Commercializing a Disruptive Technology in a Hospital with Multiple Decision Makers and Influencers - Featuring Joe Steele - Mastering Medical Device

Episode Transcript
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Patrick Kothe (00:33):
LWelcome! Launching an innovative product
in today's matrix medical systemis more complex than it's ever
been.
We all think we have wonderfultechnology, and if people would
just listen, they would see howwonderful we truly are.
One of the problems is that somany people are impacted by any

(00:54):
technology change in health careand we don't always do a good
enough job of understanding howwhat we're proposing impacts
each one of them.
My guest today is Joe Steele,Head of Commercialization at
Hemosonics, where they'reproviding point of care
solutions to help cliniciansmake more informed decisions on

(01:17):
blood product usage.
Joe is an experienced,successful commercialization
expert who will help unravelsome of these complexities and
provide insights into how youcan be more successful selling
in today's environment.
In our conversation, we discusswhy moving up the ladder too

(01:39):
fast may not be the best way togo; why experiencing failure
will help in the long run; howto use wisdom from past
experiences and apply it to newsituations; the challenges of
hiring, training, and managing agroup of hard charging people;
getting into the C suite, andhow Hemosonics is helping

(02:03):
doctors make blood product usagedecisions quicker and better.
Here's our conversation.
Joe, you've had quite aninteresting career being with
some of the top medical devicecompanies in the world.
And can you give us a little bitof a background on where you've

(02:23):
been and what areas that you'vebeen involved in?

Joe Steele (02:27):
So I've spent nearly my entire, adult career,
honestly, after graduation wasin short stint in finance, but
really has been at the major,strategic organizations and med
tech.
So for the last 25 years, since98, I've really been doing this
and loving it.
I was incredibly fortunate.
I started off at J&J.
Um, within a kind of a startupincubator environment.

(02:48):
So we were the first women'shealth focused medical device
company working on quality oflife issues that are standard of
care solutions today.
I stayed in a women's healthcare with Smith and Nephew and
Bayer, launching some of theirproducts.
Then I transitioned over to amore disruptive solution sell,
with a small company called RFSurgical that was acquired by,

(03:09):
Medtronic.
I stayed on at Medtronic and Ireally enjoyed my time there.
Got a chance to lead a nationalteam.
We were the fastest growing,medical device unit within their
patient safety group.
And then I've transitioned overto a, an executive leadership
position.
as head of commercial withHemosonics and we're in the
diagnostics and acute,hemostasis business.

A couple of things there.
Women's health has been more ofa forgotten specialty for a lot
of years and it seems like it isreally moved up in the last
several years, but you werethere 25 years ago.
So tell me a little bit aboutthe evolution of women's health

(03:53):
products within our industry.

Joe Steele (03:55):
For sure.
So yeah, 25 years ago, we werereally doing some groundbreaking
work in not only bringingdevices to market as a minimally
invasive alternatives to largerprocedures like hysterectomies.
We brought devices to market,not just in terms of surgery,
but actual, class three, medicaldevices through the FDA process.

(04:19):
More importantly, what J and Jdid, and it was part of
Ethicon's Gynacare company atthe time, they spent millions
and millions of dollars onphysician education in disease
state management.
and also we were the firstreally to do direct to consumer
marketing and awarenesscampaigns, you know, stress
urinary incontinence,menorrhagia.

(04:41):
These were all very taboo 25years ago.
One of the saddest things is thesecond that you take your foot
off the gas on women's health,they're, it just, the volume, is
lost.
And as J& J transitioned out ofthat women's health business,
You know, very successfully, butabout a decade later, it's, I'm

(05:01):
glad to see some new, bright,amazing companies come to the
space with incredible solutions.
But it is also saddening at sometime to think 25 years of
investment, and we're stilltalking about some of the taboo
things that we should be, thatwe would never hesitate.
We talk about prostate cancerand prostate solutions and

(05:21):
erectile dysfunction everysingle day in every room in
America, but it's, it's harderto talk about women's health
issues.
And I'm just.
So glad that we've got someamazing, women, young,
incredibly talented womenleading the charge with
incredible startups in thespace, not only from diagnostics
to, minimally invasive devicesto, endometriosis research, just

(05:45):
things that are affecting, allthe women in all of our lives
every day.

And investment seems to be flowing in that
direction investment had beenvery difficult to get in that
area and it seems like that'sopening up as well.

Joe Steele (05:56):
Yeah, for sure.
We've seen a floodgate in thelast few years, and I just hope
that continues because that'swhat it takes, right?
it takes millions and millionsof dollars and thousands of
people working every day tobring something to fruition.

So you have been in large companies and been in
startup divisions in in largecompanies.
And you're with a smallercompany now.
So tell me a little bit aboutlarge company, small company
differences that, that you'veseen throughout your career and,
and, and those small divisionswithin large companies.

Joe Steele (06:28):
I think if there ever could have been a better
place to be, I can't imagine itthan when I was at Ethicon
Gynacare.
I just have to say that.
Shout out.
We were brought in, givenunlimited funding and unlimited,
ability to advance women'shealthcare.
When we had great ideas, andgreat research.
we were funded.
We launched 15 products in 10years.

(06:48):
I talked to other smallcompanies about that and they'll
say, how were you able to dothat?
When I was at Smith and Nephewor some of the other large
strategic that wanted to makeinvestments in, adjacent
markets, um, Joe, how did youguys do that?
I'm like, well, we werecommitted to it, right?
There was a, there's a hugefinancial and, and pathwise
legacy commitment that thoselarge companies made to some of

(07:11):
those markets, right.
Um, You know, it isn't like wedidn't make mistakes as well.
I mean, we had early mistakesand Intuitive.
We had early mistakes and someof the other markets and Ethicon
just passed on them.
So I was very fortunate to workwith a group of leaders who had
vision, and were radical, alittle bit out there on, on the
edge, you know, in the earlydays at J& J to make those big

(07:32):
investments.
When I think about some of thelarge strategics and the
differences.
I've worked at Medtronic.
They've got some amazinglytalented people there as well.
But when we talk about, thedifference between highly
matricid environments and,cutting edge, startup, eat what
you kill and you better beamazing from day one, and we're
not going to train you, weexpect you to have that when you

(07:54):
get here.
Those are just very differentthings.
And I think they attractdifferent people, with different
skill sets and different wantsand desires.
So.
I've been fortunate enough toseen all of it.
I would love to be who wouldn'twant to be at like a Medtronic
or a J and J or an Intuitive andbe given the keys to the kingdom
in an unlimited budget, andreally no one saying you can't

