Report: interview an experienced Medical Device / Health-Tech / mHealth / Diagnostics Entrepreneur

Paper details: To identify and interview an experienced Medical Device / Health-Tech / mHealth / Diagnostics Entrepreneur and write up a report.

This paper is a comprehensive 6-8 page report (MS WORD, Font size 12, Single spaced) on the entrepreneur’s business, based on the questions below. The individual chosen must have actually launched a new business venture in the area of Medical Device / Health-Tech / mHealth / Diagnostics. They must have at least 1 year of full time entrepreneurial business experience. “Self” interviews are not permitted. The entrepreneur chosen can have either an going enterprise or a discontinued business.

In order to receive credit for this assignment, you must furnish the complete contact information for your chosen entrepreneur, including name, business affiliation, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. If you don’t know any person who has either an going enterprise or a discontinued business. Here is a list of business for you: https://www.ic3401.org/members/  Visit the site and pick a business to set an appointment for an interview, the interview can be on the phone or email. Ahead of the interview, be sure to inform the the entrepreneur to only share non-confidential information about their business and IF you are voice-recording the interview, then make sure to inform the entrepreneur of the fact that you’re recording the conversation.

The following are a list of questions as suggestions for you to gain a well rounded understanding of the entrepreneur’s thinking, approach and the business. And the final report can not just be simply Q&A form.

• How and Why did you decide to start this business?
• What is the major issue your company is working to solve and Why?
• Please describe your product or service briefly. How is it different from the way things are done currently? How does your product/service improve upon what’s out there already? How does it benefit the end customers?
• Brief business history of the business, key milestones reached and projected.
• What is the target market for your product/service? How did you identify this Market? Who is the customer for your business? How did you approach pricing?
• Do you have competitors? What’s your competitive edge?
• How is the company funded from start till now? Describe any challenges you may have faced with raising funds.
• How did the business build its core team? How many co-founders were involved from the beginning? What were their skill-sets?
• What are some of the hurdles you’ve faced while trying to develop the business at the very beginning and more recently?
• What has been the US and overseas regulatory pathway your company has pursued and what is the outcome so far?
• Does the business have any patents or intellectual property? How have you protected your IP?
• How did the idea of wanting to do something entrepreneurial actually become a reality for the entrepreneur? At what point did they change their career to pursue this new venture?
• If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
• Did you ever pivot the business strategy that you originally started out with? Was the pivoting a team effort or your individual decision?
• Does the entrepreneur consider his or her business a success? If yes why and if not, why not?
• What advice can you offer to a very young startup in the Medtech field as they embark on an entrepreneurial endeavor?

Report: interview an experienced Medical Device / Health-Tech / mHealth / Diagnostics Entrepreneur

Philadelphia area. I applied for an open co-op role at Lia Diagnostics, located in Center City, and was put in contact with Amanda Freas, Lia’s Marketing Manager. An interview was scheduled with Anna Couturier Simpson, one of the co-founders of Lia Diagnostics. I ultimately did not interview with Anna as I had accepted a positon at another company. However, when I learned that for my BMES 409/509 class I would need to interview an entrepreneur, I kept my fingers crossed that I would be able to talk to Anna since I missed this opportunity back in September. I reached out and emailed Amanda, and luckily Anna was free and willing to have a phone interview.

 

Anna’s Background

I was very interested to know Anna’s background. Every successful entrepreneur comes from somewhere and has a story that needs to be told. Anna grew up in Lititz, PA. In high school, she studied college level calculus, took art and design classes, and worked at a restaurant for an independent living facility & retirement home. She worked in nearly every area of this restaurant, including waiting and bussing tables, washing dishes, being a hostess, and running the coffee shop. After high school, she pursued a Bachelor’s in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM (Computer Aided Design/Manufacture) at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. I asked her why she chose to study this as her major was not one that I would have guessed for someone leading a biomedical product company. Anna said because of the higher-level math classes and the art and design courses she took in high school, she felt confident that she wanted to become a product designer. However, this was not set in stone, as she also debated going to college to study engineering or even architecture. She ultimately chose to go to Temple as she felt if she did want to change her mind, her chosen school should have excellent programs in all these fields, which she felt Temple did. After graduating from Temple, Anna had a job in product development, design, and prototyping for a small fine jewelry store for three years. They sold products to high end customers and A list name celebrities.

Throughout these years, Anna came to the realization that she wanted to spend her life making products that would help others. She decided to go to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania’s program for Integrated Product Design in order to achieve this goal. The Integrated Product Design program is a human centered product design program whose purpose is to “create compelling new products and experiences” [1]. Housed in the engineering school, the curriculum is 1/3 engineering, 1/3 design, and 1/3 Wharton. I asked Anna what was one of her favorite classes in the program, and she responded with a class called Need Finding, taught by Sarah Rottenberg. This classes trains students to understand how to make a product that meets the needs of a user. Anna gained skills in understanding the user and how to follow the design thinking process. While Anna talked about the Integrated Product Design program, it occurred to me that this is a fantastic route to start as an entrepreneur. It offers its students a well-rounded education that really shows them the process of going from an idea to an actual product.

It was during Anna’s time at Penn she met Bethany Edwards, who later on became her fellow co-founder of Lia Diagnostics. Bethany was doing research on how to make medical products more sustainable, aka how can medical products more environmentally friendly. Anna stressed that both she and Bethany believed that a medical product should last only for as long as it is needed. It was from here that the initial seeds of Lia Diagnostics were planted.