Tyler Melton and Ishan Kamat - Corveus Medical

[00:00:00] Giovanni Lauricella: ​

[00:00:05] Ishan Kamat: Oh I, yeah, the best I can say is I stand tall on the shoulders of giants, right?

[00:00:08] There's no way you can break into this field without somebody opening that door. So to that, I've looked to these clinician entrepreneurs, one of them being Billy Cohn, cardiothoracic surgeon, inventing the total artificial heart. He's taken the time to, to, sit down with me and talk to me about how I strategically dive deep into this. Another cardiologist is Mehdi Razavi. He is electrophysiologist at Texas Heart Institute, also serial inventor looking to revolutionize electrophysiology. And he's sitting there giving me career advice on how to integrate this into my training. Ultimately, it's just been great knowing that the Texas Medical Center in Houston is honestly the place to kickstart this kind of career.

[00:00:49] ​

[00:00:51] Giovanni Lauricella: We're here on the MedTech startup podcast with Tyler Melton and Ishan Kamat, co-founders of Corveus Medical and currently we're sitting in Texas Medical Center Innovation here in Houston, Texas. We're about to get a story of what it means to be entrepreneurs in a currently seed stage company which is a class 3 technology as well.

[00:01:11] So I'm here with Tyler and Ishan. Thank you very much for joining us. This is the MedTech startup Podcast and I want to start with just getting who you guys are. So firstly Tyler Where you from? How'd you build your life leading up to the point where you actually co-founded Corveus Medical? And then we're going to jump to you, Ishan.

[00:01:33] So tell us who you are.

[00:01:34] Tyler Melton: Sounds great, and thank you for having us. Born and raised in Houston, so local. Grew up in the suburbs around here and started really wanting to get more involved as my career expanded through Houston. Went to UT Austin, and we actually both did where I practiced bio, I studied biomedical engineering, and actually got involved with tech entrepreneurship at that point in time.

[00:01:52] I spent about two years at an intern at Apollo Endosurgery, who actually got acquired recently, so good for them. Interning for them and got to see what it looked to essentially be part of a mid sized startup and some of the ins and outs of that, which was a great first look at the world. And then from there, I went into consulting for Accenture in the pharmaceutical division.

[00:02:09] And I really enjoyed the experience. It taught me a lot about how to work with large companies, complex projects. But ultimately it wasn't for me as an engineer. I wanted something that was more mine, more driven, and more back in the med tech space. And I actually got my MBA right next door at Rice University, where I was able to get involved over here with J& J, and also the TMC program itself, where Ishan and I met after I started Biodesign, after that after I graduated.

[00:02:35] Giovanni Lauricella: So you had that engineer... And MBA business mentality that eventually brought you

[00:02:39] to entrepreneurship.

[00:02:40] Tyler Melton: Exactly. And I think it's a really, at least, of course I'm biased, but I think it's a great combination because you can at least see some of the technology development, understand a bit more of that, but also have that business mindset to drive the company forward.

[00:02:51] Giovanni Lauricella: And right from being an engineer, you went right into Apollo, meaning right as a entrepreneur, meaning at least within a startup company as an engineer.

[00:02:58] Tyler Melton: That was when I was in school in my junior and senior year. So I was just spending that I was learning from there. So I went straight into consulting and I came back to it ultimately.

[00:03:04] Giovanni Lauricella: Very cool. So tell us about yourself. Same question, who you are and how'd you build your life until you met this crazy guy and medical device startup company.

[00:03:14] Ishan Kamat: Certainly. And again, thank you for having us on board. Like Tyler, I'm Texas born and raised in a south Texas town, Alice, Texas, in the middle of nowhere, but near Corpus Christi.

[00:03:24] I knew from an early age I wanted to be in medicine, and at that point I was straight clinical. I needed to work 24 7 in a hospital, in a clinic, taking care of patients. Started off at undergrad at UT Austin. I jumped around multiple majors, but finally landed on biochemistry with a minor in, or an unofficial minor in literature.

[00:03:43] And found my way at Baylor College of Medicine here in Houston. And again, I was 100 percent going to only work in a clinical setting. I'm not going to do research out of this at that point. But at one point I realized, man, there's some really cool stuff happening here in Houston at TMC and at Baylor at Texas Heart Institute.

[00:04:02] The total artificial heart was invented here. And so there's a lot of great efforts and I realized, man, I want to get in on this. And so from then began my unconventional path to cardiology. I basically found mentorship and I said, hey, you need to start working with startups. And so I joined a couple that were, or joined on as an intern here at TMC.

[00:04:22] Jumped in the animal labs there to do studies and quickly realized, man, I don't know a lot about entrepreneurship, and so I jumped into the MD MBA dual degree program. So one part at Baylor, which is the MD, and the second part at Rice University. So I got a Rice MBA as well. After that, I I stayed on for additional training at Baylor, and once I finished there, I realized, man, I need to jump in headfirst.

[00:04:48] And so through this Very intricate, but very supportive relationship between Baylor and TMC Innovation. I was able to do the Biodesign Fellowship here where I met Tyler. And the rest is history in terms of Corveus. We put our heads together on this unmet clinical need. And then from there spun out the startup.

[00:05:05] And I've been able to stay involved. Currently, right now, I have, I live in this dual life. I'm a clinical cardiology fellow at University of California, San Francisco, and I'm able to maintain my position at Corveus remotely.

