Medsider: Learn from Medtech and Healthtech Founders and CEOs - The Importance of Medical Device Sales Experience, the Rocket Ship that was Acclarent, and How to Achieve Personal Growth as a Medtech Leader: Interview with Bill Facteau, President and CEO of Earlens

Episode Date: January 9, 2017

Bill Facteau joined Earlens Corporation as Chairman, President, and CEO in November of 2013. Most recently, he was the Vice Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator based on the West Coast and an Entrepreneur in Residence at New Enterprise Associates. Previously, Bill was at Johnson & Johnson from early 2010 through early 2012 as...[read more]Related StoriesWhy Intersect ENT is an Example of Hope for the Medtech IndustryAre Medical Device Models the Key to Building a Lean Medtech Startup?Substantial and Sustainable – 2 Words That Medtech Companies Should Get Used To 

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they're giving it to our first 15 listeners for free, so go to reachfiredigital.com slash Medsider. Again, that's reachfiredigital.com, forge slash medsider. Grab that blueprint. Okay, on to the episode. Hey, everyone. On today's episode, we've got Bill Factor who joined Earland's Corporation as chairman, president, and CEO in November of 2013. Most recently, he was the vice chairman of ExploreMed, a medical device incubator based on the West Coast, and as an entrepreneur in residence at New Enterprise Associates. Previous to this, Bill was at Johnson & Johnson from early 2010 through early 2012 as worldwide president of their E&T division. Factor joined J&J via the

$800 million acquisition of a Clarent, where he served as president, CEO, and a member of the board of directors since the company's formation in 2004. Under Bill's leadership, the company went from concept to acquisition in five and a half years, raised over $100 million, created jobs for approximately $400 employees, grew revenues to $100 million, and became profitable. Prior to joining a Clarent, Bill was the general manager of the endovascular division at Abbott, where he served as a member of the executive team and created the entry strategy for Abbott to participate in the peripheral vascular space. He joined Abbott via the $683 million acquisition of per close, which was a vessel closure company where he was the sales director. From July 1993 through early

1998, Bill worked in a number of sales and sales management positions at United States Surgical Corporation or otherwise known as U.S. Surgical. Here are the things we're going to cover in the interview. How Bill and his team celebrated after a Claren't was acquired by J&J, Bill's current role at Earlands, the technology they develop and how they intend to commercialize it. What brought Bill into the medical device space with U.S. surgical back in the early 1990s and how Bill's MedTech sales experience has impacted the rest of his career. What MedTech entrepreneurs can learn from Bill's experience helping to build a Claren't from the ground floor. Mindshare and comfort zones. Bill's advice on how to experience personal growth as a leader in MedTech. People, product, and opportunity

and what they mean to Bill as a MedTech executive. His thoughts on the regulatory and reimbursement environments and why he loves the direct-to-patient approach they're taking at Earline. and lastly Bill's favorite book, the CEO he admires most, and what he tell his 25-year-old self. So without further ado, let's get to the interview with Bill Factor. Bill, welcome to the Med Sider program. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks, Scott. I'm glad to be here. All right, let's go and dig in. Bill, take us back to that late 2009, sort of early 2010 time frame when J&J acquired a Clarence. I know you were employee number four with a Clarenet back

in, I think, 2004. That was a huge win for a Clarenet, as most people that are listening know. not only for its investors, but all of the Clarenne employees as well. So considering you, you know, you spent six years there or so, you know, building that ship, do you remember how you celebrated with your team? Yeah. I mean, we've had a lot of celebration over the years with the team. But, you know, I mean, this is one of the things that, you know, we probably didn't celebrate much until, you know, after it was all said and done.

And, you know, many of us stayed on for a few years to make sure that the business was transitioned over. but there were, you know, a few off-sites and, you know, certainly a couple of social gatherings. I mean, I think the beauty about Claren and the management team was that it really was a high-functioning team, and we all got along very well. So there's been plenty of celebrations and, you know, closing dinners and, you know, other things over the years. I can imagine it was, especially considering the size of the acquisition and sort of reliving some of those, some of those memories over the course of those five or six years. But on that note, we're certainly going to dig into your sort of story, you know, med tech career across, several different companies. But before we go there, let's sort of level set things for the audience.

