Could Space Medicine Become the Forcing Function MedTech Innovation Needs? Matthew Kuhn of Skybound Medtech. What happens when getting to space becomes easier than keeping humans healthy once they arrive? I had a fascinating conversation with Matthew Kuhn(@matthewkuhn) , Founder and CEO of Skybound Medtech (skyboundmedtech.com) , to explore one of the most interesting emerging categories in MedTech: space medicine. Matthew’s thesis is that as launch costs fall and humans spend longer periods beyond Earth, human physiology becomes the next bottleneck. That creates problems traditional healthcare was never built to solve. Microgravity accelerates muscle and bone loss. Earth-based supply chains disappear. A medical emergency on Mars could involve a communication delay long enough that waiting for instructions from a physician on Earth is no longer practical. That pushes medicine toward autonomous robotics, reusable medical devices, physical AI, local clinical decision-making, and entirely new approaches to human performance. What I found especially interesting is that this is not only about astronauts. Space can act as a forcing function for medical innovation because many physiological problems become dramatically accelerated in extreme environments. Technologies developed to keep people healthy in space could eventually translate back into aging, rehabilitation, chronic disease, and healthcare on Earth. Matthew also explains why Skybound is building at the intersection of space, defense, and clinical medicine, using a venture studio model designed to turn mission-critical problems into standalone companies. The real opportunity may not be adapting Earth medicine for space, but using space to force medicine to invent what comes next. Episode Breakdown 00:00 Why Space Medicine Could Change Healthcare Forever 01:07 Meet Matthew Kuhn, Founder of Skybound MedTech 02:24 From Johnson & Johnson to MedTech Entrepreneurship 03:30 How Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Inspired MedTech Innovation 05:03 Could Removing Gravity Transform Modern Medicine? 06:11 Why Space Exploration Needs New Medical Technologies 07:53 How Manufacturing in Space Could Improve Medicine 09:09 Which Surgeries Could Benefit From Zero Gravity? 10:16 What NASA's Twin Study Revealed About Aging 11:19 Telomeres, Longevity and the Effects of Space Travel 12:43 Could Space Research Unlock Longevity Breakthroughs? 13:30 Market Engineering and MedTech Growth 15:28 What We Still Don't Understand About Space and Human Health 15:52 Why Osteoporosis Is a Major Challenge in Space 16:11 How Microgravity Accelerates Bone and Muscle Loss 17:23 What Happens to Astronauts After Long Space Missions? 18:46 Why Space Is So Dangerous for the Human Body 19:11 Is Space Medicine an Entirely New MedTech Category? 20:44 Why Space Medicine Could Accelerate Medical Innovation 21:17 How Space Research Could Transform Healthcare on Earth 22:18 Why MedTech Needs More Moonshot Innovation 23:23 Why Space Medicine May Require Autonomous Surgical Robotics 24:59 Why Disposable Medical Devices Won't Work on Mars 26:07 Could Space Accelerate Autonomous Surgery? 26:30 What Happens When Someone Has a Heart Attack in Space? 26:59 Why Mars Communication Delays Make Remote Surgery Difficult 27:40 How NASA and Space Companies View Space Medicine 28:48 Why the Space Economy Is Changing So Quickly 30:22 NASA's Moon Base Plans and the Future of the ISS 30:47 Why Private Companies Are Building the Next Space Stations 32:06 What the AI Boom Can Teach Us About Space Innovation 33:55 What Is Skybound MedTech's Business Model? 34:20 Why Skybound Focuses on Space, Defense and Longevity 35:26 How Skybound Makes Deep Tech Ventures Investable 35:58 Who Invests in Space Medicine Startups? 36:13 Why Traditional MedTech Venture Capital Is Challenging 37:01 How Space and Defense Funding Opens New Opportunities 37:33 Why Early-Stage Investors Are Demanding Revenue 39:18 What Silicon Valley Gets Right About Startup Investing 39:47 Why MedTech Investors Are Moving Toward Later-Stage Companies 41:20 Could Space Medicine Attract a New Class of Investors? 42:04 The Rise of Brain-Computer Interface Startups 42:28 Which BCI Companies Are Leading Innovation? 43:51 How Motif Neurotech Is Advancing Brain Stimulation 44:52 Why Colossal Biosciences Wants to Revive Extinct Animals 45:44 How De-Extinction Could Create Valuable New Technologies 46:43 What Skybound Can Learn From Colossal Biosciences 47:20 How Moonshot Missions Create Commercial Opportunities 48:39 The Unexpected Story Behind Skybound MedTech 50:35 How Reusable Rockets Inspired a New Healthcare Vision 51:07 Why Human Physiology Could Become Space's Biggest Bottleneck 52:14 How a Father's Curiosity Sparked a MedTech Idea 53:48 What Growth Hormones Reveal About Human Physiology 54:44 Could We Prevent Muscle and Bone Loss in Space? 55:19 How Skybound Chooses Which Technologies to Develop 56:08 The Challenge of Testing Medical Devices for Space 56:34 Could NVIDIA's AI Simulations Transform MedTech Discovery? 58:26 Why Medical Device Innovation Needs New Discovery Models 58:39 Can Digital Twins Simulate Human Biology? 59:45 Is Skybound MedTech a Venture Studio? 01:00:10 How Skybound Plans to Build and Spin Out MedTech Startups 01:01:27 Why Houston Could Lead the Next Space Medicine Revolution 01:02:06 Should Medical Innovation Start in Space or on Earth? 01:02:25 Why Skybound Starts With the Challenges of Space 01:03:01 Final Thoughts on Space Medicine and Breakthrough Innovation 01:04:00 End