[00:05:18] Giovanni Lauricella: Very cool. So I know that there's a cool story, and also a prideful story of co-founders coming together, but also the idea and the topic of co-founders being so important.

[00:05:29] It's a lonely road to be able to do it on your own, and you guys have each other. First and foremost, tell us about that co-foundership story, and then also talk about, in general, so all these entrepreneurs listening and watching in as they're having their shower idea and they might be an engineer at Johnson and Johnson or wherever and they don't have a co-founder in mind.

[00:05:50] So talk about the importance of having a co-founder after the story of you guys finding each other.

[00:05:55] Tyler Melton: Sure. So yeah, we, as you mentioned, we started Biodesign together and essentially you, they look for different talents to create a team and fill those gaps. And so we actually hadn't really met before we got paired together.

[00:06:06] Fortunately, we found that we had a lot of things we meshed on with similar backgrounds of undergrad. Of course, I'm not an MD, but same as say business school and a lot of the same networks, passions and just really got along and we filled each other's strengths and weaknesses. Ishan is phenomenal in terms of some areas and I'm great in the other areas and we really fill those gaps, which is very important for, I think, a startup because you need to make sure that you are hitting all different areas of the business.

[00:06:30] Even more fun is that essentially over time, we've just, being paired up as a random, it's like anything a group project when you're in school or whatnot. It's risky, right? And we were so fortunate we grew our relationship so much that we actually both got married last year and we're both in the We're both groomsmen together in each other's weddings And it just really we're able to take both our personal relationship and really make that even more beneficial in the professional way by collaborating together

[00:06:55] Giovanni Lauricella: Very cool. Do you echo that? Yeah.

[00:06:57] Ishan Kamat: Oh, definitely. Definitely. I think, uh, startup foundership is definitely professional. You leave it, you start professional, where your professional bounds are, but you're going to war together, right? You're in the trenches together. He and I call each other all times a day, all times a night to try and hash through ideas and things that come up and there's a good balance.

[00:07:17] Like we, we set some, I wouldn't say rules, but definitely some ideas of hey, we'll make sure that this time to this time we're doing our own thing, or when we're on vacation you can prioritize whatever you want to prioritize, but you have no obligation to plug in. And that only comes, those understandings, those boundaries, only come with being super tight when you're working together.

[00:07:37] Like Tyler said he joined my grooms part, groomsman party, I joined his I don't know if everybody does that, but you always hear the founders that I think we work well together, and the founders that do end up having those kind of mix ins in life together I think it, I think that kind of stuff speaks to, one, how we're on the same wavelength, but then two, how we're able to have our differences, duke it out if we need to, but then figure out where each other's coming from, and then ultimately be better by it.

[00:08:02] Giovanni Lauricella: That's awesome. Yeah, and we're gonna dovetail into the technology real quickly, but I wanted to ask is this combination of engineer, physician, co-foundership. Is that the lethal equation when starting a medical device startup company?

[00:08:20] Tyler Melton: I think it definitely is very important to have both those skill sets on the table I mean you need to understand clinically what you're going after and Ishan has a fantastic job really understanding the space I think you also need the business acumen as well, because you, like I was saying before, as a team, you have to make sure you're filling all gaps, right?

[00:08:35] And but also engineering, you have to also understand what is possible and how to actually build things and see where those unmet needs are. And at minimum, I really think you have to have the technical and the clinical and then some of the business stuff. You can learn along the way, but it's probably better coming in with some experience as well.

[00:08:51] Ishan Kamat: Yeah, and I think Tyler added the business part of the equation. I'll add something a little bit more, I don't know, untouchable, more like hunger. To learn about the other side. I don't think you can be a physician and say, I don't know any engineering, that guy's going to take care of it.

[00:09:05] And and something that I appreciate that Tyler does is he tries and tries to understand heart failure. It's complex as you can get in terms of medicine, and he works hard to figure out where I'm coming from when I talk about different parts of physiology. Both of us know our domains, but we reach across the aisle to learn for ourselves to understand what the other guy is saying as well.

[00:09:24] Giovanni Lauricella: Time has come. You guys have been building this technology in the heart failure space. What is the technology? What is Corveus Medical developing? Whoever wants to take that.

[00:09:37] Tyler Melton: Sounds great. Yeah, so we are developing a catheter based solution for congestive heart failure. So right now, heart failure folks, especially the moderate, don't really have a lot of options besides pharmacotherapy. And so we have found a way to essentially treat these patients.

[00:09:50] with one single procedure, one single denervation procedure. I've essentially figured out, saw a way, what is dry, one of the root causes of heart failure and how to address it. We've created a device to simply go in and inactivate that, in that area. And when you do you can pretty much give patients quality of life and relief almost immediately from what we've seen in the literature.

[00:10:08] Ishan Kamat: And we're both driven to, to find a minimally invasive, simple solution to heart failure. I don't know how many people realize, but heart failure is a devastating disease. We have, great medications for it right now. But on average, these patients are on four to eight medications, and even with these medications, this pharmacotherapy heart failure is more deadly than cancer right now.

[00:10:31] And it's not a, it's not a quick thing, unfortunately. It's a disease that creeps up on people. People don't realize they're in heart failure. And when they do when they do finally get the diagnosis, it's really hard to find the right treatment. There's a huge unmet clinical need of patients suffering, being hospitalized.