You're currently the president's CEO of Earlands. Can you sort of provide an overview of the market that you're playing in as well as your particular device? And then as a sort of secondary question would be, you know, sort of give us an idea of where you're at with respect to, you know, clinical data, you know, the regulatory pathways, commercialization, that kind of thing. Yeah. So Earlands is a next generation hearing aid company and, you know, the prevalence of sensory neural hearing impairment is significant. You know, in the U.S. it impacts about, you know, close to 35 million Americans. It's a very, very large market.

It's grossly underpenetrated, only about one of four or five people that could benefit from a hearing aid actually get one. Astoningly favorable demographics, the two things that, you know, the primary causes of sensory neuro hearing impairment are going to be age and noise exposure. Both of those are on the rise and will be, you know, for some time. You know, I think the statistics in the U.S. to stand out for me is that there's, you know, 10,000 people in the United States that are turning 65 every day and will be for the next 15 years.

So this market will continue to grow on its own because of the demographics. And what we're trying to do is build a channel and initiated with the existing air conduction hearing aids instead of using a speaker like that sound, we actually use light to transmit sound and energy. And you think about a contact lens that sits on the eardrum and we've got a laser that is housed into a custom ear tip and that light shines on to the contact lens. There's a little photo detector on there with a microactuator and it directly drives the occicular chain.

So the benefit to that for patients is we get a full bandwidth of sound, a frequency range from 100 to 10,000 hertz, which is more than 2x of what the existing hearing aids do. And then we're also a significant amount of gain before feedback because we essentially have to be navigating in Perkins for something thinking about this literally for 25. We've recently have completed a number of clinical studies. navigated through the FDA and received 510K clearance through the de novo process about a year ago, and we are in the process of commercial launch. So it's an exciting time for the company. Right at the cusp of launching your device, it's got to be exciting for sure. And with respect

to your competitors, I'm loosely familiar with that arena, but I know Cochlear is a large competitor. I think they actually invested in one of your rounds, if my research is correct. But are there other competitors as well in this space? It's kind of an adjacent space for Cochlear. They're really not a competitor at this point. They're focused on the profound hearing and cocker implants. So this would be potentially complementary for them at some point. And I think where we do have some nice overlap is the market is pretty much dominated by six large hearing aid companies, five of which are in Europe.

And like Sinovo and G.N. Resound. And then there's one in the U.S., which is a private company out of Minnesota. called Darkie. So it's, it's kind of interesting, at least in my 25 years of MedTech, you usually see, you know, kind of the eugenics that are, you know, but these guys aren't participating today in the channel or in hearing impairment. And I think, you know, kind of versus typically been done. Sure. That's a good point. I certainly want to address it sort of later on in our conversation after we get through some of your experiences early on in your career. But that with, especially with respect to, you know, the channels that you're going to, you know, you're going to be utilizing, you know,

during, you know, throughout your launch, but also sort of that professional component and how you're sort of blending the two. I think that's, that's pretty interesting for sure. So if you don't mind, let's kind of, you know, rewind the clock back in time because I think you've spent most of your career in MedTech, you know, dating back to the early 90s when you joined U.S. Surgical. So what brought you into the device space back in that time frame? Well, you know, about in anticipation of continue to do opportunities. And sure enough that happened, she called and basically said that there was a, you know, job opportunity. I was in South Florida, which, you know, with U.S. Surgical and it was called Automated.

It's a long shot, you know, people with three to five years experience minimum, but at least be a good experience. And seven interviews over six hours in MedTech. It was a huge opportunity of training physicians and doing more minimally invasive surgery. That's such a great story. I'm loosely familiar with Jerry McNamara. I did not know that he was with U.S. surgical back in that time frame. And so funny to think that he did your last round of interviews with.

