The transition from academic research to commercial MedTech entrepreneurship requires a strategic mindset shift, particularly when navigating high-risk vascular innovations. Jordi Martorell, CEO and co-founder of Aortyx, shares his journey from mapping arterial blood flow at the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center to developing bioresorbable endovascular patches for aortic dissection. Driven by a desire to solve true unmet medical needs, Martorell leveraged his background in fluid mechanics and vascular engineering to build a company capable of transforming clinical outcomes.
Navigating early-stage funding outside major venture capital hubs presents unique structural challenges. Martorell explains how Aortyx sustained a multi-year development timeline prior to Series A by combining friends-and-family rounds, community equity crowdfunding, and non-dilutive European public grants. Maintaining radical transparency regarding investment risk and establishing clean cap table structures were critical components in maintaining investor trust over extended timelines.
Securing a Series A round for a Class III medical device requires managing shifting macroeconomic landscapes, rising clinical costs, and complex regulatory pathways. Martorell reflects on the realities of negotiating with venture capital firms, facing unexpected round restructurings, and adapting to post-pandemic inflation across preclinical and clinical trial execution. The discussion highlights the importance of maintaining core product continuity while remaining flexible in execution strategy.
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The aorta is the primary pipeline delivering oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the rest of the body. An aortic dissection occurs when a tear forms in the inner layer of this pipe's wall, allowing high-pressure blood to pump into the wall itself, splitting the layers apart and creating a high risk of fatal rupture.
Rather than undergoing open-chest surgery or placing rigid metal tubes (stents), an endovascular patch acts like a flexible, biocompatible adhesive bandage. Navigated through blood vessels via a thin tube (catheter), the patch sticks directly over the tear inside the arterial wall, sealing the leak and providing a temporary scaffold that allows the arterial tissue to heal itself before safely dissolving over time.
"If you're starting something, make it as solid as you can... that your foundations are as solid as you can. For me, it is what gives true value." - Jordi Martorell
"Second by being extremely transparent, telling 100% of your investors that once you have given me a dollar, you have lost it. Forget about it... If you're that transparent, you can live with yourself." - Jordi Martorell
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Etienne Nichols: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Global Medical Device Podcast. My name is Etienne Nichols. I'm the host for today's episode. And today I want to talk about the Odyssey to series A. It's a journey that a lot of med tech founders that they're probably besought with some challenges that they may not recognize when they first set out on that journey. And it also depends; I would I would assume largely where you're even coming from. Any journey, you know, it's gonna be shorter if you're from investment capital, maybe versus academia.
So, our guest spent the first half of his career studying how blood moves through arteries before he tried to fix one, before he tried to found a company himself doing this. Jordi Martorell earned his PhD at the Harvard MIT Biomedical Engineering Center mapping blood flow through coronary and car carotid artery bifurcations, which is the spots where atherosclerosis and restenosis tend to start.
And I should have checked with him before I started going off on this and telling him about doing my own research, but I'll let him correct me here in a minute. He brought that research back to Barcelona where he still leads the vascular engineering and applied biomedicine group at IQS and spends has spent over a decade teaching fluid mechanics, which was my favorite part about mechanical engineering. However, if he quizzes me on it, I'll probably get it all wrong. But so glad you're with us today. I want to talk just j so I'll go a little bit further.
So, the research my understanding is became a company. Jordi is now the CEO and co-founder of Aortyx, building bioresorbable endovascular patches for aortic dissection. He implants that adhere to the vessel wall and let the aorta repair itself, deployed through a castle, the catheter. He's also vice president of Catalonia.health, representing the region's health industry to regulators across Catalonia, Spain, and the EU. Today we're going to talk about the Odyssey from Idea to series A, though. So, Jordi, welcome Jordi, welcome to the show.
Jordi Martorell: Thanks Etienne. I mean I think I'll hire you just to represent me in front of investors. I mean you did the perfect intro, so I don't need anything.
Etienne Nichols: Man, well, hopefully I got atherosclerosis pronoun pronounced correctly. That was the biggest stress I was thinking about. But so glad to have you with us. I really appreciate people who are doing the work that you are doing. some of the listeners probably have heard me tell the story about my wife having a she has third degree AV heart block. Not sure that maybe it's a HIPAA violation for me to throw that around too much, but she's had a pacemaker since she was 11. And I always appreciate people who are working on the heart. So very near and dear to me. So, question.
You spent over a decade in academia before founding Aortyx. I'm curious, was there something that you like a finding in your fluid mechanics research or something that made you think this needs to be a company, not just a research paper? What happened there?
