Episode: 204 - Brian Webster on Steady Leadership through Turbulent Times

Brian Webster, President and CEO of Kestra Medical Technologies (Nasdaq: KMTS), joins Medtech Talk to discuss his 30-year career in cardiac defibrillation and the road to founding Kestra. With host Swaril Mathur, Webster unpacks learnings from leading through decades of repeated acquisitions, divestitures, and restructurings — and keeping the team motivated through it all. Their conversation explores what it takes to commercialize a rental fleet model with outsourced manufacturing, revenue cycle management, and payer contracts, as well as closing with the decision to IPO and staying steady in volatile markets by focusing on execution fundamentals. Subscribe, share this with a MedTech operator who’s scaling something hard, and leave a rating or review with the leadership lesson that hit you most. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  MicroTransponderLinks: MicroTransponder Kestra Medical Technologies: Kestra Medical Technologies  

How do you approach growing and investing? Quentin Blackford, president and CEO of iRhythm Technologies, joins Medtech Talk host Justin Klein to discuss how he took his company beyond traditional monitoring and expanded into the primary care setting, even though many traditional medical device companies don’t have much success in primary care. Blackford shares advice on how to develop expertise and comfort in approaching and embracing technology investment (particularly with AI), as well as his thoughts on how the medtech ecosystem is currently approaching the learning curve and tech adoption. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare   Vensana Capital:  Vensana Capital iRhythm Links: iRhythm  

How do you evaluate investments and risks? Kate Garret, managing partner at Sonder, and Deborah Kilpatrick, partner at Sonder, share their insights and experiences as entrepreneurs, CEOs, and investors in this episode of Medtech Talk, hosted by Swaril Mathur. They deep dive into the practical realities of entrepreneurship, including the importance of networking, knowing when to keep pushing or pull out of an investment, making hard decisions, and how to conduct a successful shutdown. Garret and Kilpatrick also discuss their mentorship programs and offer advice for aspiring innovators on how to break into the industry. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  MicroTransponderLinks: MicroTransponder 

Meeting the right people can completely change the trajectory of one’s career. In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo speaks with Stacy Enxing Seng, independent director and venture partner, about her journey from Harvard Business School to SciMed to ev3 and beyond. She delves into the lessons learned, the challenges, and—most importantly—the people that have impacted her illustrious career. She also shares advice on why soft skills are key to acquisitions and integrations, the importance of transparency, and determining the difference between a CEO who isn’t the right fit versus a CEO who has room to grow. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  Corza Medical Lightstone Ventures   

The data gap in women’s health has always been a major issue and challenge. Ridhi Tariyal, CEO and co-founder of NextGen Jane, is on a mission to de-risk the women’s health field and fill in the blanks with critical information and research. Host Swaril Mathur speaks with Tariyal on how NextGen Jane is collecting data through menstrual blood to make diagnoses and treatments easier. Tariyal also shares advice on the pros and cons of going the cash-pay consumer route and pitching the right business proposal to gain investors’ attention, as well as NextGen’s plans and focus points. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  MicroTransponderLinks: MicroTransponder NextGen Jane: NextGen Jane 

From consulting to working at large companies to taking a risk with start-ups to becoming Silk Road Medical’s CEO, Chas McKhann has experienced almost everything in his long and illustrious career. In a discussion with Medtech Talk host Geoff Pardo, McKhann shares all the lessons learned from his jump to small private companies, handling a cultural rebirth as a newcomer CEO under the public eye, and taking on his role at Silk Road. He also talks about the “what if’s” of his journey and tips on surviving in the industry, as well as witnessing the market shift from only caring about revenue to wanting to see the path to capital break even. LINKS: Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  Silk Road Medical: Silk Road Medical  

Niche markets and small populations don’t get the attention they need for medtech and healthcare.  Medtech Talk host Swaril Mathur speaks with Eric Chehab, founder and former CEO of Novonate and director of business development of Laborie OB/GYN/NICU, and James Wall, pediatric surgeon and founder of Impact1 at Stanford University, about how they’re bringing medtech innovation to small patient populations. They delve into their experiences of founding their own niche market companies and the lessons learned, including how they navigated commercialization and acquisition processes, convinced the right investors, determined capital efficiency, and more. They also share their thoughts on investors who think niche solutions for niche markets are uninteresting. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  MicroTransponderLinks: MicroTransponder Stanford University Links: Stanford Healthcare Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Stanford University Laborie Links: Laborie 

Live from Medtech MVP, Michael Mahoney, chairman and CEO of Boston Scientific Corp, sits down with Medtech Talk podcast host Justin Klein. They discuss Mahoney’s communications strategies to align expectations and convey intentions to shareholders, how to delegate and streamline decision making, and advice on doing better as a partner. Mahoney also shares which second order considerations (such as manufacturing) are important to keep in mind, as well as whether he’s a “war time” or “peace time” CEO and what challenges the industry needs to address today to create a better tomorrow.   Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  Boston Scientific Corp: Boston Scientific Corp 

In this episode of Medtech Talk, host Geoff Pardo and Eric Wichems, former CEO of Vertos Medical (recently acquired by Stryker), discuss the responsibilities of a CEO, why high accountability and transparency are important aspects of company culture, and how to hire the right person for the position—and how to determine if they can thrive in your company’s culture. Wichems shares his background in engineering and how he found his way to Vertos, as well as his thoughts on the Stryker acquisition and the reasons behind it. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare   Vertos Medical: Vertos Medical Stryker: Stryker Interventional Spine 

In this month’s Medtech Talk, co-host Swaril Mathur, vice president of business development at Axonics, debuts in her first episode with John Woock, former EVP and chief marketing and strategy officer at Axonics. They discuss the early days of their company, including what motivated Woock to join a company that was considered risky at the time, what he learned from supporting and working directly with the field team, and how Axonics handled the early stages of commercial launch during the pandemic. Woock also reflects on how much the company has changed over the years in its culture and leadership, including the decisions that felt good and the ones that were harder to grapple with. Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare   Axonics Links: Axonics