[00:10:48] And what makes everything worse is when the heart's sick, it's really hard to do any sort of intervention, period. The least invasive you can go, the better it is for the patient. That's why our catheter based treatment, one time outpatient procedure is gonna be, is gonna be great for these patients when everything's lined up.

[00:11:05] Giovanni Lauricella: The question I wanted to ask is this "entrepreneur-ness". You guys have to own this conviction and you have to love the technology that you're building. And to your point, it's... If heart failure is even a bigger killer than oncology or cancer at this point. You have a heart failure technology that hopefully will become a solution.

[00:11:27] But heart failure is a very crowded space right now in terms of innovation. So I think this is a really cool point to drive to the audiences. You're innovating in a competitive landscape. Some may call it even overcrowded landscape. But you have to own this conviction of at least what we're building. We believe it's going to solve something for at least a portion of the population.

[00:11:51] What is that conviction? What is that feeling of innovating in a crowded space? And why do you have that belief?

[00:11:57] Ishan Kamat: I think looking at the crowded space makes us more enthusiastic. It basically says everybody sees this as a need. It really fuels our fire to say if we see multiple plays after this after this one disease entity, which is heterogeneous this one heterogeneous disease entity, that means we're, one, our mission is true.

[00:12:23] Our mission is critical. We know exactly, that we know that we're, we should be going after this. And that's the most important part. You need to make sure that what you're tackling is something that drives you internally. And then from there you make sure and realize, well from a mechanistic standpoint, from a technical aspect, from the physiology, how do you differentiate yourself from that space?

[00:12:43] So yeah, heart failure is competitive. It's full of folks, but there's so many different ways people are attacking it that we're inherently differentiated. So it, it's a little bit of both, but at the same time I, I relish the competition. It really helps us focus.

[00:13:00] Giovanni Lauricella: Echo the same sentiment?

[00:13:01] Tyler Melton: Yeah, I can echo it, but I'll add a little bit as well that one thing that we're really excited about is our mechanism of action essentially is going after one of the causes of heart failure.

[00:13:09] Many of the solutions coming out are a, they're, I don't wanna say a workaround, but they are trying to alleviate symptoms, but not treat the actual root of the disease. And so one thing that we get really excited about is potentially finding a solution that actually goes after the culprit. Not just the downstream effects.

[00:13:25] Giovanni Lauricella: So I want to take a sidebar conversation because entrepreneurship is a thing and it takes a village to get there. Building a career, ultimately finding what you want to do and spend these hundred hours a week on. I'm asking the same question to both of you independently.

[00:13:42] Tyler Melton: Do you champion a mentor that you throw up and say, thanks for helping me get here?

[00:13:47] So one thing I like about the Texas Houston ecosystem is that we have multiple mentors because everyone is so collaborative and they essentially want to give that time since we, a little bit smaller ecosystem than say the West Coast or the East Coast were very intimate. And so we've been able to champion folks like Albert Huang, like Billy Cohn to really help drive some more innovation forward because they'll give up their time.

[00:14:08] And these folks are very talented, very experienced and their time is invaluable. And we've been able to utilize a lot of these very talented individuals to help us along the way. And it's been great to have a whole bunch of mentors like that to help us essentially get to where we're at.

[00:14:22] Ishan Kamat: Oh I, yeah, the best I can say is I stand tall on the shoulders of giants, right?

[00:14:26] There's no way you can break into this field without somebody opening that door. And I think what Tyler's saying is exactly right. I don't know if I could point to one mentor above all. But I'd say that the barrier is even higher in some ways for physicians looking to break out, to get time off or time away from the clinical world to dedicate and know where to start because your time sticking, you need to get back to the clinical world if you're interested in practicing still So to that, I've looked to these clinician entrepreneurs, one of them being Billy Cohn, cardiothoracic surgeon, inventing the total artificial heart, many more things out there.

[00:15:03] He's taken the time to, to, sit down with me and talk to me about how I strategically dive deep into this. Another cardiologist is Mehdi Razavi. He is electrophysiologist at Texas Heart Institute, also serial inventor looking to revolutionize electrophysiology. And he's sitting there giving me career advice on how to integrate this into my training.

[00:15:24] But then, where do I jump in career wise afterwards to maintain that balance between clinical work and entrepreneurship? Ultimately, it's just been great knowing that the Texas Medical Center in Houston is honestly the place to kickstart this kind of career.

[00:15:41] Giovanni Lauricella: Even on an individual basis, it's very classic when starting a medical device startup company. It's either an engineer, typically speaking, or is a physician. You guys have been fortunate to find each other very early on. So you have that lethal combination like we were talking about. But, although you both went to business school, and you went to medical school, and you were an engineer, went to engineering school, an MBA can't truly prepare you for the day in, day out of being an entrepreneur.

[00:16:09] So there was this day where you were studying engineering, you then became a consultant like you mentioned, you're still a practicing clinician. But like you mentioned, even when you have to hash out things together as a co-founder, that's talking about business. That's building a company. Nothing can truly prepare you for that until you do it.

[00:16:27] So what has been some of the big eye opener feelings, experiences that you can point out that said, okay, I went from being an engineer, an engineering consultant, to now a co-founder and leading an organization, leading a company. And not just a technology, but a company and everything that goes into that.

[00:16:49] And I'm going to ask you the same question, but let's start with Tyler.