Jordi Martorell: Well, because I start academia because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So, I it was my tool, you know, so it was my platform to get there. and I knew so I was a typical stud I wasn't a good student or but not the best student in the class, but I was definitely not a student that will stay in the library to study, stuff like that. I will I did run away like a minute after, you know, classes were over. I will run away from the from my university and just come back at 8 a.m. on the next day, but nothing zero interest, zero actual interest in academia.
But I got the opportunity to study abroad no at MIT as you mentioned, for nine months and my primary goal was you know put MIT in my CV just a line and take it from there. But the reality is it was wow, I actually like what we're doing, the science that we're doing, I like the AC I like this. But I was not a big fan of academia. And…
It was not it was worse now than it is today. But back in the day, you know, being a PhD, etc, I mean, unfortunately the l the most audacious, no, were not PhDs. You know, it w it was more people who were more afraid of and being generalistic, obviously, but it was more, you know, profiles that were shyer, that were not so into going outside into the how do you call it the you know, the real world of business, etc. They didn't want like regular jobs, they liked science, they were kind the good at it. So, they stay in PhDs. I didn't want to be that. Never wanted to be that. So, but I realized that if I wanted to be become an entrepreneur in science, I had to do a PhD. And for me the PhD was the tool, right, to then afterwards turn it into something.
So, I actually my no Aortyx does not come from my first or second project. you know, those projects they actually I thought of them how to transform them and how to bring them into actual practice. But I there was no business plan real valid. There were nice tools. I discovered things, no, they were explaining it very well in the anthraxologist that bifurcations there you have more plaque and you have more, you know, more impact.
So, I actually wanted to change a little bit how coronary stands or carotid stents were made, but I realized that there was there were solutions and that the that you know there were companies that were investing millions in a better stand and that was like 2012 or so and I saw wow they're comparing and they're demonstrating non-inferiority to stands approved in 2006. So, I can be the smartest guy in the room ever.
You know, but if a large company invests large amounts of money in demonstrating that they're not worse than something that's six years ago, I didn't there was no space for me for any inventions on my side, right? So that's why I kept, you know, evolving and discovering things and doing research and you know, and pivoting a little bit my research. And it was not until like two thousand fifteen, sixteen, right? so three years after I present, I defended my thesis, so I had my own lab stuff, I was doing research in cardiovascular.
But it was not until 2015, almost sixteen, that I realized that aortic dissection existed, that it was an unmet medical need, and that's where you know the knowledge I had accumulated over like eight years, eight, seven years of academia could be applied mm into a company. And that's and that's why, you know, that was in 2016, and we did not found the company until 2018.
Right. So, it's still a process of you know, doing the research, getting some research grants, getting some money here and there, building a potential business plan, getting educated in entrepreneurship, and then we start a company. It was a route, it was a whole, you know, process to get there.
Etienne Nichols: It sounds like risk management in your mind; the reason you went this route. You want to be an entrepreneur. I and this is me just assuming. So please correct me because I'm very curious about this. And also, I'm curious because you said you want PhD, you know, you went overseas. You went pretty far down a path that you said you don't even like because you have this other goal. I mean…
Jordi Martorell: It was I mean I do love it. So, I so I did I don't like many things of academia, the worst things of academia, no, you know, like yeah, the pseudo stability versus pseudo instability in a way, no just working to chain one grant after the other and stuff. But no, I actually what I always say and what it what I'm proud us of is make something, make that your research matters.
My research group is all about applied biomedicine. We've at least at the beginning, then it may work or not, but at least at the beginning there's an unmet need that we identify and then a potential solution that we're trying to work on. And that's been what has defined my research since and that will defined the company too, like trying to solve actual unmet medical needs, but not, you know, trying to solve a basic thing after the other, you know, which is beautiful in science and that's I love science obviously. But it's not who I am and not that's not how it's not why I do why I did it.
Etienne Nichols: And I would never want to misrepresent what you said because I think what I'm getting is where your heart really is when the patient is finally impacted, is what it seems like.
Jordi Martorell: Exactly. Exactly like patient and if I was doing science in you know in carbon fixing, you know, when we have decreased one degree the global w temperature. You know what I mean?
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Whatever you're doing, generate a true impact. That's my philosophy. And it ended up being no I'm a chemical engineer actually, at the at the beginning. But what my meaning what I say is like whatever you do, try to generate an impact. And that's yeah that's my moral in a in a way and that's what moved me.
