The medtech industry is a landscape of high stakes, rigorous research, and transformative potential. In a recent episode of the ventureLAB Chat podcast, Chris Bass, CEO and co-founder of InventoRR MD, unpacked the realities of building a medtech company from the ground up. Their conversation offers a unique insight for founders, investors, and anyone interested in the intersection of healthcare and innovation.

Below, we break down the main themes and actionable insights from the episode, offering a comprehensive guide for medtech entrepreneurs and stakeholders.

1. Start with Real-World Problems and Clinical Collaboration

Engage Clinicians Early

• Partner with healthcare professionals who experience the problem firsthand. Their insights ensure your solution addresses real, urgent needs.

Leverage Academic Partnerships 

• Collaborate with research hospitals and universities (Unity Health, University of Toronto) to validate your ideas and access clinical trial opportunities.

Focus on One Core Solution 

• While multiple ideas may emerge, concentrate resources on the most promising product to streamline development and prove your concept.

Chris emphasized that the credibility and buy-in from respected clinicians (such as Dr. Rotstein and Dr. Rezende-Neto) not only guide product development but also open doors for early adoption and research partnerships.

 

2. Understand and Navigate Healthcare Ecosystems

 

The Canadian and American healthcare systems differ dramatically in size, speed, and purchasing priorities. Success requires tailored strategies for each market.

In Canada, it’s key to emphasize cost savings and resource efficiency, as budgets are tighter and purchasing decisions are more conservative.

Prepare for a longer adoption cycle, but leverage the rigorous research and clinical evidence required for approval to build a robust foundation.

Conversely, in the USA, it’s important to highlight long-term patient outcomes and operational efficiency.

Expect faster decision-making and a larger, more diverse market, but also more competition.

Chris noted that messaging must be adapted. Canadian buyers want to see clear cost-benefit analyses, while U.S. stakeholders are often more receptive to innovations that improve outcomes and workflow efficiency.

 

3. Master the Art of Capital Raising in Medtech

Raising capital in medtech is a marathon, not a sprint. Investors are cautious, timelines are long, and the path to profitability is complex.

Target the Right Investors 

• Seek out investors who understand hardware, medtech, and the realities of clinical adoption, not just those chasing the latest tech trends.

Align on Expectations  

• Be clear about your growth trajectory and exit potential. Not every medtech company will be a unicorn, but many can deliver strong, sustainable returns.

Use Capital Strategically

• Chris advocates for a lean approach, raising only what’s needed to reach the next milestone, focusing on organic sales growth, and using funds to attract top talent.

4. Embrace Flexibility, Patience, and Persistence

Medtech innovation is a long game. Regulatory hurdles, clinical adoption, and market education all take time.

Stay Flexible  

• Be prepared to pivot when circumstances change. InventoRR MD initially was involved in a different medical device, but its focus shifted as a result of COVID-19.

Be Patient

• Adoption cycles in healthcare are slow. Celebrate incremental wins and keep the long-term vision in focus.

Persist Through Setbacks

• Regulatory delays, funding challenges, and clinical skepticism are par for the course. Resilience is essential.

Chris’s journey underscores the importance of founder-market fit and timing. Success often comes to those who are adaptable.

 

5. Focus on Impact and Mission

A clear mission, improving patient outcomes and hospital efficiency, keeps the team motivated and attracts like-minded partners.

Articulate Your Mission Clearly

• Make sure every team member, investor, and partner understands the “why” behind your work.

Measure and Share Impact 

• Track patient outcomes, cost savings, and workflow improvements to demonstrate value.

Celebrate Successes

• Recognize milestones, from first clinical use to first purchase order, to maintain momentum.

Chris’s motivation comes from seeing real-world impact, patients helped, surgeons’ time saved, and hospitals empowered to deliver better care.

Key Takeaways

1. Start with real clinical problems and collaborate deeply with clinicians.
2. Tailor your approach to the unique demands of each healthcare market.
3. Build a strong research foundation and document your impact.
4. Raise capital strategically and hire for mission and skill.
5. Be patient, persistent, and flexible; success in medtech is a long-term pursuit.

Learn more about AbClo, InventoRR MD and the team here: https://abclomedical.com/

Transcript 

Hilary Kilgour 00:00:05  Hi, I’m Hilary and welcome to Venture Lab Chat Podcast. It’s my pleasure to be here hosting as part of the Venture Lab team. And we’re here to with Chris today. And so I’m going to start by introducing myself really briefly. And then we’ll we’ll hear a little bit more about Chris. And I’m going to ask him lots of questions today. So I have been a part of the Venture Lab team for several years, and one of the great parts of working with our investment programming is that I get the chance to work with founders who are navigating the capital investment work. part of what brought me to that is a decade of work in both as a founder but also in corporate adoption of technologies. And I also run an investment firm called Doxa Ventures. So, Chris, I’m going to start by asking you a little bit about yourself. and I want you to tell us a little bit about inventor MD. So tell us how you got there and tell us a little bit more about where you are.

