Chase MedSearch Podcast
The Chase MedSearch Podcast dives deep into the world of the medical device sales industry. We interview industry leaders and experts about their experiences in the industry, the lessons they've learned and the keys for growing and developing your brand. We also offer advice to up-and-coming entrepreneurs on to get in, stay in and evolve in this niche of the industry.
Chase MedSearch Podcast
John Pritchard: Borrow from the Best
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John Pritchard dropped by the podcast to share secrets to his success as a top Territory Manager and then as a record breaking Sales Leader in the hyper-competitive world of medical device sales. John also discusses a recent career move he made to a very hot startup opportunity shaking things up in the Neuromodulation niche of the industry.
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A reminder for those who don't know, we're not just a podcast. We are a medical device recruiting firm and we fill positions nationally. There's not one state I know of where we have not made placements. Visit chasemedsearch.com to find our latest position listings. You can also find me, Jordan Chase, on LinkedIn, and I post up-to-date position listings there. I'm capped at 30,000 LinkedIn connections, so you can follow me on LinkedIn, but unfortunately, I can't accept your invitation if you send me one. Finally, if you've got feedback on our podcast, please email it to me at jordan at chasemedsearch.com. I love suggestions for topics for the show. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe on YouTube. It does help grow the show. Welcome back to the Chase MedSearch podcast. I am delighted to have a friend of mine that I've worked with for many years productively, and he's a great guy, very, very accomplished gentleman named John Pritchard. John and I have a long history. My first placement at Chase MedSearch was with John, and that was 13 years ago. We had worked together a lot when I was at Medtronic in helping bring people on. And then recently, John made a move to a very exciting startup, and we'll talk more about that a bit later. And John brings an absolute wealth of medical device experience in all kinds of businesses, a lot in urology, and then he had a really long, successful run with Medtronic Interstim, where he was until recently. He's won so many awards, we can't keep track of them all. But I know President's Club and District Manager of the Year is among them. He was involved in many leadership development programs, new hire mentoring programs, and even tasked to influence Washington, D.C. to help advance initiatives such as repealing device taxes, advance free trade, and reimbursement enhancement. He's worked in businesses large and small, done very well with each step. Great to welcome him today to the Chase Bet Search podcast. Welcome, John. Thanks, Jordan. Quite an introduction. Got to have the build up, but it is seriously, it's great to have you on. Absolutely great to have you on. I appreciate you taking time to do this out of your busy day and I'm looking forward to the conversation. Yeah, that's great. So I want to do a public service announcement real quick. This is not, and I repeat, not a podcast where I encourage people my carefully crafted network of neuromodulation talent that I've worked so hard to build the last 27 years to go apply. And this is a first for me because I'm interviewing some of the works at a client. So John's great, but I encourage everybody listening that might have an interest in working for Saluda Medical to come and come to me and work through me. And I will get you all set up to vet out current opportunities. So anyway, PSA aside, John, how have you been? I've been great, Jordan. Thanks. Good, good, good. Let's talk beginnings. I always love to have my guests kind of talk about where they started, where they came from. What were you good at in high school?
SPEAKER_02Boy, I don't know if good at is the right question, Jordan, but the classes that interested me most were typically the business classes, and I enjoyed those quite a bit, so... I thought something in business is where I want to go long term.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. Well, you certainly did that. You went to Nebraska. How did you know as a young corn husker that sales was the right career for you to choose?