Etienne Nichols: I love that. I want to ask one more question though. With that, with that kind of I guess comparison, academia versus entrepreneurship, you know, they both have their merits, they both have their pros and cons, I'm sure. You went down this path of academia with the intent to get into entrepreneurship. I'm curious, is that a path? Now looking back, I mean, you've gone, hindsight's 2020. Would you recommend that to your younger self or any other person who has the same thirst for entrepreneurship? What's your thought?
Jordi Martorell: 200 percent really yeah. Yeah.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, yeah because I try and again this is extremely personal, right? Yeah. But for me, you know, anything when I see startups or whatever, if I see a startup that you know, I don't know, and make it to make it very simple, no, that delivers food to your home, right? You don't need a certain education, etcetera, et cetera.
But for me that's not something that's exciting at all. That's for me it's entrepreneurship, yes, sure, it's starting a company, but it's not generating impact. That's what I that that's not what I see. So, for me, if you if you need no if you're starting something, make it from as solid as you can. You know that that you’re the core you’re the foundations are as solid as you can.
And that's what I do recommend I mean; I think that however you need to have the guts to go through academia and then to go to entrepreneurship. So, it's it is extremely complicated, but for but for me it is what gives true value, you know. and at our university we have what's called the IQS, no? The university is IQS, we have the tech transfer, and we see companies from like new socks, you know, or like whatever, stuff like that. For me that's zero exciting.
And we're not adding new value and they're entrepreneurs and they're selling socks. You know, fancy whatever colorful socks. Zero I mean, zero empathy with this and I mean I don't feel…
Etienne Nichols: You talk about a challenging way to go through too. You know, socks are out there, so…
Jordi Martorell: If there's different challenges. I will never be able to sell a single sock, you know, and I find it extremely hard. So, there is there are challenges associated, they're not the ones I'm you know, I'm…
Etienne Nichols: I like that you say, you know, you went really deep so you can truly believe in your product. I mean, with the research that you've done, I can I would assume that beyond a shadow of doubt, you know this is gonna work. Is my assumption. I mean…
Jordi Martorell: It's funny that you put it that way, no? I mean and I'm gonna give an argument for and an argument against, right? So, our I'm starting with argument against. We have like the full device has like seven larger you know, seven major components, so it's a very complicated device. Overall, we have done more than three hundred and fifty iterations of the device, you know, combined.
Yeah, so I mean I we suck. Our trusty we to retreat so many times, right? And we haven't even tried yet in people. So, imagine how many iterations we're we have left. Yeah. that's my against argument. My fore argument, no, is that I have two. One is that we have not pivoted since twenty eighteen.
The concept remains exactly the same. You know? Exactly the same. We have not changed you know, it's an endovascular patch that is adhesive that we with deliver with a minimum invasive catheter, etc., etc. So, this, you know, there's a zillion nuances within that, in the design, but that's the concept and we have remained. Second, we wrote our first patent in two thousand eighteen with zero data.
Zero. Like it was the idea, some hyper preliminary prototypes, etc.
What I had predicted that will happen in the tissue in 2018, when we wrote the patent, was literally what the histopathologists say to us in 2022 after some of the first animals’ studies. So literally like this, you know, here you can see the cells doing that, and here you can see that, and this is literally what we wrote in 2018, right? so that's like yes, we kinda know what we're talking about.
You know, that's so this is my pro and con in and against arguments in a way, but yeah.
Etienne Nichols: I love that. So okay, so confidence in the product, that's one thing. And how and your path to getting there is interesting. There’re two questions in my mind right now. So, you are in academia and now you're in you know you're an entrepreneur at this point. You've raised series A, if I'm not mistaken. And I don't know what your current goals are right now, but can you tell us a little bit about the challenges you've started facing when it came to raising funds, because I hear that that's a learning curve.
Jordi Martorell: It has many things, plus we are a company based in Barcelona. So, like the let's say the picture is very different versus any company built in the States or even in France or Switzerland, right? So first we come from Barcelona and Spain has a very little history of actually you know investing in life sciences and we have literally a handful of of VCs that are able to invest in us. Right? It's literally five to six VCs.
So, it's a very small ecosystem. You need and if you generate doubts in any of those, then the others you know back the back out. You know, they back down. It's over. So, so that's one thing. Second, obviously we have had all the crises are 2018 crisis sorry 2008 crisis lasted until 2013 just for you to have an idea. In Spain. So, I mean and literally this year the stock the stock the Spanish stock market reached the two thousand eight levels for you to…
Etienne Nichols: No. Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, so, I mean it's a different economy and the rest of the world sees us. So, we are not first tier for ex external VCs. I mean we are these Spanish guys. No, you know they play soccer very well but what about that that that's you know that that's a vision external vision. So, one impossible to get a s a series A with a foreign VC as a lead investor. Impossible.
