so today I want to talk about how to
build a medical technology startup and
why that’s important so first of all
let’s start from the beginning right
I met my co-founders fan at entrepreneur
first so entrepreneur first is a startup
program in London that brings together
people from all different backgrounds
and supports them in building tech
companies so as fern and I met there and
we decided we wanted to do something
really valuable something truly useful
for people not just some random little
startup not some optimizing some little
tiny thing but something that really has
an impact on society and so medical
technology clearly would be in that
space it’s very difficult because we’re
not really medics we have zero medical
background and we knew almost nothing
about the space meanwhile we started our
company last thing so no and just a tiny
little bit about what we did we were
creating software to diagnose a deadly
condition called deep vein thrombosis
now behind me you’ll see some ultrasound
images and our software analyzing it
don’t worry about the details but what
is trying to do is detect this condition
now for context DVT is a blood clot in
the deep veins of the leg and if part of
that clot breaks loose it goes up to
your lung and could cause something
called a pulmonary embolism and that can
lead to death in fact 800,000 people die
a year due to this condition or it’s
related conditions that’s more people
than breast cancer prostate cancer AIDS
and car accidents combined and so what
we wanted to do was what we’re doing I
suppose is creating software to help non
specialists such as nurses junior
doctors general practitioners to
diagnose this condition with the same
accuracy as a radiologist as a
specialist but the question is why start
a meta company in the first place
there are lots of different reasons I
mean I mentioned why we decided to start
one we wanted to help people and so
maybe people start med tech companies
because I want to help people a second
reason would be you want to get rich
which I think you know there are easier
ways to get rich than starting med tech
companies to be honest with you but that
is a fair point you can get rich maybe
it’s a mixture of the two you want to
help people and get rich at the same
time right or perhaps you’re just crazy
I mean we were we had we didn’t even
know the problem existed before we
started the company so it’s pretty crazy
the point I’m trying to make actually it
doesn’t really matter why you want to
start him a tech company what matters is
that you do because clearly health care
is a huge priority for both the
individual and society in general I mean
just think about your parents going to
hospital or if you go to hospital how
important is the technology they’re
extremely important it’s life-saving so
but the sadness of all is that I see a
lot of potential health care
entrepreneurs shy away trying away from
this space because of its perceived
difficulty investors get worried about
investing in med tech because they’re
worried that’s too risky it takes too
long and you know that’s fair enough
because there’s even a term for it that
there is some data to support this it’s
called the med tech value of death and
you know it’s a bit of a morbid term I
know but on the one side you see you
know startups and investors throwing
money and resources at this value of
death meanwhile their health care
systems on the other side and everyone
loses out to the entrepreneurs the
investors backing the entrepreneurs the
health care system and most importantly
the patients that’s you and me right
because new innovations that can improve
your life or perhaps save your life
can’t be introduced to the healthcare
system now I don’t think it has to be
this way I think with a few hints and
suggestions we can perhaps move past
this medtech value of death and and
introduce our innovations to the
healthcare system so how do we avoid the
medtech valley of death well I think
there’s a few things you can think about
the first thing is think big I see lots
of entrepreneurs who want to start med
tech companies and they
they want to solve marginal problems let
me give an example if you’re trying to
cure cancer you have technology that can
cure cancer or or our Zyliss disease
compare that to something like
optimizing patient note-taking to speed
up the process now don’t get me wrong I
know lots of startups do this there’s
nothing wrong with it I’m sure there’s
lots of money involved as well you know
but we’re not really talking about
groundbreaking technology now and if
you’re going to dedicate the next five
to ten years of your life building
something you might as well make it
worth building and even if it’s risky
and it might fail well at least you’ve
been trying to build something that’s
that’s that inspires other people and
that inspires you as well
because I think it’s actually the other
way around I think if you think big
you’re more likely to pass the medtech
valley of death because when you inspire
other people they want to help you and
it makes you less likely to succeed to
fail okay what’s the second point then
well the second point is actually
identify a problem you know so find the
problem in Messick whether it’s
Alzheimer’s disease or optimizing
patient notes that’s fine just identify
a problem first and then what do you do