(08:14):
do that.
That'd be great.
But that just doesn't reallyhappen.
It certainly doesn't happenanymore.
At the large strategics, that'swhy they're acquiring, right?
It's very hard to developanything from within.
We were very fortunate to havesome amazing engineers and some
really good insight fromphysicians, Everything we built
at Ethicon Gyna Care.
We had a couple acquisitions,but a lot of that came from, in

(08:35):
a lot of the material sciencestuff came from within house,
came from core competencies andthen development outwards, I
think now.
You just see a lot of thestrategics that are, they're
acquiring what they don't have,right?
If it's Boston Scientificacquiring Exonix, it's, hey,
neuromodulation maybe evenbetter than we do.
And this is amazing.
And you've already got it up andoff on the ground and got

(08:56):
momentum.
We're just going to do that.
So I think acquisitions haveplayed, are the way they're
making that happen.
And some of them do it reallywell.
I don't know if anybody does itbetter than Smith and Nephew,
our Stryker, I should say, interms of just bolt on
acquisitions that just tend tobring value, they do a really
great job with stuff like that.
So yeah, you're either, you needto be at a strategic that is,
that has that kind of Strykermentality of finding the great

(09:18):
things to bolt on and then areally good team to let them do
it.
or, you go create your own pathat a startup, which is, what
I've chosen to do as well.

So today's discussion, we're going to be
focusing more on thecommercialization side, not on
the product development side,because you have built a very
successful career on thecommercialization of new
technologies.
Tell me how you do that.
What is the pathway?
We got sales, we got marketing,business development.
Tell me your journey.

(09:48):
in getting, your expertise builtin, commercialization.

Joe Steele (09:53):
I've been fortunate enough to have started in sales
and get my footing in sales.
So being in front of the enduser, the customer, in the
trenches, so to speak, carryinga bag and then move into sales
training from sales traininglead, go into sales leadership,
very, regimented matrix,environment that I was in at j
and j, in terms of training.

(10:13):
And then I've had an opportunityto also do upstream and
downstream marketing.
And then finally in this lastposition, a taste of kind of
like, how do we put it alltogether?
To create a commercial launchorganization that can be
successful on the timeline thatwe're all demanded to be on
these days.
The success you'll find incommercialization comes from

(10:37):
having a toolbox that is deepenough and broad enough and
diverse enough you can draw fromit because when you move to that
early commercial company, thatstartup company, besides your
board, you don't have anyonegoing like, hey, you know what
it really be a good idea?
You should try this Joe.
Like that just isn't there,right?
You're expected to be thatperson.
And that is, that's challengingfor anyone who hasn't led.

(11:01):
It is never about, Pat, it'snever about tenure really.
It's about how many experienceshave you been able to get under
your belt?
I'm rewatching band of brothers.
And in two years, like thoseguys went through so many
experiences.
that they became hardcore, justexperts.
And they looked at the new guyslike, yeah, you, you got to do
this, but it wasn't about being50 years old or going to West

(11:23):
Point, it was about living longenough and acquiring the
knowledge necessary, to move onto the next stage.
And I think that's been part ofmy success.
I've just.
I've lived long enough, I guess,so you know, and I had like
nothing's killed me yet.
So I guess that's a good thing.

Yeah, I just wrote a post on LinkedIn, as a
matter of fact, talking aboutexperience and experience is not
your resume, where you've been.
Experience is all of the thingsthat you've picked up along the
way, all of the skills thatyou've picked up.
Because as we build thoseskills, now we can look for
patterns within differentthings.
Because every I've launched, 50plus devices in my career.

(12:02):
Every device is different.
Every situation is different.
Every customer is different.
And if you apply the exact samecookbook for the 50th device as
you did for the 30th, it's notgoing to work because you've got
to, you've got to put your newsituation in, but you draw on
all of these other experiencesthat you had in order to have a

(12:27):
good solution to the problem andnot just saying, well, I did
this last time, this is going towork this time.

Joe Steele (12:33):
Oh my gosh, there's there's probably no sooner rate
of failure in the dynamicenvironment that we're in right
now than to think that whatworked before will work again.
If you that does you're probablylucky or you haven't strayed
very far, or you're not insomething disruptive, you're
just applying.
But I gotta tell you, I I, it'syou in your career, if you're
not striving to learn somethingnew every day, to never be the

(12:55):
smartest person in the room tosurround yourself by, by people
who can bring you to the nextlevel, will give you those
experiences, then you'reshortchanging your career,

And I'll speak from my own personal experience.
When I was younger and early inmy career, boy, I thought I knew
everything.
And it took some humbling tounderstand that I don't.
And as you described your careergrowing up on the sales side and
then moving to sales trainingand management, I have got a

(13:25):
similar background.
Started carrying a bag and thenmoved up, moved over into
marketing and then took overother leadership positions as
you move on.
And every time that I moved up,you start realizing, boy, I
don't know as much as I thoughtI knew.
Boy, I wish I would have gottenmore information before that.
So, I've become more humble overthe years.

Joe Steele (13:49):
It's not only what you don't know.
It's what you don't know.
You don't know, right?
It's, it is.
And the breadth of theexperiences that you can bring
in are really what help wouldhelp.
And I think one of the actual,biggest derailers you can have
if you want longevity and youwant to increase responsibility
of roles over your career isthat you have to be enrolled

(14:10):
long enough to actually havethose experiences.
if your goal is I'm going tomove, I'm going to move, I'm
going to move, I'm going tomove.
I can guarantee you this.
There's like one in a thousandpeople that can move out of a
role within a year, and haveactually gained the experience
from that role to go to the nextlevel.
And then there just becomes thisself limiting ceiling where
you're like, you just get toproblems you can't solve.
if you're that one kid fromBoston that, solves the problems

(14:32):
on the wall of Harvard.
You might be able to getthrough, but if you're like the
rest of us, you have to acquire,you know, uh, course one before
course two before course threebefore you start going into,
algebra, trigonometry, and therest.
Like, you have to have thatbase.
You can't just start attrigonometry and start doing
advanced mathematics day one.

(14:53):
You have to have exposure tothose things, for most of us, 99
percent of us.

and I think the other interesting thing is, when
we promote people, we're goingto pro, if that's a top
performer, he's had success,we're going to promote that
person.
Now they got success.
Okay.
And they're going to promotethat person.
The valued learning comes fromfailure.
that's where the real value oflearning comes in.
So if you are not in a positionlong enough to experience

(15:18):
failure, okay.
As I said, I've launched over 50products.
Not all of them have been great.
Some have been dogs and some ofthem, some of them were my
fault.
And when you have to look backand say, what did I contribute
to that?
Well, I don't want to go throughthat again.
Let's let's feed that learningback in.
But as if we just promote theperson who's never had that at

(15:42):
some point, they're going to runinto it.

