Consulting and a strategic advisor to MedTech executives navigating growth, leadership challenges and operational complexity. With nearly 20 years in neuromonitoring and surgical services, including experience as a CEO, VP of Operations and business development leader, Logan brings an experienced perspective to executive leadership. She works with directors, VPs, and C-suite leaders to build teams that can scale without sacrificing culture or burning out. Well, welcome to the show, Logan. I'm so glad to speak with you today, and thank you so much for being here. [00:01:34] Logan McKnight: Yeah, it's great to be here. I appreciate you inviting me. [00:01:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. I'd love if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing just a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to MedTech. [00:01:45] Logan McKnight: Of course. Yeah. So my name is Logan McKnight and I have been in medtech for almost the last 20 years. And I think my journey, I, a lot of people have a very similar like origin story of haphazardly finding their way into medtech. I was pre-med in college. I wanted to go into veterinary school and I think I panicked honestly last minute, not really wanting to go. I interned under vet who basically dissuaded me from doing all the work of vet school and said go to med school. And feeling a little lost, I found my way to medtech, particularly neural monitoring, which was a field, pretty niche, but basically I got trained by a company to go in and run equipment and monitor patient's nervous systems during surgery. And to me, just having my bachelor's degree and having that level of impact and being able to jump right into patient care without having to go to more, you know, years and years of schooling was right up my alley and it's been such a wild ride. You know, I was a technologist and then I became a manager and then VP of development of business development, and head of contracting. And then I went over to a small company where I was the vice president of the whole company, and then eventually CEO, and now I'm consulting for medtech companies. So it's been a really fun journey that I didn't plan at all. [00:03:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Well, excellent. And that brings up so many questions, but to start, so you were thinking originally you might wanna be a vet. Do you have you know, like, did you grow up with animals? Did you just have an amazing love for them? Where did that come from? [00:03:23] Logan McKnight: You know, honestly, I think I would've had way more animals, but my parents were a lot more reasonable than I was. So we just had the regular pets, but I grew up like horseback riding and in the Midwest, in Ohio. So I was around a lot of farm animals and things like that and I was part of like FFA and horticulture. So future Farmers of America. And I actually was really interested in large animals because I didn't wanna deal with people, I didn't wanna deal with people or their pets. So, and you know, and so that was what panicked me about med school was like the whole plan was veterinary school was to avoid the people part. And then I found through medtech you know, neuromonitoring and surgery where my patients are asleep. And so I still got to do all the things that I love, like providing impact, but then, you know, not having to worry about, I guess all for me I just had my head like all the challenges and complications that deal dealing with patients that I thought would make my job and life really difficult. So it's been really fun to kind of focus on just like the care and how to move things forward and explore this big, wide open space of how to impact people's lives in surgery. [00:04:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And you know what's interesting about that too is, though, I think it sounds like throughout your, though, as you've, you know, gone from technologist and then you've had all of these amazing career changes and growth basically. It sounds like, you know, you have developed though your own kind of leadership style, so even though maybe originally you weren't sure about dealing with people, so to speak, you've actually excelled at it. So I'm curious how that has evolved for you in creating and managing teams. [00:05:03] Logan McKnight: Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I think like initially I was trying to control all these variables before I got into leadership in people, and then realized like you can't do that once you get to actually working with people. And once you almost like acknowledge and recognize, you can't control that but there's some beauty in that of you just allow for what you allow and then you know, you have to give people the ability to function like at their level. And you create the parameters. But other than that, like some magic happens when you don't try to control every single thing. And I see so many, especially new managers, you know, being like, "I need to control everything." And they're wondering why they're exhausted or their team's not respecting them. And it's like, gotta let go, gotta let go of the wheel a little bit. So, you know, I think those are some lessons and sometimes they just come with time and experience. [00:05:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, when you started, well, let's go back to the beg, maybe it's kind of at the beginning of your career. What are some things that you learned as a technologist and as you were growing within the hospital systems themselves, that contributed to basically where you would become now to become an entrepreneur and all of that. [00:06:21] Logan McKnight: Yeah, I mean, I will be very honest, and this is not meant to be a dig at anybody who I'd worked with or any boss. But I just, I went to work for a private company and we went and we were almost like hired mercenaries. So we would go to like, you know, every day I was in a different hospital. I didn't know my schedule till the night before. I rarely saw my manager and, you know, rarely saw other members of my team and it really felt like I was very isolated and alone. And it added to my burnout and also feeling like I didn't have anyone watch, like looking out for me and my back as a younger employee. And I realized there was so much room for improvement there in how you manage a team remotely. And so I think I, I just like mentally I was a psychology major before I switched to pre-med, and so I think like the, like human brain, because I was, you know, neuroscience, but like psychology, I think is so fascinating to me and the way people tick and what makes them tick. And I, I'm a big believer if you can figure out the way people tick, you can unlock so many things in the world and like you can, you know, you can be the most brilliant person, but if you can't communicate effectively, if you can't manage a team, you're really not gonna take things to the next level because you're not gonna activate those people around you to perform and get something done. So I feel like it was a case study for me to kind of watch like these managers and struggle and I'm like, "Ah, that's what I'm not going to do." [00:07:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Yeah. Sometimes learning from examples that maybe you wish you didn't have to learn from though can be the best teachers and actually serve your, you know, your own leadership style and your people that you end up getting to influence. It actually does help in the long term, but so. [00:08:06] Logan McKnight: Totally. [00:08:07] Lindsey Dinneen: So when you started GoodKnight Consulting, what was the impetus for that? I mean, you'd had this you've had this amazing career so far. You're ready kind of just for the next step or what sparked that? [00:08:19] Logan McKnight: You know, it's interesting, I stepped down from my CEO position 'cause I was feeling, I was running a neuromonitoring service company in the Pacific Northwest. We also had a professional services arm with neurologists. And then I had a medical billing c