next you double-check you actually
understand the problem let me give an
example so when we when we looked into
DVT we read every piece of research we
could find in fact I told swen read all
these eight research papers he’d never
read a medical research paper as far as
I know and he just read all of them just
to find out more about the condition and
the things surrounding it so we thought
you know we understand the problem you
know what we did then we triple-checked
that we understood the problem in fact
we went to doctors and spoke to them and
tried to buy a sim the other way so we
tried to say you know what DBT isn’t
really a problem is it and then we get
resistance and then see if they actually
push back on our comments about DVT you
know maybe it doesn’t cost cost very
much maybe it’s really fast to process
DVT patients so that’s what we did we
read every piece of research we could
find that opposes our our initial
assumptions and the reason I’m
emphasizing understanding the problem so
much is because it might seem obvious
but your entire business is going to be
based on this foundational assumption
that you actually understand the problem
you’re solving
okay fair enough so let’s say you’ve
actually done all this work and you’ve
understood the problem okay
presumably you have a solution to solve
this problem that’s what you’re offering
so you really need to check that the
solution can solve the actual problem
you identified you might hate me a
little bit but check that the solution
can in fact solve the problem you
identified in fact now you might be
bored because go back and check again
that for sure your solution can can
definitely solve the problem you’ve
identified right really check that the
solution can do it and let me give you
another story of why I think this is so
important from personal experience right
so initially with DVT we currently try
to do solve it with software but because
I’m a hardware engineer and my
co-founder is a software engineer and of
course I’m slightly rude and I decide
what happens and stuff and he’s much
nicer than me I decided we have to build
a hardware product to solve it we were
going to use lasers and shine light on
the leg and stuff and that’s how we’re
gonna detect it and we went to spoke to
professor’s we went to laser companies
and we completely and utterly failed
because it’s actually not possible to
solve this problem in this particular
way then we stopped almost gave up
reassessed and and thought about what if
we’re just neutral about what the
solution is maybe we can really solve
the problem and then we found out that
actually software and image processing
is a much better solution to this
problem
which is what we’re doing now in fact it
doesn’t necessarily even have to be a
software solution you have to be so
neutral as to wonder whether or not for
example DVT patients don’t even need a
tech solution you just need to raise
awareness for the problem maybe it’s a
regulatory problem or or it’s a finance
issue I don’t think it’s the case in in
our particular problem but it can be the
case in many other problems and I think
that’s another common pitfall that many
would-be meta entrepreneurs fela because
they haven’t picked the right solution
okay let’s say you’ve picked the problem
you triple checked it and you know your
solution is correct
now what final point checked out the
solutions cost effective now that sounds
a little bit boring for an audience
who’s not trying to build meta companies
perhaps although I hope you do but the
the reason I’m saying you should check
your solution let’s say you manage to
somehow
discover the cure for cancer you take
six pills and then you have the cure of
cancer you don’t need to do anything any
cancer
well if each pill costs a million euros
the healthcare system can’t afford it
anyway
we throw so much money at the healthcare
system a large chunk of entire country’s
GDP is just based on the health care
system and they really don’t have enough
resources to pick the best possible
solution they have to be cost effective
in fact there are already drugs in the
market that are better than the ones
being used because the healthcare system
can’t afford the the best possible drugs
finally so you’ve identified your
problem
you’ve got the solution you’ve checked
it’s cost-effective now what do you do
now you need to be confident and you
need to build your team you don’t need
to worry about credentials whether
you’re a medic or not that doesn’t
matter you don’t need to worry about
what the professors think because you
should have already built your entire
business purely on the facts and then on
the research instead of your opinion or
mine or someone else’s that’s not to say
you shouldn’t take other people’s
opinion seriously you should but just
look for the facts in their opinions and
that includes investors because when you
start raising money they’ll say a lot of
stuff so you don’t need to worry about
that but just base it on facts every
every single opinion that people give
make sure it’s factual okay so I want to
leave you with with something quite
simple which I think everyone can relate
to which is I want you to solve really
really tough problems because in reality
those are the problems I think that are
worth solving thank you very much [Applause]