Chris Bass 00:01:06  Sounds great. Thank you. I’m Chris Bass, I’m the CEO of inventor MD, and we founded inventor MD about seven years ago with myself and two surgeons at Saint Michael’s Hospital. Doctor Rotstein and Doctor Dr. João Rezende-Neto and, and yeah, we developed a portfolio of IP based on their research and their experience in the hospital. And, and we moved that forward to the product, which is our our flagship product that we’re selling today across Canada and the US. That really helps with the management and closure of intentionally left open abdomens, which are massive midline incisions. I always say if if you’re seeing our product, you’re having a really bad day. but we we hope that AbClo, you know, improves your outcomes, long term.

Hilary Kilgour 00:01:56  Great. And can you tell me a little bit about how inventor MD came together? So maybe the story of the business and and where to where you are now for sure.

Chris Bass 00:02:07  So. So Doctor Rothstein recruited Dr. João Rezende-Neto from Brazil, where Doctor Rosen was, the chief of trauma at one of their largest trauma centers.

Chris Bass 00:02:16  And he brought him to to be a professor and a trauma surgeon at Saint Michael’s and University of Toronto. João brought a bunch of ideas that he had from his extensive experience in Brazil dealing with, you know, a challenging healthcare system where there’s a lot of resource scarcity and a lot of volume. And, you know, kind of like in Canada, there’s some some pretty similar challenges. And, you know, had all these ideas and wanted to to move them forward to make a meaningful impact. And, Abloh was one of those.

Hilary Kilgour 00:02:48  Great. And if you could tell us a little bit about what you what what brought you to the team? you know, it’s really interesting to hear about the story of two doctors from different parts of the world coming together to innovate and work together. What made you and tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to to the business?

Chris Bass 00:03:10  Yeah. So I’ve been, founding startups pretty much my whole career. This is the inventors, the third startup I was a co-founder of.

Chris Bass 00:03:18  I mean, and I was exiting a previous startup, and I knew Doctor Rothstein personally. And he said, you’ve got to meet Dr. João Rezende-Neto. And he’s he’s got these great ideas. And I met João and and, you know, within 30s of meeting him, he had a he had a video of his heart plugged device, which was a it’s for penetrating cardiac injuries. And he showed a video that was quite graphic to somebody in 30s of meeting them. And I was quite woozy at the time, but not anymore. That was seven years ago. And, you know, I really stayed because he’s such a great person and the ideas were so great. And it’s been a pleasure working with with him and and growing the growing the product portfolio.

Hilary Kilgour 00:03:59  Awesome. And when you think about the business, because you really brought a lot of that business sense and that business background and that kind of pathway to commercialization or that pathway to access and growth. can you tell me what you find that’s unique about the business? I think as an investor, we’re always looking for founder market fit.

Hilary Kilgour 00:04:18  We’re always thinking about kind of what makes this team the right team. I’d love to hear from you. Kind of. You coming on with two doctors. What made you drawn to the uniqueness of what you’re building as part of the business?

Chris Bass 00:04:31  Yeah, I think working with doctors on on their ideas is, is very different than having some ideas and trying to get doctors to buy into those ideas. so having doctors that were so passionate about, you know, real world problems that they continually experience and have a strong idea on how to how to fix. And then, you know, once you’ve got that kind of base. It’s, you know, trying to just not mess it up at this point. Right. It’s, you know, that it’s a real problem. You know, they experience it often and, you know, the solution is, is viable. It’s it’s pulling all the pieces together to make sure you can, you know, get an MVP, get clinical testing, get through regulatory approvals.

Chris Bass 00:05:12  And then, you know, one of the hardest things, I think is to transfer that message from, you know, two doctors to thousands of doctors.

Hilary Kilgour 00:05:20  Yep. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about how you’ve done that. So one of the things that I think is unique about your business is that you have worked with some really great people, but you’ve really leveraged from from what I know, the expertise that Canada really has. And so can you tell me a little bit in terms of how you’ve navigated bringing on really good people, but also kind of the partners that you’ve been able to bring on along the way?

Chris Bass 00:05:49  Yeah, I think, you know, working with Sam Michaels now, Unity Health has been, you know, extremely helpful for the for the business. I think, you know, the early testing and the early validation and and, you know, using the product on on patients is, is very challenging to do if you’re not, you know, very well associated with, with a hospital that’s willing to push research and innovation forward in a, in a, in a good way.

Chris Bass 00:06:15  So I think, you know, working with them, you know, having the surgeons who are able to write the ethics protocols, you know, make sure the testing is safe and then, you know, record and publish those findings. is is special. And I think really was one of the big differentiators of of inventor and how we, we’ve come to where we are now.