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  8. 20 thg 2

    Stuart Grant | Founder, Archetype Medtech | Engineering Innovations, Medtech Advancements, & Global Impact

    Dr. Stuart Grant, founder of Archetype Medtech, shares his journey designing and delivering breakthrough orthopedic and surgical innovations across the UK, US, and China. Stuart recounts how an early internship led him into medtech, what kept him there, and how building the ASPAC Innovation Center in China helped accelerate a total knee instrument system that dramatically reduced time to market. He explains the leap from corporate leader to entrepreneur: planning for years, earning a PhD in Medtech Product Innovation, and building a consultancy that helps startups and scale-ups turn early clinical unmet needs into market-ready, regulator-approved devices through a network of experts and an “expertise for equity” model.    Guest links: https://archetype-medtech.com/  Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 074 - Stuart Grant [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 delighted to welcome Dr. Stuart Grant. Dr. Grant is a chartered engineer and the founder of Archetype Medtech, a consultancy and innovation studio helping medical device startups and scale ups transform early clinical, unmet needs into market ready products. With nearly 25 years of experience, Stuart has led global teams across the UK, US, China, and emerging markets delivering breakthrough innovations in hip, knee, shoulder, and trauma surgery. A highlight of his career was establishing the ASPAC Innovation Center in China, where he built R&D capability from the ground up and launched a pioneering total knee instrument system that dramatically reduced time to market. Passionate about advancing medical technology and mentoring future engineers, he bridges creativity, engineering, and regulation to accelerate safer, smarter medtech innovation worldwide. All right. Welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here today. Thanks for joining me. [00:01:57] Stuart Grant: It's lovely to be here, Lindsey. [00:01:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Well, I was wondering if you could start by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:02:08] Stuart Grant: Yeah. So, I was actually, I'm obviously, as you can tell from my accent, I'm British, but I was born in Germany because my, my dad was in the military in the 1970s when I was born. So I was born actually in Berlin, which is quite interesting to be a place to be, grew up in. So I traveled around a lot here in the UK, in Germany with my dad getting posted everywhere. My mom's a nurse. So I was in medtech, not really knowing I was in medtech as a kid, but I, my family was, so yeah. And then obviously went to school, all the places I was at university. I went to university to do product design, and my goal was to be a product designer, a cool product designer, designing fancy products like Johnny Ive. And when I was looking for a job as a co-op, or an intern as you call them in the US, I was just really unsuccessful finding a job. I was doing a lot of interviews, getting turned down, sending my CV out a lot, and j happened just to advertise on the Board of University, and it said Johnson Orthopedics and no one really knew what that was in. And none of my fellow students at applied because they thought it would be designing baby bottles for putting talcum powder in and shampoo in and stuff like that. So they're like, "I'm not doing that job." So I desperately applied for it and luckily found out about all this medtech, and I've been here doing medtech for 25 years. So they gave me a job. I had to work hard to keep the job and get reemployed over and over again. But yeah, joining originally Johnson Orthopedics a long time ago is how I found out about medtech. I never knew when I was 18 that really it was a thing that existed. [00:03:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So, okay. So you thought product design, and then when you got into medtech, what were some of the things that attracted you and that actually compelled you to stay and make a career out of it? [00:04:00] Stuart Grant: Ha. So I was a young guy with the student debts. What compelled me, I was getting paid to stay, but not to be too flippant about it, but, you know, when I was doing this engineering and design work in my early days in the CAD system, it was just so interesting. I was designing these products that were going into people or the instrumentation to make help the surgeon and