Joe Steele (15:44):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
embracing the never wanting tobe the smartest person in the
room, embracing looking for thediversity of opportunity and
experience and always being onthe edge.
If you're uncomfortable, you'reprobably learning.
You know, my grandfather said,you know, you know, we don't
learn something when we do itright.
We learn something when we do itwrong.
And there's been a number oflike alpha chargers that have

(16:07):
gone from.
Every facet of their life to notreally ever doing it wrong.
Like we all know the person thatcould do the backflip day one,
right?
They can just do it.
Can they teach it to someoneelse?
Can they scale that?
That's the big thing, right?
When you bring your leaders in,they have to be able to help you
scale an organization.
So they have to be able to teachor be able to scale the teaching

(16:27):
through others to lead throughothers.
You know, that becomes thelargest skill set you have to
learn and that's really hard todo when you haven't failed.

So looking at the beginning of your career and
where you're at right now, didyou realize that at the
beginning of your career?
Did you say, I need to havethese experiences.
I need to stay in for a periodof time.
I need to move from thisdiscipline to that discipline in
order to get to the level that Iwant to want to go to.

Joe Steele (16:51):
Oh my god, no, I was that kid that like, you know,
that stove is hot.
Let me just try it, you know, Iwas You know, I had to test it
out.
No, I was immature.
I, I came from, I worked on WallStreet a little bit.
I had been a finance guy, had,some swagger and I got brought
into this, crazy world of medtech and, I was really just
thought I had to be promotedevery two years and the faster I
moved up, the better I moved up.

(17:13):
You know, I moved myself and myfamily three, four times in
those years.
A lot of sacrifices.
And ultimately, looking back onmy career and I see some of the
people.
that have done it really welland super efficiently.
It's more about thethoughtfulness of their choices,
their willingness to take nonlinear roles that brought

(17:34):
additional perspective.
I think one of the biggestthings I've seen that helps
create success for theindividual, success for the
organization is those folksthat, say I'm going to go take a
country manager position at XUS.
I'm gonna go see the rest of theworld, right?
I think that's probably one ofthe biggest missteps I made
early on is I didn't view the exUS as having the value that the

(17:55):
US had.
It's super, super, you know,immature, just thinking, right?
Very fatalistic.
US is the best kind of thing.
And, what you learn is there'ssomething you can learn from
everywhere.
and there's perspectives that wehave to bring in to create that
diversity of.
Of thought.
but yeah, it's, I look back onit.
No, I wasn't that person.
I, I was, I thought I was afailure when I wasn't promoted.

(18:18):
And you know, I became aregional manager at Ethicon in
two and a half, three years.
It was almost unheard of, butvery, very rare.
And then it's like, all right,what do I do from here and what
do I do from there?
And ultimately, hopefully youfind a mentor and they will take
you to say, listen, if you'renot acquiring this, and this, in
this timeframe, I'll give you agreat example.
we built such amazingly greatteams, mostly because we had

(18:41):
amazing products.
We never actually got to testthose folks in really
challenging positions.
Because the technology was soamazing.
So guess what?
I didn't have to learn how tohire unbelievable talent because
the product was amazing.
That's good.
It's not a bad thing.
It's just good.
And I didn't have to, I didn'thave HR issues.
I didn't have a lot of thosethings that many first, second

(19:02):
year managers deal with.
I didn't deal with that till 15,20 years into my career because
I'd always been in a position ofrising, sometimes of my own
doing, but a lot of timescarried by product and team and
company.
And yeah, that was just theperfect example for me.
I don't.
I didn't have many people Ifired.
I actually promoted nearly allof my people.
That's the, that coaching andgrowing and skill sets.

(19:23):
I didn't acquire those too muchlater in my career as opposed to
some of my peers.
Oh, like on day one may have hadjust a crazy HR issue.
Like it's just a skill set youwork through.
They got in day three.
I did not have that until day,year five.
That's different.

As the saying goes, success is a great
deodorant.
We live through a lot of thingsthat, um, problems that are
under the surface because we'rebeing so successful and only
when the worm turns do we start,start understanding, I guess I
wasn't as good as I thought Iwas.

Joe Steele (19:58):
If you're not questioning your success every
day, you're just waiting forfailure to happen.
I mean, in the good times, whenyou are rising, that's the best
opportunity to take a break,understand your success, and
understand your frailties andthe weak spots, and you address
them then, right?
You don't want to address themas the bullets are flying.
You address them in the downmoments between the battles.

So we hear a lot about, current generation,
younger people coming in, cominginto the workforce and having
that, um, thought that, I wantto get, I want to learn more.
I want to get promoted everyyear or two years.
Is that new or did we do thesame thing?

Joe Steele (20:36):
I think the percentage of people that are
doing it now is just different.
We certainly had hard chargers,right?
As when we were going throughthe system 25, 30 years ago, and
we were both one of those, Imean, I just wanted it, you
wanted it more, put my hand up,I'll move, I'll do those things.
I see incredible greatness andintelligence, and creativity

(20:57):
from this next generation.
And I think that also has to be,put in the capsule of you're not
going to have everything on dayone.
Um, you're not with a terriblecompany if they can't promote
you in day one.
Part of the hard part it's goingto be for the startups is
attracting that talent andgetting them to stay right.
If you're not growing a thousandpercent and you're not getting

(21:17):
promoted six times, are theyleaving?
Also, if you're with a companywith an unbelievable mission,
you will retain your people.
I was underpaid at J and J.
I'll just say that out loud.
I was completely grosslyunderpaid.
We were a startup growing at 50percent per year.
We went from zero to 500 millionin eight years.
And I don't think any of us evermade more than 200 grand.

(21:38):
Like, I mean, it just, like,just, we weren't paid that way.
We're that generation beforethe, and the Ethicon guys and
gals before us were paid evenless.
But I had this unbelievably wellarticulated vision, that I was
able to enroll myself in, thebetter good of what we were
doing in that belief, and that'swhat held me in that position
probably to my own careerdetriment.

(21:58):
And I think with today's teamsand today's, folks, you're
either going to have to paythem, you're going to have to
unbelievably challenge them, oryou're going to, they're going
to have to be enrolled in avision.
So I just, I just think there'sa greater number of those people
that are now like, I don't haveto be with one company 20 years,
Joe, and I can go to sevencompanies in eight years and I

(22:19):
can give them a solid year ateach.
and I think that's probably truefor the top 0.
01 percent of the talent that'sout there and the rest of the
town.
I, it's a little bit of, you'rekidding yourself if you, if
you're thinking that's thereality of the world, cause it
certainly isn't anymore in termsof company's ability to move
people that quickly.
And we face that in our businesstoday.

