FMC Talent’s Post

Transcript

I just want to let you know, Steve, you got a fair fan base, not only just FMC, but I think because you're, you know, so open, you know, you talk directly and you you don't mind kicking the Hornets nest with opinions. And I just want to probe a bit deeper into, you know, what actually helped you to develop that character and the confidence to just actually speak your mind and how has that helped you and in sometimes got you into a bit of trouble within the the line of work you do. Yeah. No, it's good. Yeah. So I think so this is this is this not so serious side to it? There's a serious side to it. They're not so serious side is, you know, it's just the character of where I'm from, Right. I'm from like, you know, got an Irish mother who pretty strong character who. Just says it as it is and, you know, doesn't take crap from anyone. And she kind of taught me that and then just said, you know, don't suffer fools and just just speak your mind and be honest. And, you know, all in confident enough in myself. If someone doesn't want to hear that, you know, doesn't want to hear the truth. Doesn't mean I'm right, but they got to hear what I think is the truth. So that's, that's like the half side of it. But the other side of it is I, I learned pretty early on in my career, patients die pretty quickly when people don't listen to you. Hmm, OK. And lots of patients die because people won't listen. OK. And won't speak up and won't say things. You know, I can remember many times in the past there's been medical devices where people in the company knew it was bad. But no one was bold enough to stand up. And therefore patients are now dead, families are ruined because people wouldn't stand up for it. So you got to take an ethical choice, right? A moral choice. And my moral choice is I'd rather kick the Hornets nest or be, you know, vocal or whatever and be wrong. Then be silent and watch disasters happen. So yes, so I, I just, I just feel very strongly that people, especially in our industry, our regulated industry, if you see it, say it right. And, and you should always do that and there shouldn't be repercussions. That part of the problem has been is that many companies, they have this repercussion system, which is where people who shout or whistle blower or say something get penalized for it. And they should be absolutely rewarded for it. And I think that's a culture thing that needs to change and a lot of companies have changed. To the to the culture to allow people to fairly whistle blow and actually be, you know, commended for it. Because the truth will out eventually and you know, there's been up for lawsuits over the years for all the companies that they should have woke up to this and realised. So yeah, I just, I just say it as it is. And you know, as I said, I'm, I'm often wrong, but at least I've said it and therefore we can debate it and it can be told I'm wrong, which is fine. But I think more people need to be vocal in on industry because at the end of the day, we're all here to serve one person. That's the patient on the end of the device. And the only way we get to that is to have. Honest and open conversations to make sure that they're safe for the patient. I've gotta say, when, when we first sort of started working with you, I, I, I was one of the hopefuls that was, I was convinced that this was going to be the, the, the technology evolution, the group of people and the capital that you guys have raised that we're going to go and make a, you know, a heck of a noise in the market and you did and you're still doing it. But I'm just interested to understand more about what where in your career, where you're happiest, what made you most proud over those last 30 years? And what do you think your legacy will be within the medtech market? Yeah, that's interesting. So I think everywhere I've been, I've been happy. I've I've loved wherever I've been, you know, when I was at Jane Ji still think it's amazing company. And I would recommend that anybody in our industry goes to AJ or a Medtronic for a small period of their career because it's one of the best learning places you'll ever get, you know, and, and they do a lot of stuff really well and really right. And it's a China organisation. I was, I was extremely happy. I mean, I love my time at ethic and Ender surgery during the transition from open to laparoscopic. It was just amazing learning time. But then I also loved the California startups because that was so different, right? And it was just wouldn't wouldn't called the Wild West because it's not the Wild West that people think it is. But it's just way more progressive thinking than anyone can imagine. I don't think anywhere else in the world than a California startup that has this kind of progressive thing. You know, the people over there like Brad Sharp and Wayne Noda and that crowd over there, we're just awesome. And there's just no limit, right? There's no barrier. There's nothing that can't be done. There's money that can't be raised and what I loved. Now that that culture out there was, they expect failure. You know, most people expect your startup to fail and it's not a bad thing. And in fact, I can always remember, I can't remember which one of the big investors came towards one time in the office and they said, oh, happy to see you guys have failed a few times. Which