MedTech Innovator Summit 2022 Recap
We kicked off our 10th year this June 15-16, with the invite-only MedTech Innovator Summit at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The Summit is a fun and fruitful event that exclusively allows the leadership teams from our latest cohort of startups to get to know each other and exchange ideas with MedTech Innovator’s Partners, alumni, and other industry leaders. After two years of virtual summits, it was terrific to be back in person!
The first day featured breakout sessions with MTI partner-led and alumni-led small group discussions on a myriad of topics. Examples included sessions with tips on optimizing relationships with manufacturers and service providers, getting the right board, testing commercial models, managing interactions with strategics, a sales panel that explored the nuances of hospital value analysis. One of the highlights was our signature ecosystem asks where cohort companies present asks and our in-person and remote ecosystem offer resources, with many being offered by other other companies. At the conclusion of the day, participants had the opportunity to join in a scavenger hunt and learn about computer history while getting to know other members of the ecosystem.
Thank you for one of the best conferences I have had the joy of attending. The speakers were wonderful and the interaction with my colleagues was equally valuable! The program is top-notch and I would recommend it highly to any digital health company. Thank you, thank you! -Kelly Benning, Vice President, LiveMetric
The second day offered thought leadership and invaluable growth opportunities for participants. Discussions included how to survive and thrive amidst the unforeseen events facing the medtech ecosystem today and for the next several years, and how to drive value by focusing on aligned regulatory, clinical and reimbursement strategies. Alumni shared wisdom by leading discussions in breakout sessions, some for all attendees and some cohort and alumni-only sessions. Some example topics included how to create momentum in fundraising, how to best utilize investors, surviving events that almost sunk alumni companies, building a lasting culture, and negotiating and organizing chaos. One of the highlights was our new Acquisition Anecdotes session featuring 6 MTI alumni CEO’s with recent acquisitions who shared stories to go deeper than the cursory details that we typically get to read in press releases.
Day 3 of our Summit week was held at the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 29th Annual Medical Device Conference where 52 of our latest cohort companies were exclusively showcased and participated in partnering with the industry leaders and investors at this well-attended conference. The WSGR Device Conference has been a staple of MTI’s program, starting with our first ever event in 2013. It was especially fun this year to reflect and celebrate MTI’s incredible growth over the past 10 years with 420 alumni bringing 135 products to market and raising $4.6 billion in funding post-MTI.
The conference ended, as it always does, with a MedTech Innovator competition where the conference audience gets to choose the winner of a cash prize in the first of five competitions for this year’s cohort. To celebrate our 10th year, we introduced a new competition – the Vision Award. It recognized five startups selected by their cohort peers during our Summit who were visionaries that possess qualities most admired by the summit’s attendees.
The Vision Award finalists included BrightUro, EvoEndo, Liquet Medical, Phiex Technologies, and Tympanogen. Each was given the opportunity to present their products, business plans and value propositions to a panel of industry judges and the audience of the WSGR conference. The judges included Joshua Magnuson, Fujikura; Tamir Meiri, Johnson & Johnson; and Virginia Giddings, Edwards Lifesciences.
Phiex Technologies, a medical device company developing an interactive, self-sterilizing packaging material to replace third party sterilizers like EtO was chosen as the MedTech Innovator 2022 Vision Award winner. Phiex Technologies received an $11,000 non-dilutive cash prize and a profile in an upcoming issue of the MedTech Strategist. All five finalists received a portion of the $25,000 prize pool, based on the percentage of audience votes they received.
The 2022 Cohort startups are now participating in our accelerator program through October where they will get unparalleled visibility and access to leading medtech manufacturers, providers, investors, payors, and other industry stakeholders. At the culmination of the program, MedTech Innovator will award $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes at the MedTech Innovator Showcase held at The MedTech Conference, powered by AdvaMed, in Boston from Oct 24-26.