Great session at #MTC26 @iRhythmTech CEO Quentin Blackford had a great point on medtech and tech. The winners in our space will own Clinical accountability but that we have to find ways to do partnerships with big tech to amplify the value we deliver to patients.

Scalable Surgery: Can Moon Surgical Redefine How Operating Rooms Grow? with Jeffery Alvarez. What if the biggest opportunity in surgical robotics is not adding more capability, but removing variability? I recently sat down with Jeffery Alvarez(@alvajeff) , Chief Strategy Officer at MoonSurgical(@moonsurgical), to unpack the company’s vision for Scalable Surgery and why the shift toward ASCs is changing how surgical technology needs to be designed. Jeffery explains that rising surgical demand cannot simply be solved by adding more operating rooms, staff, or expensive robotic platforms. The better question is how to make surgery more predictable. We get into Moon Surgical’s Maestro physical AI platform, its Copilot technology, intelligent setup, surgical visualization, ASC workflow, marginal cost per procedure, and the role AI can play in building a smarter surgical ecosystem. Jeffery also shares reported data from more than 300 patients showing shorter procedure times, reduced staffing requirements, and roughly 30 to 35 percent improvement in procedure-time predictability. That last metric matters because predictability changes scheduling, staffing, overtime, throughput, and ultimately the economics of the operating room. The future of surgical robotics may be less about building the most complex system and more about building the right system for where surgery is actually moving. Episode Breakdown 00:00 Why Surgical Robotics Needs a New Business Model 01:32 Meet Jeff Alvarez of Moon Surgical 02:36 From MedTech Startups to Building Six Robotic Platforms 03:58 Moon Surgical Introduces Scalable Surgery 04:44 What Is Scalable Surgery? 05:51 Why Healthcare Needs Scalable Surgery Now 07:23 Why Hospital Profit Margins Are Collapsing 09:10 Why Ambulatory Surgery Centers Are More Profitable 10:02 How ASCs Perform More Surgeries in Less Time 10:57 Why More Patients Are Choosing Outpatient Surgery 11:50 How Convenience Is Reshaping Healthcare 12:45 Why Surgical Efficiency Matters Beyond Cost 13:29 Inside Moon Surgical's Maestro Robotic Platform 14:05 How Maestro Uses Physical AI to Assist Surgeons 15:32 Market Engineering and MedTech Growth 17:32 Why Moon Surgical Is Different From Da Vinci 18:37 Why Traditional Surgical Robots Were Built for Another Era 20:30 Why More Complex Robotics Is Not Always Better 22:12 How Maestro Reduces Operating Room Setup Time 23:28 How Do You Prove Scalable Surgery Is Profitable? 24:06 The Clinical Data Behind Maestro's Efficiency Gains 25:28 What Makes Maestro a Physical AI Platform? 26:28 How AI Automates Camera Control and Robot Setup 29:04 What Qualifies as Scalable Surgery? 29:58 Why Network Effects Matter in Surgical Robotics 30:26 How AI Ecosystems Could Make Surgery More Efficient 32:30 Moon Surgical's Business Model and Software Strategy 32:53 The Future of Maestro's Software Capabilities 34:21 What Moon Surgical Learned From Its Category Launch 34:44 What Toyota Can Teach Surgical Robotics About Efficiency 36:18 Applying First Principles to Surgical Robotics 36:37 Why Moon Surgical Celebrates Saying No 37:33 How Maestro Reduces the Cost Per Procedure 39:15 How Startup Constraints Can Become an Advantage 40:53 How Moon Surgical's Culture Shapes Its Technology 41:51 How Are Surgeons Responding to Scalable Surgery? 43:18 Why Surgeons Must Understand the Economics of Care 44:45 Why High-Volume Surgery Needs a Different Robotic Model 46:18 What's Next for Moon Surgical? 46:47 Where to Follow Moon Surgical and Maestro 48:14 End

Today people clamor to get @MartinShkreli on their show but I saw his talent and intellect years back when he came on @StateofMedTech Still one of the top viewed episodes on our YouTube. And yes his all in summit talk is worth watching.