(22:39):
I've had, had some, positive,negative attrition where people
just don't feel like they'removing as fast as they can move.
And I'm like, I've promoted youtwice in two and a half years
and you have double theresponsibility you had and the
company's growing at a hundredpercent.
What, what, what is yourdefinition of fast?

And that's, that's a great challenge because
you, you could put theartificial things out there.
Well, I'm going to go fromproduct manager one to product
manager two to senior productmanager, and you're doing the
same thing, but you're getting abump in salary and a bump in
title, but are you reallylearning anything?
I mean, that's one way toartificially do that.
But if you're truly promotingsomebody, but you're doing it at

(23:19):
a rate that's, An artificialrate, you're not allowing them
to learn.
And as we talked about to reallyget those positives and negative
experiences through there,you're holding onto those
people.
But are you really developingthose people?

Joe Steele (23:36):
Let's be honest.
I mean, the development is aluxury, that is held by the
medium to strategics becausethey have the time, energy,
money, and resources to developpeople, right?
It's much, much harder to be inan early commercial or startup
experience where you have thetime, energy, you always have
the want and willingness todevelop people and bring in

(23:57):
great talent.
But when you're moving from.
surviving to, to thriving inthat adoption curve.
it's really hard to say, Hey,you know what, let me give you a
couple hours of my time to giveyou my experience and let's walk
through that.
that is, I feel like that's oneof my largest challenges in
early commercial is, if you'rebringing in people that want
development, I don't know thatthat's the right place.

(24:19):
I'd love to say we live in a,Panacea, perfect world of, Hey
man, we're growing a hundredpercent per year.
And I'm so amazing at my job asa leader.
I have time to give to you thatapparently no one else gave you
in your career, but really earlycommercial startup.
I should be bringing in peoplethat are better at the job than
I can be.
I should be a net importer oftalent and they should already

(24:40):
know how to do that job and thejob above them when they come
in, because that's what the.
That is what I'm offering them.
I'm offering the opportunity tocut the line.
You can stay at Medtronic.
You can stay at J& J.
You can stay, you know, atStriker and they're amazing
companies for great people.
And that'll take you this long.
Um, if you have that samesuccess here, you can probably
do it in a third of the time, orthrough equity or some kind of

(25:02):
other reward.
Or I honestly, I think thebiggest reward Pat today is to
be part of something that trulymoves the needle on patient care
or patient outcomes.
Not all of us in med tech havehad that ability, right?
If you're in durable medical,maybe you haven't had that
ability, but if you havelaunched a product that becomes

(25:22):
standard of care and impactedmillion of people to, even if
you're the janitor in thatcompany, you got to be a part of
something great.
And I think that's why many ofus stay in, in med tech, is to
be a part of something greatonce in your life in terms of
giving back and doing somethingpositive.

I completely agree.
One of the, one of the things aswe're talking about this and
we're talking about buildingskills and how the industry is
changing, how our companies arechanging, how our management has
to change.
One of the skills that we reallyneed to also develop is training
because we know that If this isthe case, we're going to have

(26:02):
greater turnover.
You still need to havecompetency in your organization.
So how do you bring somebody inand get them competent as
quickly as possible, knowingthat they may be gone in two
years, but your mission is stillthere.
You still need to need to movethat forward.
The odds of me having turnoverare higher than what they were

(26:23):
10 years ago, and how am I goingto address that?
What systems am I going to putin place to make sure that I've
got continuity when somebodydoes leave?

Joe Steele (26:33):
Yeah, 100%.
And here's the other thing.
if you are not large enough toput those systems in place, then
outsource them.
Don't give up on something thatis an absolute must.
You have to be able to trainyour people.
The training can be a littledifferent, right?
It's, I'm not, we're not goingto train selling.
I'm going to train you on how tosell our product.
I think that gets lost in themix sometimes.

(26:54):
Like I'm going to, I'm going totrain you on our specific value
proposition to each of the fivestakeholders in this ecosystem
that we're trying to disrupt.
Training is absolute.
It never stops.
We struggle a little bit with itjust because of our size, and
not having a dedicated function.
Um, and that's when we're goingto be able to do it.
You are also hoping that you'vebrought other people into your

(27:15):
organization.
And we have recently that havetraining background that are
going to, they're going to be,you have to, if you're hopefully
bringing in some profiles thatare like, listen, I want to see
this thing win and I'm going todo whatever you need.
You made you some training todayand I have the background to do
it.
Great.
And we have to rely on ourpeople, to be, utility players
at times, like you're going todo your day job and I need you
to do this.

(27:35):
Is that this environment youthink you can thrive in?
Yeah, man.
I'd love to do that when I'm notdoing this I can do that.
But like I said, if you don'thave those resources outsourcing
them.
is a great solution as well.
There's plenty of companies outthere that will get you will
provide you that, that resource.

So I want to talk a little bit about Hemosonics,
kind of what you're doing rightnow, and then I want to go back
to the commercialization processand where we are today.
Because it's, it's reallymorphed in the 25 years that
you've been in it.
But, and part of it has to dowith how we Look at marketplaces

(28:14):
today versus, even, five yearsago.
What's changed?
But let's let's kind of lay downwhat Hemosonics is and the
challenge that you've gotten theopportunity that you've got to
help patients

Joe Steele (28:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
So Hemosonics is a innovativetechnology company.
We play in the whole blooddiagnostics arena.
And within that we are in theacute bleeding management part
of it.
So we are in the OR at point ofcare, helping physicians make

(28:46):
optimized decisions ontransfusion therapy.
We help them, we give them ahuge piece of information and a
very accessible and easy tointerpret diagnostic, uh,
parameter, and we do it in nearreal time.
So you're in the CVOR.
You've got a patient that'soozing or bleeding.
We can run it.
We can run basically with 2 or3ml of blood.

(29:07):
We can run a whole blood samplein the OR with a system the size
of a small printer, sitting offin the corner and in 12 minutes
we've got all of the parametersthat really help to define, do
we have a coagulopathic bleed?
Or hey doc, did you nicksomething that we didn't see?
And having that information atyour fingertips.
creates efficiency, reducescost.
Obviously it drives optimalpatient, therapy.

(29:29):
and let's not forget we were in,uh, you know, post COVID, we
were in critical blood and bloodproduct shortages.
We will be for the next decade.
We never have enough blood.
When products are used more ofin a shotgun approach, like I
don't really know what thepatient needs.
I'm not going to wait for thattest to come back from the lab,
right?
Lab does an amazing job.

(29:49):
There's some of our bestpartners.
They are the backbone of thediagnostics and they really
impact patient care.
But if I've got a patientbleeding in the OR, sending to
the lab, down the street, just,logistically doesn't work.
We,

So prior to your technology, prior to this 12
minutes, give me the, give methe scenario, patients on the
table, bleed happens, whathappens prior to your
technology?

