Andre Mercanzini On Raising $70 Million To Pioneer Deep Brain Stimulation

Andre Mercanzini has now raised $70M for his important healthcare startup. His venture, Aleva Neurotherapeutics, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like BB Biotech Ventures, Initiative Capital Romandie, Kinled Holding, and BioMedPartners.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Spinoffs to optimize value and focus
• The future of healthtech
• Andre Mercanzini’s top advice for technical entrepreneurs

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About Andre Mercanzini:

André Mercanzini, Ph.D., is a founder and chief technology officer of Aleva Neurotherapeutics SA (Lausanne, Switzerland). He has held R&D positions at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto; the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bosch Research in Silicon Valley, CA; Sensimed AG in Lausanne, Switzerland; and at Zyvex Corporation in Dallas, Texas, the first startup company to commercialize nanotechnology.

He received his BS in engineering physics from the University of Toronto in 2003 and his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) in 2009. His doctoral research involved the development of microfabrication processes for implantable neurostimulation and recording devices. He holds two issued US patents on micro-assembly and four issued patent families on neurostimulation devices.

Connect with Andre Mercanzini:

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• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have a really exciting entrepreneur. You know we got an entrepreneur that you know has been through the cycle. You know we’re gonna be talking about building building before you know something is even trendy because right now everyone is talking about what he’s doing. And the type of stuff that he’s doing. You know this is now um, a segment that is really picking a lot of Hype and a lot going on around it and we’re going to be talking about raising money and a lot of really exciting stuff that is going to be very inspiring. You know for many for many of us. Even you know for myself and I’m sure that for many. Of you out there that you’re also building and scaling so without further ado. Let’s welcome our guests today Andrea Mercanini welcome to the show. So born and raised in Canada from None Emig grandparents. Obviously you know your mother from Spain we got to highlight that right? you know great cutre I’m a little bit biased but they.

Andre Mercanzini: Thank you so much Adejandro It’s a pleasure to be here.

Andre Mercanzini: I.

Alejandro Cremades: Ah, give us a little of our walk through Memory Lane Andrea how was how was life growing up.

Andre Mercanzini: Well, um, you know my my parents move to Canada and in in search of ah in search of a better life of what they had and in in latin in America and I think um, you know what that creates intrinsically. In the child of firstgeneration immigrants is an understanding that you have nothing to lose I mean you start off with a lot less than everybody else. Perhaps nothing and you have ah opportunities in front of you when you arrive in ah in a country like Canada or United States and so. Think intrinsically um, you capture and you go after those opportunities with a lot of energy and a lot of dedication if you want to make your life better and if you want to I would say justify the huge sacrifice that your parents made and in leaving their families and leaving their country. In order to to find a better place in this world for you. So ah the the pressure is is is on you. Um, as as the child of immigrants to to to I would say deliver on on on that improvement over generations.

Alejandro Cremades: Now in your case, you know you learned there was nothing to lose and also that it was very important to take advantages advantage of all the opportunities that were coming your way I mean I think that the level of consciousness you know in order to really be. You know of that you know state of mind you know is is remarkable and and I think here that your parents did a tremendous job because not everyone you know really has you know that consciousness around you know, like really wanting to take advantage of everything that is coming their way because you feel that your parents had to sacrifice a lot. For you to be able to have this in front of you. So what? do you think your parents you know, got right? You know for you to really have that state of mind.

Andre Mercanzini: So yes, yeah. Yeah I think the you know the the time growing up in the 80 s and in Canada um there were many opportunities in front of you even if you didn’t have money so you know I didn’t take tennis classes because tennis classes cost money right. But I did go to obviously pool. You know to to swimming ah courses at the ymca because they didn’t cost much money so we were continuously and I was continuously looking for what was free. Um, and and because I knew that my parents would always say yes to what was free. And there was just so many things to do in ah in a city like Toronto. So um, this eventually led me obviously through church hockey leagues and so on. But I think the most important moment for me was when I walked into. Ah what are called army cadets and in Canada ah kind of like a boy scout but attached to the military. At age None and and from that experience completely free I got to see the world I got to travel to the United States I got to travel to the Uk with with the military eventually joining the military. Um, but you know most importantly, never cost my parents a cent and and and obviously builds a lot of character and and builds friendships for an entire lifetime. So um, that that happened to be my path. It gave me I would say the resilience and and the motivation to study when when that period of my life came around to go to University and again this is seeing the opportunities that are ahead of you taking them and ah working. You know you know I would say working towards a better life continuously and you might not even be able to describe what a better life is but you just get used to working towards it and I think that’s an intrinsic fire in your belly that you can’t put out. Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Um, absolutely no kidding now in your case you know like you really went at it with engineering and engineering that took a different path more into the biomedical engineering so walk us through that.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, sure that.