[00:16:52] Tyler Melton: Sure. So of course that you're saying there as a first time founder, there are you essentially, there are things you're learning along the way. And that's also where the mentors really come into play. Cause you can, things you don't know, you should try to bounce off of people that have been there that can help you do that because it is a learning process as well.

[00:17:07] I'd also like to add that, I do have an engineering background, but with a small company, you really need to have a lot of focus. We actually hired a full time fantastic engineer named Byron Smith. Who essentially is really driving that forward for us. And because I knew that I need to focus on this part of the business, and he really understands the engineering part.

[00:17:24] And so one eye opening part is essentially making sure that you, your team is supporting everybody in different ways. Like Eshaan was saying, we bounce ideas off each other, but we all have our different little silos as well. And you have to make sure that you understand that you can't do everything. You need to make sure you're utilizing either talent, mentors, teammates, or whatever, to fill those gaps and drive it forward.

[00:17:42] Because otherwise there's not a time in the day and there's not a lot of. Gotta sleep sometime, right?

[00:17:48] Giovanni Lauricella: And even with you practicing still, what does it mean for you being an entrepreneur as well? That business acumen, and what didn't you expect? Talking about, and we'll get into the fundraising aspect pretty quickly, but running a business is different than just a shower idea of revolutionizing heart failure.

[00:18:05] What's been like that for you?

[00:18:06] Ishan Kamat: Execution is completely different from dreaming it up. I think the biggest thing that I realized, and this goes back to the domain and domain expertise and leaving it to basically understand what's going on around you. The biggest thing I realized is that I do a lot less of the science and medtech, especially starting out, a lot less of the science and medtech than I thought I'd be.

[00:18:29] I, I need you basically in entrepreneurship, everybody wears all hats. I need to be there to do that. Do the animal studies and do the engineering with these guys. They lead it, but I sit there and have worked with them in the past and then I get in the details, the nitty gritty, making sure, especially starting out and making sure we understood the IP and read the patents ourselves, read the papers ourselves, all this stuff that at one point you're going to get the knowledge, but I didn't realize how much it would be the kind of thing where I realized if any, if anybody's going to be doing it, It's I have to do it for myself and I have to do it for earned ever together.

[00:19:05] And and the, that it goes back to what makes a good co-founder, somebody that empathizes with that and says if he's doing it, I'm going to do it too. And we both have that mentality for each other. But really what makes it different. Than just practicing within a, physician group or at a clinic or a hospital.

[00:19:21] At one point, I stay in my lane as a physician, other team members help out here and there. But if there was a startup equivalent to being a physician, it would be that I do everything, I admit the patient and wheel the patient around. And I get the x ray myself and do all the blood draw. That's, that whole like total ownership of things is very unique to entrepreneurship.

[00:19:39] Giovanni Lauricella: What about the stuff that no one talks about? Like the boring back end stuff about running a business. It still takes up maybe an hour, depending on the day, five hours of your day, of health insurance for employees, or legalization of the business entity, or leasing of a space, or booking travel.

[00:19:58] No one wants to talk about that. That's the stuff that eats up a lot of time.

[00:20:01] Tyler Melton: Absolutely. It's a very core part of my job. Essentially making sure the business is healthy and running like, making sure we're not, we don't, legally like you said, where everything's good to go. That, our taxes are filed.

[00:20:10] That there's so much non sexy things that are part of it as well. But that is part of running a business. Because if you miss those, the business that's core to your success too. And no one thinks about that. And and, it's something that is very important that I do think a lot of people miss, especially very early entrepreneurs that maybe don't have any business experience because you do need to understand that you have to make sure all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed.

[00:20:33] Otherwise, you can't get investment. You actually can't go forward and you have to really, you also lean on folks like that. You don't file your own taxes, hire, find an accountant that can actually do that. IP wise, as Eshaan said, make sure you're reading them, but bring in counsel because Some of this is so core to the business that people forget that it is, it really is necessary to drive you forward.

[00:20:52] Giovanni Lauricella: And you're learning on the job, right? This is not, even though you have the MBA, that back end eats up three or four hours of your day at times where it's not all fun and games about let's take on heart failure and revolutionize this thing where every minute of every day is just building, right? It's a lot of soft, squishy, gray, not sexy stuff like you talked about of building a business.

[00:21:15] So I want to jump into the capital raising aspect, talking about another new aspect of being an entrepreneur. You are a physician, you are an engineer coming from industry, now being an entrepreneur. Assumptively have never raised capital before. The lexicon of learning about raising capital. Did you read books?

[00:21:34] Did you watch videos? Did you know what a safe note was versus a convertible? Let's talk about that and stage it with... Where is Corveus and its fundraising to date so we can understand holistically, and I'll start asking questions from there.

[00:21:48] Tyler Melton: Sounds good. You're not wrong at all. A lot of it is, even with a business degree, it is still a new process.

[00:21:54] This is our first time founding a company and first time fundraising. Fortunately, though, when I was getting my MBA, I focused on entrepreneurship and healthcare, so we did at least understand a lot of the basics around how to save notes, how rounds work, and all that kind of stuff. But actually implementing is a different, it's a different beast.

[00:22:08] We were fortunate that we started at TMC Biodesign. One year program essentially prepared us for this. So during that year we were able to learn a lot of those skills or even or at least, look more into them while we're essentially getting our company ready for to being investable at a certain point in time.

