Omari Bouknight / Resonant Link Medical
Resonant Link Medical is connecting with people in a completely new way…literally. CEO Omari Bouknight takes us into the world of wireless charging devices for medical implants, and how it’s changing the game for patients.
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Transcript
00;00;00;27 – 00;00;19;05
David Bradbury
Welcome to Start Here, a podcast sharing the stories of active, aspiring and accidental entrepreneurs. I’m Nikolay in and I’m Dave Bradbury. So let’s get to the show. Today we sit down with serial entrepreneur and medtech executive Omari Book Knight, who is now the CEO of Resident Link Medical. Welcome, Omari.
00;00;19;06 – 00;00;21;05
Omari Bouknight
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. David.
00;00;21;06 – 00;00;35;26
David Bradbury
Know, it’s great to have Resident Link back meeting with us and for this discussion. It’s a little weird today because Nicole Eaton is is on break. So I’ve got to manage this myself. And I expect you to pick up her load as well. Can you do that? All right. We’ve got.
00;00;35;28 – 00;00;36;18
Omari Bouknight
To do my best.
00;00;36;19 – 00;00;40;10
David Bradbury
All right. What is Resonant link medical?
00;00;40;11 – 00;00;53;23
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. Resident link Medical is a really exciting company that has developed an enabling technology that allows for wireless power and data transfer for implantable medical devices. So that’s a mouthful.
00;00;53;24 – 00;00;57;04
David Bradbury
Well, well, all right, what if I want a little bite of that?
00;00;57;05 – 00;01;05;07
Omari Bouknight
A little bite of that medical. Basically resident Link Medical helps to create devices and technologies to help people live safer, healthier lives.
00;01;05;08 – 00;01;07;10
David Bradbury
Oh, I love that. And what would be an example?
00;01;07;11 – 00;01;38;18
Omari Bouknight
Sure. Absolutely. So it’s all sorts of different technologies and we can talk about some of the trends. But one of them that we’re seeing is people trying to have devices that help to extend their lives as well as improve their lives. And so we work on both sides of that. You might see devices like a spinal cord stimulator, which helps people treat pain instead of having to take opioids, which I think is one of those topics that is probably fun in mine for for a lot of individuals to things that are like cardiac devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators.
00;01;38;18 – 00;01;49;07
Omari Bouknight
And then we work on devices that are even more technology forward, like brain computer interface and left ventricular assist devices, which is essentially like an artificial heart.
00;01;49;09 – 00;02;10;09
David Bradbury
My gosh, like all this science fiction stuff actually isn’t so far in the future, right? It’s incredible. How are you enabling these things to happen? Because you you have wireless charging, you know, as a core technology or is this sort of swapping out, you know, the Energizer battery I might have used in the past?
00;02;10;10 – 00;02;31;10
Omari Bouknight
It’s a little bit of both. A lot of the projects we work on, we get approached because someone wants to do something new that’s never been done before. A lot of the work we’re starting to do actually doesn’t even have to do with batteries. So now people are asking the question, can I power a device externally, send power through the body without a battery at all?
00;02;31;10 – 00;02;46;05
Omari Bouknight
And that’s one of those things that our technology can enable. And what that allows for is for companies to make devices smaller. It can make them smarter. A lot of people are embedding artificial intelligence into their technologies, and importantly, it also helps them last longer.
00;02;46;07 – 00;03;02;01
David Bradbury
Wow. So I’ve read about this intelligent focal technology, sort of. I don’t know if it’s a category or a movement. Can you amplify on that and help dumb it down so I can go home and explain it to my kids? Yeah.
00;03;02;02 – 00;03;23;09
Omari Bouknight
So intelligent focal technology is this concept that we are all different. We’re all in different individuals. We all have different needs. And when you think about a broad medical condition that’s trying to be addressed, it shows up in different forms and different people. And so when you take a device and you allow it to have intelligence, that means that you’re able to actually read off of biomarkers.
00;03;23;09 – 00;03;46;02
Omari Bouknight
So see what that difference is patient by patient and address a condition a little bit differently. Maybe someone needs a little bit more stimulation to be able to treat pain. Maybe they need it at certain periods of time during the day. Maybe it needs to come in a burst fashion. And when you add intelligence to a device, it essentially allows you to have individualized treatment for a patient and ultimately have better outcomes.
00;03;46;04 – 00;03;59;15
David Bradbury
Well, that individual individualized treatment is like the magic, right? Because it seems like so many things are built for the average person. That’s right. And that’s how we get it approved. On average, it takes this much of X to solve for Y, but we’re all different.