@a16z just released their State of Markets report. Definitely worth reading but here are some of my take aways as they apply to medtech.... “Atoms are so back.” That was probably my favorite line in a16z’s latest State of Markets report especially given our Travis Kalanick episode on @StateofMedTech For the last decade, venture capital was largely optimized around bits: software, SaaS, marketplaces and businesses that could scale with relatively little physical infrastructure. Now the pendulum is swinging back toward atoms. a16z points to semiconductors, power, defense, manufacturing, rockets and robotics as evidence that capital-intensive businesses are back in favor. They argue we’ve entered a new cycle where capital-light software is no longer the only game in town. My question is: why shouldn’t MedTech be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift? MedTech has always lived in the world of atoms. We build robots. Implants. Catheters. Imaging systems. Sensors. Surgical platforms. Manufacturing infrastructure. Historically, that has often been viewed as a disadvantage by venture investors. Hardware is expensive. Clinical development takes time. Regulatory pathways create friction. Scaling manufacturing requires real capital. But look at where capital is going now. AI companies are spending enormous amounts of money building physical infrastructure with roboticsbecoming one of the next major frontiers. Capital-intensive sectors like semiconductors, power and defense are attracting venture dollars that historically would have looked out of place in a software-dominated VC ecosystem. In other words....the market may finally be getting comfortable again with the idea that building important things can require a lot of capital!!! This is important for medtech becase the next generation of healthcare innovation increasingly sits at the intersection of AI and the physical world: intelligent surgical platforms, autonomous interventions, next-gen imaging, robotics, smart implants and devices that all generate huge amounts of proprietary clinical data. I’ve talked before about why I believe medtech could become one of the most important categories of Physical AI. This report only reinforces that thesis. Interestingly, a16z ends the entire presentation by highlighting some of the biggest untapped opportunities ahead: Autonomy. Robotics. AI x Bio. Personal Health.That sounds a lot like the future of MedTech. Maybe the biggest opportunity for our industry isn't simply applying AI to healthcare. Maybe it's recognizing that as technology moves from bits back into atoms.... MedTech is sitting directly in the path of where technology and capital are going next.

Your surgeon champion has the clinical data and believes in the outcomes. Fantastic. But they still won’t fight for you in front of the VAC committee. I hear this on call after call with clinical-stage companies. The surgeon has already spent political capital on three other initiatives that year. Asking them to burn more of it on your product, with nothing but a clinical paper in hand, means asking them to bet their reputation on your narrative instead of theirs. Most companies respond by pushing harder on the data: - More studies - More endpoints - More slides for the surgeon to present That’s the wrong lever. VAC committees respond to the story around a product as much as the data behind it. Sometimes more. Your champion needs more than data to walk into that room: A category narrative that makes the problem obvious before the solution even shows up. An economic case the CFO in the room can repeat without you there. Proof that peer institutions have already made this call. Give your surgeon a story instead of just a study, and watch how much easier that fight gets for them. What are you currently handing your clinical champions to walk into that room with?

