Vikash Goel of Centerline Biomedical
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Vikash Goel (founder and CEO) of Centerline Biomedical, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Centerline Biomedical – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
We needed to give doctors a better way to navigate minimally-invasive procedures.
Centerline Biomedical is the story of what happens when you bring together people with a magical mix of skills and experience. I was privileged to be part of a team of research engineers at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and Heart and Vascular Institute. We were recruited by one of the world’s leading endovascular surgeons and each of us brought our own high-level technical training to the table.
Immersed in the surgical environment with doctors ranging from trainees to world-class physicians, we saw that the image guidance being used for these minimally-invasive procedures was in real need of disruption. So, we shifted our focus away from designing better implants, towards developing a modern way to navigate when putting them in. Today’s state of the art involves a lot of X-ray imaging with its associated dangers and limitations. These dangers are very personal to our team as many of us know caregivers who have developed cancer and other radiation-related diseases. Centerline’s technology is the third of a series of navigation technologies we developed in that lab to improve radiation safety, efficiency, and accuracy all at once.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
When you’re doing something nobody has done before, there is no clear and obvious path to success. That is what makes a startup so interesting, worthwhile, enjoyable, and difficult. We as humans are not generally good with such uncertainty. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, that uncertainty was multiplied. All considered, I think we weathered it well by focusing our efforts on the things that we could do to build value even when customers were not in a position to adopt a novel technology immediately. When elective surgeries were slowed or stopped, we took advantage of our target stakeholders’ newfound schedule availability to connect with them and plant the seeds of the fruits that we are now beginning to harvest.
I can also say that to me a successful startup is all about the people. Every person in the organization has a significant impact on culture, trajectory, and success. This can cut both ways – the wrong people can cause significant damage but the right people can catapult you forwards. Selecting the right people to work with is perhaps the most challenging duty of a founder.
What does the future hold for Centerline Biomedical?
There has never been a humdrum day at Centerline since our start, but this is an especially interesting time. We are in the midst of our early controlled commercial launch which we kicked off during the pandemic. In parallel, we’re developing the next-generation versions of all of our products. With an eye to the further future, we are executing two Phase II small business grants from NIH to expand our technology platform. The next couple of years could see a lot of activity expanding our platform’s reach.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Cleveland?
We originally started in Cleveland because we spun out from Cleveland Clinic. And even now, though we are independent from the institution, we still benefit greatly from being located at the edge of their campus. What I didn’t know when we got started was how great Cleveland’s startup scene really was for tech, and med tech in particular. The rich environment of world-class hospital systems, local manufacturing, affordable facilities, and an energetic population of innovators gives Cleveland a great med tech startup scene.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Be humble, be choosy, be trusting, be bold, and be nimble.
An innovator may set out with a game changing idea, and the idea is important, but the execution is what will determine success. The real change-makers are those who come next, who choose to throw their weight behind the idea and use their skill and expertise to drive the execution. So be picky when bringing people into your enterprise, and then trust them to share your ownership of what you are creating. Then work together to choose a path forward with strategic focus. Trying to go down too many paths at once won’t work. But at the same time, learn quickly from your mistakes and correct your trajectory as soon as your path shows itself to be unsuccessful.
And above all, hang in there through the ups and downs, and don’t be shy about reaching out to your brethren-in-arms in the startup world for support.