Hilary Kilgour 00:06:35  That’s great. And, and I think what you’re doing is something that a lot of people don’t see every day. Right. As you said, people see it on their worst day and hopefully don’t actually see it. if I’m thinking about what you do, my question is, as you reflect back on your journey. Do you have a favorite project or milestone that has kind of helped you get to this point in Inventorr’s Path?

Chris Bass 00:06:59  Yeah, I mean, I think the first time I was used by a surgeon that wasn’t one of the co-founders was was pretty, pretty awesome. I mean, the first time it was used and it worked was also pretty cool.

Chris Bass 00:07:11  But when it was used and positively received by by somebody who hadn’t, you know, invented the product, that was that was pretty exciting. And then, you know, the first time somebody decided they liked it so much, they wanted to buy it. you know, was was pretty cool, right?

Hilary Kilgour 00:07:28  And having started in Toronto, as a Toronto kind of based innovation, where has it now been used?

Chris Bass 00:07:36  Yeah. So we’ve been used essentially across Canada. you know, B.C., Alberta, we’re getting into Saskatchewan, Ontario. We’ve had some use in Quebec and out in Halifax. And then, you know, we’ve we’ve done a lot of work on the east coast of the US. So Pennsylvania is definitely our highest state in the US. But we also have, you know, users in Virginia, some large systems in both those regions and then Texas and California as well.

Hilary Kilgour 00:08:03  Wow. That’s that’s a huge reach, for an innovation that two doctors, you know, built together and is scaling. I’m curious, what does it look like to be working in a Canadian ecosystem and an American ecosystem? And how would you how do you look at them differently?

Chris Bass 00:08:22  Yeah.

Chris Bass 00:08:22  For sure. I mean, I think we our message when we’re selling them is, is is slightly different. I think, you know, resource constraints are much more prevalent in Canada. And I think telling the story of how, you know, we’re going to give you better patient outcomes, but we’re also going to save you a bunch of money. Yeah. and lead to efficiencies is is really important I think. You know, in Canada we see, you know, all the hard good savings of like what are we directly replacing is is very important in the US. We kind of talk more about long term effects and and like ICU stay reductions, you know, patient quality scores and, and herniation rates.

Hilary Kilgour 00:09:06  What what I think is interesting, just from what you’ve shared in terms of your story, is navigating what you, what you shared with, like the Canadian medical system and the decision making is, is quite different. Yeah, frankly, than how the US works. I did my MBA in the US and so and I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Mayo Clinic and a couple of other organizations that, in the US are leaders, but they just they make decisions differently.

Hilary Kilgour 00:09:31  Yeah.

Chris Bass 00:09:31  Frankly, the speed, the speed and and the efficiency and the, the commitment to a decision is definitely faster. You know, it takes a long time to get get adoption in Canada. And, you know, unfortunately, you spend a lot more time for a much smaller system, especially for something like us. You know, it’s a trauma and an acute care based product. So luckily we don’t see as much trauma in Canada. So it’s it’s a significantly smaller market. but in the US we also see, you know, it’s usually a losing billing code for us. So hospitals aren’t making money on these cases in the US, but they really value that we’re helping them lose less. We’re making it a making it a profitable code, and that the profit driven aspect of the US health care system is, is interesting.

Hilary Kilgour 00:10:18  It’s just.

Chris Bass 00:10:18  Different.

Hilary Kilgour 00:10:19  Yeah. And someone put it recently to me in, in a way that, you know, still driving towards the same outcomes and patient outcomes that I think is really critical.

Hilary Kilgour 00:10:28  Saving lives, quality of life, time to be able to respond are all critical in all systems. But how you communicate that to different systems or decision makers is different. So you shared like, you know, it’s about saving time or saving money and the Canadian system, whereas it might be about something slightly different in the US system. And that’s just how decisions are made. And I think one of the things that I’m reflecting on is in many ways, you are leaders in the Canadian medtech space. And I’m curious what reflections you’ve had in terms of where Canada is a leader from a medtech perspective, because you’ve been navigating that for a couple of years. What particularly equips Canada and businesses like yours to be leaders globally?

Chris Bass 00:11:12  Yeah, I think, you know, the research and the quality of research and the research programs is definitely, you know, a massive strength of Canada and Canadian research and Canadian commercialization. I think where the US has a has an edge up is probably in the what’s after research and what comes next and how to, you know, get this product in front of thousands of people and thousands of hospitals.

Chris Bass 00:11:36  But you can’t do any of that if you don’t have the good base and the good research. You know, I think you see in the US, you know, lots of companies and they, they have they launch a product, they get regulatory approval, and they have no clinical evidence to support it. Right. And, you know, you think you’ve done all these good things and then you run into a wall of, well, where is your three clinical studies? whereas in Canada, you know, you run your three clinical studies and now it’s taken you a lot longer. But when you actually get to market, you have the the things you need to succeed in the market.