00;03;59;19 – 00;04;22;20
Omari Bouknight
And the focal piece is interesting too. So we all have taken medication and pills, which are great. But generally speaking when you do that then it’s going through the entire body, through the whole system, through the bloodstream. And obviously that means that there can be other challenges that arise from taking medication. When you deliver therapy vocally, you can address just the condition you want to treat without having to go through the whole system.
00;04;22;22 – 00;04;46;21
David Bradbury
Wow, wow. I’m not a scientist. Anything over three syllables. I usually get blank and I have to look it up. So Rachel remembers that when I was looking at the company originally. But. So you’ve been in medtech life sciences for for your most of your career, if not all your career. Like what made you attracted to this industry?
00;04;46;22 – 00;04;54;18
David Bradbury
Right? Was it? Was it a fourth grade? You kind of like said, oh my gosh, I have to invent and help people. Like, what was the genesis of that?
00;04;54;19 – 00;05;13;09
Omari Bouknight
Well, I didn’t even know that this industry existed, this industry of medical technology. We all have heard about pharmaceuticals and drugs, and those are things we’re familiar with. But growing up, I had no idea that this industry existed. And and quite honestly, it’s the only one that’s been developed over over time. But I did grow up in a household of a pair of physicians.
00;05;13;09 – 00;05;43;09
Omari Bouknight
Both of my parents are physicians, and I’d always hear their stories coming home about treating patients are teaching my father as a professor as well, or teaching medicine, and it was very inspiring. But I didn’t have that. I knew that wasn’t the journey for me. And so it did take some time before I discovered this industry. It was only after college that I discovered that this industry of medical technology was growing, and it was fascinating to see some of the principles around technology and things that were happening in the semiconductor industry.
00;05;43;10 – 00;06;02;26
Omari Bouknight
We’re really starting to help us to evolve, to be able to treat some of these conditions in a new way without medication or in addition to medication. And I found that to be really fascinating for me. I was always drawn to things that I could touch, that I could see. And so this idea of taking technology to help address medical conditions was very appealing to me.
00;06;02;28 – 00;06;20;26
David Bradbury
And how did you get your start? Was it, you know, you’re an intern at one of these companies or was a management program or just I, and I asked that because so many of our listeners are young adults, young in career or maybe in changing careers like that. That point you made about I didn’t know it was out there.
00;06;20;28 – 00;06;33;17
David Bradbury
Right, right. So any advice for folks that maybe are seeking or would have curious about, I don’t know, trying to make things that really matter and improve quality of life, humanity.
00;06;33;18 – 00;06;59;27
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. After my discovery about this industry and that it existed, that was the exact question I asked myself, how do I break into this? How do I get into this? Like a lot of people, I ended up going back to school as part of my journey. And so my first foray into the industry was an internship. I had the opportunity to intern at a company called Guidance Corporation, which eventually became part of Boston Scientific and part of Abbott, so part of the two largest medical technology companies that exist.
00;06;59;27 – 00;07;21;09
Omari Bouknight
And that industry was really amazing for me. I got exposed to so much over those three months that actually got extended for another three months, and eventually I joined in a rotation program, which was really exciting because I got to have hands on training, go through a certification program, and cardiac with the management. And after that, I was definitely completely hooked.
00;07;21;10 – 00;07;29;29
David Bradbury
Completely hooked. Right. Do you do interns or apprenticing any form at the company today?
00;07;30;00 – 00;07;54;23
Omari Bouknight
Yeah, we definitely have started. So I mean, we are in such a focused area that being able to discover, identify and then develop talent is becoming a big part of what we’re trying to do, especially as we’re growing so much. And so we have started offering an internship. We actually had a couple of interns just this past year, and then we also have been engaged here with the University of Vermont through their Seed program, which is a great program.
00;07;54;24 – 00;08;04;24
Omari Bouknight
Right. Great experience. We had a great group work with us recently, and one of those team members actually will be joining us full time later on this year.
00;08;04;26 – 00;08;29;28
David Bradbury
So for those listening, the Seed program is really out of their engineering school, primarily where companies come in and say, we have something to work on. Let’s let’s get some fearless folks in a room and let them run with it with our guidance. So thank you for that. I, I also found two internships are great. Like for me it I figured out what I didn’t want to be right which is sometimes easier right.
00;08;29;29 – 00;08;43;05
David Bradbury
Like I had I remember working for financial services company down here and you had to wear socks and a suit. Good dress shoes. I was like, who wants to do that? I’m in flip flops today. So to each his, each his own.
00;08;43;06 – 00;09;12;03
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. My first experience in healthcare was working on health insurance and basically data analytics and health insurance. And I quickly realized that that was not for me. So sometimes knowing what you don’t want to do is just as good as knowing what you do want to do. And I think for us, the internship program and particular working with a seed group was really powerful because as a startup, we use brute force and manual effort every day to get through the challenges we face is essentially we see challenge one, two, three.