[00:22:23] So once we had that, I guess I don't want to use the wrong word here, but we had that comfort as part of the program to learn some of that while we were internal. And then so once we graduated or departed the program, we were ready to have the understanding, the research, the acumen to actually raise that fund.

[00:22:40] We didn't have to start from scratch.

[00:22:41] Ishan Kamat: Yeah, definitely. It speaks to the importance of places like TMC Biodesign and Y Combinator and MedTech Innovator. These accelerators have all helped us jump headfirst into it. It's yeah, just this is how you raise a round. These are the rules you need to abide by.

[00:22:58] They all know the rules. It's time you learn these rules and go from there. These programs also bring to us kind of other entrepreneurs that have done it before. So any, we have this whole network of successful people that we just call and make, book time with, to be honest with you and ask them for their advice on these nuances, make sure we're not stepping in and are tripping over some legal loophole or something that ends up being a problem.

[00:23:19] But usually they iron everything out and make it so much more seamless for us.

[00:23:23] Giovanni Lauricella: How much have you raised today?

[00:23:24] Tyler Melton: So we've raised about 900, 000 dollars in dilutive and we've had about 300, 000 in grant funding. So about 1. 2 to date. And we were pretty much after Biodesign closed that round about, I don't know, six months or so later, that first round.

[00:23:38] And that was lovely. And that was great. As he said, like with Y Combinator support with TMC support, we were able to generate that round faster than we were actually expecting. And then, of course, with grant funding, which is, it's a it's a dual win. Essentially, when you see grant funding, you see the scientific boards really believing in your product as well.

[00:23:54] And, everyone likes non dilutive funding too. We were able to utilize both, again, Ishan's scientific background to get that grant as well as our networks to raise that first round.

[00:24:05] Giovanni Lauricella: You just mentioned some of the pros on grants. Are there any cons to grants?

[00:24:11] Tyler Melton: Timing. Yeah. Grants can take a while.

[00:24:14] And and it's one of those ones to where it's a low percentage that folks get them, but they're, it's always worth a go. I personally believe that you should always go for them, but don't bank on them because of timing, because essentially it just, I think we applied and we got it 15 months later.

[00:24:27] And we got it, and we're very happy to be but essentially you can't rely on it unless you really see that pathway forward, because it's, it's government, things take a while, and while it's great, it can just, it can take a while.

[00:24:38] Giovanni Lauricella: But is that a learning lesson, like you mentioned? So for all those entrepreneurs listening with their own ideas right now, if pursuing grants, although time consuming, if they get them, is that a validation for future fundraising activity?

[00:24:50] Tyler Melton: Our grant is NSF. And so essentially having their backing shows that they believe that some of the science we're working on really has potential long term. Some of the reviewers are probably some of the top scientists and clinicians in the country.

[00:25:04] And so it really does show that, at least from that perspective, that they believe in what you're working on.

[00:25:09] Giovanni Lauricella: How did the rest of the other 900, 000 break out?

[00:25:13] Tyler Melton: Sure. So we raised a little bit right when we finished Biodesign. And then through Y Combinator, we're really prepared for that larger round. And so coming out of that...

[00:25:21] We were able to have access to networks across the country, a little bit, overseas a bit as well. And they were, they essentially prepared us for that to hit the ground running with that raise. And that's essentially one reason we were able to do it so quickly. Was utilizing that network and that talent.

[00:25:35] Giovanni Lauricella: Very cool. And, with regards to Class 3 devices, like you guys are innovating on something intense. It's just a different game. What are the challenges and I don't know if there are any benefits you can help me out here. But what are the challenges and what are the pros and cons of raising for a class three?

[00:25:57] Tyler Melton: So I think one challenge is timing It is a long path to market and so it takes a different either thesis or a different style of investor. Some really want to see returns quickly. Some do see the long term benefit I believe that Silicon Valley Bank put out a report last year or so that showed class three actually has a faster return than class 2 or 1.

[00:26:17] Giovanni Lauricella: Wow.

[00:26:17] Tyler Melton: And my favorite part about a class three is we get to really focus on driving the clinical efficacy and safety and innovation.

[00:26:23] We get to really focus around what makes sense to get us to market versus class two. You have to start looking a little bit more about, starting to build a sales force, building out a lot, which we would do as we get closer to approval. But I do think there's a benefit to that as well. You can really focus and drive the technology and the patient focus forward versus some of the other pathways you could take.

[00:26:42] Ishan Kamat: Yeah, I think one of the challenges of class three basically is inherent to what you're working on. In other words, you need to make sure that you have a true unmet clinical need and a true solution to that unmet clinical need and a custom for you need to outline your entire business case before tackling the endeavor.

[00:27:02] That's why and we fit into that and an interventional solution to heart failure tackles all those checks all those boxes. After that, it's like Tyler said, focusing on the clinical, the scientific, the technical aspects to push it forward. And along the way, you're building this moat of, everybody knows, is focused on the IP moat.

[00:27:19] But in, in the medical device arena, there's got to be a scientific and technology moat around you as well. And inherent to the class three process is building these large trials that help protect and defend your device unique to everybody else's.

[00:27:37] Giovanni Lauricella: What I think is really cool about the Corveus Medical story is, you guys are also an accelerator story.

[00:27:43] So you've been part of the Biodesign, and correct me if I'm wrong on the linear or the sequence of the accelerators you've been a part of, but Biodesign, Y Combinator, and MTI. That's MedTech Innovator. If you can, I want to break down, objectively speaking, why would you encourage entrepreneurs pursuing medical device innovation to go after accelerators?