Yeah, very small amount of VCs, a lot of projects, no? So, I can tell you as Vice President of Catalonia.health, I do have I have more visibility of what's going on in our ecosystem. And we have excellent sense that and that entrepreneurship is growing. So, we have like a company that is built every that is founded every week or so.
Etienne Nichols: And obviously.
Jordi Martorell: We have VCs that can globally support 10 series A per year tops, right? So, there's obviously a super funnel that that you cannot cross.
Etienne Nichols: Very competitive, sounds like.
Jordi Martorell: So very competitive. So, and to finalize, we founded in 2018, October 2018, our series A was March 2025.
Etienne Nichols: Wow. Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: So, there's a gigantic gap.
Etienne Nichols: So how do you go on for that long? What are your recommendations for other companies there's gotta be other companies like, how do we do it? How do we make it?
Jordi Martorell: How did we make it? And for that, no, so there were two things, two to two main things. One is that we've we had two rounds of crowd equity. Okay, so our first seed round was in 2019. Okay. And it was we raised six hundred fifty thousand from just friends. Yeah, basically friends. Friends and people who knew us. Friends and f family, but we mean friends.
Etienne Nichols: Can I take a timeout and ask a question about that? Something I've never asked people because people typically do the friends, family, fools. They call the three F's around. Friends, family, fools, right? What what's that conversation like when you actually talk to friends?
Jordi Martorell: So, it's very simple. I mean for me it was very simple that's where I was going. Because I have been telling about my science, no, since 2009, no, 2008, nine, no, since I finished the undergrad and started doing the research and MIT, etcetera, etcetera. Research is very poorly paid, no, so it's like, jury. So that's awesome. It's super fun what you're doing. Like, who when are you actually gonna make money? typical question from your friend.
You know, they're getting starting to go to live into a house or whatever, they I'm a poor scientist. So when are you actually gonna make money? so I gathered many people, no, I gather like seventy five people in a room, and I it presented what we wanted to do with theoretics and I said now you know I basically said now we can make money.
So out of all this work that we have been doing, our goal is to make money to make money for us and for all of you. and second by being extremely transparent, telling a hundred percent of your investors that once you have vi given me a dollar, you have lost it. Forget about it. Like it's over. It's binary. I I am work I'm gonna work my you know, everything I'm gonna get everything I have. And people know I have a lot, and you know, I'm very intense and I can get a lot of things. No, I'm gonna do everything I can.
To multiply that money, but the highest likelihood is that it becomes zero.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: And if you're that transparent, you can live with yourself. And it's fine. And you have friends that say, I even rejected some of my some of my parents' friends who had were in a like a like more regular economical situation say no. This is money that you're losing. So, if you cannot re produce that money in two months again and stuff, I don't want it.
You know, it has to be something extra you have somewhere in a you know in a box at home.
Etienne Nichols: Good rule. Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: But that's that makes it clear. And so, we had this 2019 round and then we had a so we're trying to raise a series A by 2020, 2021, but the VCs there like no, you're just doing it there's not enough, it's not mature enough. So, we had…
Etienne Nichols: So that 75 people in that room, how many…
Jordi Martorell: 66 something. Yeah.
Etienne Nichols: Really? Wow.
Jordi Martorell: We had like 60 we had 60 something, 62, 63 out of them who that was but they’re almost everyone invested there, and…
Etienne Nichols: Thought was how long would that take you? Any…
Jordi Martorell: It took me some places. The worst thing now is that we have low small VCs, but the good thing is that we have good public support. So, we've actually while we were raising MO funds, etc., we have had a good an excellent track in public funding, right? Yeah. And we've got them at Catalan, Spanish and European level, we have gotten every possible non-dilutive formula that exists.
Etienne Nichols: Why do you think that was? Was it because they believed in you or do you believe in what they really cared about what you were solving?
Jordi Martorell: Friends or the or administrations?
Etienne Nichols: Just j the friends who are willing to invent.
Jordi Martorell: Sure, it’s very personal, like it's just personal is knowing them and stuff. The administration I think because the science was different, no, it was you know, and it's very important the storytelling is not only important with the investors, it's also it's very important when you're talking to anyone. And what how we explain the medical need the met medical need, where the technology came from, you know, the likelihood of what we were actually trying to solve, not people dying, we're trying to save them because they we're trying to give better solutions.
To those, etc. All this something we which always do is like having again super good storytelling, ex explain it very simple, very logic. In the end, it's we have a patch to cover a hole, you know? Yeah. And it's a hole in your main artery. If you have a hole in your main artery, you die. You know?
