Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from the tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Austin McChord, CEO of Casana, an in-home health monitoring platform that's raised over $46 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
- Unconventional Transition: Austin's journey from cybersecurity with Datto to the medtech space with Casana highlights a unique path of leveraging operational skills across distinct industries.
- Product Philosophy: Both Datto and Casana share a design philosophy where products work best when unnoticed by users, emphasizing seamless integration into daily life for reliability and efficacy.
- FDA Regulatory Journey: The exhaustive and detailed process of gaining FDA clearance for medical devices, including biocompatibility testing and the rigorous documentation required for every aspect of product development and testing.
- Healthcare Innovation through Humor: Casana's marketing approach uniquely balances humor with serious science, using the novelty and inherent humor of a health monitoring toilet seat to engage audiences before delving into the product's significant medical benefits.
- The Future of Home Health Monitoring: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated acceptance and demand for in-home health monitoring, opening the market for Casana's innovative solutions and setting the stage for broader adoption and integration into healthcare practices.
- Fundraising in Medtech: Austin's insights into the medtech fundraising landscape, highlighting the unique challenges and milestones compared to more conventional tech startups, with a focus on developing products that can save lives before generating revenue.