[00:28:08] What do they objectively give you and then if you want to say a couple words about the benefits of each of these accelerators that you've been a part of we'd love to learn.

[00:28:16] Tyler Melton: Sure. So essentially, going back to what you said earlier about being a solo founder or whatnot.

[00:28:21] One nice part of accelerators is you get to build your network and have support system. We have multiple or countless friends and other companies that will call up, ask for advice and vice versa resource sharing, and it creates a village that you can really lean on versus a solo journey, which is difficult.

[00:28:37] But it also does increase, you're working with some experts who've been there, done that. So you are, even if you have. Your assumptions there. You're clarifying them. You're essentially continuing to learn for your own company and build it forward. YC is, one of the top accelerators in the world, and essentially they have a lot of talent.

[00:28:52] They know how to commercialize and push things forward. Whereas MedTech Innovator has been phenomenal in terms of the medical device strategy, the network, the support itself. Every conference we go to, there's 10, 15 other companies we know and friends or whatnot. And we've really been able to build out both our support system.

[00:29:10] In terms of business and scientific through both of them and our presence just in over, the nation itself for that reason.

[00:29:17] Ishan Kamat: Yeah, I'd echo that the sequence is what's key for us at TMC Biodesign is where you start. This is the definite place where you can walk in through any door.

[00:29:26] There's no barriers. People are like hungry to help out, to support you, to see another success story out of here. And that, and it goes back to the fact that we have the foundational mentorship here, the access to the hospitals, clinicians, that kind of stuff. From there, like Tyler saying YC, Y Combinator has been instrumental in perspective.

[00:29:46] Honestly, you see what other people are doing, and then we come with our back pains and whatever our aches and all this stuff. And then it's that's so minor. Why do you care about Spend a week working on it and forget it and then you can go on to this really important thing that you know is important and that's been the, that's been the super helpful part for both Y Combinator and then subsequently MTI to be more medtech focused is that they give us tons of perspective and really put our problems into where they need to go and then obviously from there unlock solutions for us as well.

[00:30:15] Giovanni Lauricella: I want to go back to something that you mentioned about the funding that you've raised to date. You even mentioned international. Correct me if I'm wrong, the money that you raised that you're classifying as a pre seed?

[00:30:25] Tyler Melton: That's correct.

[00:30:26] Giovanni Lauricella: Ok And you took international money during that pre seed?

[00:30:31] Tyler Melton: So with the YCs, the network is global. And so we actually, we pitched all, various folks in Asia, Europe, just, South America, just across the world. And so we did have some success for some folks in Europe that are, that actually, they have clinical folks that they're involved with too. And they were interested that we were able to bridge that international gap through some of that network.

[00:30:48] As well, otherwise we wouldn't have access to those folks if we weren't part of Y Combinator.

[00:30:52] Giovanni Lauricella: So I work with and I have exposure to a lot of medical device startup companies and raising very early stage money and you hear these stereotypes and obviously you've already broken it but the stereotype is typically speaking money doesn't leave its borders.

[00:31:04] And even when you hear about it in Israel or country by country in Europe there's these tax implications and that local national money however big or small the country is, it typically doesn't leave its area. And even here in the United States, while there's angel groups, for example, who will cover coast to coast, there's a lot of regionality within some of this money.

[00:31:27] When you bring on an international angel, just, if you could, demystify that process of how that even worked. Was there any trepidation for this person? Did they have to jump through tax hoops? How did that look and feel?

[00:31:40] Ishan Kamat: I think for us, it... The one thing that we realize is that there's a lot of those barriers you can bring up.

[00:31:45] I think that, the barriers on the behalf of the investor and their concerns and all that stuff, that goes away if you bring your best game to that conversation. Would you, regardless of where you are in the world, you'd probably now invest in Facebook back when it was invented at Harvard, right?

[00:32:00] That, that's the basic idea there is that if you make the case for them, they'll figure it out. They'll wash away any sort of legal loopholes to go from there. The extra layer on top of that is where the accelerators come to play. They taught us how to navigate those fields and how to make it easy for everybody involved.

[00:32:16] And they made it easy for us, and they said here's how it typically works when you're trying to do this kind of country to us, and don't worry, have your people look over things if you need to, but it should be ironed out, it's been done before.

[00:32:27] Giovanni Lauricella: Going back to, you said, biodesign is a place to start and here we are right now in this moment in Houston, in TMCI.

[00:32:33] Why Combinator and MTI? MedTech Innovator is obviously MedTech focused, Paul Grant's group. And then Y Combinator is industry agnostic, and there is clearly a medical device component to it. But if you could break those down, and I know that you talked about it, but specifically

[00:32:51] what could MTI give you that Y Combinator couldn't, and then vice versa?

[00:32:58] Tyler Melton: I think it worked out really nice for us, because YC really beat us up in terms of the actual company structure, the building, as Ishan was saying, preparation for these conversations. So we came out of there pretty much having everything lined up with their experts helping us out along the way. Then once we got to MTI, it was the nuance.

[00:33:13] It was the medical device spin on things. We already had the structure was healthy, and then we were able to build on top of that with the, with MTI's direct, either FDA advice, clinical advice just how to really even navigate the medical device side of this fundraising or this network versus the YC, which does have a component, but typically focuses on different areas.