00;09;12;05 – 00;09;21;07
Omari Bouknight
We’ll do whatever we need to break through those, but then having someone come in with an external view and say no, you can introduce routines process to address this.
00;09;21;08 – 00;09;25;25
David Bradbury
How dare they are? You didn’t see that coming.
00;09;25;29 – 00;09;30;00
Omari Bouknight
It was really eye opening in that sense. It was truly a terrific experience.
00;09;30;02 – 00;09;36;06
David Bradbury
Yeah, I how what size team is is resident link today right.
00;09;36;06 – 00;09;52;29
Omari Bouknight
So we are 1414 yeah. In terms of the core team we do a lot of work with the larger ecosystem. So we do have some assistance outside specific expertise that kind of helps us in that regard. They’re roughly 5 to 10 probably in that ecosystem.
00;09;53;00 – 00;09;59;19
David Bradbury
Great. And offices in Switzerland Boston Vermont, California, anywhere else did I miss like.
00;09;59;21 – 00;10;02;01
Omari Bouknight
We’re distributed? We’re definitely just.
00;10;02;03 – 00;10;25;11
David Bradbury
Talk about that. What’s the pros and cons of of a distributed particularly just like I’ll call it the research the creative end. Right, right, right. You’re making things that have been done before. And in my head I’m like, gosh, you really got to be in the same room, right? Yeah. Trial and error. Like particularly physical product. So how just talk about how that is working so well, or maybe ways it didn’t work so well that others might benefit from.
00;10;25;12 – 00;10;42;28
Omari Bouknight
Right. Absolutely. Well, I think some of the roots around Resident Link really came through the through Covid. And during that period of time, I think we started to learn pretty well how to work in a distributed nature. I do think it certainly helps to have hubs. So we do have this concept of hubs, which is why we have a hub here in Burlington.
00;10;42;28 – 00;11;07;08
Omari Bouknight
We have a hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the hub in Zurich. And I think that concept certainly helps because those hubs all work very closely and in concert with each other within the hub. And then I think it’s all about having process and systems to making sure that you get together as a team. So we definitely have routines in terms of getting together remotely as well as in person, as a team.
00;11;07;08 – 00;11;22;23
Omari Bouknight
And as you say, it’s really a balance. But at the end of the day, because we’re doing what we’re doing is so hyper specialized, it requires some very special individuals. We do look for best talent, and that also sometimes means being flexible in terms of geography.
00;11;22;25 – 00;11;37;14
David Bradbury
And what I’m really curious about. Do you have daily stand ups or all hands like what kind of cadence is leading to this momentum and magic that that this last 15 or so months has, has seen at the company?
00;11;37;15 – 00;11;53;05
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. Every other week we have in all hands call just kind of giving an update in terms of where we are against our objectives. There’s engineering meetings both at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week. We have a leadership team meeting on a weekly basis. And then there’s one on ones that happen in between that.
00;11;53;05 – 00;12;14;10
Omari Bouknight
So I think there is a balance of having these routines also allowing for individual work to contribute. I would assume one of the experiences maybe that you had at one of the larger companies was all you do is meetings all day, and then there’s no work to be done. And so I think it’s really important for us as a startup that we leave individual time to allow for some of the work to be done.
00;12;14;10 – 00;12;19;19
Omari Bouknight
And because we work in hubs, there’s a lot of engagement and interaction that happens at the specific hubs.
00;12;19;23 – 00;12;43;13
David Bradbury
Great. Maybe talk about resident link had a journey, right? It was the roots were in the medical device side of things, and for a period of time there were larger sort of ambitions and efforts into, you know, industrial logistics businesses that could benefit, that was divested off. And now we’re kind of back to the core. And honestly, this is the company I always wanted to invest in.
00;12;43;13 – 00;13;05;25
David Bradbury
And we got a chance right with features. And I know right. I approached to set it up front. Talk about culture. Right, right. Because you came in as a as a very credentialed CEO, you’ve got this, this group of scientists and builders and marketing professionals like that, that really had something special but had lived through a lot. Right?
00;13;05;26 – 00;13;27;27
David Bradbury
Right. Like, I’m just curious, like what your approach was and what you saw in terms of culture that that you said, oh, this, these, these elements are going to help us win. Or here’s where the baggage of the past or the baggage, but the history sometimes ways you down a little bit. And here’s where we course correct or improve upon like right.