SPEAKER_02It's funny. I guess I always assumed I would be in sales. I kind of thought I would as I got a little bit older. I know it wasn't necessarily something I searched for. Just something I thought I would end up doing. I'm not even sure why that was, but medical device sales, certainly not what I expected. And doing what I'm doing now, not what I expected. So it's really different. Didn't even know it existed, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01I get a lot of questions every year, especially around this time of year from new college grads, and they want to go right into medical sales. And I always like to take a big step back and ask them, how do you know you like sales? You know, how do you know you have an aptitude for it or anything like that? You know, but it sounds like with you, you just knew right away. I
SPEAKER_02did. I was, you know, way to tables, to bar, doing all those things. I love talking to people and I just thought, well, that's what sales is. Now it's not what sales is, but that's what I thought it was. So you'll come to find out later. That's not it at all. Where did you go right out of school after you graduated? Right out of school, I was attending bar, right, for quite a while, trying to figure out what I was going to do. And just really unsure. And a friend of mine had come in one night and said, you know, I have this great job. I'm working for this medical company. And it's fantastic. You should come check it out. So he convinced me to come apply. And it was PSS, Physician Sales and Services. It was quite a sales training process that they put people through. And I did it, loved it, and that was kind of where I started. So it was the first kind of intro into what real sales is. They had a real sales training program, a lengthy program where they train you, and eventually they tell you you're going to be placed somewhere in the United States. Not telling you where yet because we don't know. And then once you're done training, you go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. I love that for so many reasons. But one of the reasons is I'm always dealing with really early career kids who I can't place, but I can advise. And I tell them, go get the best, absolute best sales training you possibly can and just be a sponge and soak it all up. You know, that's your foundation. And I know PSS has just got an excellent reputation and it's had one for years of developing people. What do you remember from what they trained you on? Or can you kind of give us an idea, some insight into what they were training you on at the time that stuck all these years later? I
SPEAKER_02can't remember if it was thin selling or impact selling was one of those, right? And, you know, really that sales process and, you know, how to basically uncover a need, find pain points, those things, and kind of bring someone around to understanding that what you have is a fit for them, right? It was intriguing to me. From there, I kind of became a student of the sales process. I was trying to soak up as many books as I can. I listened to audio tapes when I drive around. It's weird to say tapes, but yes, tapes, as I would drive around and make sales calls. I know what you mean. Yeah, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_01When I was a kid and I was broke all the time, I used to buy singles of tapes that were hot on the radio. You know, you'd buy it. I couldn't maybe get the whole tape, but I could get a single and listen to that like a thousand times. Oh, yeah. I know what tapes are. So you're at PSS and you stepped in and you just, you did really, really well right away. And what do you think is foundational to succeed in music? your first medical device sales job. You know, what was it when you would advise someone that's just starting out? Like, hey, these are the things that you want to get squared away and squirm away fast to have real success quick.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think part of it is really understanding what those that are already having success in that business, what they're doing every day, right? And not talking to one, but talking to many of them. What is it, what's working for them? Where are they seeing the success and what can you take from that, right? So you can kind of pull from various sources, find what fits for you and maybe what fits in your business specifically and just go from there. I mean, I think that's key, right? Surround yourself with great people and, you know, can learn from them. That's great.
SPEAKER_01Get some mentors and get them established fast. Yep. Yeah. And it's not stealing. Imitation is the best form of flattery,
SPEAKER_02right? Yeah. No, they're happy to help, right? I mean, I firmly believe if you're doing something great, you got to give it away. It's just going to make you better. And I think a lot of people feel that same way. It seems like a lot of high achievers are happy to share. It's typically those people that are not that much of a high achiever. They kind of maybe get some wins once in a while that they're afraid to tell you what they're doing that's good.
SPEAKER_01That's good. So you moved into sales management pretty quickly. I mean, we're talking within the first six years of graduation. I think, by my count, you're running a sales team at Sigma Diagnostics, unless I'm mistaken, and you can correct that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, at Sigma, I was a product manager slash specialist, so I was selling an autoimmune slash infectious disease analyzer, which really not sexy at all, but that's what I was doing.
SPEAKER_01Got it. But you were a sales manager, I think, at Labry? Labry.