him when he was VP of sales. But what a grinding process, right? I mean, I don't know if U.S. Surgical still operates, why is Kavidian, I guess, still operates with that sort of aspect in regards to their interview process. But I can certainly appreciate that as I've done. I've been involved in a number of those types of interviews. Maybe not that lengthy, I guess, seven interviews long. But yeah, those device interviews can be pretty intense. Absolutely. The code early, I think, on, you know, physician training and, you know, kind of what it takes to, you know, roll out new technology and convert, you know, physicians to more minimally invasive surgery. But, you know, it was, you know, kind of training. You did start

in the interviewing. But, you know, I kind of, you go through it, but you never want to do it again, you know, foundation. And, you know, I thought U.S. Surgical was a great company and certainly learned a lot there. Sure. Yeah, no doubt. And on that note, you spent about five or six years with U.S. Surgical before you moved on to perclose. But, you know, when you look at that, you know, And looking at your background, I noticed that that was a solid, whatever, six or seven, eight years of, you know, field-based sales experience, not just as a rep, but as a manager, as a sales director, et cetera. So how do you think that experience, you know, in the trenches with physicians on a day-in-a-day-out

basis? How do you think that's helped you throughout your career, not only just with a clarenet, but even now what you're doing with, Eerlands? I look back in my career, the most rewarding. I was learning a ton. But, you know, I believe that, you know, carrying the bag gives you some instincts that I think are, you know, it's kind of a competitive advantage, if you will, as you get into a CEO. I mean, if you know what it takes to, you know, kind of walk into an OR to talk to

physicians, to understand the adoption cycle, you know, from that perspective, I thought that it was great. And it's, you know, very, very useful, you know, when, when you start to commercialize companies, you get to run the investments that are in a better position to launch new technologies and companies, you know, you're always going to be difficult to solve peace that I think, you know, board members and stuff like that. One of the most challenging jobs that, you know, I've ever had. I mean, you know, you're always interviewing, and especially if you're, you know, fortunate enough to be in a company that's constantly growing. And so you're performing sales. You're being judged, basically, on success every, so it's involved into the worst customers and the corporation as to, you know,

what's happening out in the field. So that was one of the best jobs that we'd be a C, you know, just so with engineers that's been incredibly helpful. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And it seems like it's always, at least to me anyway, it's always evident when I, you know, have a conversation with a leader of a company, whether it's an early stage company or a company that's more, that's a little bit more mature. But you can always almost intuitively tell, you know, which leaders spent time in, in a sales capacity or in the, you know, in the trenches, as I mentioned before, because it seems like they just have a better sort of a better grasp of what's going to resonate with customers, you know,

what's really, you know, they just have a knack for what's really going to work, you know, from a commercialization standpoint. They have a good sense for like how to navigate, you know, various layers in bureaucracy, which I'm sure you experienced at Abbott after they acquired per close. But I think it's just great, great anecdote. Great, great to hear your take on your sales experience. Now that kind of helped you along. Well, on that note, let's kind of fast forward to a Claren. You know, I mentioned earlier you were employee number four there at a Clarenet after Abbott bought or acquired per close. You really, you know, sort of built that ship from the ground up, you know, raising money, obtaining regulatory approvals, achieving, you know, coverage and certain

reimbursement milestones, et cetera. Before we kind of get on to, or, get to, one of the more, you know, some of the more challenging hurdles that you encountered over the, you know, those five or six years. What brought you to a Clarence when it was still that early in the incubator? You know, the introduction was actually made by Hank Plain, who has been, you know, a career mentor for me. I worked for Hank at Perclose, and after he had left, he went into venture capital. But Hank had always, you know, kind of, you know, again, the mentor me and one day he had called when I was at Abb in vascular business and, you know, really wasn't looking for a job and was completely happy and satisfied as to what we were trying

to accomplish there. But when Hank calls, you know, you pick up the phone and so he had mentioned that, you know, he wanted me to meet an interesting idea to know if I'd be interested in meeting him. So that's how that's it in four. Got it. Interesting those connections. And you got to know Hank during your perclose days. That's correct?