Joe Steele (30:16):
prior to my technology, they would take a
sample, they would run it to thelab.
the lab would put it in thequeue with everything else they
have.
If it's marked stat, it's markedstat, but you've got travel time
right to the lab.
Oh, maybe it's not, it's never,the lab's never on the same
floor as the OR you might have astat lab, but you probably
don't.
It's probably down in thebasement.
If you're at some of the majoracademics, it's down the street.

(30:37):
And they would run that test,and maybe at the best, it might
be 45 minutes, could be an hour,could be an hour and a half.
But

What's going on in, and what's going on in the
OR when that's, when that 45minutes an hour is happening?

Joe Steele (30:51):
Exactly.
That's what I asked thephysicians.
I'm like, so what's happeningwhile you're waiting for that?
Well, it's a hemodynamicallythat patient's a completely
different patient.
That patient's a differentpatient minute to minute, let
alone, looking at the clinicalpresentation of what's going on
in the OR, waiting an hour and ahalf, the results come back.
You're like, Hey, that's great.
I look at it and I look at itlike I'm on the highway and I'm

(31:12):
using Waze.
But the latency on Waze is anhour.
That doesn't really help menavigate traffic, right?
Like, oh, I should have takenthe left at Albuquerque an hour
ago.
Okay.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I can't do that now.
You know what I mean?
Like, you know, it's a bug'sbunny.
ah, thanks.
I should have taken a left.
Like I, I can't do that now.
Um, you know, and, and also, youknow, we help navigate the

(31:35):
siloed nature of the lab doingeverything they can do to be the
backbone of diagnostics.
And then the clinician ispatient facing.
Those are silos.
the lab doesn't see the patient,they don't actually have that
and they don't always understandthe need for the immediacy and
urgency of the results,especially in cardiac.

10 years ago, if you were introducing this
product into the system, howwould you have introduced it?

Joe Steele (32:08):
Well, 10 years ago, uh, would have been much easier.
Uh, but how would I haveintroduced it?
I think we would have had to doa lot of education.
We would have built as we wouldtoday, not much different.
We would build out valuepropositions for each of the
stakeholders.
Knowing what we know now, wewould look back and understand

(32:28):
the importance of the decisionmaker in the lab, right?
So when you've got siloeddecision makers, that don't
actually talk and yet alone, theother complexities, they don't
actually hold the budget for theother one.
I need to use somethingclinically, but over here, I'm
going to pay for it.
And I don't have any benefit inmy department from the great
outcome over here.
That's been our law.

(32:49):
That's the, that's a largechallenge for many organizations
is.
At the enterprise level, it isabsolutely the right thing to
do.
At the patient level, it'sabsolutely the right thing to
do.
I use this in the best waypossible.
The dysfunction in the box inthe middle is how do we get
everyone aligned to the samepage that don't have the same
incentives or don't have thesame alignment to the outcome.

(33:11):
but I, if you were hard pressedme, I'd say, yeah, 10 years ago,
we start with a lot ofeducation, around connecting the
dots between the diagnostic andthe lab team and the
stakeholders, the cliniciansthat actually have to administer
that, and the anesthesiologistthat have to act in the blood
bank that actually has to givethat product out.

(33:31):
Having a better education andawareness on that.
It would start with openconversations and webinars
around that.
This is the problem.
This is the impact to thepatient first, always.
This is what you're doing andyou don't know, and this is what
you're doing.
And you do know, and crosstracking that, you know, across
those silos to give them, To, todiffuse the animosity of you're

(33:54):
not giving me what I need.
That's not my job to how do weput the patient in the middle of
that?
And then also I probably wouldstart very high level with, the
C suite, which is what we'redoing building now, which is
that value proposition aroundthe enterprise value of bringing
technology and it's not justabout cost.

(34:16):
It's it, but it has to beprofitable.
Let's just face it.
If it's not really profitable orat least net neutral.
It's not that hospitals aren'twilling or wanting.
It's that there's so many thingsin front of you, that they can,
that they're looking at today.
And today's even harder.

So 10 15 years ago, um, the decision maker is
probably different than it istoday.
Who was the decision maker 10 15years ago?

Joe Steele (34:44):
15 years ago, I can bring this to one cardiothoracic
surgeon.
They'd be like, yep, we needthat Joe.
And it's in, go get a PO.
Like that just was the way itworked.
Probably up until a decade ago.
and I don't know that's right.
I don't know that it's wrong.
It certainly worked for us.
and, but I've also been on theright side of amazing
technologies.
So was it easier?
Yeah, but it was also betterbecause patients got access.

(35:07):
I think the best systems, I'mtalking to people would probably
be a value analysis committeethat has a heavy influence or,
has a partnership with leadclinic that there's a clinician
involved in the value analysiscommittee, right?
When we were in patient safety,we'd have people literally going
Hey, your gauze is this, andthat gauze is that, and like,

(35:27):
this is just gauze.
I'm like, wow, you missed thewhole solution part of it.
The technology in the gauze toprevent the retained surgical
item, and that isn't on yourline.
This isn't mesh to mesh.
It's not, stapler to stapler.
This is solution.
It's much harder than solution,disruptive technology, because
you're not replacing something.
You are creating a new operatingsystem, that should yield better

(35:50):
results.
So in my mind, the optimalsystem is having your, having a
key financial, key, operationaland key clinical, delegates on
your value analysis committee todo true value analysis and to
let the vendor have and theindustry have a voice in there
that way.

I wanted to start back 10, 15 years ago, because I
think it's important for us torealize that, the world has
changed, but we also, those ofus that have been in the
industry for a while, we've gotstuff that's embedded in us.
And, we look at it from thatway.
Somebody coming in new to theindustry would say, well, you
guys are nuts.
You know, that, that's, as yousaid, you didn't know if it was

(36:31):
right for that CT surgeon 10years ago to say, I want that,
bring it in.
Yeah.
and it shows up.
I think what we had at thatpoint, we had a lot of stuff
that came into the hospital anda lot of money that was spent
and that wasn't used, for avariety of reasons.
So was it a good, was it a goodsystem 10, 15 years ago?

(36:53):
Well, if you're selling aproduct, a one time product,
yeah, it was pretty good foryou, but was it good for the
system?
Well, if it's not going to beutilized and you're just
spending money in there andit's, taking up room in the
corner of the OR.
Not so good.
So let's talk about today'senvironment.
And I think as you described theVAC committee and having
multiple stakeholders in thismatrix sales process, what is

(37:19):
the best way today to introducea technology like yours in this
changed environment?

