The Importance of Going All In On Your Medtech Business

Co-Founders Justin Zenanko and Greg Molnar are out to blaze a trail, one they believe will have an enormous impact on the lives of people living with chronic lower back pain.

Their company, SynerFuse, is in the clinical stage of developing an integrated therapy to address both the mechanical and neuropathic causes of back pain at the same time. Typically, patients who experience residual pain following a conventional spinal fusion can wait up to 10 years before receiving neuromodulation therapy — battling additional surgeries and risky opioid medications along the way.

By creating a dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulator that doctors can implant at the time of spinal fusion surgery, Justin and Greg hope to short-circuit this long and painful cycle, provide faster relief to patients, and address chronic back pain without the extended use of opioid drugs. The first patient in the proof-of-concept study received a SynerFuse device in early 2022, and the team is well on their way to the fifth implantation.

As with any innovative therapy, SynerFuse faces a number of regulatory and clinical hurdles; Justin and Greg have encountered plenty of naysayers as they seek to challenge the status quo. But they remain invested, literally — most of the millions of dollars that SynerFuse has raised to date came from the founders’ own pockets, as well as friends and family, a few angel investors, and one foundation.

In this episode of Medsider, Justin and Greg share how they balance innovation with action and what keeps them going in the face of regulatory obstacles.

Justin Zenanko and Greg Molnar

Justin is a Certified Public Accountant who previously led fundraising efforts at Recombinetics. Greg Molnar is the former Director of Neuromodulation Research at Medtronic. In 2018, they joined forces to build SynerFuse, a clinical-stage startup developing an innovative therapy to relieve chronic back pain.