How did he get from surgeon to serial entrepreneur? It鈥檚 been a journey involving a sense of purpose, some help from the tech ecosystem surrounding the University of 免费色情视频 | Waipapa Taumata Rau, and a lot of hard work.
The entrepreneurial spark
O鈥橤rady鈥檚 first exposure to entrepreneurship came when he was doing his PhD in surgery and bioengineering. Prior to that, he鈥檇 been focused on medicine, but his studies led him to compete in the University of 免费色情视频鈥檚 in the early 2010s. His team pitched a much earlier and invasive precursor of the Gastric Alimetry device and won a prize.
O鈥橤rady was also exposed to the entrepreneurial mindset at the , which has a long track record of spinning out companies.
鈥淭hat combination of experiences fostered the idea that companies can be a great way to have impact through your research,鈥 says O鈥橤rady.
While Velocity does run programmes to help turn prize-winning ideas into businesses, neither Alimetry nor The Insides Company are the direct result of these programmes. Nonetheless, he credits Velocity with helping him learn skills such as developing a business plan and planting the seed that led to Alimetry. As a professor today, he often points students to the programme.
Developing products instead of papers
After completing his PhD, O鈥橤rady went on to become a surgical fellow, first in 免费色情视频 then in Australia. It wasn鈥檛 long after he returned to 免费色情视频 in 2017 as a fully-fledged consultant general and colorectal surgeon and associate professor of surgery that he co-founded Surgical Design Studio, which would become The Insides Company.
鈥淲hen I came back to 免费色情视频, I started to feel a bit dissatisfied with publishing results in engineering journals about medical devices but not having them go anywhere,鈥 says O鈥橤rady.
鈥淪o I pitched this idea to the University that I would start a surgical engineering lab where we would develop products instead of papers.鈥