[00:33:31] And so I think the dual approach with one than the other really was able to fill most of our gaps with both a medical device startup company as early on.

[00:33:39] Giovanni Lauricella: Very cool. And so we have Y Combinator money into this. We have grant money into this. We have international angel money into this. Was the rest of it made up of local Texas money?

[00:33:52] Ishan Kamat: It was it started with Texas money. Then that, that led us to other folks in in the arena. Maybe they're previously in Texas, but at early stage, MedTech invests in especially angels invest in one or two things, either the people. Or or folks or the idea. In other words, you need a sophisticated investor on the other side in terms of the domain. So by that, cardiologists like that's who and other med tech experts who basically knew the path forward in terms of catheter devices. Cardiovascular solutions. Knows that it's going to be, uh, this.

[00:34:26] This is our time course. This is the sort of regulatory hurdles. We have to jump through that kind of stuff and understands Yeah, that's part of the game. But That's why you win big if it works out.

[00:34:36] Giovanni Lauricella: So then, while we're on Texas, I'd like to highlight it. Once again, here in Houston, we have Boston, Minneapolis, we'll call it California as a whole at this point.

[00:34:48] You both are originally from Texas. Where is Texas on the spectrum of medical device innovation now? And is it this up and coming third coast that some people talk about? And then, what does Houston offer a med tech innovator?

[00:35:03] Tyler Melton: Houston has the biggest medical device, or medical center in the world.

[00:35:06] And so some of the top clinicians globally are here. We have a lot of talent with Rice University, with UT Austin, down the street with Texas A& M, not far away. There's a lot of very talented individuals in Houston. And I believe that, as you said, it's growing. The med tech specifically and the entrepreneurship while we don't have the same track record over the last 50 years there, we've seen, at least even from our time here, the ecosystem growing exponentially.

[00:35:30] There's TMC3 that's coming up. There's a whole bunch of efforts to really build the medical device. Or just startup ecosystem in general, and we're seeing that actually put to practice and growing forward. So we do believe that eventually, since the patients are here, the physicians are here and the talent is here, that once as we go forward, it will be a essentially a significant player in the space in entrepreneurship itself.

[00:35:53] Ishan Kamat: Yeah, it comes back to all the stuff that's been done here so far. I think people like to look at some surface level. Not surface as in superficial, but just things that you see off the top of your head and say, Okay that's where big names are and things like that. But here we've had this established history.

[00:36:09] Like I said, the total official heart was invented here by Denton Cooley 50 60 years ago at this point, and that's been one of the major kind of tunes have come up in heart failure every now and then you get more and more innovations out of it. You get these larger replacements or or supplementations for heart transplant.

[00:36:27] That's all been here, and it's that mentorship that is keeping their eye out for the talent that wants to get involved here, and that's how we got our start, is essentially plugging into that clinician, entrepreneur, engineering world and where TMC is leveraging to, to really put Texas on the map.

[00:36:44] And that it's not just in cardiology either. There's a lot more subspecialties and expertise and domains in, in the clinical world that are also realizing, Hey, like there's something here. There's a new foundation that they're building and we just got to jump on it and build more towers.

[00:37:01] Giovanni Lauricella: Would you say the local area is really good at innovating and then has upward potential towards growing into this ecosystem that has more of that track record or has more wins as these companies continue to mature or are we already there?

[00:37:16] Tyler Melton: I think both. I think that there's a, I think there is always room for growth.

[00:37:22] But there is a lot of that already spinning out of universities, spinning out of the hospitals here. There's so much innovation and just talent that is creating some of these impactful solutions, even oil and gas. We have massive oil and gas companies here as well. They're also looking at innovation here at working with Rice and working with other areas.

[00:37:39] And so across the board, we're seeing that is coming forward. But again, like I said, there's always room to keep improving and keep building that, that momentum.

[00:37:48] Giovanni Lauricella: How's the investor base in Texas?

[00:37:51] Tyler Melton: It's growing as well. There's definitely some, I think there's different theses, like I said, oil and gas has typically been a focus, but there has been a push for more medical device investment firms, or at least, looking into the Houston, Austin, Dallas areas as well for that.

[00:38:04] So we do think, we do see that also growing into a more robust area over time.

[00:38:10] Giovanni Lauricella: And you've closed the pre seed, you've raised that money, you're currently at seed stage. When we talk about fundraising strategies, and think about this more of, Once again, helping the entrepreneurs that are listening and watching in.

[00:38:26] Do you tackle family offices and angels and stop there? Did you spray and pray method of going after the institutional venture capitalists and was there learning lessons along that way from feedback? Did you go after the corporate strategics? What was that early stage strategy? And then what did you learn from that?

[00:38:45] And then where are you now?

[00:38:46] Tyler Melton: Sure. So essentially, it was across the board. So while we're when we first started out, maybe we weren't ready for some of that, some of those larger funding, but they need to know who you are. You start creating that relationship early on, even if your company per se is not at their stage, they're looking at because some of them are, series B company series a whatever it might be.

[00:39:03] But it's important to start building those conversations early on, but also hear from the local angels because a lot of those are more mission driven. So they want to see, they care about heart failure. They really care about outcomes for patients, many of them. And of course, we talked to them, family offices, many of them have that in their family.

[00:39:17] That's one of their driving forces. And so I think that you need to essentially hit across the board, understanding that some of them, maybe it's not the right time, but those relationships are critical down the road.

