Getting the Band Back Together
About two years ago Wyatt was selling his SafeWire company and Chris was finishing his private equity run when he called Wyatt and asked if he’d be willing to saddle up and do the product development work for a new spinal implant company.
To anyone else, the timing of Chris’s request might have seemed poor.
Most private equity investors will tell you that the innovation wave has come and gone in spine—aside from, perhaps, robotic assist devices. Top line growth is in the low single digits. Everything is consolidating. The future of spine can be summarized in three words: “bolt-on-acquisitions.”
Chris and Wyatt aren’t like anyone else. There is no MBA for what they do.
In the Spine Business Bible according to Chris and Wyatt, without product innovation spine companies can’t get access to hospitals. Without innovation they can’t push distributors to sell. Without innovation they can’t be cash positive.
Innovation is like breathing.
Chris and Wyatt weren’t buying the rumors that innovation was dead in spine.
Hell, it just meant less competition for new ideas.
Innovation Defined
“Innovation” to Wyatt and Chris means products that, in terms of the pathologies they address, disrupt existing products and do so with value pricing.
When Chris asked Wyatt to go to work on spine innovation, he was essentially asking him to do what he loves. Wyatt was all in, but with a caveat. Chris had to be in charge.
“Chris’s been a way better CEO than I would have ever been.”
So, Wyatt took charge of the technology including licensing and new product roll out. Chris wrapped his arms around the business and operations.
The band’s lead singer and guitarist were back together. But the Mick and Keith of spine needed supporting band mates.
Enter Andrew Wolf. After eight years at NUVA, he decided to join the spine’s version of Mick and Keith as Integrity’s new Executive Vice President of Products. Chad Grant who was top engineer at NUVA, came on board. Jonathan Spangler, NUVA’s head IP and general counsel, is now Integrity’s counsel and member of the board of directors. Integrity’s VP of Sales is David Hill formerly of SpineWave. Brad Sutika, who helped build X-Spine into a $62 million company is Vice President of Marketing and Clinical Affairs.
NuVasive’s mascot was the Cheetah.
Integrity’s is the Osprey.
Both are lightning fast. Both eat what they kill.
As Chris and Wyatt like to say, speed is everything for a start-up.
Relevancy
Integrity is well funded. Chris raised $33 million from some of the largest, most successful family offices on Wall Street. There is no institutional money in Integrity.
In terms of products, both Wyatt and Chris said that Integrity’s main point of differentiation will be clinical and market relevancy.
Clinical relevancy. Here’s how Wyatt described clinical relevancy (or lack of it) for expandable cages.
“You know, we have an expandable cage that expands in every direction. To me that doesn’t mean anything.”
“We DO expand laterally and up and down. I can put a mechanism in there to make it really cool, right? But then the mechanism is in the way.”
“Our approach is to make expandable cages as much about bone grafting as anything else. We want to model the cage so that it is the best ship-in-the-bottle we can build—so that will never collapse.”
“That’s why some surgeons don’t use expanding cages. Not enough room for bone graft and they worry that it’ll collapse.”
“You’ve got to understand the whole problem. You must be clinically relevant.”
