Steven Collens | CEO, MATTER | Accelerating Medtech Innovation with Collaboration & Entrepreneur Ecosystems

Steven Collens, CEO of MATTER, an incubator & innovation hub, discusses his journey and the impactful work MATTER does in healthcare innovation. Steven shares his transition from Abbott Labs and Capitol Hill to leading MATTER, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in accelerating healthcare advancements. He provides insights on how MATTER supports both startups and large companies and also reflects on personal moments that confirm his career path and the strengths that help him lead in the industry.

Guest links: https://matter.health  

Charity supported: Innovation Development Institute

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at [e-mail]. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Episode 047 - Steven Collens

[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 introduce you to my guest, Steven Collens. Steven is the CEO of MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub. MATTER opened in February 2015 and nurtures entrepreneurs and innovators building next generation health IT, medical device, diagnostic, and biopharma technologies. MATTER has worked with more than a thousand healthcare technology ventures and the company partners with dozens of industry leading companies, health systems, and universities.

Steven holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. He chairs the board of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and serves on the boards of 1871 and the Chicago High School for the Arts. He is a member of Chicago Next, the Chicago Mayor's Council of Technology and Innovation, a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Steven. I'm so excited to be here talking with you today.

[00:01:57] Steven Collens: It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course! Well, I would love if you would start off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and maybe what led you to MedTech.

[00:02:09] Steven Collens: So myself, I guess it's all intertwined together, so after business school, I went to work at Abbott and I was at Abbott labs for about 10 years. That was my introduction into healthcare and medical technologies of any sort. And after that, I went to work at an investment firm. On behalf of them, started an incubator that was not focused on healthcare, and then had the opportunity to do what ultimately became MATTER, which was starting something that could really help accelerate the pace of change of healthcare and figuring out how to combine elements and do that.

And our basic thesis at MATTER is that collaboration is the way to accelerate the pace of change of health care. And so MATTER is structured as a not for profit entity. We functionally incubate startup companies. They are different types of technology. It's primarily software and devices. They're all over the world. It's a membership model and we've got a suite of resources to help them at different stages of growth.

And then on the other side of it, we work with big companies, so big life sciences companies, health systems, insurance companies, and we help them innovate more effectively. We help them collaborate with entrepreneurs. We help them harness innovation in ways that they're otherwise not necessarily wired to do. And by putting all of that together you know, almost 10 years in, we like to think and certainly hope that we're helping make a change in healthcare.

[00:03:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Ye