I did. I did. Got it. Got it. And on that note, that reminds me, I want to ask you a question about your experience in that transition from, you know, post-acquisition transition because you helped really build, you know, Abbott's end-vascular business as we know it today. And you sort of did the same thing at J&J. So can you speak to that, those experiences, you know, whether you want to talk to the transition at J&J or the transition at Abbott, sort of what you experienced and maybe some of the things that you didn't expect or maybe some of the lessons learned through that, through those transitions going from, you know, nimble startup to, you know, being acquired by a large. strategic. Yeah. So, and there really are completely different, at least as it pertained to myself and in my own experiences. I mean, it asked, you know, a sales manager and director of sales, you know, gave me a great opportunity and relocated me from Jacksonville, Florida, to come in and head up marketing. And, you know, quite frankly, I was probably tagged as one of the first

to leave habit, but it turns out I was one of the last that was standing, you know, a really good understanding and growth on the sales side, but, you know, coming in-house and then where we, you know, marketing folk, you know, the assets to YOMAD, where we brought an involved protection device in. You know, Abbott was a wonderful company and had some visibility and taking on a division and, you know, kind of getting everyone transitioned properly and making sure that, you know, J&J was, it was different. And, you know, it certainly was a great opportunity to get visibility to some good leaders over there, relationships.

When I first made a move in from field-based sales capacity into marketing, I remember one of my mentors, his advice was get to know everyone, you know, regardless of whether they're in a sort of a commercial sort of setting or not, you know, so people in all the way from, you know, sales ops to those who are running, you know, the ongoing clinical trials, regulatory folks, et cetera. And I probably didn't appreciate it as much when he first sort of gave me that advice. But, you know, looking back, it's definitely something I tried to do. I wish I almost did more of it because it sounds like, you know, by your experiences,

especially, you know, going from per close to Abbott when you first sort of, you know, went internally, you know, the fact that you got to know so many people and so many different cross-functional roles probably really, really helped thought, you know, really took that, you know, what would be maybe a longer, a longer ramp in terms of learning, you know, and really shorten that up quite a bit. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's see here.

When you, before we kind of, you know, move on from McLaren't, when you think about all of those different accomplishments, you know, for other med tech, entrepreneurs who are looking at, you know, your experience there. You know, what is, is there something that that's really memorable or something that you really, you know, learned a lot from, you know, whether it was the, you know, clinical trial aspect or, you know, the reimbursement arena, you know, you look back on on that time or like that, that's, that was a great lesson learned. Well, I mean, you know, I'm not sure if I could point to any particular one that stands out. In general, you know, what I've learned is, you know, as CEO of companies, you need to

gravitate, you know, risk is in the company. That's what, you know, good see, you know, your own. And, you know, at a Claren, that was really around reimbursement. And, you know, we never anticipated that it would be so hard to positively, you know, influence and, you know, change this patient lives. I mean, the technology was wonderful. It was a no brain. And the fights with societies and academic positions that, you know, didn't want to change and were, you know, dogmas and the reputee completely underappreciated and and that translated into reimbursement challenges with private payers. And so, you know, having to become, you know, an expert in reimbursement, you know, I think going to be the opposite. I mean, this is a technical, be technical side,

which, you know, as a commercial perspective, you never know, do your best to try to anticipate them up front and, you know, do your diligence. But, you know, when these, you got to give them 100% mind share and, you know, come up to it. So good. I'm so glad you brought it up. I probably didn't think that you were going to go there. But just giving, you know, there's really two things that you said that really really ring true for me is giving, giving that issue or that problem, that challenge, 100% of your mind share, but also not being afraid to go there, you know, and sort of stretch yourself and going to a place that is outside of your comfort zone. Such a good lesson learned there. So thanks for bringing that up. Before we get to Eerlands, I definitely want to cover the reimbursement aspect because it's at

earlands, it's a completely, you know, self-paid model, which I want to get your take on. But before we go there, you spent between, you know, the Eclaren, the J&J and an Acclarant acquisition of a Clarence, and then Earlands, where you're at now, spent about a year and a half at ExploreMed and NIA. Can you provide like a high-level overview of ExploreMed for those that are listening that aren't familiar with that incubator? And then I want to ask you a quick question about NIA as well. Years and, you know, really Josh Mack, acquired the J&J, and I was there for a few years, you know, worked together. He trained him over at Explorament for a few years. And, you know, with all that was FDA and some of the uncertainty and reimbursement, you know, is, you know, pretty much in line as well.