How AI Is Reshaping What Makes MedTech Investable with Aneta Sottil of Andera Partners. What makes a MedTech company investable today is changing faster than many founders realize. I looked at how that shift is changing MedTech investing with Aneta Sottil, Partner at @anderapartners , whose investment experience spans more than 25 years of life sciences investing across more than 100 companies. One of her clearest insights is that promising technology alone no longer defines an investable MedTech company. Investors increasingly want stronger clinical evidence, a credible commercialization strategy, reimbursement visibility, and a clear pathway toward value creation. For category-defining technologies, the standard becomes even higher. The product needs to move beyond being technically impressive and become a genuine must-have, creating clinically meaningful benefit for patients while also making economic sense for physicians and healthcare systems. AI adds another layer to that equation. Aneta believes defensible MedTech hardware remains highly valuable, but future companies will increasingly need AI, data analytics, interpretation, and predictive capabilities built into both product development and the technology itself. We also discussed how consolidation changed MedTech M&A, why strategic buyer competition is expanding again, and what that means for founders building toward an eventual acquisition. The conversation reaches into surgical robotics, brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation, reimbursement, wearable cardiac technologies, and BPH innovation, but the broader investment principle remains consistent. Strong companies connect clinical need, defensibility, evidence, market strategy, investor alignment, and commercial execution into one coherent value-creation story. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Why AI Could Reshape MedTech Investing 01:09 Intro + Meet Aneta Sottil of Andera Partners 02:36 Inside Andera Partners’ MedTech Investment Strategy 04:14 How Early Will MedTech Investors Go? 04:44 Why Early Stage MedTech Investing Has Changed 05:39 What MedTech Companies Need to Prove Today 06:47 Why Investors Are Looking Beyond AI 08:12 How MedTech Consolidation Changed the Investment Landscape 08:49 Why MedTech Startups Have Fewer Strategic Buyers 10:48 Why Traditional MedTech Could Be More Defensible Than Software 11:06 Why MedTech Companies Must Integrate AI 12:01 Market Engineering and MedTech Growth 14:10 What Makes a New MedTech Category Investable? 15:28 The Must Have vs Nice to Have Test 17:28 Why MMI’s Microsurgery Robot Stood Out 18:38 Where Microsurgical Robotics Could Create Value 19:37 Are New Strategic Buyers Emerging in MedTech? 20:45 Why Smaller Strategics Could Drive More M&A 22:34 Is MedTech M&A Finally Heating Up? 23:46 How Boston Scientific Helped Reignite MedTech M&A 25:37 The Investment Opportunity in Neurotech and BCI 27:37 Why Neuromodulation Is Having a Moment 28:49 Why Andera Invested Early in Spiro Medical 30:10 How Investors De-Risk Early Stage MedTech 31:47 Neuromodulation for Asthma 33:12 Could Neuromodulation Transform Sleep? 34:48 Clinical Value vs Consumer Health 35:13 How Important Is Reimbursement to MedTech Investors? 37:34 Why Founder-Investor Alignment Matters 38:13 How Founders Should Evaluate Investors 39:27 The Most Painful Lessons From MedTech Investing 41:07 Why Commercialization Strategy Can Divide Investors and Founders 43:18 How Investors Should Support First-Time MedTech Founders 44:40 Why Experience and Founder Conviction Both Matter 45:54 The MedTech Investments That Made the Biggest Impact 47:09 How Kestra Medical Disrupted Wearable Defibrillators 49:39 Turning a MedTech Commercial Stall Into Growth 51:32 Why Patient Impact Makes MedTech Investing Different 53:03 The MedTech Innovations Investors Are Proud Of 53:38 Which New Portfolio Companies Are Most Exciting? 54:33 RiverMark Medical and the BPH Opportunity 56:34 Why a Removable BPH Stent Could Change Treatment 58:36 Why Simple MedTech Can Create Massive Patient Value 59:03 Safety, Quality of Life and the BPH Market 01:00:04 How Great MedTech Investors Keep Learning 01:00:51 The Most Important Lessons From 25 Years of Investing 01:02:34 How Investors Stay Current on MedTech 01:03:02 The Best MedTech Conferences for Investors and Founders 01:04:54 End

Medtech doesn’t move forward because of one company or one technology. It takes an entire ecosystem. Founders. Physicians. Investors. Regulators. Strategics. Policymakers. Most of the year, these groups operate in their own worlds. This October, I’m partnering with @AdvaMedUpdate and @MedTechCon for The MedTech Conference in Boston, where much of that ecosystem comes together under one roof. I’ll be there exploring the conversations shaping where medtech goes next, from where capital is flowing and which technologies are gaining momentum to the challenges of actually getting innovation into the market. If you’re going to be there, let me know. Would love to connect. Interested in attending? Head to themedtechconference.com/ and use code MTC26NEW10 #MTC26 #MedTech #MedicalDevices #TheMedTechConference