00;13;27;28 – 00;13;51;07
Omari Bouknight
Well I think everyone was on the same page even from the beginning that the core technology was was amazing. I mean, the things that were able to do in terms of wireless power and data transfer simply hadn’t really been done before until this tech suite had really come together. And that’s a big credit to the entire team. But in particular, Aaron Stein, who’s one of the founders back in 2017, came up with some of the core inventions that are really the engine behind it.
00;13;51;07 – 00;14;08;10
Omari Bouknight
So he deserves a ton of credit for that. I think my responsibility, and having been at a few other startups that had some legacies around it, was to make sure that you’re looking at how do we honor all the great work that’s been done? But the task at hand is really to evolve that, to bring things to market.
00;14;08;10 – 00;14;42;01
Omari Bouknight
So how do you bring forward the cultural elements that really have gotten you here, while adding things that will help you get to the next level in the next stage? And I think having lived that a couple of times before, one of the major lessons that I realized was never drop in thinking, you’ve got a full plan to push things forward your day one really your responsibility is to understand beyond kind of the interviews and all of the great things that have been said about the company, to really dig in, to understand what are the pieces that are working really, really well, what are the things that need to evolve and what are the things
00;14;42;01 – 00;15;03;29
Omari Bouknight
that need to change? And I think by really digging in and listening and taking some time to really understand those pieces and then slowly evolving those over time, it’s not one of those things where you turn the temperature from 60 to 100 overnight, but figuring out how do I go from 60 to 62? And then so on and so forth, until you get to the right place is really, really important.
00;15;04;00 – 00;15;17;11
Omari Bouknight
And at the end of the day, we work on products, but we work with people. So understanding who the counterparties are, what are their aspirations, what are the things that they struggle with? What are their challenges? I think are absolutely is absolutely critical.
00;15;17;13 – 00;15;40;15
David Bradbury
Amazing, in fact, that at least I’m not aware no one’s left right. Which is when you have all this change, new faces, sometimes, you know, things change. The I’m really curious. One of the things we look for when we make investments and try to help people is like, why you? Why this? Why now and then? What benefit? Those are the questions we ask the you we’ve always answered.
00;15;40;16 – 00;16;02;23
David Bradbury
Like, yes, we always thought, this is the smartest group of people. Motivated, creative. Why this? Yeah, we’re going to have more devices that we need to support our lives for longer. And then why now? Like like what has changed in the market that just gets you out of bed at 5 a.m. going, oh my gosh, this is this is here.
00;16;02;29 – 00;16;03;14
David Bradbury
Yeah.
00;16;03;21 – 00;16;24;17
Omari Bouknight
Yeah, I love that question because I first came in contact with the concept of wireless power and data transfer back in 22,009, and at that time I was working with a great company called Thor, which is now part of Abbott, which had developed the leading left ventricular assist device. This is treating the sickest of sick patients suffering for heart failure.
00;16;24;20 – 00;16;29;06
Omari Bouknight
A majority of them qualify for heart transplant and they need this device to stay alive.
00;16;29;07 – 00;16;31;21
David Bradbury
The Tories l that right? Yeah, exactly.
00;16;31;23 – 00;16;53;28
Omari Bouknight
Exactly. These are very power hungry devices. And while they really help patients transform their quality of life and help them to live longer, unfortunately they require a drive line to come out of the abdomen. So imagine you’re living with essentially wires coming out of your stomach every day. You can’t take a shower properly. You can’t do things like go back to swimming.
00;16;53;28 – 00;17;16;09
Omari Bouknight
It’s really a restriction. And so at that time, we were looking at ways that we could send power through the skin, and unfortunately, the technology just didn’t exist where that was a possibility. So you fast forward more than 15 years later, and I come in contact with Resident Link Medical and to see the advances that have happened in terms of this type of technology, I was amazed.
00;17;16;09 – 00;17;36;13
Omari Bouknight
And then you also look at different trends that are happening right now in health, which is really fascinating. So one of the major trends we’re seeing is this idea of moving from device based focus on just sustaining life, or helping you to live longer, to improving quality of life. Some examples of that are devices to treat sleep apnea.
00;17;36;13 – 00;18;01;29
Omari Bouknight
We have devices now that can help treat urinary incontinence. Device based therapy is growing and growing growing. So that’s trend number one focusing on not just extending life but quality of life. The second trend that we’re seeing is this movement into treating brain disorders. So from my point of view, medicine is really exciting now because we’re starting to move very aggressively in that direction, which is kind of like the final frontier medicine.
00;18;01;29 – 00;18;22;16
Omari Bouknight
So looking at being able to treat epilepsy, trying to treat conditions like glioblastoma, being able to treat a diseases like Parkinson’s, ALS, these have been conditions that until now we haven’t really been able to do very much for. And so to be able to see device based therapy go in that direction is very exciting. And the last one is the one we talked about, which is intelligent devices.
