There will be a Michael Uren Speaker on Wednesday October 29th at 5:00 PM in Pippard Lecture Theatre, Sherfield Building, South Kensington Campus.
The speaker will be Maurice Ferré, the Co-Founder of Mako and the talk will be titled “The Mako story – from Zero to $1.7bn in 9 years”
Maurice R. Ferré MD is a serial entrepreneur in the medical technology sector. His most recent success was MAKO Surgical Corp. As Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO and President over a period of ten years (2003- 2013), MAKO became the world leader in robotic orthopaedic surgery. The World Economic Forum recognized MAKO as a Technology Innovator in 2003. MAKO was the first company to develop and commercialize 3D printed implants. The Company was ranked No.1 by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 in 2011. In December 2013, Stryker Corp acquired MAKO for $1.65B.
Prior to MAKO, Dr Ferré was Founder, CEO and President of Visualization Technology Inc. (1993-2002). VTI became the world leader in image guided surgery for ENT, cranial and orthopaedic procedures. The Company was acquired by GE Healthcare in 2002.
Outline
In 2003 MF founded Mako surgical. The vision for was of a company delivering industrial quality control into the operating room for the index operation of partial joint replacement. This field had already been identified, and was potentially a multiple of the total knee market. To achieve the goal of industrialising the quality of joint replacement, three streams had to be developed: Intellectual property, excellent engineering, and a business model that could repay the investment in technology by a mixed model of equipment and implant sales.
In my talk I will discuss the strategy developed to deliver each of these aspects. The engineers had to design and build a robot that was robust enough to cope with the strongest orthopaedic surgeon without breaking, the financial engineers had to deliver a business model that was realistic. Our investors repaid our attention to both technical and commercial milestones by continued investment. The company raised over $350m from private investment and IPO in 2008. Mako was acquired for $1.65bn less than 10 years from founding the company with nothing more than an idea.
Drink reception to follow.