How NVIDIA Is Building the Virtual Training Ground for Medical Robots with David Niewolny. Medical robotics has reached a point where the next bottleneck may no longer be the robot itself. I had a wide-ranging conversation with David Niewolny @DavidNiewolny , Sr. Director and Global Head of Business Development for Healthcare and Medical at @NVIDIAHealth, about what changes when healthcare robots can gain far more experience before they ever reach the real world. Medical robots need exposure to different anatomies, tissue properties, sensor conditions, imaging noise, device behavior, and rare edge cases, yet collecting that experience physically is slow, expensive, and difficult to reproduce. NVIDIA is using GPU-accelerated simulation to turn those variables into controlled, repeatable training environments. One example that stood out was NVIDIA running 8,192 robotic training environments in parallel and reducing a reinforcement-learning workflow from roughly five hours to about two minutes. That shifts simulation from an overnight engineering task into something that can realistically become part of a developer’s daily workflow. We also dig into why NVIDIA chose an open-source approach. The larger opportunity is not simply expanding access to tools, but removing repetitive infrastructure work so developers can build on a shared foundation while differentiating through proprietary data, stronger models, clinical workflows, and measurable patient value. The broader shift may be even more important: MedTech is moving toward software-defined, AI-enabled robotic platforms, where hardware becomes the foundation for continuously improving intelligence, applications, and automation. For me, the key question is no longer just how advanced the robot becomes, but how quickly we can give it the experience required to become more reliable, adaptable, and clinically valuable. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 How Nvidia Could Transform Surgical Robotics 01:12 Intro + Meet David Niewolny 02:03 The Biggest Shift Happening in Surgical Robotics 04:19 Why Robots Need More Real World Experience 07:33 Training AI for Rare Surgical Edge Cases 10:22 Market Engineering and MedTech Innovation 12:30 Why Nvidia Chose Open Source for Healthcare 15:12 Building an Open AI Ecosystem for MedTech 17:48 How Open Source Could Reshape Medical Devices 19:05 The Shift to Software Defined MedTech 22:37 Why Hardware Is Becoming a Platform for AI 24:08 The Golden Era of MedTech Innovation 27:33 How Nvidia Cut Robotic Training From 5 Hours to 2 Minutes 30:20 Could AI Create a New Generation of MedTech Startups? 31:59 How AI Could Change MedTech Investing and M&A 34:10 What Will Create Competitive Advantage in MedTech? 35:13 Data, Clinical Value and the New MedTech Moat 38:34 Nvidia, Edge AI and the Future of Medical Robotics 41:02 The Next Frontier in Surgical Robotics 41:49 Why MedTech Is Entering a Golden Age 42:56 Final Thoughts 43:17 Outro

What Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Teaches MedTech About Capital, Scale and Resilience. Uber was not simply an app, and I think that distinction matters for MedTech founders. I recently listened to the latest pod from @davidsenra interviewing @travisk. I studied Travis' thinking on fundraising, scale, organizational capacity, market efficiency, and founder resilience, then translated the strongest lessons into practical takeaways for MedTech founders. Uber had to build an entire operating machine capable of scaling through regulation, market complexity, changing behavior, and intense competition. One of the most important concepts is that a company can only grow as quickly as its ability to solve the problems created by growth. FDA clearance, commercialization, new indications, manufacturing scale, and international expansion all create complexity that the organization must be capable of absorbing. I also dig into Travis’s fundraising philosophy, where leverage comes from creating alternatives rather than obsessing over valuation. For MedTech founders, financing should do more than extend runway because the right capital should put the company in a stronger strategic position when the next milestone is reached. Another idea I found especially relevant is that early commercialization support eventually needs to create an efficiency advantage. Training should become faster, adoption should require less hand-holding, reference accounts should build credibility, and market belief should gradually do work that founder effort and capital originally had to carry. The resilience lesson may be the most important because MedTech requires an unusual tolerance for clinical, regulatory, financing, and commercial adversity. Real resilience helps founders stay in the game long enough to solve difficult problems without becoming so accustomed to dysfunction that they stop recognizing what needs to change. My biggest takeaway is simple: do not just build the product, build the machine capable of making the product inevitable. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Why MedTech Founders Should Study Uber 01:05 Travis Kalanick’s Lessons for MedTech 03:35 Your Company Can Only Grow as Fast as It Solves Problems 06:18 Why Growth Creates More Complexity 08:05 The Founder as Problem Solver in Chief 10:58 Finding the Line Between Order and Chaos 13:42 How to Avoid Bureaucracy Without Creating Chaos 15:34 Fundraising Lesson: Process Over Valuation 18:08 How Uber Created Fundraising Leverage 20:22 Turning Fundraising Into a Market 22:20 Why Alternatives Give Founders More Leverage 24:12 Capital Should Buy Position, Not Just Time 26:09 How Uber’s Network Effects Created an Efficiency Edge 29:05 The MedTech Version of Uber’s Growth Strategy 31:01 Why Market Belief Becomes a Competitive Advantage 32:35 Your Real Moat May Be the Ecosystem 33:44 The Founder’s Capacity to Handle Adversity 35:22 Productive Pain vs Founder Burnout 36:22 Build the Machine Around the Product 37:50 Outro