SPEAKER_02At Sigma Diagnostics. Yeah, I had some folks that I was helping to mentor early on. And then Laboree, I was there, which is a aerodynamics company for, I think, what, four or five years competing against Medtronic. And, you know, ultimately Medtronic hired me away as we were talking about the management process. So I moved over to Medtronic and competed against my former company, which was really quite weird, but not in the same geography. So that was a good thing. That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So you're killing it at Labry, did very well district manager. You led the central U.S. region and maintained an open sales territory. So you're getting a taste of some sales management at that point. Am I right about that? Yeah. Okay, great. So why was moving to Medtronic and kind of giving up that sales management role, which you'd worked so hard to earn, and going back into an individual contributor role, A lot of people really have heartburn about doing that because they think, I worked so hard to get that management job. How am I ever going to get back? Or I may never get back to it. Why was that the right move? Well,
SPEAKER_02moving over to Medtronic, the understanding was that I would move into a management role pretty quickly. I got a lot of trust in the hiring manager at the time. And so I came in and did that for really a short period of time in the sales role, just quickly. understand the product understand their business and then ultimately um but then i don't even know how long it was probably relatively quickly i was managing the southern united states so kind of the south central all the way to texas all the way over to florida and managing that that whole geography so
SPEAKER_01it was great yeah I love your dog making cameos behind you through the glass. Oh, really? It's fantastic. Yeah, she wants to say hi. That's great. What kind of dog do you have?
SPEAKER_02It's
SPEAKER_01an Australian Labradoodle. Oh, nice. That's what I have. Yeah, I have one here, too. He may come on camera, too, as well. So that's fun. Okay, so... Something I noticed about you, John, just looking through your resume again, is you have been drawn to leadership for a while, I think, in your life, in your career. Even in college, I think you were going through multiple seminars, workshops focused on leadership. That's not everybody's bag. I mean, not everybody cares about that, but it seems like you're drawn toward it and you've been drawn toward it for a long time. What about leadership skills? draws you in or fascinates you?
SPEAKER_02The ability to work with some great people. I say it all the time. I'm selfish in that I have the best job and then I get to work with some amazing salespeople because I said earlier, I'm a steward of the sales process and I get to back to what we talked about a minute ago as well early on, picking up from what all these great people are doing. But more importantly, I get to work with them and see them thrive and succeed, which is It's just awesome, right? To see your friends, your teammates walk across that stage. It's just, it's nothing better. It's really cool.
SPEAKER_01That's good. And the other thing you have been handed a lot in your career is turning around struggling situations where you're stepping in and some things haven't been as successful. You know, even at PSS, I think your first sales job, it was, it was a turnaround situation. You know, as a sales leader, when you come into that kind of context, do you have a mental checklist you go through as you assess a situation, particularly if you're stepping into one that hasn't gone so rosy? Sorry, my dog is up. See? Now, he wants
SPEAKER_00to make a cameo, and he's got to go outside. Hang on one second. This is him, by the way. Say hi, buddy. Hey, yep. They look the same.
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SPEAKER_00it. Okay, I'm back. Life happens, man.
SPEAKER_01What's happening? Okay, so we were talking about the context that you step into, where it's a turnaround situation, where you feel like things just aren't, you know, or you've been told or you can tell things aren't, going right how do you go through assessing that situation in that
SPEAKER_02context unfortunately that seems to happen all the time right when you take in come into a new role typically it's not open or um they're doing the best right so that's typically why the spot's there uh you know i don't know if there's an exact science process to it jordan but i think the easiest thing to do at least from my perspective is really get in learn the people learn what's going on within that particular business uh, really understanding what, again, you know, you're kind of catching a theme here. You might, I guess, secret away, but take it, you know, um, just what are the people that are doing really well? What are they up to? Like, what is driving their success? Is it, you know, is it their skills? Is it their mindset? Is it just kind of the way they're looking at the business? Just trying to understand, you know, what does great look like and, you know, working towards replicating that, right. You also want to understand what bad looks like, but, uh, More importantly, what great looks like. And if you can kind of cascade that across or build that culture within your team, this is where we're all going to be. And this is where we all need to do. I think, you know, ultimately everybody starts to win, right? Some people find that it's not for them and maybe move on. But reality is, you know, we're going to win. And if you have a better way, let me know. But we just want to find out, you know, what's great look like and try to emulate that over and over again.