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: And worst, like and worse, nobody's fixing it. So, we we're there, we can fix it, right? So…
Etienne Nichols: Okay, I'm I've the listeners are probably I'm driving crazy 'cause I'm slowing you down. I don't mean to do that. So, I do want to get so if we get back on track 'cause I love this and I'm a very curious guy about all this sort of thing. So, you got 60 out of 75, which I think is awesome, crowdfunded or a community source. You know, different people have different words for that. Then you get to series A. How did that translate? You know, if you had a lot of community.
Jordi Martorell: What we call bridge round because they again they saw us like immature for a series A and there was little money, literally three VCs at the time who could invest in us. it was it was one of them that we worked a little bit further, but they declined relatively fast. I said, all right, let's do crowd equity, but now on a platform. And there's a platform called Capital Cell.
In Spain, that that it's like a crowd cube or something like that, you know? But for but just for biotech, biotech, med tech, etc. So, health, health, health science. Yeah. And we actually raised two point three million out of that with five hundred plus investors. those this was more like a PR strategy than this.
There's obviously a good chunk of people who knew us one you know directly or indirectly, and who had not participated in the first round, etc. and that. But obviously, yeah, here come the legal challenges. You have flex we have now like about six hundred investors globally. which there's a lot of I'd say public companies that don't have so many investors.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I'm kinda curious about your you know, do investors look at the cap table and say, well, this do they care about that sort of thing?
Jordi Martorell: Obviously, but obviously we have the legal mechanisms. So, the first sixty they were all syndicated in me, right? So, I signed for everyone. So, they w went and gave p power of attorney now to you know all of them to me. So basically, they were in writing saying I can do whatever I want with your with your money. Yeah. I still hold those powers. and then for the second we created an LC if you want that invested in us.
That invests in us and I'm the I'm the you the sole administrator of that of that vehicle. No, kinda like a mini spec if you want. So, I still had most of the control of the company with and then with the founders we had like the full control of the company. So, in the end it was it was only negotiating with us the founders, no the VCs in reality they were only negotiating with us. We’d we don't we did not have you know, any noise in in in there.
Which yeah is the is really the only way. This I mean I've also made sure that any one of these six hundred investors can send me an email, and I can respond and I've done it the whole time. anything. people who invest a thousand Euros are the ones who ask more questions typically. But…
Etienne Nichols: That is a good point. So, I you say at a thousand euros they ask more questions than the one who invests fifty thousand.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because those who invest 200,000, they really trust you. Yeah. You know? Yeah. They really trust you. And the others but always the same always the same per prerogative, no? Like it's a small investment, definitely don't invest all of your savings and definitely kinda weigh support a cause and if we're lucky, I'm gonna do ten X what you invested, right? but and then…
Etienne Nichols: Rule of thumb when it comes to that like ten X and X number of years or you know what they what a lot of…
Jordi Martorell: I say ten X. I said like typical returns are three to ten X in three to seven years. We've already crossed the seven years line. Sure. No.
Etienne Nichols: At least he leveled that at the beginning. They understood.
Jordi Martorell: Again, you can only say I always say, no, the two thousand there was in the 2021 round it's been like, it's already been five years, you know mm what's going on. I say, hey, there's this like one of the biggest you know, biotech companies in in Spain, it's in Barcelona, it's called Grifols, right? So had you invested in in in Grifols, no, in the public market when you put the money in in Aortyx, you would have lost seventy percent. Yeah.
You know, so I mean you took a bed here, you could have taken it somewhere else. Life is life.
Etienne Nichols: The fact that you said you're supporting a cause, I mean I think that's an important if you truly believe in what you're doing, that really is what you're trying to do.
Jordi Martorell: You you're supporting cost, you're supporting this and you're doing it for good and you know we have full transparency of what we invest the money in, what you know everything. The accounts are you can any one thousand Euros investor can ask me, they have they have the accounts, they can ask me why did we invest X, Y, Z, I explain we transparency is key for us. So that's what a little bit well…
Yeah, and from there no jumping to series A. So, we survived over four years with this 2.3 million plus two point five million from the from the European Commission in the EAC accelerator program and from there no we built on a series A that fell dramatically about in March 2024. We were building it with a potential lead investor. We didn't have a term sheet yet; we were building it with a potential lead investor.
But in the end the lead investor called got cold fit. So, we had to rebuild it with actually some of the actual followers of the round. So, they doubled down, they put they and then because we actually had they asked for a very good valuation for them, so we are actually so other investors who tagged along and, in the end, we signed a round.
