Adam Torres and Eric Oberwise discuss the MedTech Ecosystem.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Medical Innovation Exchange (MIX) fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration among its members. In this episode, Adam Torres and Eric Oberwise, Founding Partner of Medical Innovation Exchange (MIX), explore the MIX ecosystem and how it’s adding value to its members.
About Medical Innovation Exchange (MIX)
A community of innovators deeply committed to improving human health. Medical Innovation Exchange (MIX) is driving innovation forward in Medical Devices and Biotechnology across Southern California. MIX is a moving innovative MedTech startups forward by providing connections to Angel investment, Venture Capital, Medical Device, Digital Health, Biotech Accelerators, Healthcare incubators, and great service providers.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Eric Oberweiss, and he’s a founding partner at Medical Innovation Exchange, also known as MIX.
Eric, welcome to the show. Thanks, Adam. Great to be here. All right, Eric. So excited to have you on the line today and to learn more about Medical Innovation Exchange, also known as MIICS. But before we do that, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our Mission Matters Minute.
So, Eric, at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is really to amplify stories for entrepreneurs and executives and experts. So, that’s what we do day in and day out and that’s our mission. Eric, what mission matters to you? Building a community of innovators that are deeply committed to improving human health is what matters to me and to Medical Innovation Exchange.
We’re extremely passionate about the medical device and biotech space and just excited to develop great communities around that. Great having you on and always like to support our medical community and founders within that space, of course. So great to get some insight into mixes. Well, I guess just to kind of get us kicked off here.
Like, what inspired mix? Like, how this how this originally come about? Absolutely. Thanks for asking. You know, about 7 years ago, myself and the co founding partner of mix decided that we wanted to get out and meet people who were moving and shaking in the medical device and biotechnology space. And so, as we look and at the ecosystem, at least here in Orange County.
You know, we really saw an opportunity to create low barriers to entry for both founders, investors, and potential entrepreneurs interested in getting into those opportunities. And so as we began to explore, asked some of our colleagues and friends that also worked in the medical technology space about this, we decided absolutely it’d be fantastic to start Kind of a grassroots organization.
It says we started to snowball that up more and more people started getting word of mouth about medical innovation exchange attending events that were both speaker led as well as conference type activities. It really just snowballed into a much bigger organization. Now, today we have over 3000 participants.
We host bi monthly mastermind group in which founders come and speak to, you know, people that are interested in potentially looking to get into the space and you know, we really try to serve the community and it’s just grown really from, you know, like I said, grassroots into this, this much bigger organization with.
Wow, that’s amazing. And 3, 000 participants. That’s a, that’s a big deal. What, what do you think some of the, the secret sauce is here for, for the others out there that are listening to this and, and are considering or, or, you know, trying to build a community? Like what’s some of that secret sauce?
Make sure to communicate and also do our core value, which is to add value to participants. We’re not just there to shake hands exchange business cards. We provide information through our events that help people to level up in their. Professional careers, their entrepreneurship careers, and you know, I think that’s, that’s at the foundation of what we believe, you know, not just going out and wasting 2 hours of an evening or 3 hours of an evening, but if you’re going to go spend your time, you know, you, you want to you want to get value and meet valuable connections.
And so we try to adhere to that as much as humanly possible. Can you give an example of that? Like, just to kind of put some meat around that one? Yeah. Or programming or something like that, just to give an idea. Mm hmm. Exactly. Exactly. so our events are super engaging. And what I mean by that is for anybody who’s familiar with the mastermind, this is a concept by Napoleon Hill from a book called thinking, grow rich.
So, we actually ask all participants who attend the event to submit questions who are serial founders who are moderating the events and those questions are, are mostly geared towards, you know, what are the roadblocks that. Okay. You are facing, what are the challenges that you have either professionally or in running your business?
And the moderator will screen those, select a handful, and then actually brainstorm with the entire group. So between 40 to 60 med tech entrepreneurs and professionals on how to best solve those challenges. And so, you know, while that consumes probably 75% of the event this brainstorming activity is really core to, to.
Giving that value back to the community. And, you know, nine times out of 10 the question that one founder has, another founder either also has or has helped to overcome themselves. And so it really starts to build a strong kind of flywheel among this community of professionals and entrepreneurs in a way that, like I said, a typical networking or speaking series doesn’t quite do it’s much more collaborative, much more engaged.
No, that’s amazing. And I know that, as I mentioned before you, you were sent over to us from from Brad Turner, the Newport beach investor conference. And I know they’re doing a bit in this space as well. So I see also like him being part of the community that all of this community coming together.
I see it working very well and I can see why you’ve got, you know, over 3, 000 participants in the organization, the geography wise, like, give me a feel for that. Is this in California? Is this across the nation? Like, how does that mix go? Yeah, so right now Mix is pretty centrally located in Southern California.