00;18;22;16 – 00;18;38;23
Omari Bouknight
So those three trends are all coming together in a way that have a lot of implications around what are you going to do for power, right. What are you going to do once the device is below the skin? Because once the device is placed, the last thing a patient wants to do is to have to go through another procedure or surgery again.
00;18;38;25 – 00;19;00;11
David Bradbury
Yeah. I mean, I was always fascinated with pacemakers at the last. And then okay, the battery needs to be replaced. You have to go into surgery and take it out. Right. And that that doesn’t seem very convenient for maybe it maybe it’s a bottleneck in hospitals, or maybe there are incentives to keep doing it that way. So actually I’m really curious about incentives with sort of the dominant players.
00;19;00;12 – 00;19;17;25
David Bradbury
Like why would they want to rechargeable or a self-sustaining sort of device versus I make widgets, right? Every every seven years I get to sell you a new one. Right. Like that seems to me sort of a cushy business to be like, are you disrupting that in big ways, or might.
00;19;17;28 – 00;19;35;25
Omari Bouknight
I believe so, yes, I think incentives are a big part of it. And so we sort of look at two things with the partners that we work with. The first one is if they’re developing something new from a fresh sheet of paper, and if you’re developing something new from a fresh sheet of paper, generally you’re not going to develop in a way that’s always been developed before.
00;19;35;27 – 00;19;51;13
Omari Bouknight
In other words, you’re going to be much more eager to provide something that’s disruptive. If you’re building something from the ground up, you’re more likely to look at something rechargeable, or maybe something that doesn’t require a battery at all. And then there’s sort of the incumbent way, and there’s some that I think are willing to lean into innovation.
00;19;51;14 – 00;20;02;27
Omari Bouknight
There’s some that are not. So a lot of times we do find ourselves partnering with those that want to be disruptive to the current standards and current approaches. And so those are partners that we eagerly work with.
00;20;02;28 – 00;20;24;12
David Bradbury
Yeah. I mean, you’re sort of dancing with elephants out there, right? I mean, you know, at the end of the day, there’s some major players you’ve mentioned, you know, Abbott and Boston Scientific and all the rest. Like, you know, how does a high potential, high momentum yet yet still kind of smallish company like how do you how do you position.
00;20;24;13 – 00;20;26;07
David Bradbury
Right. How do you not get stomped.
00;20;26;08 – 00;20;48;02
Omari Bouknight
Right. Yes. Well. And so I think that’s where and you mentioned this before, having some big company experience and some startup experience, which thankfully I have both helps because in this space, in medical devices, the big companies get their innovation from the small companies. So when you look at new innovations coming from big companies, a lot of times it’s through acquisition.
00;20;48;03 – 00;21;05;18
Omari Bouknight
So part of our thinking and thesis is by partnering with some of the more innovative, disruptive, smaller companies. Over time, they’re eventually going to end up in the hands of big companies. And we’ve seen some of that. And that’s one of the ways we’re seeing some of the larger companies become more interested and excited about the work we’re doing.
00;21;05;24 – 00;21;19;28
David Bradbury
And do you see adoption of of these next generation devices? Is it is it going faster in the US or Europe or Asia? Are there any sort of global differences that that you see?
00;21;19;29 – 00;21;45;22
Omari Bouknight
Yeah, I think there are global differences. There are differences in terms of the regulatory environment. So what it takes to get a device approved in Europe is different than the US, is different than Japan than China versus Australia. So there are definitely some differences there for us. We have global partnerships. So we have customers and companies we’re partnering with in each of the different major continents around, around the world.
00;21;45;25 – 00;22;05;23
Omari Bouknight
So what we find in particular is this concept of home field advantage. So if you’re a company developing a product in Spain, you’re more likely to be considering your path to Europe first, versus if you’re a company based in Vermont and you’re developing a device, you’re probably looking at getting into the US market first.
00;22;05;29 – 00;22;13;00
David Bradbury
Yeah, I like talk a little bit about.
00;22;13;02 – 00;22;37;19
David Bradbury
Your board. And, you know, one of the things I think was last fall, anyway, we announced you recruited successfully a new board chair. Yes. Right. Ray Cohen right. And just a legend in the industry. Like tell us, like, why someone of that profile for a company at this stage was a real priority, right? Right. And what are the advantage?
00;22;37;19 – 00;22;58;28
David Bradbury
Because not I asked this just in the context of a lot of the smaller companies and actually not small anymore. But a lot of the companies who work with, they don’t really think about boards and different stages and who’s got either the skills or the networks or the time for that matter, to to get involved. So a little bit of history on that, please.
