Jennifer Fried, CEO & Co-Founder of ExplORer Surgical

CEO, Founder, and proud member and connector in the Medtech ecosystem. As CEO of LSI, a global healthcare market research and advisory firm, I support startups, investors, strategics, and professional service companies by providing independent market data/insights to help inform their decisions. I aim to leverage my deep network to connect investors with innovators tackling the world's biggest healthcare challenges. Proud to be the Founder of the US and European Emerging Medtech Summit events which have become the go-to investment & partnering conferences in Medtech. I've managed over 200 consulting and due diligence engagements with companies such as J&J, Medtronic, Abbott, Siemens Healthineers, General Electric, amongst others. Proud and honored to serve as a Board Advisor to several early/growth-stage companies and to advise private investors, family offices, PE firms, and SPACs to identify new opportunities in healthcare.

I am the co-founder and GM of Explorer Surgical, the leading digital playbook for the operating room and procedure suites. Explorer Surgical was founded at the University of Chicago in 2015 out of a research laboratory in the Department of Surgery. After raising $10M in funding and commercializing our software to a global base of medtech and hospital customers, our company was acquired by GHX in 2021.

My passion is building innovative businesses in the healthcare industry, especially those that use technology to solve inefficiencies and improve patient care. I left my job as a healthcare venture capitalist to focus on building Explorer, but stay involved in the investing ecosystem as a Partner in Portfolia's FemTech Fund and as a GP at The Fund Midwest.

I have been fortunate to benefit from several key mentors in my career and to be a part of communities that bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem and take pride in supporting other entrepreneurs and investors. Please include a note and reach out to connect!