MedTech Innovator Summit 2023 Recap
This year’s invite-only Innovator Summit was held on June 14-15 at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The annual Summit is a lively and engaging 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. At this year’s summit, MedTech Innovator, BioTools Innovator and MedTech Innovator Asia Pacific cohorts all came together in-person.
On the first day, cohort companies had the opportunity to attend breakout sessions with MTI partner-led and alumni-led small group discussions. They received insight on multiple topics such as successful funding and commercialization strategies, working with physicians and professional societies to accelerate the pathway, introducing a new medical device to a hospital value committee, surviving crisis, sales and marketing strategies, and more. Featured each year is our signature ecosystem asks where cohort companies present asks and our in-person and remote ecosystem offer resources, with many being offered by other companies. At the conclusion of the day, participants enjoyed our second annual scavenger hunt and learned about computer history while getting to know other members of the ecosystem.
Thanks [to] all the team at Medtech Innovator. All the greatness heard along the years has been personally confirmed! The human quality and humble leadership behind all of you and the stellar cohort is a true inspiration! Makes me think we can truly shape the world to the best. Looking forward to seeing you all in October!
-Carolina Aguilar, CEO and Co-Founder, INBRAIN Neuroelectronics
The second day offered continued growth opportunities for participants. Attendees participated in a discussion on funding and financial environments and listened to stories around acquisition. Later, the cohorts from each program attended separate sessions. The MedTech Innovator cohort gained insight into mentor companies and further opportunities; the BioTools Innovator cohort discussed articulating the value proposition, GTM strategies for life science companies, and how to approach strategic partnerships; and the MedTech Innovator Asia Pacific cohort explored how to overcome challenges to asian medtech companies expanding to the US. The day also featured 15 Japan companies presenting at the US-Japan Healthcare Connection Reverse Pitch Program.
Day 3 of our Summit week was held at the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 30th Annual Medical Device Conference where 50 of our latest cohort companies were exclusively showcased and participated in partnering with industry leaders and investors. The WSGR Device Conference has been a staple of MTI’s program, starting with our first ever event in 2013.
The conference ended with our Vision Award, introduced last year, where the conference audience gets to choose the winner of a cash prize in the first of five competitions for this year’s cohort. This award recognizes five startups selected by their cohort peers during our Summit who are visionaries that possess qualities most admired by the summit’s attendees.
The Vision Award finalists included 270Surgical, JuneBrain, MACH32, Plio Surgical, and StrokeDx. Each company presented their products, business plans and value propositions to a panel of industry judges and the audience of the WSGR conference. The judges included Biren Mehta, Johnson & Johnson Innovation; Lynn Carney, Medmarc; and Virginia Giddings, Edwards Lifesciences.
StrokeDx, a medical device company revolutionizing stroke care with point-of-care neuroimaging devices, was chosen as the MedTech Innovator 2023 Vision Award winner. Stroke DX received an $10,500 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 2023 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 9-11.