How Mike Minogue Built Abiomed Into a $17B MedTech Unicorn and Now Wants to be Massachusetts' Next Governor. Building a World Class MedTech Company Requires More Than Great Technology. It Requires Great Leadership. Many executives spend years improving products, expanding portfolios, and growing revenue. Far fewer build organizations capable of creating entirely new standards of care that transform both patient outcomes and an industry. Throughout my career, I've been fascinated by leaders who don't simply build successful companies but fundamentally change how healthcare is practiced. Very few executives have accomplished that at the level of Michael Minogue (@mikeminoguema), 2026 Republican Endorsed Candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, President and CEO of Minogue Consulting, and former CEO of Abiomed. His journey offers one of the strongest examples of how vision, purpose, and disciplined execution can reshape an entire healthcare category. After leading Abiomed from a struggling cardiovascular company to a $17 billion acquisition by Johnson & Johnson (@JNJNews) , Michael shares the leadership philosophy, commercial discipline, and patient first culture that helped establish heart recovery as a global standard of care while creating one of the greatest value creation stories in MedTech. We explore why category leadership requires vision before execution, why culture becomes a lasting competitive advantage, how organizations navigate adversity without losing focus, why continuous learning drives innovation, and how disciplined execution compounds into sustainable commercial success across healthcare. We also discuss servant leadership, physician adoption, commercialization strategy, organizational transformation, cardiovascular innovation, regulatory excellence, crisis leadership, high performance teams, and why organizations that relentlessly put patients first ultimately create stronger businesses and greater long term impact. If you're building the future of MedTech, healthcare, or any mission driven organization, this conversation offers practical leadership lessons on innovation, resilience, commercialization, and creating organizations that leave a lasting legacy far beyond financial success. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 How Abiomed Became a $17 Billion MedTech Success 01:23 Intro + Meet Former Abiomed CEO Mike Minogue 04:30 The Vision That Changed Abiomed Forever 08:41 Why Heart Recovery Beat Heart Replacement 12:20 Creating a New Standard of Care 14:39 Building the Heart Recovery Category 16:47 Engineering a Market, Not Just a Product 17:06 Learn, Adapt, Execute 21:54 How Data Improved Patient Survival 25:25 The Hardest Leadership Lesson 26:20 Ranger School and Building Mental Toughness 31:20 Surviving a Two Year Attack on the Company 34:05 Turning Crisis Into Competitive Advantage 37:52 Why Mike Chose Public Service 41:18 Running a State Like a Business 44:54 Leadership, Service, and the Future of Massachusetts 46:46 One Message for Every Entrepreneur 48:00 Outro

This Month in MedTech: Boston Scientific’s $1.5B Bet and the Rise of Focused Strategics. Nicholas Talamantes, Sr. Director at (@lsintelligence) Life Science Intelligence, joined me for a deep dive into Q1 earnings, MedTech M&A, strategic focus, and the market signals shaping the next phase of healthcare innovation. We covered (@bostonsci) Boston Scientific’s $1.5B structural heart bet, the rise of focused strategics, J&J’s Atraverse acquisition, Medtronic’s renewed deal activity, Roche’s expansion into AI-powered pathology, ResMed’s move beyond sleep apnea, and the growing use of option-based deal structures across MedTech. One of the clearest themes from the episode is that focus is being rewarded. Companies with concentrated portfolios are delivering stronger growth, while larger platforms continue divesting, acquiring, and repositioning around their highest-value opportunities. The conversation also explores why commercial proof is becoming the most important trigger for acquisitions, how strategics are approaching risk differently, and what recent earnings reveal about the future direction of MedTech. For founders, investors, operators, and healthcare leaders, this episode offers a sharp look at where capital, competition, innovation, and market momentum are moving next. Episode Breakdown 00:00 Why Focused MedTech Companies Are Winning 00:02 Intro + This Month in MedTech 02:03 Q1 Earnings Overview and Market Trends 03:54 AI Hype vs Healthcare Revenue Reality 05:40 What Q1 Earnings Tell Us About MedTech 07:36 Why Focus Beats Diversification 08:55 Edwards Lifesciences' Strong Quarter 10:14 Intuitive Surgical's Growth Engine 11:01 Insulet’s 34% Growth Story 12:52 Why Insulet’s Stock Fell Anyway 16:52 Lessons From Public Market Reactions 18:25 @bostonsci Boston Scientific’s Mixed Quarter 21:22 Stryker’s Cyberattack and Growth Outlook 23:39 @Medtronic's Return to Aggressive M&A 24:53 J&J’s Cardiovascular Growth Strategy 25:39 Abbott’s Cardiovascular Momentum 26:12 Why Cardiovascular Is Dominating MedTech 29:01 Key Takeaways From Q1 Earnings 30:43 Boston Scientific’s $1.5B Structural Heart Bet 31:48 Boston’s Third Attempt at TAVR 34:18 What Makes the Mirus Valve Different? 36:24 Minority Stakes vs Full Acquisitions 37:47 J&J Acquires Atraverse Medical 39:20 The Team Behind Farapulse Strikes Again 41:08 Why Repeat Founders Matter in MedTech 43:20 @AtraverseInc Atraverse Clinical Results Explained 44:57 Where EP Innovation Is Heading Next 47:53 Is MedTech Entering an M&A Boom? 48:53 ResMed Acquires Noctrix Health 49:40 Artivion Buys Endospan 50:34 Roche Acquires PathAI 51:43 Medtronic Acquires SPR Therapeutics 53:17 M&A Trends and Strategic Optionality 55:38 Why More Acquisitions May Be Coming 57:58 The Rise of Option-Based Deal Structures 01:00:35 Speed Round: Notable Funding Deals 01:01:00 Butterfly Medical $21M Series C 01:02:27 SonoMind $23.5M Series A 01:03:45 Aidoc Raises $150M 01:05:30 Illuminant Surgical $8.4M Seed 01:08:06 Perimeter Medical $10.5M Financing 01:10:15 AI, Cancer Care, and Clinical Impact 01:13:05 Biggest Lessons From May 2026 01:17:10 Final Thoughts on Focus, Growth, and M&A 01:22:00 Outro

