Founder of 12 companies of which 4 are huge successes, 4 miserable failures and 4 “walking dead,” Nick Deeter is an extraordinary, accomplished and prolific ortho entrepreneur.
Of course, he lives in Warsaw, Indiana. Of course, he married the daughter of Zimmer’s President. Of course, he created the modern orthopedic pediatrics market. And, of course, we had to see how he and his latest success, WishBone Medical, Inc. was doing.
Hanging out with the one and only Nick Deeter, which we did this past June 2021 when we toured his WishBone Medical offices, was a master class in both orthopedics and entrepreneurism and a lot of fun.
An Entrepreneur Is Born
Deeter was born and raised in Warsaw and has more than 40 years of business leadership and health care industry experience. He credits his entrepreneurial spirit to his family.
“I started early. My great grandfather was a big entrepreneur in town and owned a number of businesses and my grandfather did and so did his four brothers. When I was a kid, literally in the summer, he [grandfather] would pick me up and drop me off at one of his brothers and say, ‘you’re working here all day.’”
Out of the four, Deeter really enjoyed working with his great uncle who owned a marina and hotel. During lunch, the pair would go over to the golf course and play nine holes then eat.
He explained that the experience got him thinking, “Well this entrepreneur stuff is really fun because you don’t get to do that [golf] in the middle of the day working at a big company.”
“So, I always enjoyed sorta the small business, being your own boss.”
In the beginning…there was Zimmer…and Vegas
Warsaw is known as the “Orthopedic Capital of the World.” As we toured the new WishBone building, Deeter mused on how orthopedics painted the landscape of his youth. Perhaps most significantly in high school when he dated (and later married) the only daughter of Zimmer Inc.’s president.
Deeter explained that because of his relationship with the (Zimmer) president’s daughter, the president would include him in “all sorts of things.” Notably, when he was 18, he “got to fly on the company plane to Las Vegas to the big orthopedic academy meeting.” Deeter laughingly recalled that he thought, “I’ve got to be in orthopedics my whole life. This is so much fun!”
Even without the private plane and Vegas conferences, Deeter still enjoyed orthopedics. He explained, “My first real job out of college was with Zimmer, I was an intern starting there. I spent time while I was in college and worked there. I really enjoyed the orthopedics side of it.”
Four Failures, Four Walking Dead, Four Home Runs and One Lesson
During our interview, Deeter looked back on his entrepreneurial background and acknowledged both his successes and failures. Deeter told OTW, “WishBone is my 12th company. Of the 12 companies I’ve started…four I would put into the category of ‘miserable failures.’ It’s like your whole world is ending, you’re losing everything. But those were probably the ones I learned the most at.”
Deeter continued, “Then I had four in what I call the ‘walking dead’ category. Which is, they still employ people, they do fine but I didn’t make any money from them.
But then I had four ‘huge successes.’ And you know, typically in the venture capital world, if you have 1 out of 10 that’s a good average.
So, I was 4 out of 12 and it was the first 2 that I started that were my biggest successes. So, I started thinking well ‘this is easy’ and ‘I’m a sharp guy’ and ‘I have this all figured out’ because they all worked. So, I was fortunate enough to start out early with a couple successes and then I think it was like three in a row that were awful. So, you kinda start over again and you keep being persistent. You never give up.”
What kinds of companies? Companies as varied as ViAtro, a medical device company specializing in infection control products, and (as one of six investors) Steris, which proved to be a resounding success.
The DePuy Connection
Deeter is not the first person in his family to pursue a career in orthopedics. His Great Great Aunt Ostia Lucille Smith was one of the first two female orthopedics sales representatives for Revra DePuy. On the WishBone company website, Deeter acknowledges his great great aunt and thanks her.
And then there was the time he became a DePuy employee. It happened just after he failed at retiring. It was 1998 and, for some crazy reason, Deeter hung up his spurs and retired. Not his best decision as he recalls, he “was really bad at being retired.” Mostly because all he did was “spend money” and look for other things to do.
That same year, Johnson & Johnson acquired DePuy, and he was approached about joining the venerable old orthopedics manufacturer to run the orthogenesis (custom implants) product line. Which he did and soon found that he was spending more and more time making custom implants for little kids. Naturally, Deeter spots an underserved market and he said something to the effect of ‘Eureka! there must be a market for anatomically correct implants for little kids.’
Deeter stayed at DePuy for seven years before leaving to start OrthoPediatrics, a company that creates anatomically appropriate implants for children. OrthoPediatrics today is a publicly traded company with a market value of $1.3 billion and trades under the stock symbol: KIDS.
Nick left OrthoPediatrics after seven years to help out another emerging growth company based in northern Indiana, Nextremity Solutions, Inc., a foot and ankle company. While at Nextremity, Deeter was looking at a closet of sterile packed foot and ankle kits one day when an idea came to him. Pre-packaged, sterile kits are an inherently more efficient way to supply surgical instruments and implants to non-traditional surgical markets around the world. No instrument sets to worry about, easy to ship, easy to store, lower cost. That was five years ago. It was also the founding idea behind WishBone Medical, Inc.
WishBone
Deeter formed WishBone with a big goal of getting pre-packaged, sterile surgical kits to clinics and hospitals around the world. According to its website, it does this by “equipping surgeons with innovative, anatomically appropriate implants and instruments in single-use, sterile packed procedure kits.”
During the interview, Deeter discussed the six acquisitions WishBone had made in the past two and a half years including: Red Star Contract Manufacturing, Inc.; Response Ortho; CSpine, Inc.; Imagine Pediatric Innovations; Back 2 Basics Direct, LLC; and Orbbö Surgical, LLC.
These acquisitions have been instrumental to the company’s success. Especially Red Star and Response Ortho. The first company WishBone bought was Red Star. Located “just up the road,” Red Star does all of WishBone’s “plastic injection molding which is mostly what the instruments are made out of.” Thanks to Red Star, WishBone is “up to 22 validated packages.”
The second company that WishBone acquired was Response Ortho in Istanbul, Turkey. The company’s impressive pediatric orthopedic implant offering caught WishBone’s attention. Deeter estimates that its product line helped to save WishBone “two to three years of development.”
Currently, Response Ortho creates the implants and ships them to Red Star, the team at WishBone designs everything, and then Red Star makes the instruments and combines the implants and instruments into sterile packaging.
WishBone shows no signs of slowing down. Since OTW’s visit to Warsaw, WishBone announced a distribution agreement with SpineCraft, LLC. This distribution agreement allows WishBone to “distribute SpineCraft’s ASTRA Spine Deformity System in several U.S. markets.” This acquisition will help WishBone complete its scoliosis product offering.
Big Goals
It’s hard to believe that WishBone is only four years old. Thanks to Nick, his experienced team, dedicated staff, and strategic acquisitions, WishBone came out of the chute on a tear and is well on its way to becoming a global leader in pre-packaged, sterile surgical kits.
WishBone Medical is an emerging growth company. Which means that it is small but growing fast and is ready for new capital to drive global market penetration.
One thing for sure, we came away from our visit energized and excited about Nick’s latest company and mostly, really appreciate how much he has given the industry over his remarkable career. If ever there was a Mr. Orthopedics, it would have to be Nick Deeter.
For more information about WishBone Medical, here is who to contact:
Kaitlyn Hughes
Director of Marketing & Communications, WishBone Medical
+1-574-306-4006
KHughes@WishBoneMedical.com
www.WishBoneMedical.com