Hilary Kilgour 00:12:09  That’s great to hear. Now, I know that you’ve been navigating the capital side, right. So you’re at that key part in your business. And that’s one of the ways that you’ve had the chance to work with Venture Lab is through our investment program. And I’m curious. I mean, your path, every path for a business in navigating capital is completely different and unique.

Hilary Kilgour 00:12:29  And yet there’s a lot of lessons learned that I think are great, especially for, you know, a podcast or for a conversation. And so I’m curious. Tell tell me a little bit about where you are now in your capital journey. And what’s next?

Chris Bass 00:12:44  Yeah. I mean, I think capital raising is always an important aspect of it. I think, you know, the programs here have been very helpful in that. You know, we’re currently we always have a round open. I say we’re never, never too proud or anything to take extra money if there’s people interested. you know, this is our I’ll call it our third round of financing. I think we’ve raised approximately $3 million over the last, you know, five years. you know, we we try and run very efficiently, very lean. and not to expend, expend capital. We’ve we’ve taken a choice to to try and focus on sales growth, organically and, and sustainably versus raising a bunch of money and, attempting to, to outrun your burn with sales growth.

Chris Bass 00:13:36  so, you know, we’ve accepted a slightly slower growth cycle, we think then, raising a bunch of money. But, that’s kind of been how we’ve we’ve been patient and persistent throughout. and, and, you know, we’re sticking with that formula.

Hilary Kilgour 00:13:50  And how have you throughout that process. I mean, you’re an experienced entrepreneur. You’ve had exits. How have you approached this business specifically in understanding as a medtech company, with the partners that you have, the team that you have, the important role that capital plays, but not, the only role that capital plays, I think, is, is kind of the nuance of it. Right. And so I hear you in saying it’s the right timing and the right people. when you think of the role of taking in external capital, why is that important at this stage?

Chris Bass 00:14:26  And I think, you know, raising raising money to bring a more talented people, the team is definitely usually why we’ve raised money. Yeah. you know, initially it was for for the tech, but that after that it’s always been about bringing bringing talent on.

Chris Bass 00:14:44  and yeah, without, you know, without good talent, you can’t go go very far, very fast. So, it’s it’s definitely important. And I think it’s a, a tool for, for growing the team is definitely why I like to raise capital.

Hilary Kilgour 00:14:57  Awesome. And with this round that you’re currently doing, excuse me with this round that you’re currently doing, what are some of the outcomes that you’re looking to drive with it? Because I think you’ve told us a little bit about the story of the business. What is it that you hope to be able to get out of this next round?

Chris Bass 00:15:14  Yeah, we’re we’re currently raising to kind of grow the sales team a little bit as well as, you know, keep our sales growth to the point where we’ll be cash flow positive. It’s kind of our goal.

Hilary Kilgour 00:15:27  And you, works with our capital investment program. What were some of the pieces that were really useful for you in navigating that?

Chris Bass 00:15:36  Yeah, I think it’s always great to have, multiple opinions on your presentations and your pitches.

Chris Bass 00:15:41  I think everybody brings valuable insights, and you pitch a lot, and you kind of get tunnel vision into your story, and you start, you know, forgetting that, you know, there’s other ways to tell a story, and there might be better ways to tell a story. And then, you know, access to to people interested in hearing that story. It’s been really helpful.

Hilary Kilgour 00:16:00  Awesome. And I know, you’ve been you, you’ve, you’ve had access to some one of the key things that I’ve learned working in Venture Venture Lab is how important it is to have a network of investors who know and understand hardware. And so part of Venture Lab story is building a hardware investor network and bringing in those investors to the table and being able to work together. And so my question to you is, as you’re looking for those investors and as you’re looking for the places, what was so interesting or relevant to you when you were looking at the hardware investor network?

Chris Bass 00:16:33  Yeah, I think, you know, specificity of your investor is always important.

Chris Bass 00:16:37  You know, in in healthcare, in medtech, there is a, you know, there’s often buzzwords and and tech and AI is very prevalent these days. So having, you know, having people who aren’t looking specifically for, you know, checking a box on your AI-driven solution and actually, you know, care about kind of niche or simpler, you know, scalable. But small solutions for, for specific problems is is extremely helpful. You know, the amount of times we’ve pitched large groups and, you know, everybody is just looking for the AI solution or the the big data solution, and we don’t fit, you know, the investor criteria is is prevalent. So having, you know, a fairly unique and specific group, you know, looking to, to learn and invest in companies that meet that criteria is is very helpful and unique.

Hilary Kilgour 00:17:30  MedTech is hard. Yeah, it’s a hard tech. We say like hard tech is hard to raise capital. And yet I will also say as an investor, software.