Alejandro Cremades: You know sequence of events because you had the opportunity of studying this in 3 different countries. So I’m sure that you got 3 different perspectives to on on how to think about you know things.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, so I I attended the University Of Toronto I was in a program called engineering science which was a very competitive program. Very fun I was a laser guy so I was always walking around with lasers and pointing lasers and shooting lasers and I really loved optics. Um, when I was in my. When I was in my final year and in engineering my my beloved ah mother died of of cancer and I realized at that moment that um I um I wanted to do something purposeful with my career with my engineering ability with my ability to design. Um, and within healthcare care. So at that moment. It was the last year I was in optics I switched mentality I would say towards healthcare um, and I started seeking out graduate programs specifically in biomedical engineering and um. That was I would say one of the moments that we collect along ah along our path that is pivotal that tells you life is short. Life is ephemeral and um you again, use that fire in your belly ah to create purpose and um. And I’ve never looked back I’ve I love working in healthcare um, we were running a clinical study now and and and I love everything that we’re doing in that and and improving the lives of patients.

Alejandro Cremades: Now 1 thing that is very interesting here is that you went from being in Toronto to then in Stanford and then to going to loxanne you know there in in in Switzerland but 1 thing that is you know, really interesting. You know here for me, you know and.

Andre Mercanzini: That.

Alejandro Cremades: And and that I’m wondering and then I’m sure that many of the listeners are wondering is here. You are you know in the land of you know opportunity in the land of innovation. Especially they’re you know in Stanford like why moving all the way to losan and.

Andre Mercanzini: Friday war.

Alejandro Cremades: And obviously now you’re you’re in startups you know, but but obviously you know a little bit different. You know europe I mean has come a long way. But when you started you know in in startups yourself I mean Europe was very green nobody but in in Europe he was you either became a doctor.

Andre Mercanzini: And the.

Andre Mercanzini: F.

Alejandro Cremades: A consultant a banker or a lawyer you know, being an entrepreneur was really unheard of so why taking that adventure.

Andre Mercanzini: Have. Sure sure. So so the sequence events is is a little bit different I went into the ph d program in Switzerland so I was in Switzerland first. So maybe we can edit this differently when when your guys edit this so we can you know I would say that. Arriving in Switzerland you are correct that in Europe ah, entrepreneurship was not I would say as supported as it is in Silicon Valley or or in Boston or in other parts of the us and and so there was a lot of convincing to do about. Why you can be an entrepreneur why you can justify your technology ah to form a startup company. Um, however I would say that what what I did found one of the reasons why I came here was because the underlying science and the underlying technology was ripe for innovation. So it was ripe to be applied. To the world’s worst medical problems to the world’s most difficult clinical problems and I think that um you know when you describe it as green. It’s true that it’s green and entrepreneurship. But it’s also um, it’s also ah, very at the time it it was. Ah, a lot of technologies were available to form companies and I would say that in the states. Um, my experience when I was in you know in in the us was that as soon as something is interesting as soon as something is available. You better believe with it’s a whole bunch of entrepreneurs just as good and just as qualified as you are are on it in order to turn it into and turn it into ah a market but um, a market possibility. So I think that um we had. I would say ah more fertile ground here to to find and develop technologies less fertile ground you’re correct on on the financing certainly and on on the management required after you you achieve the financing but it has gotten significantly better over the past I would say 50 10 to 15 years significantly better where you see um companies that are able to scale companies that are able to raise significant financing here and and in other small european countries.

Alejandro Cremades: So in your case, how do you land you know doing what you’re doing because you know now you know you have people like Gila musk that that are you know doing their own thing. You know with nuralink and and it sounds like it’s a space that you know has been getting some good hype. But.

Andre Mercanzini: That are.

Alejandro Cremades: You got started. You know, really in in in this you know it was like about 27 and you started with the professor of philerineald with the Claudio Polo um but it it was a different world. You know when it came to to this a specific problem that you’re tackling so how what was that sequence of events you know for you guys.