Joe Steele (37:29):
So we are like three levels of complexity from where
we were, 10, 15 years ago.
So in a nutshell, like I said,like you were mentioning, Pat,
that chief surgeon could bringsomething in right, wrong and
different.
It happened, five or 10 yearsago, value analysis really
started to take over theprocess, um, you know, in the
last few years we have had theability to have clinical

(37:50):
operational input to that.
I think today to be successfulin your commercial launch, you
have to develop valuepropositions for each of those
stakeholders in their own nativelanguage.
What is important for each ofthose stakeholders?
To understand how does thatladder up to the benefit of

(38:13):
them, their patient, theirdepartment, how does that ladder
up to the greater good of theorganization, tying it into the
enterprise goals of theorganization.
So we're working more of a topdown, bottom up approach, right?
Where I want to meet with the Csuite.
I want them to understand ourmission of an org, as an

(38:33):
organization.
And why should this be on?
Why should this be in the topfive of your war room?
So this year, my goal, right?
Or our goal, right?
Is how do we get to be that top10?
Nothing else is going to getdone besides those.
You're going to have contractswitch outs, suture for suture,
mesh for mesh, this, for that,stapler for stapler, ENT for
ENT, that all gets done withcontracts, everything else

(38:55):
that's new and it's bigger andbetter, or as disruptive is
going to be put on a board andit, and you're going to be
competing with other enterpriseinitiatives.
So we look at it from theperspective of I have to have an
enterprise value proposition.
Okay, you are spending 30million a year on blood

(39:15):
acquisition.
That's the hard cost.
Hey, Joe, why isn't my teambringing this to me?
then I have to be able toexplain why is this not
organically coming up to the Csuite internally, right?
So I have to find a nice way tonot call their baby ugly, but
say, Hey, there's justorganizational dysfunction.
there is everywhere for us it'shey, the lab does this amazing

(39:36):
job.
They're not tied into thecardiac surgery OR.
They don't see the need.
The cardiac surgeon justbelieves something should show
up tomorrow, doesn't understandthe complexity of bringing a
point of care device in, andthey're siloed.
So no one is going to bring thatto you because of the siloed
nature of the organization,right?
It's why amazing ideas don't gofrom the janitor to Jeff Martha

(40:00):
at, at, you know, at Medtronic,right?
Because there's too much In themiddle.
We have to have a really goodway we explain that to the C
suite.
And then for every otherstakeholder, like you have to
look at it.
What problem does this solve forthem?
We all talk about how we'regoing to save OR minutes.
We're going to save dollars.
That's level one.
You need level two, level threeinsight.

(40:23):
How are you saving thosedollars?
Where do those dollars actuallymap to within the organization,
right?
If, and here's the hard part, ifno one's actually accounting for
those dollars, they don't reallyknow they're lost and you're in
trouble because it's no oneactually cares in the middle.
because they're not being heldaccountable for it.
In patient safety, we hadamazing hospitals, where the OR

(40:43):
was not held accountable forcertain outcomes, and they
weren't measured against it, butthe budget to supply our product
came from them.
So they're like, Joe, why wouldI spend$300,000 more on this
when I'm not even heldaccountable to that?
And that's when I have to go tothe C suite and go, you have a
disconnect.
You have amazing people downhere doing amazing work, but

(41:05):
they're never going to bring youthis because they're not aligned
to the outcome that you, isactually on your dashboard.
So you have to find out whatdoes the dashboard look like for
the people you're working withand that are integral to the
decision process.
Because if you can impact theirdashboard, that's a really good
thing.
And then fine tuning andrefining that message so that it

(41:27):
lands and resonates and it's socompelling that they are moved
to action, easier said than donefor sure.
But that's the template thatwe're using.

What's challenging is that you talk
about the different stakeholdersin there and finding value props
for each of the stakeholders.
Sometimes there's a negativevalue prop for somebody.
Where you say, we're going to dothis work and it's going to be
moved into the OR.
And now we don't need as much,as many people, so we're going
to, we're going to downsize yourdepartment in the lab because

(41:58):
you're not going to be doingthat.
Well, they're not going to betoo happy about, embracing this
new technology, thatstakeholder, but it's better for
the patient.
The, the, the, the OR team isgoing to be much happier.
It's going to be better at the,at the C suite level.
So managing this process issometimes complex.

(42:19):
And the other thing is, I wantto ask you about face time in
the C suite, because we keephearing that, people are,
establishing relationships atthe C suite.
Everyone seems to be wanting toget in the C suite, and there's
only a few C level people inthere.
So getting that relationshipestablished, How has that been

(42:43):
for a new technology?

Joe Steele (42:45):
Oh, it's incredibly difficult, depending on the size
of the hospital, 15 years ago,you were at a small community
hospital.
It was not uncommon that I couldget that in that audience.
I think there's also people whosay they call them the C suite.
And then there's actually thepeople who call them the C
suite.
Um, you know, I mean, how are wedefining the C suite?
You know, the VP of peri op isnot, it's not really C suite,
right?
If you're talking to the chiefoperating officer, the chief

(43:07):
medical officer of Novant orwhatever, you're talking to the
C suite.
You're talking to someone whohas enterprise responsibility.
There has to be a compellingnarrative for why they're going
to give you any amount of theirtime.
We use a process, that we'vecultivated over the years.
It's nothing new.
Anyone who's worked inchallenger sales or any of the

(43:28):
more disruptive sales modelsknows that we have to open up
for impact.
We have to give a reason forthat executive to want to listen
to us, and it has to be relevantand important to them.
but yeah, that may start with,me connecting with someone on
LinkedIn, and then I try tobring them value in some way,
maybe adjacent to my product,but just to show them that I am

(43:50):
someone that they should want totalk to and then, yeah, then the
process, I have to pre sellbefore I sell.
And then ultimately you have toremember your product won't be
right for everyone at thatmoment.
And that, that is, you have toembrace that.
And I've, the second, it's agreat day of freedom when you
literally can say to people, Idon't think this is actually the
right technology for you at thismoment.

(44:11):
We're pioneering, this area,this is a pioneering,
technology.
If you're not willing to accept.
XYZ as part of that pioneeringprocess, then yeah.
And then I've had these hardconversations.
I'm like, you just can't sayyou're a pioneer then, you know,
it's, it's a tough, it's a,maybe that's just a Northeast
conversation.
I don't know, Pat, but there'stough conversations we have.

(44:34):
And the second that you createthat equal business stature
where you can have an honestconversation with someone, it's
like, listen, you can say you'rethe best.
My job is if you're going to sayyou're the best and you need to
be the best at this metric andyou're not.
So we're either going to have anhonest conversation and we're
going to talk about why you'renot, and I'm going to tell you
why it's still important to you,or we're not, and that's okay
too.

(44:54):
Of course, the nuance and theemotional intelligence of
delivering that message in a waythat they will listen to you is
is a lot.
that's the tough part of it.