Hilary Kilgour 00:17:40  And I worked as a product manager in a software company. it’s always seen as like a little bit easier or faster to scale. Yeah. And yet, if we really think about it, the back end of most software is hardware. And so there’s this direct connection between hardware and software. And so if we look at hardware and we recognize, medtech and kind of your business is in this med tech space, but you’re still dependent on a lot of different technological pieces. So my question to you is if you were to say what the biggest myth was in raising capital for medtech or even with medtech, what would you say that is?

Chris Bass 00:18:18  Yeah, I guess that you, you it’s it is possible to raise money for on uncool and on trendy ideas. You know, it takes a little bit longer. You’ve got to find the right people, the right partners, the right message. But, you know, there is there’s still a pathway to raise money and and be successful with an idea that isn’t isn’t, you know, the flavor of the month or trendy or or really exciting.

Hilary Kilgour 00:18:43  have you ever thought of going on Dragon’s Den?

Chris Bass 00:18:46  I have not.

Hilary Kilgour 00:18:47  Okay. So and I’m going to use that example because I think a lot of the ventures that are on Dragon’s Den are consumer facing are the things that we’re used to buying, or the things that customers, you know, are very familiar with. I don’t imagine your business is going to aim for a TikTok viral thing. So I think going back to that myth piece is, you know, there’s a different path to success. And in medtech that looks a little bit different. You bootstrapped. Yes. So maybe tell me a little bit more about kind of how you navigated that. and then when you decided to raise capital.

Chris Bass 00:19:23  For sure, I think, you know, one of the challenges with medtech is you’re going to have to raise a lot of capital eventually, probably. And if you start raising money too early, you run out of the ability to raise more eventually. Right. You can only give away 100% of the company at some point.

Chris Bass 00:19:38  Yeah. you know, and the the temptation to throw money at early product development and early research specifically is, is very high. Right. It’s, you know, it’s hard to find the partners to do medical research for free. But it is possible. versus, you know, paying a large institution in the US a lot of money to, to run your clinical trial for you. you know, so we through our partners with Saint Mike’s Unity Health and the co-founder, doctors and surgeons, you know, took our time, you know, moved slowly, but for for virtually no money, you know, we were able to publish, you know, peer reviewed clinical trials and, and get the supporting data to, to be ready to launch a product, successfully without raising a bunch of money.

Hilary Kilgour 00:20:33  I mean, I think that’s really great insight. And I and I think for those people who might be listening to this, I think it’s important to acknowledge that a doctor doesn’t just come up with an idea and decides suddenly the next day that they’re going to go find money for it, right? Like, I think that’s the part that there might be a bit of a myth around, doctor.

Hilary Kilgour 00:20:51  Doctors able to do all these things. Can you tell us a little bit of the story of how the two doctors who ultimately built this met, and how they came to wanting to build it in Canada.

Chris Bass 00:21:04  For sure? Yeah. So they are both, you know, pretty prolific researchers and, you know, they met through their research. I was in, in Brazil and doing a lot of good research there. And, and Doctor Rotstein was at Unity Health, Saint Michael’s as the surgeon in chief. and, you know, through the collaboration of their research and and sharing their, you know, stories of surgery, you know, Dr. João Rezende-Neto ended up coming to Canada to work at Saint Michael’s, and, you know, once, once he was here, you know, the the hallway medicine kind of makeshift ideas that he’d been using in Brazil to to treat patients in a, in a relatively poor public system. you know, the the challenges were still here and the resources were around to, to make those, those, you know, more makeshift, solutions more viable and more, more acceptable in a Canadian system and North American system.

Hilary Kilgour 00:22:03  What a cool story. And I think what’s, so valuable about that is we often talk about and we were talking about it before of how hard it is sometimes to raise capital or how, even investors in Canada don’t always take the risks that we wish they would. They we wish they would. and yet Canada was where this innovation. Only in Canada could this innovation have come to life. And so if you can speak a little bit, and I think we’re all very hopeful in Canada, but like what makes this business that could have only been founded in Canada?

Chris Bass 00:22:40  Yeah. I think the the blending of the, the academic and the, the business sense is, is very strong. I think, you know, we’ve set up through the University of Toronto and, and Unity Health, you know, a system to bring research forward to a, you know, commercial product. I think it’s, you know, it’s the early stages, you know, but moving moving it forward, you know, one at a time is is definitely the way to do it.

Chris Bass 00:23:07  I mean, I think it kind of echoes our story a bit in we, we started with, you know, nine pieces of IP, a lot of products kind of scatterbrained and, and we decided the best way to prove that you can, you know, bring a bunch of research forward is to bring one piece forward instead of trying to bring, you know, a lot of pieces forward gradually is just to pick one and get it all the way there, get it across the finish line so that you can then move the next one across the finish line.

Hilary Kilgour 00:23:36  And what made you choose this one?

Chris Bass 00:23:39  Well, that’s an interesting story. It wasn’t our first pick. We had a tracheostomy device which is exploratory airway surgery. And that was in its clinical trials phase and Covid hit. And nobody wanted to do experimental airway surgery suddenly. And I don’t blame them. so we pivoted to this device. And I think to be honest, it was a very good choice.

