Getting to know our new CEO
Sitting down with Tend CEO Mike Goonewardene for an onboarding Q&A.
What got you excited about this? What made you want to jump on board?
First, the work Tend does is unique on a couple of fronts. The FMT treatment supported by our device and data is targeted to patients who are desperately ill. These patients are at a point in their illness where they may be feeling a bit hopeless. The solution that Tend has developed is elegant in its combination of lower costs, improved access, and comprehensively assisting clinicians to care for these patients who really need help.
That’s on the medicine side of the equation. On the business, I think the company has created a unique, blue water space in healthcare. Those don't come along every day and they're not easy to uncover. More often there’s typically a number of people chasing the same or similar solutions. Tend’s doing something that no one else is trying to do in precisely the same way. Other solutions are either far more invasive to the patient or are going to end up being far more expensive for the patient and our healthcare system. So no one is trying to solve this problem in a really cost-effective but highly efficacious way.
What should people know about your many professional travels that’ll help you take the helm at Tend?
I've been fortunate to spend almost my entire career in different healthcare businesses and frequently in an early stage setting. 10 of those years, I spent working in healthcare internationally. As we further assess opportunities for Tend, I think we may determine that international markets in addition to the US represent a very significant opportunity for us. Whether that’s from a regulatory pathway perspective, familiarity with FMT as a treatment or other favorable conditions. So having spent a significant block of my career internationally should be helpful to our team here at Tend.
What’s likely to be high on your priority list as you get up and running?
The first thing on my list typically for a company, certainly at this stage of its life, is team. And this is an unusually talented and experienced one. I've just been so impressed with every single person who’s working at Tend. So that enables me to make my top priority ensuring that the team has the financial and other resources necessary to achieve our milestones.
Another important one is ensuring our regulatory compliance and safety are top-flight and that we’re meeting or exceeding all of those guidelines. Product development is closely tied in there too, making sure that we have considered the voice of the customer to craft a great user experience in a safe and effective device.
And then finally commercialization strategy: what are going to be the best channels in which markets? In which segments do we most effectively grow our revenues?
When do you think early stage, innovation-focused companies should start considering commercialization?
Earlier than they think. And from my vantage point Tend has done that. It’s a credit to Roz, Tom and Kathleen that I've actually been talking to Tend for some months because they knew from the early innings that they wanted to build things in a way that would facilitate commercial success. So, I think we have a group that recognizes that if those considerations aren't taken seriously and early, you can end up with something that may be really interesting but isn't commercially viable.
Add to that a lot of commercial experience in my background and the timing is good. Not from the standpoint of Roz departing. She’s a remarkable leader, executive and person. But Roz’s move is for very positive personal reasons, and we’re fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to get her input in the coming years. Finally on timing, we’re also well underway with an industry leading engineering firm (Tensentric) that Roz, Kathleen, and Tom helped bring on board.
Taken together, all that puts us in a great position to avoid an all-too-common pitfall. Great concept, ok product development where the voice of the customer/user experience doesn’t get baked into the product enough, commercialization that takes longer, costs more. By contrast we’re set up for a better path thanks to customer voice that’s been wired into the product from the early going and the experience in place to build a higher-performing go-to-market approach.
Acknowledging crystal balls are hard to find, let’s look out a year… where would you like the company to be then?
It’s early and my official tenure can still be measured in hours but given our great product start, in a year I’d like to see us meaningfully engaged with a base of happy customers in markets we’re well suited to serve such as clinical trials, international markets with favorable regulatory climates, perhaps other healthcare segments like veterinary. And I’d like to see us finding that powerful combo of thoughtfulness and pace, whether in our regulatory progress, revenue generation or development of a scalable product that does what it promises and is well protected from an intellectual property standpoint.
Last question, what's something from your background that folks might not know but should?
I’m a first-generation American and very grateful for the opportunity and success that’s been possible for my family by virtue of my parents making the decision to immigrate to the US and pursue educational and professional opportunity. My folks are 97 and 93 years old now living in West Lafayette, Indiana, where my dad was a professor at Purdue. With some hard work and focusing on things that are important, they have been able to see their children, and now their grandchildren, start and have good productive, successful lives.
That journey’s been really important to our family. It makes me very comfortable in different cultural settings, in international settings. And I think it’s helped me anchor in what’s possible in the future, in finding best solutions and not suffering from a, not invented here, attitude about things.
And that mindset feels like it’ll be right at home here at Tend. I am beyond excited about the opportunity we have here and the team we have here. This is going to be a great ride.