00;22;58;29 – 00;23;23;04
Omari Bouknight
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it was very exciting to have Ray join. I think the first thing I would say is a lot of times when you’re thinking about board composition, you often think about, okay, what’s the biggest name that I could bring in to make an impact? And I think that’s the wrong way to think about it, because a lot of times the big names are the ones that might not want to roll up their sleeves and really help the company get to where they want to.
00;23;23;05 – 00;23;51;00
Omari Bouknight
So we were very fortunate because Ray not only is obviously a big name in the industry, but he really believed in the mission and he was really willing to roll up his sleeves and get engaged, which I think says a lot about the type of person that that Ray is. But I think Ray is also a visionary, and he really sees where technology is going in terms of medical applications, and saw a lot of the applications that we could have and said, this is something that I really want to be be involved with.
00;23;51;00 – 00;24;04;13
Omari Bouknight
And then we took a look at the composition of the board between myself and Jeff Chou from Features Capital. And if you look at Jeff’s background, he’s a prolific inventor, you know, awesome. Awesome dude. Awesome.
00;24;04;15 – 00;24;09;12
David Bradbury
Great investor. Great a great supporter right. Is it can’t be for this stuff. Yeah.
00;24;09;13 – 00;24;30;11
Omari Bouknight
And a great person. And so his background in terms of research and development has been incredibly important and helpful. My background has mainly been on medical devices from a life sustaining perspective. Ray Bing’s a whole new flavor where he’s worked a lot in neuromodulation. He’s worked a lot in devices that really helped people live better lives and not just live longer.
00;24;30;11 – 00;24;35;15
Omari Bouknight
And then obviously, the relationships that he has and the perspective he has has been very valuable.
00;24;35;16 – 00;24;41;02
David Bradbury
Yeah. You get your phone calls returned more often.
00;24;41;04 – 00;24;42;16
Omari Bouknight
It’s always a nice thing, right?
00;24;42;18 – 00;24;43;10
David Bradbury
Yeah.
00;24;43;12 – 00;24;48;10
Omari Bouknight
You’re the small company. The return rate of phone calls is an important metric.
00;24;48;11 – 00;25;02;29
David Bradbury
Oh, yeah. We had the former CEO of Raytheon was on our cybersecurity company years ago. And like, he could call other companies like, hey, would you take a meeting? Right, right. And then you just need a chance, right? You need a you need a swing at bat here for that.
00;25;03;03 – 00;25;04;03
Omari Bouknight
You’re saying there’s a chance.
00;25;04;04 – 00;25;08;29
David Bradbury
Yeah. So you’re saying there’s a chance, right?
00;25;09;01 – 00;25;30;19
David Bradbury
Do you think a higher profile person like that, you know, needs to come in at the scaling stage or this sort of product fit kind of, I don’t know, grope. Sometimes you’re in the dark trying to find it, right? Yeah. Like, you know, you mentioned roll up your sleeves. Like, is there a rule of thumb that you’ve seen over time?
00;25;30;20 – 00;25;36;11
David Bradbury
Like, gosh, you got to know what you can build, repeat what you can build, and then you want this person, right. Or is it?
00;25;36;13 – 00;26;01;04
Omari Bouknight
I think for us and it depends on the profile you’re after. But for us, because we had found product market fit and we’re really looking for scale, it really made sense to have someone with with raised background to, to join because that’s where you can sort of put gas on the fire. I think if we had not gotten product market fit, then that probably we wouldn’t be able to put his capabilities, skills, experience, vision to use as readily.
00;26;01;04 – 00;26;18;04
Omari Bouknight
So I think it’s really about matching the space and the time that the company is in relative to who you bring on to the to the board. It’s almost a matching game of sorts. And for us, because we had discovered that we had product market fit and we were looking to scales absolutely the right combination.
00;26;18;05 – 00;26;21;03
David Bradbury
So so what’s the big goal or vision for the company?
00;26;21;04 – 00;26;35;09
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. Well our big vision and goal is over the next five years, to really be embedded in more than 100,000 of these devices that are out and helping patients, so that that at the end of the day, is our metric of success.
00;26;35;12 – 00;26;58;22
David Bradbury
I’m conflicted because I so badly want one. But then again, I’m like, well, maybe not, let’s just keep device. I was at traveling in the airport, TSA, you know, and I bet 30% of the people had some metal or device in them that needed to be done. So it’s a growth sector. Unfortunately or fortunately, I feel I feel they’re both relevant.
00;26;58;23 – 00;26;59;00
David Bradbury
Well.
00;26;59;00 – 00;27;21;21
Omari Bouknight
We’re living longer and I think the key is we want to live longer, but with the right lifestyle. And so to the extent that we can have forgettable devices that help us maintain, sustain or improve our lifestyle, I think that’s really critical for health going forward, because no one wants to be 85 and 90 at home with a horrible quality of life.