Hilary Kilgour 00:24:03  So timing.

Chris Bass 00:24:04  Timing.

Hilary Kilgour 00:24:04  Yeah. Right.

Hilary Kilgour 00:24:04  It’s like it’s one of those things that founder market fit is really, really important. Founding team market fit is really important. But also timing like why now? Why this innovation. And I think we’ve seen a lot of that in medtech, especially in medical. And so my my question drawing on that is what’s one of the greatest skills that you have as a CEO, running a company in a space like this?

Chris Bass 00:24:28  Yeah, I think, you know, the willingness to to, you know, be flexible to also stick to it. And, and, you know, be patient and persistent and know that, you know, and especially in the medical field, things are going to take a lot longer than you wish they would. And they’ll get there eventually. And as long as you can stick around to to be there when they get there, it usually works out pretty well. I think. You know, the great thing about the medical space is, you know, everybody’s usually in it for the right reasons and very positive and helpful and, and you know, great to work with.

Chris Bass 00:24:58  And, you know, there’s just a lot of, not barriers but things that result in things taking a long time for usually for very good reasons.

Hilary Kilgour 00:25:09  It’s one of the things that I learned a couple of years ago when working in the medical sector. I had actually wanted to be a doctor early in my career, and my mom got me to go and volunteer in an ER department in my first year of university, and I remember sitting there and wondering, you know, is this the environment that I want to work in? And, and I learnt a lot from that experience now. you’ve obviously moved from exiting in another industry to coming into this industry. What’s something that you were surprised by coming into the medical or med tech space that you think other people might not know?

Chris Bass 00:25:48  It’s a it’s a very different space for a lot of reasons. But I think the, the level of knowledge, well, that so many people have in the space, you know, a lot of other spaces, you’re not constantly dealing with doctors and PhDs and researchers.

Chris Bass 00:26:06  So there’s there’s lots of strong opinions, lots of strong knowledge base and kind of how do you fit something new into into something that is relatively established? I mean, you know, doctors learn and they They don’t entrench, but they they know what works well for them and their patience and trying to add something in or make a small tweak to a practice can, can be challenging and and for good reason sometimes.

Hilary Kilgour 00:26:32  Yeah. And I recently heard someone who works in the space say to me, they said before Covid everyone said, no way, we can’t do that. We can’t make that change. And then this event happened. And suddenly within a day, everything changed. Or suddenly within, you know, 12 hours. These systems that everyone had said there was no way that they could do it happened overnight. And so I think there’s there’s a bit of a shift happening and you’re this is what I’m experiencing and I’m curious to hear from you. There’s a shift happening. Where? Yes. Persistence. Yes.

Hilary Kilgour 00:27:04  Consistent messaging. Yes. Consistent mission. but there’s a shift happening in terms of people understanding why changes needed. Are you seeing that or is your team experiencing that for sure?

Chris Bass 00:27:15  I think, you know, especially at the surgeon Level, you know, the the willingness to just kind of do what we’ve always done is, is less acceptable. You know, there’s, I would say, a higher percentage of surgeons who want to kind of push the envelope on to be on the cutting edge and do the best they, you know, they can because they always do the best they can. Right. but, you know, kind of willing to put more of because it’s really about their effort, right, to get a medical device into a hospital, a surgeon who’s already doing a great job caring for their patients has to put a lot of their effort in to work with their institution to move your product into their system. And I think more and more doctors are willing to go even above and beyond and help with that process.

Hilary Kilgour 00:27:57  And how do you see your tool and your innovation helping doctors fulfill their own missions, which in many cases, that’s the thing that I’ve learned in both the Canadian and the American and the global health space is everyone who gets into into medicine is trying to improve people’s lives. And so every day they’ve got someone’s life in their hand and they’re thinking about how do we improve their lives. So what makes them want to bring your innovations into their hospital and their very busy schedule? What have you found, convinced them or got them motivated to bring in a new tool?

Chris Bass 00:28:30  Yeah, I think it’s a combination of improved patient outcomes, but also giving them a bit of time back, you know, efficiencies in their day so they can go do more things because that’s one of the the surgeons are always pressed for time. There’s never enough time in the day for, for all the things they have to do. So saying, look, you know, you can always close an open abdomen. There’s always a way you can do many different things to get it there.

Chris Bass 00:28:55  but we’re going to get you there easier and quicker. Right? You’re not going to have to spend eight hours in an hour doing a fairly complex surgery to get this closure. You’re just going to have this non-invasive device on in the ICU, and then when you want to close them, takes you half an hour or so, and then you can go do other amazing things with those, you know, hours we’ve given back to you. So that that has seemed to resonate quite well.

Hilary Kilgour 00:29:21  and you’ve talked about having good partners and a good team, and I think a big part of that sounds like it’s also the doctors that you work with. Can you tell me what makes a good partner?