Recently @chamath was on Joe Rogan and covered a topic that is arguably the most important ideas shaping AI, media, and markets right now: Attention as the operating system. In this episode I break down how Google organized attention with search, how social media turned it into an engagement machine, and how today’s AI models (via transformers) are now operationalizing it at scale. We also explore why repetition creates belief, why outrage wins algorithms, and why market positioning is really just attention allocation over time. If you’re a founder, marketer, or operator trying to understand influence, narrative, and leverage in the AI era this one’s for you. Episode Breakdown 00:00 Attention is the Foundation of AI and Modern Life 01:15 Intro + Why Attention Matters 03:00 Attention Shapes Reality 05:17 The Brain’s Spotlight Effect 07:20 Depression, Love, and Attention Patterns 08:45 The Magnifying Glass Analogy 10:05 Why Focus Creates Extraordinary Results 11:00 Elon Musk, Bottlenecks, and Concentrated Attention 14:28 Your Life Reflects What You Feed Attention To 15:00 Chamath Palihapitiya’s Attention Theory 16:05 How Google Organized Human Attention 18:00 Social Media Monetized Attention 19:30 Why Algorithms Reward Outrage and Fear 21:00 “Attention Is All You Need” Explained 22:10 How AI Uses Attention Mechanisms 23:00 AI, Transformers, and Machine Attention 23:46 Attention vs Truth 25:20 Why Society Focuses on the Wrong Problems 27:00 The Psychology of Polarization and Virality 28:30 Why Young People Want to Become Influencers 29:46 Attention, Outcomes, and the Process 31:00 Why Great Founders Focus on Process 32:15 Flow States and Deep Work 33:35 Parenting, Presence, and Attention 34:30 Marketing is About Directing Attention 35:30 Perception, Meaning, and Repetition 37:00 Why Repetition Creates Belief 39:00 Attention Engineering in Marketing 40:15 Why Most Marketing Fails 41:00 Audit Your Attention This Week 42:50 Final Thoughts on AI, Attention, and Reality 44:03 Outro

Trump MRI and the Truth About Longevity Scans with Sean O'Mara MD JD and Daniel J. Durand MD In this episode, Omar Khateeb sits down with @DrSeanOMara ,Founder and Senior Physician Researcher at Private Medical Research Practice, and Daniel J. Durand, Chief Medical Officer and President of @prenuvo Medical Group, to explore the growing case for preventive MRI and why early imaging is becoming one of the most important conversations in modern healthcare. Using the public debate around President Trump’s MRI as a starting point, they unpack a much larger issue: why so much serious pathology still goes undetected until it is too late, and how whole body MRI, visceral fat analysis, and early imaging may help shift medicine from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. They also discuss pancreatic cancer, fatty liver disease, visceral fat, the limits of traditional annual physicals, and why people are increasingly paying out of pocket for better visibility into their health. If you want to understand the future of preventive health, early detection, and why imaging may become a new standard for proactive care, this is a must watch. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Introduction and Why This Conversation Matters 01:35 The MRI Debate That Sparked Everything 04:10 Why Most Diseases Are Caught Too Late 07:22 Reactive Healthcare vs Preventive Medicine 10:05 What Whole Body MRI Actually Reveals 13:18 The Truth About Annual Checkups 16:40 Why Blood Work Misses Critical Problems 19:55 Visceral Fat The Hidden Health Risk 23:20 How Fat Distribution Predicts Disease 26:45 Why Lean Does Not Mean Healthy 30:10 Fatty Liver Disease Most People Don’t Know They Have 33:40 The Link Between Obesity and Cancer Risk 36:55 Alcohol, Diet, and Real Cancer Drivers 40:05 Pancreatic Cancer Why It Is So Deadly 43:18 Why Early Detection Changes Everything 46:40 MRI vs Traditional Screening Methods 50:05 The Economics of Preventive Imaging 53:20 Why Patients Are Paying Out of Pocket 56:45 The Shift Toward Longevity Driven Healthcare 01:00:10 AI in Imaging and What It Actually Improves 01:03:25 The Limits of AI in Diagnosis 01:06:40 What Doctors Still Do Better Than Machines 01:09:55 The Future of Preventive Health Systems 01:13:20 Who Should Actually Get an MRI 01:16:05 Risks, Tradeoffs, and Overdiagnosis 01:18:10 Final Thoughts on Early Detection and Longevity Want to actually see what’s happening inside your body? Get your MRI read with $1000 off using code OMAR: growingbetternotolder.com/ul…