[00:39:28] Giovanni Lauricella: And what's your take on the, from a physician's standpoint as well, when you're on pitch calls to investors, when you're reaching out to all the varying types, like what were your learning lessons?

[00:39:38] Ishan Kamat: It really is about making sure that everybody understands the story along the way. In other words, what history of the physiology are you drawing on? What's currently out there right now? What you need to do going forward? And you need to make sure that the major strategics here that this mechanism they're going after is real.

[00:39:59] And that the more established, later stage VCs are also aware that somebody's tackling this. Because you create this idea that... You're going to get there one day, and your first conversation can't be the day after you need the funding. You need to build those relationships over a long period of time.

[00:40:13] Tyler was saying, the early stage folks, the angels, the family offices, that kind of folks, they they want to know that you're in it for the long haul. That you're there. That you're going to be dedicated to it, that you understand exactly what you're working on. And so from the physician's standpoint, that's where I come into play.

[00:40:30] Say no we not only have advisors that that provide the clinical insight, but we bake that in internally as well. That's why I'm on board contributing as a member of the team, because we have that day to day guidance the day to day understanding of what heart failure is.

[00:40:47] Giovanni Lauricella: When it comes to talking with strategics, is it ever such a thing as talking to them too early?

[00:40:52] Or is there a strategy to wait and then reach out? What's the strategy for early stage medical device company to start getting involved with corporates?

[00:41:02] Tyler Melton: I think it's different flavors for different folks. But I do think that there is a level of, talk with them early, but don't say too much.

[00:41:07] Just show that, we're working on something like this. And they can watch you over time, building that momentum, building that company. So when, like Eshaan was saying, when it is either time for an interest or start to really, to watch things. That they know who you are already and that they understand the innovation in the space.

[00:41:22] You also can get pretty good feedback because many of them are, they do have their pulse on what is out, what's coming, upcoming, and what's out there. And it's a great way, I think, to drive that early information. But you just have to be, navigate it carefully. Just because, bigger fish can come in if you're not careful.

[00:41:36] But at the same time, that doesn't normally happen. I do think there's benefit. You just have to make sure you're saying the right things.

[00:41:42] Ishan Kamat: Yeah and the most important thing is that you... You become a presence in the field, if that makes sense regardless of what stage you're at, if you're driven and if what you're working on is going to come to fruition you're eventually going to be at that stage.

[00:41:56] And so you want to be an established, known entity at these conferences have serial meetings, that kind of stuff. So I, it's all about, it's one part creating that longitudinal relationship but another part to. To be a known entity out there. Even if you're not talking to people directly, they see you doing things, they see news coming from you.

[00:42:18] So as far as like engaging with strategics, it's about making sure that you're known.

[00:42:22] Giovanni Lauricella: What about institutional VCs? Is it ever too early to engage with

[00:42:27] Tyler Melton: them? I think it's the same thing I'm talking about. Essentially that you need to create that relationship over time. And so I don't know if it's ever too early.

[00:42:33] They might not want to talk to you too early just because they do focus later on, but if you have the opportunity, I think it is great to start building that relationship. early on because even the later stage ones can come in earlier sometimes. It's all about if they believe in the product, they believe in you.

[00:42:46] And so there's definitely a benefit to starting that as soon as you actually can have that conversation. As long as you have your ducks in a row, if you show up without having a lot of prep, then maybe you should wait. But if you're comfortable with your business, if you understand where your gaps are, I think it's, I think it's a great thing to do.

[00:43:00] Giovanni Lauricella: My sign off question as an entrepreneur, both of you building what you've built to date, is it luck or effort?

[00:43:10] Tyler Melton: I think the research and the effort. makes your luck stronger. Like anything, it's right place, right time, a lot of things in life. But the more you put into it, the more you prepare for everything, the more you can make your luck actually work for you.

[00:43:23] And so I do, of course, it's a mixture, but a lot of it is the effort. It is really driving it forward. As Ishan was saying, a lot of, they look at founders, they want to see that you're driving it forward. You're putting the effort in, you're putting the sweat in. And I think that really prepares you to get lucky sometimes as well.

[00:43:36] And so I think if you're prepared, luck will come with it too.

[00:43:40] Ishan Kamat: I echo what Tyler said. Luck is for... is for when you're prepared to take advantage of it. If there's a great opportunity in front of you and you're not the right person for the job, or you're not the right startup for the opportunity, then it's not gonna work out.

[00:43:55] So I think the effort puts you in a position to take advantage of the luck that comes your way. buT with medtech and everything else out there, yeah, there's a lot of luck involved, a lot of good graces from the powers that be that put you in the right place.

[00:44:09] Giovanni Lauricella: I want to say thank you very much, and for those listening and watching in, we just heard Tyler Melton and Ishan Kamat co-founders of Corveus Medical's entrepreneurial journey. And we got in the minds, hearts, and guts of these two entrepreneurs in medtech. Thank you very much.

[00:44:28] Tyler Melton: Thank you for having us.

[00:44:29] Ishan Kamat: Thank you for having us.

[00:44:30] Giovanni Lauricella: Come on in.

[00:44:31] ​

[00:44:31] Giovanni Lauricella: This Was awesome. How'd it go? Oh, yes. Yeah?

[00:44:36] Tyler Melton: Hot mic.

[00:44:37] ​

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