UNKNOWNYeah.
SPEAKER_01So once again, kind of the theme cultivating, you know, people that are doing it well, finding them. Exactly. Yeah, that's great. So in the situation where you came in to Proceva at Medtronic, that was the name of the business, you know, It's a tough business. I worked at Medtronic when Medtronic owned Prostiva. Just to make everybody in our audience very uncomfortable, particularly men, can you kind of tell us what Prostiva did, what the procedure
SPEAKER_02was? I don't know. This is when everybody wants to turn off, Jordan. I don't want to listen to you anymore. Yeah, it was a therapy for BPH, so enlarged prostate. It was radiofrequency ablation, and... See, I know what you want me to tell them, right? You want me to say
SPEAKER_01what it is exactly. I could place the video in, you know, we'd do it. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02it was a long rod, such about this big, that would go up the middle urethra. And then at the end of it, these little, as the doctors would always call them, cobra fangs would come out. We'd try to correct them and say, no, they're just antennas, radio frequency antennas. But these cobra fangs would come out and inject into the prostate, and then we would heat it up and just ablate the tissue in there. It was tuna therapy. Anybody familiar with that? And I think the acronym for that was torture under no anesthesia. There was a real medical term for it, but that's what the doctors began to call it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Was it transurethral something? Transurethral needle ablation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So that business, I mean, obviously, enlarged BPH is a massive issue in the population. But it was a tough business, right? I mean, Medtronic ultimately divested it. You certainly, before they did that, I mean, you poured the coals to it. Tell us about the work involved in that business, because you were involved in so many atypical experiences for sales leaders. I mean, you were... working with cross-functional teams, R&D, strategy, finance, to see if Medtronic should even own the business, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's where we started, right? It was a national sales manager there. I had marketing folks and engineers and everybody that I would work with. We were trying to understand, is this something that Medtronic should do long-term? There was kind of a next-gen to that, which was going to cost a significant amount of money. And is it worth the investment? So You know, we've kind of weighed all those things out. And, you know, as it turned out, it wasn't the right move to kind of stay in that industry. It was minimally invasive therapy for BPH, which those therapies that existed at that time, none of them exist anymore. They're all gone. So, yeah, I think we did the right thing by exiting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you were even meeting with potential buyers, right? You were involved in that as well as the national sales manager.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was a different time, right? So maybe the most challenging piece of my career, maybe ever, at least mentally, in that I had a team of great people that I work with every day. They were friends. And meanwhile, I've got to go to Minneapolis regularly, right? To kind of help Medtronic the best of this business and meet with potential suitors and Kind of helping them understand intricacies of the business and helping them kind of position as to what we could do to get a better position for sale and so forth. But it was difficult, right? We've got a sales team and a bunch of people that know this business is probably going to be sold. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no. It's, you know, trying to keep it quiet. They have families and everything else. So it was quite difficult.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It ultimately hinged, I think, I saw on your decision to invest in a CRM product. Is that right? Was it
SPEAKER_02Salesforce or something? Yeah, it's interesting, Jordan. When I joined Medtronic back in 2005, it was my first question. Where's the CRM? I want to understand where my customers are. That was during the year of diagnostic business. Well, when I left Medtronic earlier this year, they still didn't have one in public health. weird, right? And that was almost 19 or almost 20 years later. But anyways, the CRM system, you know, for a potential buyer was critical. They needed to know who's doing what, who's been educated over the years. We just had a spreadsheet of people who were buying stuff. That was it, right? You want to know who the scheduler is in that office, who's the main contact, who's the doctor, just some basic information, but kind of a roadmap, if you will. And so that was absolutely critical. and getting that business sold.