The Book of Elon: Exploring Elon Musk’s Most Useful Ideas with Author Eric Jorgenson. In this episode, Omar Khateeb welcomes @EricJorgenson, CEO at @scribemediaco and author of The Book of Elon, for a deep conversation on ideas, authorship, and innovation. Eric discusses how he curated (@elonmusk) Elon Musk’s most important thinking into a book designed to help founders, engineers, and builders better understand first principles thinking and mission driven leadership. They also explore the evolving role of publishing, why timeless ideas deserve better curation, and how books can become intellectual assets that shape industries. For founders, creators, and thinkers interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship and writing, this episode offers valuable insight into how powerful ideas become lasting books. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Introduction and Why Focus Matters More Than Time 01:42 The Real Problem Founders Face 04:10 First Principles Thinking Explained 07:28 How Elon Musk Approaches Problems Differently 10:52 Why Most People Work on the Wrong Things 14:20 The Power of Clarity in Decision Making 17:05 Turning Ideas Into Actionable Systems 20:12 What Separates Builders From Thinkers 23:40 Writing as a Tool for Clear Thinking 27:18 How The Book of Elon Was Created 30:05 Curating Ideas That Actually Matter 33:22 Why Most Content Lacks Depth 36:40 The Role of Mission Driven Thinking 40:15 How Great Founders Stay Focused 43:30 The Tradeoff Between Speed and Quality 47:05 Lessons From Elon Musk’s Execution Style 50:28 Why Constraints Create Better Outcomes 54:10 The Importance of Long Term Thinking 57:42 Building Products That Actually Matter 01:01:10 Advice for Founders and Builders 01:04:35 The Future of Publishing and Ideas 01:08:00 How to Think Better and Build Smarter 01:11:20 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

In this episode, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Blackwood joins Omar Khateeb to expose the shocking truth about vendor credentialing in hospitals. Dr. Blackwood details how what started as a reasonable system for patient safety has morphed into a multi-million dollar "cash grab," with companies charging reps thousands annually for redundant fees, paper scrubs, and expedited service charges. He reveals how these practices exploit medical sales reps as "second-class citizens," increase healthcare costs, and create barriers to innovation especially for startups. Learn how this system exemplifies the larger problem of middlemen extracting value from healthcare, and discover what surgeons, reps, and the industry can do to fight back and refocus on patient care. Episode Breakdown: 00:00- Intro – Vendor Credentialing Exposed 01:09- Welcome to State of MedTech + Guest Intro 02:58- Dr. Brian Blackwood’s Background & Training 05:45- What Is Vendor Credentialing and Why It Exists 09:20- When Credentialing Became a Cash Grab 12:46- The Real Role of Medical Device Reps in the OR 16:10- Red Hats, Rep Scrubs, and Hospital Segregation 20:05- Are Rep Scrubs Actually Safe? 23:40- How Credentialing Hurts Innovation & Startups 27:15- The Pay-to-Play Problem in Hospitals 30:45- Kickbacks, Rebates, and Ethical Concerns 34:35- Fraud in Healthcare and Why This Matters Now 38:10- Viral LinkedIn Posts and Industry Backlash 42:40- Double Billing, Mergers, and Exploitation 46:55- How These Costs Hurt Patients Long-Term 50:30- What Surgeons and Reps Can Do Right Now 54:10- Best and Worst Medical Sales Rep Behaviors 58:50- Final Thoughts and Call to Action 01:02:00- Episode Wrap-Up & Outro

2 years in the making. The Story of the Rise and Eternal Legacy of Medtech's Most Infamous Company - US Surgical.