EP 556: They 3D Printed Baby Sophia's New Foot Faster and Cheaper than Alternatives with Mecuris CEO Manuel Opitz

Manuel Opitz: He is currently the founder of Mecuris. Before founding the company as the CEO, he worked as a medical IP broker in innovation management and as a technology scout in China. He graduated in Industrial Engineering and he has taken a keen interest in optimizing healthcare process chains by digitalization and 3D printing.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Thinking Fast and Slow
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Podio and Acuity Scheduling
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t try to do everything yourself”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Manuel to the show
• 02:14 – Mecuris is in B2B and medical technology
• 02:30 – Mecuris provides patient specific prosthetics using 3D printing
• 02:58 – Manuel discusses the picture on their website
• 03:19 – Mecuris can be reimbursed by the insurance companies
• 03:38 – Mecuris gets paid as the service provider for medical supply stores
• 03:51 – Mecuris uses SLS—which is more costly but lasts
• • 04:25 – The smaller the prosthetics, the cheaper it is
  • 04:50 – Manuel shares the pricing
• 05:25 – The price for Sophie’s prosthetics
• 06:15 – Insurance companies have their own prices
• 06:55 – Average number of prosthetics that have been 3D printed in 2016
• • 07:28 – Mecuris only had prototypes in 2016
• 07:45 – Mecuris had 2 seed investors in November
• 08:39 – Mecuris raised under a million
• 08:55 – Mecuris had a pre-seed round
• • 09:37 – The 6 founders put in 5-digit numbers per person and received a pre-seed government round
• 10:12 – Manuel shares how the 6 founders talked about the equity
• 11:26 – The founders who are operational are the software lead and product designer
• • 11:52 – There are a total of 11 people in the office
• 12:07 – Mecuris was launched in May, 2016
• 12:52 – Manuel wants to enter the international market after Series A
• • 13:09 – Talks with big companies are in the works
• 13:40 – Mecuris can do prosthetics in just 10 minutes
• 14:04 – Manuel discusses Sophie’s prosthetics and what would be her option would be if there was no Mecuris
• 15:15 – Mecuris can do simulation work with their prosthetics
• 17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Aim high—if you believe that you can enter the international market then do it.
• Sharing equity requires a good system, defining how you can benefit from one another.
• Collaborate with the experts in your field.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives