Doubling Down on Your Mission by Diversifying Your Medtech Portfolio: Interview With ReShape Lifesciences CEO Bart Bandy

In this episode of Medsider Radio, we’re talking with ReShape Lifesciences CEO Bart Bandy, who started out selling medical equipment door-to-door, then landed a spot in the first sales class for Ethicon Endo-Surgery. He ran the company’s global sales and managed the San Francisco division, before becoming the Group Marketing Manager of Karl Storz Endoscopy.In 1999, Bart was recruited to become COO of laparoscopic weight loss startup Inamed. He helped manage the company’s $3.5 billion acquisition by Allergan in 2006. Then in 2019, he became CEO and President of ReShape, which had just acquired the Lap-Band, previously owned by Inamed.In this discussion, Bart explains how he writes and tests his presentations for maximum impact, the challenges and solutions of moving manufacturing from Costa Rica to the U.S., and why he wanted to add telemedicine to ReShape Lifesciences without moving away from the brand’s core mission.Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to mention a few things:If you’re into learning from proven medtech and healthtech leaders, and want to know when new content and interviews go live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. You’ll get access to gated articles, and lots of other interesting healthcare content. Second, if you want even more inside info from proven experts, think about a Medsider premium membership. We talk to experienced healthcare leaders about the nuts and bolts of running a business and bringing products to market. This is your place for valuable knowledge on specific topics like seed funding, prototyping, insurance reimbursement, and positioning a medtech startup for an exit.In addition to the entire back catalog of Medsider interviews over the past decade, Premium members get exclusive Ask Me Anything interviews and masterclasses with some of the world’s most successful medtech founders and executives. Since making the premium memberships available, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many people have signed up. If you’re interested, go to medsider.com/subscribe to learn more.Lastly, here's the link to the full interview with Bart if you'd rather read it instead.