Duncan & Nathan have been recruiting into the MedTech industry for well over a decade, and together they co-host Beyond the Device - a podcast that explores the human story behind the job title.
Each episode uncovers the defining moments that have shaped the lives and careers of leaders across medical technology - from early influences and setbacks to the lessons learned along the way.
Honest, vulnerable and deeply personal - Beyond the Device goes beyond companies and titles to show that success isn’t linear, and we’re all on our own journeys.
Jeff Karp: The One Question That Rewired How He Thinks (and 13 Companies Later)
When Jeff Karp was in second grade the school wanted to hold him back. A teacher told him to set his sights lower because he didn't have what it took to be a doctor. He was a C and D student with undiagnosed ADHD and learning differences, last picked for every team.He's now a professor at Harvard Medical School, holds an endowed chair at Brigham and Women's Hospital, has published over 170 papers and more than 100 patents, sits in the top 0.1% most cited researchers in the world, and 13 companies have been built out of his lab. He's also written a book, LIT.In this episode we go back to the start. The summer between second and third grade when a tutor asked him one question, "how did you think about that?", and everything changed. His mum going up against the school board with every report card he'd ever had. Getting booed off stage in ninth grade. Beating the quarterback for student council. Writing over 100 grants in his first two and a half years as faculty and having almost all of them rejected.We also get into why he treats every conversation as an experiment, the difference between networking and building relationships, why he says most of his patents came directly out of failures, what he actually does in the moment when a project feels dead, and why he thinks the best thing you can do for someone is tell them what you see in them.Chapters00:00 Intro01:52 Second grade and the basement classroom07:13 "You don't have what it takes to be a doctor"10:26 His mum: "the school system is disabled, not you"14:02 The question that changed everything20:08 Where the shame came from24:08 Networking vs relationships29:25 Taking care of yourself to think clearly31:35 Believe in others38:12 Undiagnosed ADHD and his mum vs the school board41:56 Booed off stage, then beating the quarterback45:00 Kids just need one thing they're good at50:55 100 grant rejections and "this will never help anybody"58:43 What to actually do when a project fails01:06:02 Why his patents come from failures01:09:39 What still excites him01:14:08 Where medtech is heading
If this episode made you think about your own turning point and you'd like to share it, get in touch with Nathan or Duncan.#BeyondTheDevice #MedTech #MedicalDevices #Innovation #Harvard
7 Oct 2026
He Built a $5.75B Surgical Robotics Company… and Only Later Realised Why | Chris Velis
Every now and then a name gets suggested to us and we think, there's no chance we're getting them on. Chris Velis was one of those.
30 years in medtech and finance. Trained at Merrill Lynch, built the medtech practice at Brown Brothers Harriman, represented 150+ medical device companies and negotiated close to $10bn in M&A. In the middle of the 2008 crash he co-founded Auris, the surgical robotics company J&J later acquired for $5.75bn.
But we don't do the CV on this podcast. In the first episode of Series 3 we talk about the person behind it. Watching his dad, an oral surgeon, at work as a kid. Losing him to cancer as a teenager and walking away from medicine completely. A colleague's "headache" that turned out to be an aneurysm, and how that pushed him into medtech. And the moment years later when he realised the robotics he'd been building might have been about his dad all along.
We also get into hating sales and cold calls, the recruiter who told him he was an introvert and changed his career, therapy and being diagnosed with ADHD at 45, how lonely leadership gets, and why he thinks entrepreneurship can be taught (and why being told it can't made him so angry).
Chris's medtech entrepreneurship programme: https://aeioumedical.org (https://aeioumedical.org/)
Chapters
00:00 Intro – Series 3, Episode 1
02:24 Growing up around his dad's surgery
10:26 Losing his dad and walking away from medicine
15:49 Sales, business school and Wall Street
20:39 The headache that changed everything
29:27 His first medtech deal: a $375m spine exit
32:40 Endovia, Hansen and the call from Columbia
47:03 Realising why he built it
51:50 Mental health, therapy and ADHD
54:57 Hating sales and cold calls
58:59 The recruiter who changed his trajectory
01:05:16 Why leadership is lonely
01:11:05 What he's doing now – teaching medtech entrepreneurship
01:21:57 What would his dad think?
01:26:06 One final lesson
If this episode made you think about your own turning point and you'd like to share it, get in touch with Nathan or Duncan.
#BeyondTheDevice #MedTech #MedicalDevices #SurgicalRobotics #Entrepreneurship
22 Jun 2026
Ep 36: The Coin Toss That Changed Everything – Chris Weatherall
Chris Weatherall, a leader in surgical robotics, shares his unconventional engineering journey shaped by resilience and curiosity, revealing how life's pivotal moments drive innovation.
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