build a medical technology startup and
why that’s important so first of all
let’s start from the beginning right
I met my co-founders fan at entrepreneur
first so entrepreneur first is a startup
program in London that brings together
people from all different backgrounds
and supports them in building tech
companies so as fern and I met there and
we decided we wanted to do something
really valuable something truly useful
for people not just some random little
startup not some optimizing some little
tiny thing but something that really has
an impact on society and so medical
technology clearly would be in that
space it’s very difficult because we’re
not really medics we have zero medical
background and we knew almost nothing
about the space meanwhile we started our
company last thing so no and just a tiny
little bit about what we did we were
creating software to diagnose a deadly
condition called deep vein thrombosis
now behind me you’ll see some ultrasound
images and our software analyzing it
don’t worry about the details but what
is trying to do is detect this condition
now for context DVT is a blood clot in
the deep veins of the leg and if part of
that clot breaks loose it goes up to
your lung and could cause something
called a pulmonary embolism and that can
lead to death in fact 800,000 people die
a year due to this condition or it’s
related conditions that’s more people
than breast cancer prostate cancer AIDS
and car accidents combined and so what
we wanted to do was what we’re doing I
suppose is creating software to help non
specialists such as nurses junior
doctors general practitioners to
diagnose this condition with the same
accuracy as a radiologist as a
specialist but the question is why start
a meta company in the first place
there are lots of different reasons I
mean I mentioned why we decided to start
one we wanted to help people and so
maybe people start med tech companies
because I want to help people a second
reason would be you want to get rich
which I think you know there are easier
ways to get rich than starting med tech
companies to be honest with you but that
is a fair point you can get rich maybe
it’s a mixture of the two you want to
help people and get rich at the same
time right or perhaps you’re just crazy
I mean we were we had we didn’t even
know the problem existed before we
started the company so it’s pretty crazy
the point I’m trying to make actually it
doesn’t really matter why you want to
start him a tech company what matters is
that you do because clearly health care
is a huge priority for both the
individual and society in general I mean
just think about your parents going to
hospital or if you go to hospital how
important is the technology they’re
extremely important it’s life-saving so
but the sadness of all is that I see a
lot of potential health care
entrepreneurs shy away trying away from
this space because of its perceived
difficulty investors get worried about
investing in med tech because they’re
worried that’s too risky it takes too
long and you know that’s fair enough
because there’s even a term for it that
there is some data to support this it’s
called the med tech value of death and
you know it’s a bit of a morbid term I
know but on the one side you see you
know startups and investors throwing
money and resources at this value of
death meanwhile their health care
systems on the other side and everyone
loses out to the entrepreneurs the
investors backing the entrepreneurs the
health care system and most importantly
the patients that’s you and me right
because new innovations that can improve
your life or perhaps save your life
can’t be introduced to the healthcare
system now I don’t think it has to be
this way I think with a few hints and
suggestions we can perhaps move past
this medtech value of death and and
introduce our innovations to the
healthcare system so how do we avoid the
medtech valley of death well I think
there’s a few things you can think about
the first thing is think big I see lots
of entrepreneurs who want to start med
tech companies and they
they want to solve marginal problems let
me give an example if you’re trying to
cure cancer you have technology that can
cure cancer or or our Zyliss disease
compare that to something like
optimizing patient note-taking to speed
up the process now don’t get me wrong I
know lots of startups do this there’s
nothing wrong with it I’m sure there’s
lots of money involved as well you know
but we’re not really talking about
groundbreaking technology now and if
you’re going to dedicate the next five
to ten years of your life building
something you might as well make it
worth building and even if it’s risky
and it might fail well at least you’ve
been trying to build something that’s
that’s that inspires other people and
that inspires you as well
because I think it’s actually the other
way around I think if you think big
you’re more likely to pass the medtech
valley of death because when you inspire
other people they want to help you and
it makes you less likely to succeed to
fail okay what’s the second point then
well the second point is actually
identify a problem you know so find the
problem in Messick whether it’s
Alzheimer’s disease or optimizing
patient notes that’s fine just identify
a problem first and then what do you do
next you double-check you actually