The skills one needs to sell clinically is
different than the skills oneneeds to sell at the C suite
level.
So the type of conversations,the type of training, the type
of people in this complex salebecomes extremely important to
understand how your salesprocess is going to work and

(45:28):
then how do you get to thosedifferent people.
Tell me a little bit about thatand the difference between
Medtronic, where you've got alot of people who, who can do a
lot of things and a startupwhere you're a little bit more
resource constrained, but stillhave to sell at these multi
levels.

Joe Steele (45:48):
It's interesting, right?
Because, some of the largestrategics, I think they're
actually handcuffed.
I think they can actuallystruggle.
That's why they're requiringsmaller companies.
I've loved my time at Medtronic.
I love the people I worked with.
Very bright, very brilliantpeople.
But I mean, there, there's alsotimes where, I'm working on

(46:08):
something incredibly innovative.
not novels, probably other greatcompanies working, but I'm
working on something innovativeand, um, you know, in, you know,
a true value play and a hospitalsays, wow, that's amazing.
We should do that, right?
Like true value basedhealthcare.
and I remember this one examplewhere, this one all the way to

(46:29):
Omar's team at Medtronic, right?
And now I've got like Omar'slawyer on the phone at a
conference call with this greatPennsylvania healthcare system.
And they're going like, Hey Joe,we thought we could just do this
in the back of a napkin and makethis happen.
I'm like, no man, that's notgoing to happen here.
There's a lot that goes when westart talking about value based
healthcare, there's a lot thatgoes into it.
So sometimes it's really hard towork within the strategics

(46:53):
because of the, legalramifications of working with a,
40 billion company.
It's why they acquire smallcompanies and hopefully let them
run their own business for a fewyears before they Ethiconize
them or Medtronicinize them.
At a small company, yes, ourresources are limited.
but when I have an amazing idea,it goes from me to the CEO,

(47:14):
potentially the board, and thenthat's it.
And I can go back to that CEO atthe hospital or I can have that
conversation and say, you wantto create something amazing with
us?
We can do that.
let's get down to the, the boltsand tacks and let's figure out
how to make this work.
You want to really do healthcarethis way?
We can do that.
And that has opened up someamazing conversations and here's
the great thing, Pat, theconversations that opens up

(47:36):
actually create a win becausethey may think they actually
want value based, buying andpurchasing.
I'm like, we can do that.
Of course, you're gonna have toopen up all of your books and
you're gonna have to understandyour own metrics so I can create
a baseline.
They're like, oh, that might behard.
We don't actually collect allthat data.
Right, exactly.
But at the same time, It drawsyou down that road of being able

(47:59):
to do it or not being able to doit.
But it does create a nice bondand being in a small company.
Yes, you are, you're constrictedby financial resources.
But innovation comes from themost unlikely of places.
It just comes from people withgreat ideas and I have
absolutely no red tape.
We have compliance and anythingthat is compliant, we, that we

(48:22):
can envision, we can makehappen.
And that is what is amazingabout working at a, a small
company.
It's not that the J& Js and theMedtronics don't do amazing
things.
They do, we've seen how theyhave start and stopped with, the
RAS space, and how long it hastaken them to get to where they
are.
And that's a mindset issue.
That is a mindset issue.
That's not a resource issue.

(48:43):
I mean, these guys, these folksare spending 10, 15, 20 million
a month, a quarter.
To commercialize and five yearslater, we're still where we are.
So resources do not equalresults, right?
That's the biggest thing.
It's really, do you have aninnovative idea?

(49:03):
Are you, are you unlimited?
I'd rather be unlimited increativity than unlimited in
resources.
Because with creativity, I cando a hell of a lot.

Where do you stand right now in terms of
market, adoption, acceptance?
Are you just at the front end?
tell us a little bit about yourcommercialization, early
commercialization.

Joe Steele (49:21):
Yeah, so we're standing on the shoulders of a
couple legacy technologycompanies that have been around
for 20, 30 years.
They've done some great work.
We looked at what they weredoing and we said, how can we
make this all better?
And that's where we're at today.
We are working through, lengthy,long term contracts with legacy
technology companies anddisrupting to say, this is a way
you could do it.

(49:42):
We're doubling in size everyyear from a revenue perspective.
More importantly, from a baserevenue perspective.
So we're going on our third yearof doubling revenue.
small numbers begin with, butthat's the geometric progression
you need.

When did you launch?

Joe Steele (49:58):
We launched in the U.
S.
in 2018, 2019.
I think the biggest thing I'mhonestly proudest of is when
you're trying to bring thingsthrough the FDA during COVID,
like that's not easy.
It's not fun.
probably the best gift that ourcompetition ever got was COVID
on some levels, because thatreally took the surprise

(50:19):
advantage, right?
Of the attack.
Be like, we know they're stuckin the FDA because they're
running a trauma study, and torun trauma study, you have to
have the patient's family signoff on the, on that letter, and
they're not allowed into thehospital at this point.
So, you know, we had a two yeardelay.
in our trauma study.
but, here we are today, we, Ibelieve we are the most

(50:41):
innovative, player in the space.
Vizient and other organizationsbelieve that we're innovative as
well.
We've brought four or five,clearances through the FDA in
the last three years.
I think that, for a smallcompany to have a regulatory
team and an R and D team thatcan do that is, that's what
really attracted me.

(51:02):
and yeah, the, the doubling sizeevery year.
I mean, yeah, it's, It's notmuch in the first two years yet
in year three, four and five.
It's, it becomes massive.
And the goal is we're going tobe the dominant player in the
market over the next five years,for sure.

In my experience, as much, research that you do
prior to launching the productand under, you're trying to
understand the process, tryingto understand everything that
can go right and go wrong priorto launch.
It helps, but when you hit themarket, that's where real

(51:39):
learning occurs.

Joe Steele (51:40):
What did Mike Tyson say?
It's like everyone's got to planuntil they get punched in the
face.

Yeah.

Joe Steele (51:44):
Punch in the face for many companies and a
terrible thing for all of us togo through, but certainly if
you're leading innovation.
COVID was very terrible.

So aside from what we all went through with
COVID, what were some of thethings that you learned early on
that, that you hadn'tanticipated?
And this could be anything aboutthe product or the sales process
or the, the value prop that yougot a little bit wrong.

(52:14):
How did you, learn those thingsand what was it?