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. And it was sold, it was divested. And at some point, Medtronic came to you and said, hey, we've got this opportunity down south. And you're in Chicago at that point? I was. I was in Chicago. Yeah. Are you Chicago born and bred? I don't remember. No, I'm not. Omaha. Okay, that's right. I know you went to college out there. Okay, so you're in Chicago, and it's hotter down south, and Houston's a little bit swampier, but why would you make that move? Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_02You know, I mean, I was in the urodiagnostic business that Medtronic divested. I went over to Prestiva. Ultimately, Medtronic was divesting of that, and I was given the opportunity at that point to – either maybe leave with the company that was acquiring the business, take on a VP of sales role, or look to move to Houston and take on an Interstim DM role, which I was familiar with Interstim, not completely. I'd never sold it, but I understood what it was. I understood the customer base. I understood what they were looking for. And so I was in Chicago, as you said, and at that point, I had small kids. I was either going to move to the suburbs or, you know, I guess, moved to Houston, which is what ultimately happened. So there was a move no matter what, and I chose to move to Houston. Weather's, yes, it's muggy, as you said, but it hasn't snowed in really much since I've been here, out of significance. How's that,
SPEAKER_01Jordan? I haven't shoveled since I've been here. Yeah, that's right. Look, I'm from Michigan. I grew up there, so I know I don't miss it at all. Let's put in a plug for Texas. How do you like Texas? Good move?
SPEAKER_02No, it's been great. Yeah, it's been great. I like Texas a lot. You know, Chicago is a great city. I don't want to knock it, but it's a great town. Great to visit. In fact, to be there this weekend for work. But, you know, ultimately, Texas is its own. Not going back.
SPEAKER_01Great. So you're, you know, we can talk about your Interstim career too a little bit because you've got, you know, you could, I see your case back there. I don't know if that contains any sales awards. You can probably fill it up if you wanted to. But let's talk about hiring. And I really love picking the brain of experienced sales managers because I think people sometimes just need to hear it in a setting where they can absorb the information. When you're hiring, when you're looking to hire somebody, there's a lot of intangibles and there's a lot of traits that are not always on a resume. What do you look for from that standpoint that maybe is just not obvious on a resume? From a trait, you know, where you're trying to guess, does this person have the characteristics that make it up? What are you looking for?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a good question. So, you know, really trying to understand their drive and motivations, their passion to win, right? I mean, are they self-centered? Are they going to get up and do it every day? Are they willing to grind? And, you know, each territory, depending on the markets, may require somebody different, right? I mean... You look at Houston, is it a med center territory? That's going to require somebody, obviously, with a little bit more academic type of sales process that can really understand that piece versus somebody that may be more rural. But ultimately, I think at the core, the same thing applies across the board, and that's really the passion to win.
SPEAKER_01What's the most kind of non-traditional hire you've ever made? where you just went out really outside the box? And how'd that work
SPEAKER_02out? Yeah, so I've had a bunch, right? And so as far as non-traditional, I think in our business at InterStem, it was really trying to bring in salespeople, junior salespeople into a clinical role. Then ultimately, but they hope and promise that they're going to move into a sales role in time. So taking some folks really maybe earlier on in their career, junior type reps, and saying, hey, look, here's an opportunity for you. You can come in into what would be typically a clinical type of role, and you're going to be set with clinical type of people. But my goal is for you to ultimately grow this business as well. So you're going to be tasked with, yes, a lot of case coverage, right? I mean, that's going to go without saying, kind of the groundwork, so to speak, when it comes to that, and maybe some educational events. But The reality is what I need you to do is also focus on growing this business because essentially you're carving out your own territory.
