Lessons Learned From Selling 3 Medtech Companies
Interview with ThermoTek Chairman Robert Kline
Robert got his start in big pharma, including working for Pfizer. While in business development, he realized that he was most excited about small companies that created innovative products.
In 1998, he traded in his comfortable job to strike out alone. He founded Medivance, developing non-invasive products that change core body temperature. The company was acquired for approximately $250 million in 2011.
Robert's next venture was ViroCyt, a spin-out from the University of Colorado. The technology reduces the time it takes to quantify small biologic particles (including viruses) from days to hours. ViroCyt was sold for $16 million in 2016.
Robert then took over a startup trying to produce surgical equipment for use in minimally invasive pediatric procedures. Now known as Bolder Surgical, the company pivoted and was ultimately acquired for $160 million in 2021.
Robert now serves as Chairman of ThermoTek and actively mentors other healthcare entrepreneurs.
“I have had the great luck of being able to … found a company, grow it, and exit it: all the phases,” Robert says. “I want to help others have that experience too.”
In this episode of Medsider, Robert explains why assuming your customers want the same thing you do is risky, his best advice for fundraising, and why it's short-sighted to build a company around an exit.
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