That with an extra addition that we had s l a few officially a few months ago, it goes to more than 15 million Euros, so about 18 million dollars more or less. So, we had a big round.
Etienne Nichols: Awesome, so I'm curious in that journey, and at different points I'm sure it was different, but what were some of the learning opportunities like regulatory? I don't know if you knew about regulatory strategy when you were first, you know, designing the stuff or how all those different things. What…
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, we I mean there's a few things that we have been lucky with, and I really, it's quote unquote lucky, right? yeah, because…
Etienne Nichols: Kinda have to make your own luck, I guess, but…
Jordi Martorell: No, and especially like we are a Class III product…
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Because there's no Class IV, otherwise we'll be a Class IV.
Etienne Nichols: I've never heard anyone say that, but yeah, that's…
Jordi Martorell: So, no, sometimes, I'm a Class 2A or a Class to B or no no. My regulatory strategy is do it all.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah, yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Or you won't get approved. So, in a way, no, it was a little bit less complicated from the from in theory and from the beginning. Now that we actually got into it, there's so many more nuances and we've learned a lot. And we have learned, for example, that we can stage things between along the clinical development we can do engineering things or biocomp things, chemical things that we you know in 2020 we're thinking that we need to do first prior to any human so clinical investigation.
We're now working on like a having a full clinical investigation plan with all the nuances. So now we're debating really the pot patient population, you know, to the to the decimal. You know, we're working on that. But the overall plan you know, has been fairly consistent since conception. fairly consistent. We need a first inhuman, we need a pivotal study, we know that we go FDA first. you know we we're deciding w which countries we go to for the first inhuman, all these kind of things, right? Or but it's adjusting. That we need a first in human and a pivotal with more or less that amount of patience and this has always been relatively clear. The costs have doubled since for everything. since two thousand no, the since the 2020 COVID drama plus you know the global supply chain problems, you know raw materials…
Etienne Nichols: Why is it supply chain that's doubled or what exactly…
Jordi Martorell: I mean, we yeah, I anything but the sea from animal studies to clinical studies to materials, all double is a generalization again, but the prices are really higher. So, we thought we needed X amount of money and that was an underestimation. And I was already overestimating myself that it was clear underestimation. Plus, there's been like a s massive inflation.
And that also affects like the whole story. So overall like the party is expensive.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah. So, the three main milestones that you've got. So, you've got the Fer friends and family fund are round and then you've got your bridge round and then you've got series A. Which one do you would you say was hardest and why?
Jordi Martorell: The series A for sure. The series A took us two years and almost nine months to close. Since you know, since LSI Europe 2022, that they say I start today we start. No, I said, okay, today we start. I actually had good interactions with some investors that lasted like fourteen months. No, like we went deep, deep, deep and eventually say we won first in human data, you know, which is a classic answer when you're a series A like ours. But that's what it started, and we closed around so that was September 2022 and we closed around in May 2025.
Etienne Nichols: Okay. Well yeah, d that's it. I you kinda answered the question that I'm about to ask already, but what do they want? You know, I mean that's that if you are talking to another guy, another c CEO founder or first time founder, especially someone from academia, and they're just about to they're considering pursuing a series A, what would you say? Hey, you're gonna need XYZ.
Jordi Martorell: First don't do it. You know, the first…
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: Thing you seriously don't do it. That's becoming a company soon and I've told the guy 25 times don't do it, but he's not gonna listen, right?
Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I had a CEO who told me that. He's like, I have a lot of people come to me and they say and they no one yet has listened to me. Nobody listens.
Jordi Martorell: No one listens. So that's the one thing. And the second thing is run as much as you can to first inhuman.
Etienne Nichols: Okay.
Jordi Martorell: First inhuman is the I'd say is the tipping how you call tipping point or…
Etienne Nichols: Yeah, the tipping point. Malcolm Gladwell's, you know, and that's…
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, it's a yeah, so it's a tipping point for many, many investors for a Class III device. And there's a number of you know, there's a lot of how do you call that? Well, there's a lot of this debate, discussion even now they if you if you're less than Class III, you mean you not to read you need to run to commercial. You know, like d don't even talk to me like your commercial, right?
For a Class III, you know the critical milestone is first inhuman. And we were able to raise, you know, this you know fifteen million because a lot of things. No, because we were it's a very unique product, very different from what there is, like it's a new concept, etc. etcetera. So, thanks to that we've been able to fundraise and get somewhere. But…
Also, it's been extremely challenging. huh, and it was again almost three years to close it. And we closed around with twenty thousand in the bank and like 250,000 in debt. Right. So, it was it was really, really borderline. But the thing is that's not recommendation. Get the first thing human as fast as you can and it's easier obviously easier said than done.