SPEAKER_01That's worked
SPEAKER_02quite
SPEAKER_01well. That's great. Have you ever been fooled by somebody? Got somebody hired that just... I have, Jordan, and you don't want me to talk about it. Well,
SPEAKER_02it wasn't one of mine, I'm sure. No, no. Again, you don't want me to talk about it. Only once in your early venture. No, but I'm kidding you. That does happen, right? From time to time. I mean, you know, somebody presents themselves one way. In fact, they're really another. But, you know, I think for me getting to know the candidates over time, it's been very helpful, right? To understand who they are, what, you know, what are they as people, right? Beyond what their resume says, because there's a lot of paper tigers out there.
SPEAKER_01Many. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you've worked in so many different aspects of medical devices. You know, you've done, you know, GPO driven businesses and disposable businesses and all kinds of things like that. And, you know, obviously ran neuromodulation for quite some time in Houston. What do you think distinguishes a successful neuromodulation rep from any other medical device rep? Or is there a distinction? You know, does neuromod require some things that other medical device jobs don't? or can you just plug and play anybody into those types of jobs?
SPEAKER_02That's a great question. I mean, when I've talked to recruiters other than you who actually understands kind of what it takes, even the internal recruiters back when I was at Medtronic, they said, well, what's the profile you want? And it seems like a crazy one to ask that question because it's the same type of profile across the board, right? This isn't exactly, it's an OR job with a, consultative type of approach to business, right? So you're a business consultant, you're a market development type of person. There's all sorts of things. So you can't say one over the other. I mean, I sat across some people that are very successful in their career with a lot of OR experience. And they get frustrated at times when I'll tell them, look, this isn't the job for you. I've got a great clinical specialist type job I can put you in. And they're a little bit insulted, but the reality is we don't need people that are just great clinically in the OR. We need you to be great clinically in the OR for sure. But ultimately, if that's your wheelhouse and that's where you pride yourself and that's really all you've got, you're not going to be successful here. You know, you have to be able to work in that office. I've seen at InterSem, you'd see some people that would kind of come from the pharma background, which were phenomenal, right? Because they got to learn the office type piece. as well, and we would teach the OR side, which most people probably would look at that and say, from pharma? But yeah, from pharma. It's a hybrid type of job.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It's an underrated aspect of someone's experience that can really lead to a lot of success because pharma people know how to invent reasons to come back and see people on a higher frequency and be in the office and I think that's been something, you know, right. That over the years really is, is helpful for a helpful skillset for people to have. And they tend to have no ego about breakfast, lunch, and dinner activities, you know, like they're okay. That's what, that's what they do. And, you know, bagels in the morning and, you know, chicken salad and, you know, noontime or whatever it takes to create touch points. And I think the frequency of that is, you know, something that, uh, That leads to success for the right people with that background. You're at InterSim and you were an average there. You were very good. And I know you're a humble guy, but I'm going to keep talking about it because I love to try to figure out and isolate why people have been so successful because so many people want to imitate that and they don't always find that same level of success. You were district manager of the year. At Medtronic in Houston, you were president's club multiple times, year in, year out, sustained performance. So that's different than just coming into a bad situation, turn around and just jacking percentage growth numbers up. I mean, this is winning at a level that is sustainable and repeatable year after year. How do you do that? How do you build that? Because the numbers don't get smaller when you're succeeding.
