Catching Up with Nir from PulseMedica

We’ve had so much fun catching up with the amazing winners and side deal recipients from our Summits. Today, we’re checking in with Nir Katchinskiy (NK) from PulseMedica. 

TNT: Hi Nir! How’s life been since winning the Summit? 

NK: It’s been great! We’ve been raising funds, like the $2.6 million seed round that was recently announced, and working hard to deliver results. We’ve made a lot of progress in our technology and are running our first clinical trial. 

We’ve also added 6 new members to our team, including a new chief technology officer, Geoffroy Rivet-Sabourin, who has decades of experience in the medical device industry and has brought items to market. That type of experience, that type of knowledge and background in navigating the regulatory paths, it’s invaluable. 

We’ve also set up our medical advisory board, which has attracted world-famous ophthalmologists, Dr. Ike Ahmed, Dr. Matthew Tennant, and Dr. Ehsan Sadri. 

We have been really focused on branding the company and steering the company from local startup to global stage. 

TNT: That is AMAZING! What a whirlwind of accomplishments and what a  year! Alright, so when you were in Summit IV, you were raising your second round of capital. What are some lessons you’d like to pass onto other founders as they try to raise capital? 

NK: I see raising money as building relationships. There’s a lot of process in building a relationship, and you go through a lot to make sure it’s the right relationship. 

With TNT and with the Summit, you meet with investors 4-6 times, doing due diligence, explaining your ideas, site visits, etc. You get to educate people on who you are, what you’re building, and your why. It’s important because you get time to build the trust needed. 

For us, with the second round of fundraising, our previous investors had the chance to get to know us even further, and see what we had done with the initial investment. They were all extremely enthusiastic about our results, and everyone from the first round came back for the second round. 

TNT: I 100% agree - those relationships and the management of them is key. Alright, so the flip now. What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes that can be made during fundraising? 

NK: When you raise money, you need to understand what you’re raising it for and how you’re going to execute with the funds. Founders who don’t know their reasons, or who don’t know the terms or how much they’re raising, etc. - they’re in trouble. You need to have a clear ask, clear execution plan, and terms. 

It’s also really important to treat all your investors the same, no matter what amount of money they invest. You need to make sure they all get the same terms. Having that equity across the board with all the investors also helps to build a relationship of trust with all of them. 

For example, we have an investor that the bank provided the wrong banking information to. He wanted to reverse it, as it was the wrong account, but the banks said they would charge a processing fee for that. He was concerned and frustrated with the situation, so I reached out to him, and said I would talk to the banks and work with them. I said that I would try and get the reimbursement, and if the bank wouldn’t come through, that PulseMedica would take the hit on those fees for the investor. In the end, the bank did waive the fee and do the reversal, but it was important to the investor to know that I had this back. Investor relations are customer relations. 

TNT: Yes! Investor relations are customer relations - I love that. And last question! What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned as a founder? 

NK: With a startup, there can be so many things that can go wrong, so quickly, more than you can imagine. In January, we had a big change that really blew my mind. It wasn’t tech or regulatory, but it took the management team with full-time effort, all resources in, for a few days, to resolve the situation. 

It’s important to be resilient and adaptable as a founder. If you don’t have the ability to shift gears to deal with the most important thing, you will find it very challenging to be a founder. Learning curves and big explosions and twists and changes - all of that is just part of startup life. It’s very rewarding and very tough. 

TNT: Thank you so much for your time today, Nir! I really appreciate it and your perspectives that you’ve given our audience. And congrats again on the $2.6 million raise! 

NK: Thank you!