Mark Adams
Designo Medical is a new startup based in Costa Rica. We are building a new company that is in the process of designing a novel meniscus replacement device. Our vision is to become the leading company in minimally invasive orthopaedical solutions for the knee.
Tell us about yourself?
I am a Medical Doctor with a Master in Medical Devices Engineering, on Master in Marketing and Sales, and a Full time MBA. I have worked in the pharmaceutical-medical devices industries as executive for over 22 years and decided to start this company after finishing the master in medical devices.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Don’t waist time working for others! I spend over a decade trying to build my company but I didn’t had the wright idea. I was inspired in a meniscus replacement because I am training for a half ironman and I though that there is a big market for people who train for marathons/ ironman, many of us end up with knee lesions.
What problem does your business solve?
A unmet medical need of having a viable meniscus replacement device made for endurance activities or “normal” people who suffered from previous meniscus lesions.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Costa Rica has become a leading global medical devices production cluster. I wanted to demonstrate that this country have the best people to undertake an endeavor like this and be successful.
I want to build a global medical device company made in Costa Rica and be able to offer well paid jobs to local professionals, and work along with local universities to help train the future professionals of the country.
What is your magic sauce?
Currently we are in the process of design, prototype an finish the device. What make us different from other startups? We believe that we can change the way non invasive knee procedures can be made for this type of lesions.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
In the next 5 years we must be able to have the preclinical and clinical trials done, in order to have the viable scientific data for submission in LATAM- and the EU
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Funding. Develop of a new company like this from scratch is very expensive.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want to produce a novel and unique meniscus replacement device, that can be used safely by doctors and patients in the long term. In order to be able to do that, we need to partner with financial institutions that can understand the potential of this device.