But, you know, it really, until this stuff, we can focus on doing some consumer kind of companies where we can still, you know, have a medical bend and help patient and consumers, but, you know, less of, you know, issues that would be outside our control, like around reimbursement and regulatory. So we did that and started, you know, a few companies there, which are, you know, was a great partner were great. And in particular, John Nira, they had invested in. And so I, I did that for a few years. And, you know, it was good to see, you know, kind of look under the hood and see, you know, how the sausage is made over in the VT world. And, you know, it was interesting. And, you know, so it allowed me to grow in other my perspective that, you know, what I really

enjoyed doing is running companies and building companies. And whereas, you know, there were some great things about venture capital and early stage company development companies, attract management teams and, you know, kind of solve problems and grow businesses. And that's what kind of led me back to. Got it makes sense. You answered the question that I was going to ask and that it seems like maybe that would have been a decent, decent little spot to stay at for NEA for a little bit longer and, you know, continue down that VC path. But it sounds like to your point, you're a bit more wired, a little bit more biased toward, you know, the operation side and building and running company. So certainly can appreciate that. As we move on to Earlands, you know, I'm going to read a

quote here from Mike Carousie. You know, it's obviously, you know, Mike, well-known, you know, MedTech, venture capitalist. But this is a quote that I think he made when you first joined Earlands or shortly thereafter. He said, bringing on Bill was a game changer for us and paved the way for the company to do a full series B. And so I thought that quote was interesting. And, you know, why do you think, you know, Mike would make, you know, someone who's really well known in the med tech space? Why do you think you'd make that kind of a comment. Well, he's a great guy. You know, one of the, I think one of the great things that are, you know, still left in, in our industry and that, you know, he's been persistent in, you know, raising money in a very difficult environment and, you know, works hard. And so, you know,

listen, I appreciate his comments and I'm humbled by it, but I'm sure Mike and I probably have a similar philosophy on, you know, how these things, you know, these companies in MedTech, work and what makes them successful. And, you know, from my perspective, it's always been people, product, and opportunity, and really in that order. I've seen, you know, some great ideas never, you know, really pan out because of bad execution. Some average ideas turned into phenomenal successes because of the people. So, you know, my guess is that, you know, Mike's been around the block long enough to appreciate that as well. And, you know, whereas I didn't know he'd make that comment, but, you know, I appreciate I have a lot of respect for Mike and, you know,

hearing that, you know, I'm, I'm humbled to hear that from him. Sure. I know, I kind of ask you to brag a little bit about there, but I appreciate the fact that you want to stay humble. Yeah, for those listening that aren't familiar with Mike, I did an interview with him a couple, couple years ago, I think, still one of the more popular interviews on the program. It's all, you know, we go deep in regards to MedTech Venture Capital. So it's a great one. Mike, really, really good guy. Really fun to do that interview. So let's transition now, to talking, you know, really specifically about earlands, you already provide a sort of an overview of the market, your specific device, et cetera. But I know you mentioned this direct channels that

you referenced before where, you know, the other six competitors, I think, are very, very focused on the direct to consumer, you know, or direct to patient play. You're bringing a little bit of a different element there, probably because of your background, I would imagine, where you're sort of, you know, trying to blend both worlds, the direct to consumer play or direct to patient play as well as sort of like bringing in that professional component working through audiologists. So can you explain that a little bit more in detail and kind of your what excites you about the direct to patient sort of aspect but also like how do you envision blending both of those worlds together? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, the thing that excites me and I believe we're heading more and more

in this direction where, you know, it is going to be consumer-based decisions and, you know, I believe the biggest thing, and I've said this now for, gosh, probably 10 years that I think the biggest threat to MedTech is insurance companies and reimbursement. And, you know, it's something that we as an industry and leaders have to, you know, take a, I think a united approach to try to to help. And I don't think it's CMS as much as it is the private payers. I mean, at least there's a process and more accountability on the CMS side and visibility. You know, we don't have that option on the private payer side. And, you know, the blue-cross, blue shields of the world and, you know, private want to say no. And part of the business model is, you know, is, you know,

profitability through attrition and they know that if they say no long enough there's there's going to be a percentage that I think that you know that that's going to have to change I hope it will I think having a focus or you know an area where you know consumers can you know make the call a good product and you're going to help patients you know it would be successful it may take longer but it'd support it and and that's just not the case anymore and that's that's that part about our industry so having the ability to direct consumers and putting them in a position where they're the decision. Fortunately, and all the things that we pay for in a billion dollar, you know, global, you know, business,

and, you know, which about 40% or so, I kind of look at it at this point is, you know, if I was a consumer, you know, I'd want to be able to get some relief and be reimbursed to try to figure it daunting. So I lean towards direct-to-consumer. You know, maybe we can pursue other ways to get, you know, patients reimbursed like tax credits and hearing impairment in. and if many patients that need more consumer decisions, you know, I feel like, at least for me personally, that that's a good place to be. Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more in the sense that, you know, the reimbursement pathway is so difficult, so challenging. I mean, I think it seems like for a long time, most folks in MedTech sort of, you know, laminate about, complain about, you know, the FDA, you know, and the slower sort of regulatory pathway.

