As a still growing company, all of our team members are constantly busy in various fields. We travel a lot to get our products and technology known, to make new connections and foster old ones. This is why the three of us – Audry, Tim and Benno – are very rarely in the same place at the same time.
Running a funding campaign is a full-time job in itself but we have lots of other things to do on our plates. But what does a typical week at Surge-on Medical look like? Find out as we open our diaries! Let’s zoom in on the third week of September, when two of us are headed for Barcelona and Munich while Benno takes care of business in Delft.
Audry / Barcelona: My week starts early. I am leaving the Netherlands on Sunday morning and will arrive in Barcelona at around noon to settle in before the start of a busy week. I am going to attend the Module 3 of WE Health, Empowering Women Leadership in Health Innovation, for which I was selected and I am very much looking forward to.
Benno / Delft: From our office in Delft, the Netherlands, I have been dealing mostly with legislative topics for the upcoming clinical study “A case series study on safety, efficiency, and quality of the Steerable Punch” at the largest hospital in the Netherlands. The week ended with great news: the Dutch Ministry of Health (by its Health and Youth Care Inspectorate) has given permission to start the surgeries with our innovative surgical instrument, the Steerable Punch. The scientists and surgeons at the Amsterdam UMC hospital are now planning the patient selection process and surgery schedule for this independent research.
Next to that, through the networking opportunities provided at the Medical Device Meeting Twente, I got in touch with additional suppliers of great technology and materials for our current R&D projects, for example in the field of laparoscopy. Follow-up calls have been planned.
Doctors and distributors from all over the world have shown a lot of interest in us. This week, I was in touch with surgeons from Turkey, Germany and South Korea. Together with a large company in South Korea, we have already arranged for the South Korea MFDS (formerly KFDA) certification, which will allow us to sell the Steerable Punch in South Korea. In the coming weeks, we will be working towards a contract for distributing our products in South Korea. The market there is very interesting, as it is a highly innovative sector and the annual orders expected from there will result in a great jump in our revenues from 2020 onwards.
Last but not least, with the help of Aescuvest, we have reached an important milestone in our equity crowdfunding campaign: more than €165,000 is now invested, which we see as a reason for other investors (from small and private, to large and professional ones) to also put their trust in us as well!
Tim / Munich: In September every year, the so-called “Pharma Oscars” are handed out in Munich. Surge-on Medical is nominated as “The Most Innovative Product” in the startup category, thus I arrive on the morning of September 17th and head towards the hotel to change clothes. Afterwards, I take a taxi to Munich’s Deutsches Museum to discuss the award ceremony and to meet the host of the event, Tamara Sedmak, which is followed by a meet & greet with the other award winners and leading pharmaceutical industrials.
After key lectures by Melanie Huml, Bavaria’s State Minister of Health and Care, and other prominent influencers, the awards are given out and Surge-on Medical finishes second! Photos are taken and interviews conducted. Interestingly, the award ceremony is closed out at 24:00 with a dinner in the museum, very much reminiscent of the movie “Night at the Museum.”
The next morning, I am trying to fit the award into my hand luggage (an impossible job!) and take the first flight home to Delft as I have to pick up my child from school at 12:00.
This is what a typical week in a healthtech startup company looks like. Long hours, lots of traveling, lots of talks with stakeholders. But we certainly love what we do as we know that hard work pays off and in the end, patients, surgeons, and last but not least Surge-on Medical benefit from what we do.
If you too want to benefit, get on board and join our company!