Chris Bass 00:29:31  Well, I think you know the enthusiasm, especially in the medical space. You know, it’s a long road. So, you know, a partner who believes in the vision and and has the enthusiasm to, you know, get out of bed every day and work to improve, you know, improve, you know, a device, a company, the patient, the outcomes, you know, is really important because it’s, you know, there’s a lot of hurry up and wait sometimes in this field too.

Chris Bass 00:29:57  And, you know, if you’re not enthusiastic and you’re sitting there dragging your feet because you’re waiting for a FDA submission or an ethics board approval or anything, you know, it’s it’s a long road to be not enthusiastic about it.

Hilary Kilgour 00:30:12  And so if you were to talk to Chris seven years ago before you decided to get into this. What insight would you offer to Chris then?

Chris Bass 00:30:24  Yeah. I mean, I’d say we weren’t always patient. you know, we all we there were times when we wanted things to go faster and, you know, being prepared that you’re going to have to go slow in certain areas. And, you know, doing it the right way is better than doing it quickly, I think, especially in medicine. Yeah. you know, trying to trying to rush something is is very risky. And, you know, taking the time to do it right is definitely worth it.

Hilary Kilgour 00:30:51  And there’s a reason why some of the measures and controls exist. Yes. I think yeah, we would all hope that those same measures would be taken if, if it was our life.

Hilary Kilgour 00:30:59  They’re on a table. but we also recognize that we we want the best medical options available. I think it’s that dual that dual side. Right. and so I think it’s, it’s it’s a such an interesting space and it’s an area we need more innovation. We see a lot of women’s health. We see a lot of opportunities for shifting and representing, not only different innovations, but we also see the need for, different people to be a part of that process. And so I’m curious if you were to offer advice to other founders who are navigating med tech innovations. They’ve got a med tech innovation they’re trying to bring to market. What advice would you have for them?

Chris Bass 00:31:40  I’d say, you know, don’t go it alone. I think, you know, having partners is is really important. You know, I think a diverse skill set and knowledge base and experiences is important. And no one person can be all of that. Right? but yeah, finding good partners who believe in what you’re doing and how you want to do it is is definitely important.

Hilary Kilgour 00:32:01  And so your story is really it talks about the importance of a university and a, you know, a hospital that not only has As access to lots of resources, but also has a research facility and has doctors who have the mandate to do research as part of their job. can you maybe talk more about doesn’t have to be that specific relationship, but as as a new founder might be navigating, who do I pick as a founder? from your experience, can you tell the story of what’s made your partner such an effective one?

Chris Bass 00:32:32  Yeah, I think, you know, being passionate about the problem more than the solution, I think is important, right? I, you know, we didn’t start out to make ab work. We started out how to solve, you know, complex open abdomens, failing to close, and, you know, not coming to a surgeon and say, I’ve got this product that’s going to solve this solution and saying like, what’s your what problem are you facing? And how can we, you know, take something to solve it? I think is is really important.

Chris Bass 00:33:04  I think, you know, founders who don’t, who aren’t have a strong medical background, often see a problem that they don’t always fully understand, and build something to solve that. and so finding a partner who can, you know, tailor that and critique that I think helps you not build something that you’re then going to have to tweak much further on than you probably would have liked to.

Hilary Kilgour 00:33:30  That’s great. And, final question before we jump into the rapid fire and then we’ll go through a few rapid fire questions. you’ve navigated capital on a number of businesses. You’ve you’ve raised, you’ve closed, you’ve exited, closed, exited. Same thing. sometimes, so you have the benefit of being a multi time founder. and that’s something that in Canada we see is a really great thing, because you have all those benefits of learning for, for a founder who hasn’t navigated raising capital or who hasn’t navigated capital before. What would you say has been really valuable for you? And what advice or insights would you offer to other people who are navigating raising capital?

Chris Bass 00:34:16  Yeah, I think, you know, finding groups and investors and groups like this that have, an accurate fit with what you’re trying to do is, is really important.

Chris Bass 00:34:26  You know, finding a, you know, a, a Dragon’s Den investor, per se, and pitching them a niche medical device is is a waste of everybody’s time, usually. Fit is important. Fit is fit is very important. and then finding fit with, you know, partners like like venture labs who can put you in front of the right people because, you know, getting in front of the right people is is challenging. Yeah. so, so, yeah, I would say fit is definitely finding partners and investors that fit with your vision is is more important than talking to a million investors, I think.

Hilary Kilgour 00:35:01  So I’m going to ask you a granular follow up on that, which is I think a lot of people don’t know that. If you are looking for venture capital versus angel versus family office, that they all have different kind of return expectations and even timelines. And so when you’re having those conversations with people both around thesis of their fund or thesis of their investments, as well as kind of the time horizon, how do you approach that?

