The Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Medical Device Prototypes: Interview with Mike Wallace, CEO of DeVoro Medical

We recently caught up with medtech start-up extraordinaire, Mike Wallace, who shares his insights and experiences with the Medsider community. Mike is the co-founder and CEO of DeVoro Medical, an early-stage medical device company focused on developing innovative devices for peripheral thrombectomy.Mike says the initial idea or concept for a medtech company is just 5% of the journey. Medsider is all about shining light on that other 95%!In this conversation with Mike, he’ll give tips to newcomers, including some mistakes entrepreneurs often make in the early stages of their companies. Mike explains how you can pivot when an idea doesn’t pan out, and he’ll give his expertise on seed-stage fundraising as well as navigating the regulatory waters. Plus, more on his current work with DeVoro, including how he started working on problems related to peripheral thrombectomy.But first, a bit more on Mike’s medtech background:Prior to co-founding DeVoro Medical, Mike served as Chief Technical Officer and VP of Operations for Silk Road Medical. Mike has spent most of his professional career working for medical device start-ups, some of which include Target Therapeutics (acquired by Boston Scientific), BARRX Medical (acquired by Covidien), and Baxano (acquired by Trans1). In addition, Mike has co-founded and exited three other start-ups: TW Medical and GW Medical Neuro (both acquired by Stryker Corp) and CardioProlific (acquired by Philips). Mike graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware, holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and is the co-inventor or primary inventor on over 130 issued U.S. patents.Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to mention a few things:First, I’m trying something a little different with this next series of Medsider interviews, which will be focused entirely on stories from some of the most compelling medtech and healthtech startups across the globe. Here's the deal: I’ve asked these founders and CEOs to answer a series of questions, which I’ve converted to audio stories with the help of some professional voiceover artists. Think of these conversations almost like recorded fireside chats that you might find on Audible. They’re short and sweet, but packed with tons of great insights.I’ve never tried this before, so let me know what you think!Second, if you’re into learning from proven medtech and healthtech experts, and want to know when the next interview goes live, head over to Medsider.com. You can sign up for our totally free newsletter, which includes access to certain types of gated articles as well as regular content updates. Lastly, here's the link to the full interview if you'd rather read it instead.