But that's number one recommendation for any product like ours.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: And that's why I think I have I s think slash hope that my series B will be less complicated because we will have clinical data, you know? And there's and there's a good bunch of investors that have given me an honest come back with first in human data, you know? There's the…
It's an easy answer to say come back with Nursing Human Data. Some have said all right it'll come back. But some I mean, I honestly believe that some of them they can perfectly be our lead investors because they understood the technology, they kinda trusted it. Hey, this looks good, no? This looks very good. So, I mean I'm already knocking on the doors because we have new c pre-clinical data, we have new stuff, whatever I'm building up on this.
But yeah, series A has been massive. Has been massive. And post series A, people don't talk post series A, but when you come from academia…
Etienne Nichols: Mm-hmm.
Jordi Martorell: …and especially when you come from crowd equity, you don't really respond to anyone. I mean we don't have and now we have a board and a series board. No, you know, we have VCs that may know more or less about the market, more or less about the dynamics, of about more or less about other you know other companies, you know, comparables, etc. So, that gets that that that gets can get very complicated. So, we've had seen it's been tough. It's been a tough first year having VCs. yeah. We're in we I think now we have a brighter future ahead in a way but it we've been it's been difficult. and we and we all acknowledge it. That's been…
It's not it has not been as smooth as we wanted it to be. And we truly believe that there's been a couple of milestones that were hit during that, you know, those last months that will make things significantly smoother. But there was a lot of you know moving from zero supervision, you know, to a total supervision from a VC. that's also that's something that you need to think about and learn how to…
Etienne Nichols: Any pieces of recommendation for somebody who is having to learn and go through that transition. I mean…
Jordi Martorell: Education, medication, you need to educate your board constantly. your board knows a lot about certain things and you need to learn from them and but you need to understand you need to under one, you need to understand their pains as fast as you and as possible and then you need to educate on your pains and make them feel empathic with empathetic with your pains.
Because otherwise the feeling of this guy was cheating on was cheating me with their preliminary results or you know the story they told me, etcetera can be you know it's human. Yeah, you see what I mean? It's human. But you need to put your mind fast into okay, we what are their pains?
And how are those pains going to reflect in in their you know their attitude towards me and how I can, you know, go ahead. you know and be s and you know be once be one step ahead of those pains and giving solutions to those pains. and as always, I mean I I am pr especially transparent, no. I'm telling you already, no, that I'm making public that the board is complicated. You know what I mean?
But in another way, they always say that I'm telling the truth. You know, either way. I'm we are always and with my co-founder and Noemi the same. We're always telling the truth. Well, we're being transparent, no matter how damaging it is, we explain, no, with transparent explaining what's going on, what are what's and also when they tell when we ask, hey guys, trust us that we're going to solve this, no, I think now we start to gain their trust.
Because we've been able to solve the things that we thought that we will solve. Right. But it's a process. It's a process.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah. So, from a founder, when you were sitting there in 2018 and you had strong science, it sounds like, but not a company yet. if someone else is in that place, what's the first concrete step you take? Is there something you look back and not necessarily I wish I'd done this different, but man, if I'd known this, I would have done this. Anything like that come to mind along the along the journey or this odyssey. I love that you used that word when we were first talking about it.
Jordi Martorell: It's more and I just embrace yourself, no? Like a like a little bit, it's gonna be wavy, it's gonna be rocky, it's gonna be it's going to take much, much longer than what you think. That's for sure, always. and then and be prepared for change, no? Yes, you're in academia and you have an academia mindset and at some point, this needs to shift for you and for your company.
So, need to include more people that already come from the industry, you need to, you know, integrate different types of people, etc., etc.
Etienne Nichols: And actually yeah, go ahead.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, but also this iterates because now we've realized in a way that depending on your size of the company, you don't need to adapt so much. No, you need to build a team and that's the conclusion we're getting at after you know years of like different coaches and stuff and growth, blah blah blah. And today we have come to realize, at least for a company, is like, okay, we are all alphas. We are all a bunch of alphas. Everyone tells you cannot put so many alphas together. It's the only way we work, you know. You know, it's…
Etienne Nichols: Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: It's true, but there's people who tell you by the diversity. And there's other companies that are super by the diverse. And they have you know different no the colors of you know personality, this kind of stuff. You I know you've you you've probably heard about. Yeah. And you have all these theories, and we've been working on these theories. but today, no, and September twenty sixth, I'm telling I think that if you keep it within a certain size.