00;27;21;21 – 00;27;25;16
Omari Bouknight
And so what this is all about is really helping people get back to the lives that they want.
00;27;25;16 – 00;27;43;03
David Bradbury
To live. I love forgettable devices. I almost feel like there’s, you know, probably don’t have it yet, but someday the mattress will recharge us, right? Right. This heat and cooling now and different angles. So you’ve worked at large companies and a number of times in small companies.
00;27;43;06 – 00;27;51;17
David Bradbury
What? 1 or 2 things from the big company experience. Do you think every founder of a of a small company should, should be aware of?
00;27;51;20 – 00;28;14;20
Omari Bouknight
I think at the big companies, what they really do well is a level of rigor that a lot of small companies don’t really understand. I think at small companies, if you get something to work once and then you get it to work twice, you feel as though you’re you’re really good to go at. At larger companies, you spend so much time trying to anticipate failure mechanisms.
00;28;14;20 – 00;28;36;16
Omari Bouknight
What could happen in real world environments, in our space and medical devices. That’s critically important to really have have those pieces. So treating things with a certain level of rigor, also understanding things such as human factors. How does the human interface with the device is such a critical aspect to when it gets out versus just does the tech work or not?
00;28;36;17 – 00;28;54;13
Omari Bouknight
So I think looking at things through that lens, because sometimes at smaller companies, we tend to think if the tech works ready for prime time at the bigger companies are thinking, this has to go out into the wild and wild things happen in the wild. So how is this actually going to functionally operate when it gets out there?
00;28;54;13 – 00;29;06;18
Omari Bouknight
So at least understanding that lens, it doesn’t mean from a startup perspective you have to have all of it solved, but at least understanding what the roadmap could look like to take it through the rigorous process has some importance.
00;29;06;20 – 00;29;19;13
David Bradbury
Can you get that through partnering with larger companies? I mean, is that one of the values they have? I mean, because they’re going to beat you up on price or timeline or process perhaps. So that is something you can you can pull from them.
00;29;19;14 – 00;29;41;07
Omari Bouknight
I think we’re really fortunate in that regard because through our partnerships, it creates this broader ecosystem of small and large companies. And so a lot of times they’ll push us in new ways in different directions, and we’ve added additional levels of rigor and understanding and insight because of that partnership. So it’s one of the natural aspects of our business.
00;29;41;07 – 00;29;55;19
Omari Bouknight
A lot of times we talk about how can I create this flywheel, right? That is reinforcing. And one that we benefit for is as we become more sophisticated, we gain more partnerships. As we gain more partnerships, we become more sophisticated.
00;29;55;20 – 00;30;02;20
David Bradbury
Wow. You brought a couple of devices. Can you just hold those up to the camera and maybe just quickly say what they what they are?
00;30;02;22 – 00;30;26;05
Omari Bouknight
Absolutely. So our our base platform that we talk about is called Orion WPT, which is essentially our tech suite, our tech stack that we embed inside of our chargers. So this is an example of our charger. We call this our Viggo Charger. And essentially what it does is it puts out up to 2.5W of power. This is a representation of a kind of a standard implantable pulse generator.
00;30;26;05 – 00;30;47;28
Omari Bouknight
So your standard pacemaker spinal cord stimulator would look like something like this. And essentially what you can do is by depressing this button, this is now in search mode. And now we’re paired. So you can see there the green lights are turned on. It’s showing you the state of charge inside of the battery. And it’s putting out 2.5W into this device and recharging it.
00;30;47;29 – 00;30;56;29
Omari Bouknight
And it has the ability to recharge this battery, which has the largest implantable grade battery inside of it, in roughly 30 minutes.
00;30;57;01 – 00;31;19;29
David Bradbury
Wow. With no damage to the skin, right? There’s no burning or wow. Okay. Thank you for that. It’s so great when they have props. We didn’t need them when we were only audio, but with the video it does help for sure. Can you contrast sort of East Coast versus West Coast medtech life sciences like you’ve got that.
00;31;20;02 – 00;31;23;21
David Bradbury
You’ve been on both sides here. Yes. So any big differences?
00;31;23;22 – 00;31;27;09
Omari Bouknight
Yeah. Well, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Midwest as.
00;31;27;13 – 00;31;37;02
David Bradbury
All right. That’s true. Right. We’re not going to talk about Michigan State because I’m a go blue household. You’re you’re you’re you’re on the green side. So okay. We’re good I.
00;31;37;02 – 00;31;57;20
Omari Bouknight
Think there are differences. You know I think if you look at the ecosystem on the East Coast, for example, it’s generally been from the beginning. There are more roots actually in some of these lifestyle based devices, which is pretty interesting. Whereas a lot of the West Coast and Midwest in particular has been more on the life sustaining side.
