Adam Torres and Terry McCarthy discuss Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Terry McCarthy, Managing Partner at Prodigy Search Group, explore Prodigy Search Group and Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
Watch Full Interview:
About Terry McCarthy
Leveraging 20 years of experience in Medical Device Marketing & Sales, She is now leading the recruiting efforts at Prodigy Search Group, specializing in the Medical Device, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Industries. Broad industry experience and contacts enables us to identify candidates who are not only technically qualified but also fit well into each company’s unique culture and environment.
They have a proven track record of success in assisting start-up, emerging and mid-growth Medical technology companies in finding the exceptional talent they need to achieve their objectives quickly and effectively. Their experienced recruiting team understands the unique challenges of meeting critical milestones while managing strict budgets.
About Prodigy Search Group
Prodigy Search Group is a trusted “Go To” resource for Their clients. They are skilled at identifying & placing candidates for highly specialized positions in healthcare companies that require very specific expertise. Broad industry experience and contacts enables us to identify candidates who are not only technically qualified but also fit well into each company’s unique culture and environment.
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 on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I am in Irvine, California at the Medical Innovation Forum, powered by Octane, and my guest is Terry McCarthy.
Terry, welcome to the show. All right, we’re in day two of the conference. We’re kind of heading towards the tail end. I just have to ask, how was the conference for you so far? I’ve been coming to this for many years, and every year I’m always very, very happy I came. It’s really great how, in the years that I’ve been coming, how much the industry continues to evolve.
And it’s, I think, very important to be here to keep your people safe. Finger on the pulse of what’s happened. So so then you’ve been coming for how many years would you say? Just roughly, just roughly. About 10. Amazing. So this is only my second conference covering it. So I’m a newbie, I’m a newbie, but I love it.
I cover conferences all around the world. And one of the things I’ve noticed here is just this amazing community of people coming together and exchanging ideas and, and deals being done. Frankly, I hear the chatter, right? Exactly. So what keeps you coming back? Well, we’re in the recruiting field. Really quick, my background actually was in medical device marketing for years.
Worked in major, you know, large Fortune 500 companies and they went into the startup world. Once you get into the startup world with early stage companies, it’s almost impossible to want to go back because it’s so exciting. And you’re on the cusp of what’s happening. Well, our last venture We were left at the altar, unfortunately, for very many reasons.
But I ended up making a pivot away from marketing and went into recruiting. And as a recruiter, we have now focused almost exclusively on early stage companies. So it’s really important for us to be here to see what’s coming up, what’s the next, what are the trends. And also to make connections, and we’ve made phenomenal connections here.
It’s really a wonderful opportunity to kind of keep, not only keep your finger on the pulse, see what’s coming down the pike, but actually meet the leaders and meet the folks who are making these changes our. And it’s been wonderful, it’s been great for us to make these connections, so. Talk a little bit more about your business and other, other industries you focus on or is only medical or like, give us a little bit of a flavor for that.
Well, again, because my background was in medical device, it’s the industry I know best. And when you’re in a marketing role, especially when you’re, you know, in a more senior level marketing role, you interface with every single function in a company. And I look at that and I’m thinking with the connections in the medical device and the understanding of the industry, it’s just been a natural progression to leverage that into recruiting.
Yeah. So for better or for worse, we are pretty much focused in this industry. We sometimes venture out into pharma and, and some, you know, and certainly biotech, but we have really narrowed it to life sciences. Talk about the industry in general and life sciences. Like what is, what is the pool look like for talent?
Like, well, every year since we started every year is different. And we literally started our recruiting firm in the depths of the recession in 2009. That’s when we started recruiting. And it was interesting because companies always need talent. No matter what, no matter what. They might not need as much talent, but at that time, heck, it was a great year for us when we first started because there weren’t that many positions, but we had, you know, candidates lined up out the door for a position that was open.
So every year it changes. Right now, you know, we have seen a little bit of a dearth, I guess, of investment, you know, last year in 2003. It, in our opinion, and I think that folks would hold this up, but it is definitely getting better this year. It’s really getting better. Things are happening. I think the elections have put a little bit of a question mark on it, and some companies are a little bit uncertain as to what’s going to happen.
