Guillermo M. Ramas of Notisphere
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Guillermo M. Ramas (founder and CEO) of Notisphere, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Notisphere – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
A few years ago, I participated in a collaboration session with healthcare provider organizations and medical device manufacturers to come up with recommendations to improve the medical recall process in the US. The medical device recall process is slow, very inefficient, and certainly not environmentally friendly. It frustrates pretty much everyone involved in it. The process hasn’t changed much in 40 years. I realized there were many challenges and inefficiencies that were all due to the same issue: the different way the two sides of the industry deal with recalls, both from an operations and from a data perspective, and realized this could all be addressed with technology and the right level of collaboration.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
I think it’s safe to say founders face many challenges in their journey. We were in the middle of raising angel funding when COVID hit, which made several angel investors that had verbally committed to take a step back and adopt a more conservative position. We ultimately were very successful in finalizing seed funding even during COVID, which I think speaks volumes about our value proposition.
Another challenge we faced early on was finding the right formula to establish our development team. I think the focus and effort we placed on that front paid off and we now have a fantastic team and process.
What does the future hold for NotiSphere?
NotiSphere will ultimately be the platform the entire healthcare industry uses to communicate recall-related information between manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare provider organizations at a global scale (more than 60% of medical device recalls are global, meaning they affect multiple countries). The use of paper will be gone, and the process will be much faster and incredibly more efficient.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Manhattan Beach?
I think we are seeing a lot of activity and local collaboration spaces that cater to early stage startups and to those that run lean teams, which are key to creating the right scene. I think enabling and attracting more of these spaces where early stage startups can feel a sense of community with other startups will help a lot in terms of growing a true “scene”. The larger players that offer large office space to big corporations don’t truly contribute to giving the local scene its flavor and culture.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Be ready to learn something every day. No matter how much experience you have in your field, things are constantly evolving. In order to keep up, we must be willing to question what we know and look for those “aha!” moments that show up, telling us that something we thought was true has now shifted.
That, and keep it fun! Without the fun the mission is always twice as hard!