Chris Bass 00:35:28  Yeah, I think, you know, one of the most important things is making sure you match what an investor is looking for in terms of, I think, timeline and return for timeline.

Chris Bass 00:35:40  So, you know, one of the challenges, if you’re looking at a typical ten year horizon and venture funds and you’re in a medical device and you’re not right at the very beginning of that fund, it might be a bit of a challenge. you know, and then for us, the return expectations is something that venture has not always been a great fit for us, you know, But I think we counter that with other groups when we’re talking about, you know, de-risked through through, you know, peer review to academic work and, and a bit more of a, a stronger base than a, than a shooting star idea. Yeah. and, you know, market expectations and kind of end goal. Right. I think there’s a what’s a, what a successful outcome looks like for an angel versus a venture capitalist versus a family office is is very different. And you don’t want to be telling a, you know, a venture capitalist. We’re going to do, you know, forex return in 12 years.

Chris Bass 00:36:42  And and that’s just not a great way to have a conversation with a venture capitalist.

Hilary Kilgour 00:36:48  Well, and it’s really about building trust and building accountability over time. And I think a lot of people miss that, that it’s a very long term relationship that you’re establishing with someone. And so I’m curious, and for those who are listening, Who for you is your ideal investor? If you can tell us a little bit.

Chris Bass 00:37:07  Yeah. I mean.

Speaker 3 00:37:08  We we.

Chris Bass 00:37:09  We’ve taken money from from all kind of spectrum, I will admit. you know.

Hilary Kilgour 00:37:14  What are the common characteristics of what makes a good investor in your business?

Chris Bass 00:37:18  I think, you know, understanding our mission and our goals and kind of, you know, that we’re not going to be a, you know, a unicorn. This isn’t $1 billion company. You know, isn’t going to be $1 billion company, most likely. But, you know, you can still do good things and, you know, give everybody a good return at less than $1 billion.

Chris Bass 00:37:42  You know, if you if you only take in a little bit less money.

Hilary Kilgour 00:37:48  Awesome. Thank you. And now I’m going to ask you a few rapid fire questions. So, I understand you have a relatively young one at home, and so imagine that you are describing what you do to a ten year old. How do you describe your business to a ten year old? And a couple of words.

Chris Bass 00:38:08  Oh, man. Taking taking ideas to help people and and making them a reality.

Hilary Kilgour 00:38:15  Great. And in a couple of words, what’s your mission?

Chris Bass 00:38:19  To improve patient outcomes and save hospital resources so they can deliver more care?

Hilary Kilgour 00:38:27  Amazing. And if you could describe 2 or 3 softwares that you use every day in your business, which ones would you name?

Chris Bass 00:38:36  We use QuickBooks a lot. That keeps me on top of things for financing. Yeah. And then Pipedrive is kind of our our CRM. So we we track all the doctors we meet at trade shows and you know, progress of are they in, you know, are they using the product in a demo capacity or are they evaluating it or are they purchasing.

Chris Bass 00:38:57  those would be the two main ones.

Hilary Kilgour 00:38:58  Yeah. Speaking of apps, what is an app that you are using in your life right now and very regularly?

Chris Bass 00:39:05  I think the thing I’m using the most is is called Huckleberry Connect. It’s a app for tracking your your child’s eating and sleeping and, you know, bathroom usage, etc..

Hilary Kilgour 00:39:17  So very relevant. Yes. Very very relevant. What’s one thing you can’t live without?

Chris Bass 00:39:23  Oh, unfortunately, it’s probably my cell phone. I think the the amount of calls I get from doctors and and surgeons and, and team members is, is pretty high. So it’s a it’s a key key tool.

Hilary Kilgour 00:39:39  That’s great. And and if you could think of because being an entrepreneur you need to constantly be motivating yourself. How do you keep yourself motivated?

Chris Bass 00:39:48  I think just, you know, seeing the outcomes and the improvements, for patients has been really, really motivating. And then, you know, the, the family and friends who have supported along the way.

Hilary Kilgour 00:40:00  And what’s the outcome you’re most excited about?

Chris Bass 00:40:03  I think, you know, widespread adoption as a standard of care and and really changing the the slightly negative rhetoric around open abdomens as a surgical solution and a toolkit.

Hilary Kilgour 00:40:17  Awesome. And what is your hope for your business moving forward?

Chris Bass 00:40:24  you know, I think we we’d like to find a large partner to make sure it can be available to, to anybody who needs it, because we’re limited by by the team size. Now about how wide we can get at though.

Hilary Kilgour 00:40:36  That is great. And I think a good food for thought as we wrap. Chris, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for sharing the stories of your business, your stories as an entrepreneur, and your words of wisdom for others. Do you have any final words that you want to share?

Chris Bass 00:40:51  No. I think that’s been great. I thank you for, guiding me through.

Hilary Kilgour 00:40:55  Thank you. A pleasure.