SPEAKER_00I
SPEAKER_02mean, Jordan, they don't, but we've had, we had some bad years too. Don't get me wrong. Those are the tough ones. And those are the ones you learn from a little bit and you know what mistakes not to make again. But the reality is it's, you know, tends to be outside influences that create those problems. You know, working in a large organization, sometimes it's, you know, I think the last time we really had a tough spot was Medtronic offered early retirement at the same time they're on a hiring freeze and We just left this gap for months and months and months that allowed competition to come in. And we had a hard time recovering in that particular geography. So overall, it impacted the entire district. But I think the successful years, those are the good ones. And you really have to enjoy it. But don't get comfortable because that'll change quick. But the key is, I think, really just great people. I have people better than you. and the people that know what they're doing and turn them loose and support them whatever they need, manage them. Do you need me to leave you alone? Call me when you have something type of relationship or is it you want me to come work with you in business plan on the regular? Whatever it is, we're doing it, right? I'd rather be part of it, but you know what? If somebody's just going to get it done, they're a lone wolf, that's okay too, but just make sure you're getting it done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. So manage people the same, but manage them differently a bit, right? You know, and understanding who you have. Well, you could have rested on your laurels and accolades and just stayed at Medtronic, but you didn't. You made a move. And... I'm intrigued by it. I would love to know your thoughts on why you made the move and what it was that was compelling about Saluda. How'd you hear about it? You know, all those things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, I've shared this with a lot of people. In fact, years ago, I read something about Saluda and I thought, wow, that company can do what they say they're going to do or can do. We're going to change that space. You know, that's in the pain space, right? So, Just what they were saying, and this was pre-FDA approval. I just thought, well, that's just amazing. So I thought that was really cool. But whatever it was, I was reading down and just forgot all about Saluda for years. And then you called me out of the blue. And, you know, Jordan, you and I have talked for years. I said, if you find something really cool, let me know. And I think I've told you that for a long time. And you called Saluda. And I think first, like, oh, but it's pain. You know, it's pain. I remember that company because I remember thinking what they had was cool. And we talked about it. I did some background. I talked to a friend of mine who I, you know, trust, respect, peer mentor over the years. And, you know, he said, you know, John, he said, that one, I'd tell you to really check out, run to it, check it out. So I called and, you know, the thing was, yes, they could do what they said they could do. The technology was there. But I think the biggest reason for leaving was the culture, right? You know, the culture at Saluda is phenomenal. So to find another job with great technology and great culture, it's awesome. So it just made sense. And the values kind of at Medtronic didn't seem to really align with where I was and what I wanted to do. Saluda does. So that's
SPEAKER_01great. That's great. Yeah, you know, I've... I've worked with a lot of startups in the last 13 years, and we've placed over 1,000 people in my time and had these really great long runs, placed over 100 people at multiple companies, and several of them have sold, I added up the other day, a cumulative value of over $5 billion, where we were the sole source provider. Yeah, it's been good. And I think there's a common theme with a lot of startups is, They come out of that, you know, almost liking it to come out of the house. You're all bright and shiny. And then you, you know, you trip a little bit, right? You know, you have some stumbles because, and every startup that I've worked with has done this where they, you know, it's almost like, even if you hire insiders, they've never built a company together before. And they all, you know, end up having certain challenges. And I tell reps this and managers, I say, don't miss the second wind. Don't miss it because I guarantee you, you know, I've worked with a company that sold for over a billion dollars. I guarantee you they had some stumbles right out of the gate. They just did. And then as they figure things out, and one thing that I don't think has ever been a question with Salute is the technology. The technology is phenomenal and it really is differentiating. Don't miss the second wind because the second wind, I called reps years ago for Inspire Medical. And they didn't want to do it. And they will call me every now and then I get a text. I should have, I should have done that, you know? And, you know, I, I'm telling people this, this saluted thing has the same feeling as those companies. This is the second one, new leadership, um, at the highest level, great tech, um, excellent compensation plan. I think you joined an absolutely stellar time.
SPEAKER_02I couldn't agree. I've shared that quite a bit. I've kind of heard what's come before, and I'm sorry for the way it was. It's too bad, but I can tell you where it is now. It's a great
SPEAKER_01time to be here. Yeah, absolutely. Well, John, hey, we'll check back in with you. Thank you for being on and taking some time to chat. I'm sure you and I will be talking for a bit. Oh, yeah. going forward for all kinds of reasons. So
SPEAKER_00this
SPEAKER_01has been fun. It's fun to have friends on. All right,
SPEAKER_00Jordan, I appreciate it.