What med tech investors and strategic acquirers actually evaluate when a founder walks into the room — and what separates the pitches that earn capital from those that don't. A conversation drawn from people who've sat on both sides of the table.

For nine episodes, the From Idea to Market series has followed innovation from the founder's perspective — the problem noticed in a clinic, the iteration through years of prototypes, the regulatory climb, the manufacturing scale-up. Episode nine flips the lens. For the first time, the conversation moves into the room where decisions about that founder get made: by investors, by strategic acquirers, by the people whose capital and reputation come along with a yes.

Joe Schwab is joined by voices who've lived this evaluation from every side. Charles Lawrie is a co-founder and chief medical officer at FIOS Health and the current president of the Anterior Hip Foundation. Charlie DeCook is the president of Total Joint Specialists and has watched dozens of Shark Tank pitches at AHF annual meetings. Alex Sah is past AHF president, chief medical officer at Think! Surgical, and chief innovation officer at Ospitek. Robert Cohen, vice president of innovation and technology for Stryker's orthopaedic group, has spent four decades evaluating med tech ideas from inside startups and from inside one of the largest companies in the field.

The episode unpacks three questions: what truly drives the decisions made behind closed doors, how clinical value and financial logic and strategic interest actually intersect in real time, and which kinds of narrative survive due diligence — and which collapse the moment scrutiny begins. For surgeon-founders preparing to pitch, for clinicians thinking about their first innovation, and for anyone curious about how med tech capital actually gets allocated, this episode lays out what the decision room is really testing.

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Why this episode flips perspective from founder to investor

02:42 Surgeons and industry leaders inside the med tech decision room

04:46 What investors actually look for in a med tech pitch

08:23 How to structure a 15-minute med tech pitch

13:30 Where clinical value, profit, and strategy intersect

15:30 Why a great med tech idea can fail to scale

18:36 Why founders should pitch with a CEO at their side

22:02 How honest narrative wins under due diligence scrutiny

26:40 Stick to your competency: advice from a Stryker VP

29:12 What the decision room is really testing

31:43 Preview: when scaling success threatens to break the company

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:

Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation

Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

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