Ben Trombold, Velentium | Interview at LSI Europe ‘23

Transcription

Ben Trombold  0:00  
So I'm Ben Trombold, I'm the VP of Sales and Marketing here at Velentium, where we design develop and manufacture medical devices. So we predominantly work with different startups ranging from Series A, Series B, Series C, funding all the way up to companies as large as you know, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, companies of that size, and we can help them all the way through the entire medical device design lifecycle from research and feasibility, minimally viable prototypes, animal studies, first in human transfer, manufacturing and manufacturing. We're doing some heavy investment, we're building about 50,000 ditional square feet of manufacturing space, there include everything from laser welders, medical sealing cans, a lot to clean rooms. And that's going to be based at our facility in Houston, Texas, that facility should be done in about three to four. So we're really hoping 6-12 months really that being operational and having, you know, as much capacity being taken up by new customers as we can. The reason we come back to LSI every year is really, I think it's just such a strong coalition of VCs, startups, established companies. And one of the favorite things I have about the show is really in the networking app just makes it super simple, easy and convenient to be able to not only reach out to people, but also schedule meetings, that adds it to the calendar. So there's a lot of just accessibility and convenience there. So for startups, there is a massive coalition of VCs that are here. So it's really easy to be able to work on those pitches, be able to get publicity, and you know, the in the pitch events, or in the sessions where you can actually be on a panel and introduce your product. But then also, I think just having that much exposure to VCs and being able to talk to them for 15-20 minutes at a time and be able to talk to a lot of them is really going to help them just gain experience, just as they're refining their pitches as well as you know, as CEOs know, they're always fundraising. So any experience they get doing that as always beneficial, really for us is we're just trying to have introductory conversations with European companies, especially startups and established companies just so they get familiar with who Velentium is, we've only been around for about 11 years, we've got over 100 employees, and we're slowly becoming one of the best, you know, contract manufacturers, especially on extremely complex, active implantable devices. And so really just trying to get the word out to everyone in Europe, since we have a really strong customer base in the US. And we have a smattering of customers in Europe as well. But just trying to build up those relationships. I really liked the show, as you talked about earlier, you know, the networking app is great, but then also just the exposure as a sponsor. So doing things like the podcast interviews, moderating a panel, during this five minute intro for session leaders introducing the different startups they're going to be presenting. And then also, you know, having a booth and just kind of being front and center, in front of the meeting rooms, it's just a great way to kind of get your brand out there, which is a company, we've only been around for 11 years, and our biggest competitors have been around for, you know, 40 plus years, more than that. So I just think that it's a really great way to get your brand out there in front of people who are startups who are actively raising money VCs, who we work with to get access to their portfolio companies too. So it really works for both ways for us, we have developed it's a collection of design history files that we're naming Platform V for active implantables, and so what we're really doing is marketing is it's not as ready to go out of the box platform. But what it does is it moves the starting point for an active implantable from 0% to 25% 50% 75%, depending on the different customizations they need. So whether that's primary cell rechargeable battery, Bluetooth communication, anything that really falls in the realm of an active implantable, we can customize that per our customer's kind of technical requirements. And so doing that is allow them to not only get to market faster, it'll save them money, and just be an overall better experience for them. So I think Velentium and LSI align really closely in the sense that LSI is trying to enable innovation for medical devices. Right, and Valentin wants to change lives for a better world through medical device innovation. And so I think those values align really well in the sense that if LSI is going to continue to enable startups and VCs to connect to be able to drive more innovation in the medical device field that's going to allow companies like full NTm to be able to impact more patients lives in a faster, more positive way to bring those technologies to market through the FDA or the EU MDR. So I think those ones actually work out pretty closely together.