But I’m very optimistic. I really, we’ve been quite busy and we look at the industry as Being a little bit more robust. The presentations here of the companies. It’s so fun to watch, isn’t it? Like all these ideas and all this, this ambition. And like, and for me, it was some of the things I’m like, that’s already happening.
What? And like, I wouldn’t have that asked me, honestly, I’m always just awestruck. Sometimes are, Oh my gosh, where were you when I made it? So that’s what I’m saying. It’s just. It’s an industry that’s always going to change, it’s always going to evolve, there’s always going to be people that are needed, and finding the right talent, especially for early stage companies, is so critical.
Yeah. Because you can’t hide. When you’re one of five or six or ten or twenty employees, you’ve got to pull your weight. So finding the right people is critical, but this is such a hotbed of talent. It’s amazing. What kind of roles did you focus on? Like what kind of roles are you saying? Well, we’re a little different and for better or for worse, we are primarily a contingent recruiting firm.
People are always surprised thinking, well, that’s interesting. We started that way and I’ve pretty much kept it that way. And the reason is it is attractive to early stage companies. If you’re a company and every penny is important, you can’t go in and say we’ll find you a vice president of regulatory and we’re going to charge you a 50 percent fee or a 35 percent fee, you’re going to pay us regardless if we fill it.
They can’t afford that. We go in, and I know this sounds so, so ridiculous, but I like to say that we offer retained level recruiting for, on a contingent salary. We don’t get paid unless we fill the roles. We do, you know, often charge a small fee up front just to make sure we can make the investments we need to for the search, but truly, we offer a very affordable solution for companies other than, other than retained.
You asked us what kind of positions we fill, we fill positions that cost all functions, from mid level engineers to C level executives. And, I think that’s what’s made us, made us successful. Companies need that. So. Talk a little bit from the side. We’ve talked from the company side. Talk a little bit from the candidate pool side.
How does that work? Like, how do you build those relationships? It takes time. And it takes, there’s a lot of different programs out there. They a lot of talk about AI and social media and different platforms. And yes, you know, good, sophisticated recruiting firms do that. And we do some of that, but I’m going to be honest and say a lot of it comes from our relationships.
And a lot of it comes from knowing what other companies are doing, knowing where candidates are not as happy as they should be, or knowing if changes are coming down the pike. And really just doing a lot of reach out. Over the years, we have put together a pretty deep database of candidates. And as a matter of fact, I’ve got a candidate right now that is in final stages of interviewing that years ago we placed him in another company.
But 12 years later, things have changed at that company. They got acquired and guess what? He’s now looking for another job. So those relationships and long term You know, understanding with other folks, it’s, it’s important. Yeah, I’m a big fan of people that do have a niche because of that exact reason, because what’ll happen is over the decades, you know, when the next person’s going to go to another job, like, that’s not, it’s almost like in real estate, it’s an off the, it’s off the market listing, so to speak.
You know what, honestly? That’s exactly what it is. That’s exactly what it is. It is, and you don’t get that unless you’ve got those relationships. And also. We’ve been incredibly blessed. We have some really good connections, and I’m part of a networking group of medical device executives, and I get referrals all the time, you know, I’ve got a really good friend who just got laid off, he’s a vice president of operations, and can you help him?
And I’ll reach out, we’ll have a nice conversation, we might not have a position open for that gentleman today, or that woman today, But who knows what’s gonna happen, you know, next week. Yeah. So, love it. Final question. So if somebody’s listening and watching this and they wanna follow up and learn more about your firm, how do they do that?
Absolutely. The company is called Prodigy Search Group. You could reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Our website is prodigy search group.com. Would love to talk to anyone who’s interested, whether it’s in finding a position or finding a wonderful candidate for their company.
Amazing. And for everybody at home, just so you know, we’ll we’ll put the links to the website and the show notes so that you can just click on it and head right on over and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And again, thank you so much, Cherry, for coming on the show. It’s been a pleasure. This was fun.
Thank you. Mhm