I think was really important was when you go to a lot of the big companies, failure is seen as a bad thing. Whereas in the startup world, failure seen as a learning experience and especially the California style, less so in the in the UK, you know, OK, still a little bit reserved and conserved. France is a little bit more reserved and conserved, but. The California's that that definitely, you know, go for it, shoot for us. That's why they're so successful. That's why they have such a startup mentality there. Nice. Yeah, like I say, we've we've come to know somebody that tells it out is I now understand that with your your Irish heritage. A story to tell the scars that come with it. And I don't think you're done and I know that you're in this period right now when you can give back. Is there anything that would grab you back into into another gig? Looking around, you know what moon surgical are doing. You know the census, there's lots of cool stuff going on. It is there is there a part of you that thinks one one more go. Uh, and the, not on an operational level. So I'm actually, I'm an advisor for things like looping dental, looping dental as a dental aesthetic robot, which is really, really cool. And again, I think I can bring more to the industry by advising more and more companies, again, just showing them, you know, the mistakes you're trying to avoid. There's a lot of really simple pitfalls. They've companies just got a bit more educated. They'd avoid some really basic, basic mistakes and that. You know, one of those base mistakes is just having a bad idea. That's one of the things I see too much time and effort waste on. 25% of ideas that I ever see are stupid and there should never have been a business. And it was somebody's pet project in university that decided they were going to try and somehow find some way of turning it into a business, usually a disaster. And I think if I can just help a lot of people just, you know, be brutally honest with them and say that idea is a bad idea. Just don't waste your next decade on that. Go and find another idea and put your decade of time, effort, money. Into this other idea that's at least got a chance of succeeding. I think that that is where I can help the industry more than actually, you know, being another chief commercial officer within a within a single company. I think I think I can spread it more. And that's again why I've said to even recent companies have said to me, we'd like you to come and join us and we'd like you to and I've just said no, you know I'm not I'm not gonna do that Instead, I'd rather I'd rather be. An asset for as many companies as possible, because I want everybody to succeed because that's what we have to do, especially in Europe, Europe, Europe. It's just got terrible. Yeah, stop morphing into almost like a knowledge investor at the moment. And I've seen that you've created some awesome content. Do you want to talk to us about that? Because I'm very close to the clicking by myself, Steve, but just wanna little understanding. Get out of those. Yeah. Yeah. So so it was really it came from came from this over the last years, you know, I get asked a lot. Just as you get older and you get more experience, a lot of people ask you for advice. And you know, I would spend quite often 8 till 9:00 at night on the phone with somebody around the world telling them how to do a startup and how to do it. And at some point my wife said to me, and I can't hear you say this one more time. You say the same crap every night. And you know, I, I sit here and listen to it. It's the same thing to a different person every night. Just freaking record it. Just record what you say and just send them to it and let them click on it because. You know, it's the same stuff you repeat in and everyone says oh that's great info. So that was the inspiration for it. And what I decided was I would take my startup knowledge sort of 30,000 feet and build into 100 modules and then those hundred modules go from everything from, you know. Having the idea at the beginning, having the right idea, the big idea, all the way through to how you're setting form up a startup, how you go through Series A, what you're doing, Series A, Series B, series C, series D and exit. And it's kind of a circular course because it's only when you get to the last few sort of modules you say, OK, that's why he was saying to do that at the beginning, which seemed weird. But now when you wanna try and sell a company, now it makes complete sense of why you're doing it. So yes, I, I built that course to do that and then I've added some small modules on there because people said been through your course and I really needed a deeper dive on, you know, how do you pitch to someone to get money? So I've done a, a small module in there called Pitch Perfect, which is just, you know, I've raised 1.5 billion over my career. So I know a little bit about how to do it. And I, you know, again, people just ask me how did you do it? And I'd sit and explain to them for like four or five hours. And my wife said, just record it and put it on a put it on a website somewhere, you know, free your time up. So yeah, that's really what that course is. That's that's the website that I set up. Yeah. Thank you. And I said to Charlotte for a birthday present, I'm going to give her, give her a login. 1.5 billion in either one.