going to these ORs and watching the surgeon do their job and trying to figure out how how I can make it better from their input was really interesting. I could apply it straight away, basically. In the early two thousands, there wasn't all these regulations and standards that slowed you down. So you could go and design an instrument, get it machined in the machine shop, get it clean, take it to the surgeon, he can use it, you know, probably be frowned upon 25 years later. But that's what we used to do and really adapt. And probably more interesting than going into product design and fast moving consumer goods where you're designing a, a kettle or a toaster or something, a plastic casing. It was actually much more interesting to do that. And I stayed because I spent four years here in Leeds, in the UK, was getting a bit bored and wanted to find something else to do, and then an opportunity came up in the US. So I moved over to Warsaw, Indiana, the orthopedics capital of the world, as you might know it. Worked there for, stayed there for seven years. Really enjoyed it.. People sort of bemoan Warsaw for being in the sticks in just a bunch of cornfields around it. But I enjoyed it. It's got, we had a good bunch of young friends there. I was in late twenties, early thirties at the time. There was Noah and Spikes. You'd go for a drink and some nice food. It was all right. I enjoyed my time and after that I was, after seven years, I was like, "Okay, what do I do next?" And I was looking around for jobs in medtech. Then another opportunity came up in and we were looking for people to go over and help set it up, train the staff on what MedTech product development was. And so I jumped to the chance and spent five years living in China, in Shanghai. After five years is your limit, so I had to come home. I couldn't stay. I wanted to stay, but they wouldn't allow me to. So, so I came back to the UK. And then started MDR for five years as leading the Joints MDR program, which was lots of fun, as you could probably tell, wasn't really R&D, was a lot of leadership and project management and dealing with a lot of people and a lot of problems on a day-to-day basis. And so, yeah, after that I I left J&J about three years ago and started my own product development agency. And we can talk about a little bit about that later. So that's where I am and where I got to. [00:06:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Yeah, I definitely wanna talk about that as well. But going back a little bit-- and perhaps this is actually something that's occurred since you started your own company as well-- but are there any moments that really stand out to you along your journey of affirming that, "Hey, yeah, I actually am in the right place, in the right industry?" [00:07:12] Stuart Grant: That's a really hard one is sort of the, is the grass always greener somewhere else, type of question. Right? I guess compare, you shouldn't compare, but comparing to my friends at my university, my product design and what they've done and what I've done they've moved into the car industry a lot. Went to the car development and car industries always had its ups and downs and its problems. And you know, they've had some really cracking jobs working for McLaren and Ferrari and you know, but I think just the interesting things that medtech do that nobody really knows about is really what keeps me moving along and having conversations with people when they, you tell them like, "I used to design hips and knees and shoulders and things like that," and they're like, "Oh, my mother's got a hip and knee" and blah, blah, and you really talk about it. Actually, my mother does have a hip now and she's going in a couple months time to get the other hip done. I do know what brand she's got, so. [00:08:10] Lindsey Dinneen: See, that's really cool. Yeah. Okay. So, so, on your LinkedIn I noticed that you describe yourself as a fixer, a challenger, and a change maker, which I love. But I'd love to hear from you exactly what you mean by all those things as you have developed in your career, and now as you're doing, of course, your own consulting. [00:08:34] Stuart Grant: Yeah, so in Johnson and my colleagues are probably, I agree with this, I had a bit of a reputation of getting the more difficult projects. The, that's probably why I got MDR in the end 'cause I would always get the projects that had problems and I e

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MedTech Leaders Changing Lives for a Better World

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