Joe Steele (52:18):
Yeah, I think we had two things early on.
Not to dig too deep into our owncoffers here, but I think we had
two things really early on that,that were really tough.
One was the value propositionfor the enterprise and the
amount of ambient noise beingcreated by our environment that
no matter how good this lookedand sounded, and I'm talking

(52:41):
about multiple seven figuresavings, why would you not want
to talk to me?
And understanding where thebuying, the economic buy Power
was coming from and the clinicalpower and how they were
misaligned on the outcome forthe patient and just how heavy
that lift would be to align themand to move them forward.
So, you know, you've got a labthat owns the CLIA license, the

(53:04):
ability to do the work, that andthey are strapped and they're
doing so much every day and thenyou're going to, you're going to
say, hey, we're going to putthis at the point of care, not
in the lab where you can watchit every day.
We're going to give a Ferrari toyour 17 year old child who just
learned to drive.
That's the cardiac surgeon.
We love them too.
But we're going to give that tothem to drive, and they really
haven't had any driving andthey're like, Whoa, that's a

(53:25):
problem.
We didn't, I don't think as anorganization, even prior to my
time that we really realized howbig that would be.
So we needed to solve that andthat's really coming through the
partnership we're doing with thelab to understand the world from
their view, and the importancethat they do and to align more
closely with them and then getthem to partner.

(53:46):
Um, you know, and I thinksecondly, when you're struggling
because of your environment tobring things through in rapid
succession, But we had cardiachands down I believe we're the
best cardiac diagnostic in ourmarketplace.
And I think some of the bestinstitutions in the country who
are using us would say the same.

(54:06):
Okay, that's all we had.
And we got stymied by COVID andthe bringing it through.
So I'm I, then I have thechallenge of how do I hire a
sales team that needs deepcardiac experience, cause that's
all I have to sell right now,but then as we move to liver
trauma OB pediatrics, I'm goingto need enterprise sellers.

(54:30):
And that is a different mindset.
Sometimes you get incrediblylucky.
We've had some incrediblytalented cardiac people come in
and out of the organization.
because that's what we needed atthe time., Um, but I think
that's the one thing we just,um, That was something that just
hits you.
Like I, I have to actually fieldtalent today, for something that
will change radically.
And I don't know when that'sgoing to change.

(54:51):
So how do I hire that?
What does my go to market modellook like?
What does my deployment modellook like?
Do I run with, 4, 8, 10, 12.
How do I run it clinicallyversus capital?
Um, and those are the things inthat market that changed so
quickly for us.
But I think the most importantthing you can do is you take
every bit of information youhave, you make your plan and you

(55:13):
execute your plan.
You play the cards you have tothe best of your ability.
And then you take the time toreassess.
When you get a breather andyou're not always going to get
it right from the start,

And that's where experience pays off.
That's where all these pastexperiences, all these other
launches, you know, again, kindof looking for patterns within
there, looking for the puzzle,looking for the right piece to
employ, to be able to make that,make that puzzle come to life.

Joe Steele (55:40):
For sure.

Thank you so much for a really interesting,
conversation, Joe.
Really appreciate it.
As, um, You're talking withother peers, other people that
are launching new technologiesinto our medical device
ecosystem today.
What are a couple of things froma, from an overall standpoint

(56:02):
when you're looking to enter anew marketplace, what are some
of the things that, that youlike to talk about to, to people
that are in this launch phase?

Joe Steele (56:13):
I think it's kind of a summary of what we've been
talking about.
It is what is the most importantthing to rally around in that
first initial stage.
I think the caution, thecautionary tale is, understand
your market down to its nuts andbolts.
Don't build out too quickly,establish your initial team very

(56:34):
carefully and build slowly, asrevenue builds.
There's nothing harder than,building out too quickly, having
to re entrench, explaining thatto the board, or other teams.
I think, other things that wetalk about are the ability of a
very solid tech stack to enableyou to touch the customer

(56:55):
earlier in the buying processwithout, without the sales team,
right?
To be able to digitally touchthat customer earlier in their
buying process.
So I talked to one of my mentorsand that's really what they're
relying on.
It's like our reps can't get tothese people fast enough.
We want to interact with themsooner.
So technology allows us a verywell integrated tech stack will

(57:18):
allow you to communicate withthose buyers and then only put
your best people in front ofthose physicians, those buyers,
whoever it may be, thosestakeholders when they're ready
to be in front of so that theefficiency of your deployment is
much greater.
Um, and I, I think those are thethings that we really discussed

(57:39):
and we're really trying to lookat that tech stack and how we do
that.
Um, you know, our integrationwith Salesforce and HubSpot and,
and LinkedIn and Sales Navigatorand a few to empower our team to
touch the customer, connect withthe customer, hopefully get into
that back channel where yourproduct is talked about when
you're not there.

(57:59):
Those are the things thatreally, I think, matter at this
point.

That was a fun discussion.
Joe has so much experience incommercialization and how it's
changed over the years.
But he is laser focused ontoday.
And how he and their team canoperate in today's market.
A few of my takeaways.
First understand who you are andwhat resources you have.

(58:29):
Joe spent a lot of time talkingabout big companies, small
companies.
And what resources he actuallyhas to work with.
So he's, he's come to terms withwhen you don't have resources,
how do you view things?
Um, bringing outside help indoing things different, asking
people to do training.
Uh, when it's outside of theirjobs and when you do have

(58:52):
resources, understand that thoseresources, sometimes they're,
they're more of a crutch thanthey are really helpful to you.
The second thing that I reallyliked was being successful in a
commercial launch today.
And he talked about a lot ofdifferent things in this
subject.
But one of the things that, thatkinda, he, he described it as

(59:15):
you have to develop valuepropositions for each of the
stakeholders in their own nativelanguage.
And I think that's the key.
Everybody talks about valueprops, but have you, have you
translated into their nativelanguage?
Once you do that, you understandhow that ladders up uh, to the

(59:36):
benefit of them, their patientand their department.
And then once that's done, howdoes that ladder up to the
greater good of the organizationand tying it into the enterprise
goals of the organization?
And obviously we, each one ofthese things you need to
discover.
You need to discover what thosegoals are and then how you fit.

(59:58):
That's your value prop.
The final thing was careeradvice.
And he had so many great thingsthat he shared, but kind of
summing it up.
He said, if you're not strivingto learn something new every
day, to never be the smartestperson in the room, to surround
yourself with people who canbring you to the next level

(01:00:19):
who'll give you thoseexperiences, then you're
shortchanging your career.
Thank you for listening.
Make sure you get episodesdownloaded to your device
automatically by liking orsubscribing to the mastering
medical device podcast, whereveryou get your podcasts.
Also, please spread the word andtell a friend or two to listen
to the Mastering Medical Devicepodcast, as interviews like

(01:00:41):
today's can help you become amore effective medical device
leader.
Work hard.
Be kind.

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Commercializing a Disruptive Technology in a Hospital with Multiple Decision Makers and Influencers - Featuring Joe Steele

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Commercializing a Disruptive Technology in a Hospital with Multiple Decision Makers and Influencers - Featuring Joe Steele