But it seems like any more, you know, FDA, you know, at least based on the people that I, you know, converse with on a machine basis has really, I mean, it's really done a nice job there. Jeff Scherner over there has done a nice job, at least over the last, you know, handful of years. But now the reimbursement is, the reimbursement pathway is that is really more, is the biggest challenge, it seems like, you know, when it comes to commercializing a lot of these devices. So interesting to get your, to get your take on that, considering you spent, you know, most of your career in kind of the traditional sort of medical device, medical device space. Yeah. And listen, I echo your thoughts. I think Jeff insurance has done a wonderful job and you know it's not always been easy I'm sure but you know I think

he's balanced the risk and the time to market and has introduced a heck of a lot more predictability into FDA and I give him credit and I remember meeting and and and you know he to his credit on-haul meetings and you know informal informal to get feedback and you know he's done a great job And that's a tough job to be in because you get to criticize decisions that he's made. So I think that's a great thing. Now, you know, it becomes a little more harder to do that on the reimbursement side. Again, CMS, you could have a similar, you know, kind of impact an individual could. But, you know, I don't see with the private payers.

And that's the tough one. Yep, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I know we've got a limited time left. So I want to jump to your technology, Earlands, which is, you know, pretty disruptive, pretty differentiated, especially versus the other six competitors that you sort of called out earlier in our conversation. But I want to get your understanding of how do you approach this? I mean, you know, first and foremost, you've got to educate, you know, consumers about, you know, a product that is truly different and does stand out. But at the same time, you can't alienate,

you know, the practitioner audience, right, the audiologist. So how are you approaching that, that challenge? Yeah. So, you know, first and foremost, we're going to go slow. I mean, and payers. We trained a lot. We're trained and they used it right here. You know, because it's a consumer product, we need to move slow, and we got to make sure we get it right. You've got to get the positioning right, we've got to get the pricing right, we've got to get, you know, setting expectations. And the last thing we want is, you know, buyer's remorse. And so, you know, we're right now, we're all about protecting the brand and the times of taking a little slower and trying to get the product where it needs to be. I mean, we made a conscious decision that we don't want to alienate

anyone. And the audiologist is, you know, a great profession. It's under a lot of change and scrutiny because of some of the dynamics that are happening in the channel right now. And so we want to partner with them, but we also want to make sure that we're focused on E&T as well. And so what we bring is, you know, setting the expectation that we think, and we've done a lot of market research suggesting that, you know, an E&T and an audiologist paired together is very, very appealing to the consumer that suffers from hearing loss and hearing impairment. So we train together as a team, the audiologist, and the audiologist, and we, you know, and we're

in the E&T and we've kind of had the same talk tracks to make sure that, you know, there's you appeal for, you know, a great business and a great opportunity ahead of them electively as a partnership or a team versus, you know, them, you know, competing against each other, if you will. So that's been a big focus, as I hear you explain that, this might be a little bit of a stretch when it comes to analogies, but just how Edwards had a lot of success sort of, you know, kind of fostering that environment where the interventional cardiologist has to shake hands with, you know, the cardiothoracic surgeon, you know, in the heart valve space. It sounds like maybe you're doing something somewhat similar, you know, with audiologists and E&T docs, you know, to help commercialize

your technology. That's right. Before we wrap up here, what's next to your lens? I know you mentioned that you're going to commercialize in 2017, which you're looking forward to, but anything else that you want to share with what's next for the company? Well, I think, you know, we're now transitioning into a commercial stage company, which is exciting. And, you know, we've retired a lot of risk, the technical risk, the clinical, the regulatory risk. And, you know, now we need to focus on, you know, commercial execution. And that's an exciting time for the company and, you know, the 125 employees that we have. And so we're excited. And, you know, it's not going to be easy. You know, the big six are, you know, been, there's reasons why they're called the big six.