00;31;57;27 – 00;32;20;13
Omari Bouknight
So that’s one of the differences that I’ve sort of picked up on. And on the East Coast, you also have this ecosystem very strong in terms of biotechnology and diagnostics. So there’s some implications around that that exists to on the West Coast, obviously you have a lot of companies that are venture backed. So you have a lot of startups and a big ecosystem of startups out there, which is quite interesting.
00;32;20;13 – 00;32;46;12
Omari Bouknight
But in terms of the hubs of medical devices, if you look across the US, categorically speaking, there’s really kind of four, four hubs, which is Boston kind of area. You have the Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Midwest area, you have Silicon Valley, and then you have Los Angeles area, Southern California. Those are kind of the four major regions for medical devices.
00;32;46;14 – 00;32;55;27
David Bradbury
You’re suffering through our podcast. Thank you for that. But you have your own right powering the Future Within podcasts. Tell us about that. Why are you doing it?
00;32;55;28 – 00;33;02;26
Omari Bouknight
Yes. No. Thank you very much for for raising that. So this is a concept that Rachel Allard, who’s our VP of marketing and I really.
00;33;02;28 – 00;33;07;25
David Bradbury
The best known Rachel a long time through different seats. Yes, absolutely.
00;33;07;26 – 00;33;27;20
Omari Bouknight
So we’ve partnered on this concept. And really the idea was because our technology can work with so many different devices that are out there. We have a lens, a broad lens around what’s happening in the world of medical technology. And as you mentioned at the beginning, a lot of the things that are being worked on now almost feel like science fiction.
00;33;27;20 – 00;33;49;21
Omari Bouknight
So being able to have operators, clinicians, innovators come on to the podcast and discuss their journey in addition to the journey of their technology has been really inspirational, and I think we have a unique lens to be able to have those conversations, both because of the number of technologies where we work with, but also because at the same time, I’m helping to run a company too.
00;33;49;23 – 00;33;55;28
Omari Bouknight
So it creates a little bit of a different type of conversation flow, which has really been fun to, to, to work through.
00;33;56;00 – 00;34;05;18
David Bradbury
What do you get out of it? I mean, is it just a curiosity? You just learn what people see and do? Is that the, the prime benefit to to to you, the individual?
00;34;05;19 – 00;34;31;25
Omari Bouknight
I think one of the things that I get out of it is reaffirmation after every conversation of why I want to do what I do and why I do what I do. So we we had a recent conversation, yet it hasn’t dropped, but it was with at Jane. And to really kind of understand his journey and his discovery process and his personal perspective, his personal life with his, his mother and himself was really instrumental, I think, in a lot of the work that he does.
00;34;31;25 – 00;34;35;22
Omari Bouknight
So that was affirmation of of what I do. So that’s one of the things I.
00;34;35;22 – 00;34;49;24
David Bradbury
Get it. So great. We’re at time here. So we ask a magic wand question of everybody. Right. Here you go. What founder leader, past or present would you like to chat with and why?
00;34;49;28 – 00;35;15;12
Omari Bouknight
Oh founder leader past or present? Well, I was telling someone the other the other day that I was at a restaurant. I guess this was probably 18 years ago. Maybe a little bit less than that. Anyway, I look over to the right of me and there’s Steve Jobs. No sitting there. Yeah. And unfortunately, at that period of time, he had already had pancreatic cancer and had progressed pretty severely or pretty significantly.
00;35;15;12 – 00;35;41;19
Omari Bouknight
And he was sitting there quietly with his family and just enjoying the meal. And I couldn’t help but wonder, what are all the things that he’s thinking about? What are all the things that he would still love to be able to do? And at that period of time, we only found it out later. Apple was working very heavily into how they could push into health, and I think now we’re seeing a lot of that initial kind of investment in that work really kind of come to market.
00;35;41;19 – 00;35;48;00
Omari Bouknight
And I think there’s a whole lot more coming out. So I would love to have been able to sit down and have an interview with him at that point.
00;35;48;08 – 00;35;59;05
David Bradbury
That’s great. That’s great. Mari, thank you so much for making time in your busy schedule. Sitting down with Start Here. I can’t wait to see these next chapters play out.
00;35;59;06 – 00;36;01;03
Omari Bouknight
Yeah, I can’t do. Thank you so much for having.
00;36;01;03 – 00;36;13;27
David Bradbury
Me on. You bet. This has been Start Here, a podcast sharing the stories of active, aspiring and accidental entrepreneurs. This series is brought to you by the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. Now let’s get back to work.