understand the problem let me give an
example so when we when we looked into
DVT we read every piece of research we
could find in fact I told swen read all
these eight research papers he’d never
read a medical research paper as far as
I know and he just read all of them just
to find out more about the condition and
the things surrounding it so we thought
you know we understand the problem you
know what we did then we triple-checked
that we understood the problem in fact
we went to doctors and spoke to them and
tried to buy a sim the other way so we
tried to say you know what DBT isn’t
really a problem is it and then we get
resistance and then see if they actually
push back on our comments about DVT you
know maybe it doesn’t cost cost very
much maybe it’s really fast to process
DVT patients so that’s what we did we
read every piece of research we could
find that opposes our our initial
assumptions and the reason I’m
emphasizing understanding the problem so
much is because it might seem obvious
but your entire business is going to be
based on this foundational assumption
that you actually understand the problem
you’re solving
okay fair enough so let’s say you’ve
actually done all this work and you’ve
understood the problem okay
presumably you have a solution to solve
this problem that’s what you’re offering
so you really need to check that the
solution can solve the actual problem
you identified you might hate me a
little bit but check that the solution
can in fact solve the problem you
identified in fact now you might be
bored because go back and check again
that for sure your solution can can
definitely solve the problem you’ve
identified right really check that the
solution can do it and let me give you
another story of why I think this is so
important from personal experience right
so initially with DVT we currently try
to do solve it with software but because
I’m a hardware engineer and my
co-founder is a software engineer and of
course I’m slightly rude and I decide
what happens and stuff and he’s much
nicer than me I decided we have to build
a hardware product to solve it we were
going to use lasers and shine light on
the leg and stuff and that’s how we’re
gonna detect it and we went to spoke to
professor’s we went to laser companies
and we completely and utterly failed
because it’s actually not possible to
solve this problem in this particular
way then we stopped almost gave up
reassessed and and thought about what if
we’re just neutral about what the
solution is maybe we can really solve
the problem and then we found out that
actually software and image processing
is a much better solution to this
problem
which is what we’re doing now in fact it
doesn’t necessarily even have to be a
software solution you have to be so
neutral as to wonder whether or not for
example DVT patients don’t even need a
tech solution you just need to raise
awareness for the problem maybe it’s a
regulatory problem or or it’s a finance
issue I don’t think it’s the case in in
our particular problem but it can be the
case in many other problems and I think
that’s another common pitfall that many
would-be meta entrepreneurs fela because
they haven’t picked the right solution
okay let’s say you’ve picked the problem
you triple checked it and you know your
solution is correct
now what final point checked out the
solutions cost effective now that sounds
a little bit boring for an audience
who’s not trying to build meta companies
perhaps although I hope you do but the
the reason I’m saying you should check
your solution let’s say you manage to
somehow
discover the cure for cancer you take
six pills and then you have the cure of
cancer you don’t need to do anything any
cancer
well if each pill costs a million euros
the healthcare system can’t afford it
anyway
we throw so much money at the healthcare
system a large chunk of entire country’s
GDP is just based on the health care
system and they really don’t have enough
resources to pick the best possible
solution they have to be cost effective
in fact there are already drugs in the
market that are better than the ones
being used because the healthcare system
can’t afford the the best possible drugs
finally so you’ve identified your
problem
you’ve got the solution you’ve checked
it’s cost-effective now what do you do
now you need to be confident and you
need to build your team you don’t need
to worry about credentials whether
you’re a medic or not that doesn’t
matter you don’t need to worry about
what the professors think because you
should have already built your entire
business purely on the facts and then on
the research instead of your opinion or
mine or someone else’s that’s not to say
you shouldn’t take other people’s
opinion seriously you should but just
look for the facts in their opinions and
that includes investors because when you
start raising money they’ll say a lot of
stuff so you don’t need to worry about
that but just base it on facts every
every single opinion that people give
make sure it’s factual okay so I want to
leave you with with something quite
simple which I think everyone can relate
to which is I want you to solve really
really tough problems because in reality
those are the problems I think that are
worth solving thank you very much [Applause]
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