We have hosted events across a series of cities here in SoCal, so San Diego, Orange County, and L. A. We are interested in branching out into other cities that are MedTech hubs, Minnesota, Boston, potentially San Francisco. As of now, though, we’re very centrally located in California hosting most of our events here.
Awesome. Yeah, we, we, we do most things in California too, but as of this point, but admission matters, but we, you know, we’ve, we’ve had some events in, New York and a couple other places that we, we go to from time to time, but I feel like it’s for the med tech crowd though. This is, it’s a strong, like maybe talk about the demographic a little bit.
This is a strong area for that, right. For entrepreneurship and med. Absolutely yeah, so for those of everyone listening who aren’t familiar the greater Southern California region is, the most prolific med technology hub in the U. S. And potentially in the world. I’d have to look at some of those stats, but it’s pretty cool, you know, to live in such an amazing place and have such a thriving community of people that are, you know, Interested in really, you know, improving the human condition for others and working on technologies that are saving other people’s lives.
You know, this area is just, it’s just profoundly, you know, like, right now I’m looking out my window looking at the ocean and you know, later today, I’m going to head off and work with you know, really life saving technology. It’s just a cool place to be. I love it. And you know, there are other places in the US who that have.
Strong medical technology cultures and hubs. Like I mentioned, Boston’s big one, Texas, Minnesota, and then San Francisco. But this, this place is really, really special. And there’s a reason there are a lot of medical device companies that stick around. Southern California. It’s got a great talent hub and a lot of entrepreneurs that are interested in in making a lot of things happen.
So it’s pretty special. tell me about your vision for Mix going forward. Like what’s the plan? Let’s we’re all entrepreneurs here. Let’s dream for a bit. What’s the plan going forward? Yes, I think, like I mentioned a bit we are interested in expanding both, I think, geographically, but also in our partnerships.
So, you know, the critical pieces that we always say to creating successful value for entrepreneurs and those who are in attendance. Include not just the information that’s shared, but the participants and so adding additional partnerships with investment firms physician, entrepreneurship communities.
So, getting those people that are closest to the patients involved and feeding some of those critical Insights back to our community and then obviously just ratcheting up a level of, you know, mastermind collaboration that we have are all pieces of the next stage of medical innovation exchange.
And so this year, you know, we’re really focused on creating valuable partnerships. An example of that. in about 2 months, we’ll have another. Mastermind group, and this one actually happens to be focused on AI. So we’re partnering with an organization called AI LA, who has also been around for a little over seven years.
And we’ll have a facilitated session where it’s, you know, both people involved in AI technology, and then a mashup between our organization, which obviously is medical technology. So things like that, opportunities to create more. Synergistic kind of collisions and you know, mixing of, of different partnerships and you know, community organizations.
What is it you hope that, especially for those that have never maybe attended a mastermind or been part of that, what do you hope that your participants kind of walk out or walk away from the event with or walk away from the mastermind with? Like, like, what’s the goal? If they meet one individual who helps them along their journey.
At least in the next three to four months, I would consider that a success. And if they get that insight directly from the event, then that’s even better. Frequently, we’ll have individuals come back, you know, a core piece is that repeat participants gain more value by continuing to build off of the I guess knowledge transfer or brainstorming that happens at prior sessions.
And so I think that’s that’s telling of, you know, how people perceive the, the value add from a great community, right? It’s the. The people that are helping them along the way, the people that are giving back to each other to help level up. And I think, you know, the important thing and the thing that really, I think, motivates people to continue in this space is that, you know, they’re almost always doing it to better.
Other people, right? They’re creating great technologies, you know, the cardiovascular space, the neurovascular space. And so, you know, I think it’s a bigger mission that they see overall. So that was long winded. But you know, I really think that even just small scale value, if somebody has 1 question, they get answered from an event and a brainstorming.
That’s a win for me. It’s great. So, Eric, Eric, how do people get involved and how do they know if they’re if they’re a good fit for mix? Yeah, absolutely. So, for those that are interested, you can check us out at medical innovation dot. I. O. we also host a smaller weekly event again. It’s here in Southern California in Newport Beach, right on the waterfront, and that’s currently being held on Sundays.
That’s not a mastermind, but they can come check it out. Talk with some of the individuals in the community and a more. Low key fashion, but if they’d like to join a mastermind event, happy to provide them with a ticket after listening to this. If they are in the Orange County area, and they can email us at info at med innovation exchange dot com.
Fantastic for everybody listening, we’ll put that information in the show notes so that you can just. You know, click on the links, check out the website, all that good stuff. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and as your first episode with us, well, Hey, and if you haven’t hit that subscribe button yet, this is your personal invitation.
Hit that subscribe button. We have many more mission based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss anything. And if you’re a long term listener and you haven’t left us a review yet. Hey, we sure would appreciate that review. Leave it when you get a 2nd and Eric. Thanks so much.
And I look forward to heading down there 1 day and checking out and checking out 1 of your events. So, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks, Adam.