Maintain a little bit the philosophy if it's everyone is alphas, everyone is alphas. If everyone is betas, everyone is betas. You know, there's different companies and different strategies. But make it so that they can work together, you know, consistently. And build a team. Build a team that can work together consistently.
Etienne Nichols: I can see where you come from, this is interesting. So, like if everybody has that domain you mentioned the color personalities, I don't know. I go to the disc, you know. I like the best the big five is my favorite, but disc I think dominates yellow. And so, if you have everybody dominate, they have their own way of talking. But they communicate pretty well because they understand each other's language.
Jordi Martorell: That's exactly it. That's exactly it. no, I think we're red. in the colors.
Etienne Nichols: And maybe that's right. Yeah.
Jordi Martorell: You know it's fine. It can be fine. but yeah, but again looking backwards, you need to assume some people will let you down, some people will surprise you. just again, embracing self and just wherever comes, no if you have lemons make lemonade, just make tons of lemonade, don't worry.
Etienne Nichols: Well, that's cool. I can't wait to I can't wait to find…
Jordi Martorell: If you wanna be yeah, if you want like a headline, be prepared to make a ton of lemonade.
Etienne Nichols: 'Cause life's throwing lemons. It's just no matter where. Yeah. That's true. Especially in MedTech, that's for sure. I really appreciate it. This has been a fun conversation. And I can't wait to you're gonna be in Barcelona at LSI. It's only ten minutes from your office, I guess. So, I can't wait to see you there at the end of September. Any last piece of advice, whether it's for me or anyone out there in MedTech.
Jordi Martorell: No, again, be very, very patient. being very insistent. From this something I didn't mention. A hundred percent of the investors that we got in the as VCs or yeah as the VCs told us no at some point. Yeah. Wow.
Etienne Nichols: Really? That is good there. You buried the lead there.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah, so that's just keep coming keep coming back, keep pushing. for us resilience is everything and resilience is part of the game and it's a valuable part of the game. If they keep in full honesty and I'm s and this is gonna sound like to date, zero percent of my investors I have gotten them from LSI.
And I have attended five LSI’s.
Etienne Nichols: We won't tell LSI.
Jordi Martorell: No, I can tell it and it's and it's and it's and you know and it's fine. Because I…
Etienne Nichols: I just can I ask you Yeah, go ahead.
Jordi Martorell: I believe that my series B, I'll have plenty of LSI found LSI and here we're gonna be LSI, but Metex Strategies know all the big all the big all the big things. We have attended, no, we have one of the strategics that we have, we cannot mention the name, but we have but we have attended every major vascular surgery conference since 2018 and they've kept seeing us.
So, one of the one of them invested in us. Right? Yeah. and one of them is going to acquire us. But you know persistence, resilience, being there is an important part of the game. And it's one, not the only one, but one of the ingredients for success. You need to be there. You need to show I mean I'm making Coca-Cola, right?
Why doesn't Coca-Cola need ads? Everyone know knows who what Coca-Cola is. They are the ones who invest the most in marketing.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah. That's a really powerful point. I was in the deepest, darkest Africa, I think it was the third co poorest country in the world, and you could go where there wasn't electricity for a hundred miles, and you could get a Coke.
Jordi Martorell: Yeah. So, it's the same, no? If you show up, if you show progress, if you're there, it shows resilience, it shows also like this transparency, you're not afraid of telling that you went slower than what you expected, you show your highs and lows, etc., etc. So, all this visibility, all this means resilience, means something to investors, and they'll end up investing.
Some not I mean and you only need as microfraction. In reality you need one and a half investor per round. The rest come you know, they're come from FOMO. You know? Yeah. So, you just you only need that and you gonna make and there's gonna be so that someone you find and you'll get it, but you need to be there, you need to be too resilient, you need to show progress, you need to show that you want.
No, you have willingness for this to make it. So, that's my stronger recommendation here.
Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I love the recommendation for that brand visibility, just staying out there and staying with it. I can't wait to see you at LSI in Barcelona. We'll talk more at some point, I hope. it's really exciting what you're building. So, all right. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on the show.
I feel like we could keep going on. I have lots of queue I don't think I touched but one of the questions that I'd written down for myself, but it doesn't even matter because that's I really enjoyed the conversation. I'm gonna let you get back to it. Those of you have been listening, thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you have thoughts or questions, reach out to Jordi or me. I'd love to hear from you and hear what your thoughts are. But until then, we will see you all next time, everybody. Take care.
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