And there's lots of barriers to entry. But, you know, that's kind of why we get up in the morning and it's an exciting time. So I'm looking forward to the next phase of the Erlan, which will be commercialization and really helping a lot of patients. So we're excited to be where we are. Yeah, I certainly wish you nothing about the best. So it'll be fun to watch you guys progress. I'm always, I always had a natural interest in those kind of more traditional sort of med tech companies that have a very, you know, direct to consumer, direct to patient sort of aspect to them. So it'll be fun to watch you guys work. Cool. So let's end our conversation here with the last three rapid fire questions. They're the rapid fire from a question standpoint, don't necessarily have to be rapid fire from an answer standpoint. So what's your

favorite business book? You know, I've got a lot of, I've read a lot of business book, a pretty one-dimensional from that perspective. But, you know, a lot of my leadership, I think, is based off of, you know, the velocity of the five disfunctions of a team. And so, you know, if I, I, I guess I had to pick that, or the Oz principle, which, you know, is really running capability. And, you know, those are probably my go-to books. Got it. Very good. Is there a CEO that you're following or maybe one that's inspired you in the past? Oh, yeah, many. And so, you know, I think there was a big gap in MedTech leadership a few years ago. And, you know, I think people like Alex Gorski and Mike Mahoney over at Boston Scientific.

I mean, you know, I know those guys and I'm glad that they've taken on the role. And I think that, you know, that is a great thing for MedTech and, you know, Mike and Ms. Solomon. These guys have done a really good job. So I feel good about our industry. that, you know, at the larger companies that we finally have some stability and some leadership there, and I kind of watched those, and sought him out as a mentor when we decided to file to go public out of Clarence, and he was running aligned technologies, and, you know, he had been there, I think, for 13 years and took that company from a $200 million market cap to over $5 billion. I think it's close to maybe $6 or $7 billion today.

But Tom, he's chairman, and have him join, and I was fortunate enough to convince him to come over, you know, a year ago after he retired. But I have a lot of respect for Tom and what he's been able to accomplish. I think there's a lot of similarities here at Ireland. So if I had to point to one CEO who is now retired that I talk to closely and... That's great. It'd be fun to have Tom on the program. And on that note, glad you mentioned Mike Mahoney too. I know quite a few people over at Boston Scientific, as you probably do as well. And even, you know, quite a bit lower in the food chain, if you will, they have, you know, most of the people have very positive things to say about what he's done. And you can see that sort of reflecting in their stock price as well.

But it's cool that you pointed that out too. So last question, Bill, if you had the opportunity to turn back, turn back time, rewind the clock all the way back where you were at at the age of 25, what would you tell yourself then? You know, I think, you know, enjoy the journey, right? And you can't get too serious about this stuff. And the big picture, life's going to throw you curveballs. And, you know, I think one of the biggest, you know, you know, attributes that I think you can have is to be even good. healed in life and put things in perspective. That's good stuff. Something certainly I can appreciate as well with four kids and sometimes I'm giving them advice only. It's really just helpful, helpful advice for

myself. As a parent of five, I can appreciate that part of it as well. So you're right. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I'm sure you have times with the family. It seems like it's chaos. I've got to tell myself, you know, enjoy the journey. So that's a good way to wrap this up, Bill. I can't thank you enough for doing this. Jumping on the program and spending an hour with me. you. So I really appreciate that. My pleasure. I'll be all the best. And thanks for reaching out, Scott.

All right, sounds good. I'll have you hold on the line real quick. But for those I've just learned a little bit more about Earlands, the company that Bill is CEO of right now, I'll link to Earlands in the show notes. Of course, you could always just pull up Google and search for Earlands, but I'll link to it in the show notes as well. But for those listening, thanks to everyone for listening in on this episode. And until the next time, take care.

Thanks again, ladies and gents for listening. This episode has been brought to you from the WCG Studios here in Minneapolis. And don't forget to grab your panoptic. stacking blueprint by visiting reachfiredigital.com for slash medsider. Again, that's reachfiredigital.com forward slash medsider. Okay, bye for now.