Andre Mercanzini: Are.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: You know to really come into place or in front of the problem and then to say hey I think that this is worth it. We should really look into this a little bit deeper.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah now certainly I mean it. It required a lot of convincing at the time and a lot of people thought we were crazy which is a good sign and and nowadays there’s much more activity in the neuraltechnology space. So let me take a step back and actually give you kind of the motivator behind the problem here is that. Um, we we treat diseases of the brain using devices and using surgical techniques and um, the world has had a lot of difficulty developing drugs for brain diseases. They um are the the drugs that have the most side effects. They’re very difficult to get past the blood brain barrier. And so um, you know, basically we have not seen a tremendous movement in ah, patient care and neurological diseases for twenty or thirty years because these drugs are so expensive and so difficult to develop and so really the nexus of ah the the idea of of ah behind Oliva is that if we could actually. Ah, have a device or a surgical technique. Um to treat these diseases. It would be much more capital efficient to demonstrate that this is working and much faster to deploy to people that are in need um and without all of the problems of developing a new drug and so that’s why. Neurotechnology in in the time that we were actually developing oliva into ah into a company in 118 was motivated really was was was the lack of therapies that are available. Um, so so again now over the past ten to fifteen years especially with the rival of Elon Musk and neurolink um this seems much more obvious and nobody thinks people doing a neural technology company is crazy but but at the time it certainly was we we spoke to investors who didn’t realize that you can open the brain and implant something in it and and and so you know those phone calls were quite short and those were. You know, supposedly very I would say experienced healthcare investors. So so that that is the beginning and and the motivation and what we what we did was ah under professor philiplip brurneau who is a professor here at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology and lozan otherwise known as the epfl. He is the founder of 13 Healthcare Startups all of them based on um ah microtechnology or nanotechnology apply to a diagnostic or a therapeutic problem. So they’re all devices and ah working as his ph d student we were ah aiming to use. Mem’s technology Microelectroch Mechanical Systems. microtechnology and nanotechnology processes in order to make smaller devices that could enter the brain with less trauma. But once they’re in the brain that they could stimulate as efficiently as possible and once we had that underlying technology we were walking around you know as a technology push.

Andre Mercanzini: And the the other part of ah creating a story that can raise capital in the healthcare world is that a clinician says hey I have this problem and it appears to me that this technology could solve it. So let’s really properly formulate this problem. Let’s look at this clinical need and how you can solve it. And that’s when I started working with ah Professor Claudio Polo who is a neurosurgeon mostly treating parkinson’s disease and epilepsy patients here in Switzerland that was ah fourteen fifteen years ago that we started the company we’re we’re best friends we we you know we we ride bicycle ah we ride bicycles together a weekend. We ah. We have dinner with our families as often as we can. So we’ve worked very very closely over ah for more than a decade as an engineer and ah myself as an engineer and he as ah as a physician to identify these clinical needs to identify the technologies that help him treat his patients with with better outcomes and so. When we um, approach business angels I would say ah towards the financing the initial financing of this company I think one of the things that worked for us was that you had an engineer myself coming from a very good engineering laboratory and a physician ah professor polo. The the both of us working together to identify and solve these clinical needs and these clinical problems.

Alejandro Cremades: Now for this company I mean it’s same. It’s been quite a right? I mean you had the main strategic partner that went bankrupt you know I’m sure that that was a little bit tough for you guys you know along the way because I mean we’re talking about here a journey that has been 15 years over 15 years in the making right? so.

Andre Mercanzini: And.

Alejandro Cremades: So what happened there.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah I mean that that in in in in I would say in 18015 we we started talking to a company that was strategic became a strategic partner of ours and and was a supplier for a very important part of our device. Our devices is not a a simple device it. It. It has a a pacemaker which is an implantable pulse generator and in in in our field we call that an implantable pulse generator but most people would know that as a pacemaker and that generates signals that are. Sent to the brain through ah an electrode that we make using Mem’s technology and so and this is implanted in the body for more than 10 years okay so doing an implantable device. Um, once it’s implanted once it’s been deployed. Ah, you know you can’t go back and fix it. there’s no. tweaks and there’s no um you know there’s no screw there’s no place where to you can put a screwdriver to to tweak it so it is a lot like sending a satellite into space is that you know you better hope it works when it’s up there because there’s no there’s no recovery mission. Um, and and and here you’re dealing with patients and not only um, dealing with patients you’re dealing with their brains so you have all of the.

Alejandro Cremades: Um, yeah.

Andre Mercanzini: Complexity of opening the brain for the surgery and and obviously the the rates and the risks of infections and and and and all the other things that can happen. So ah, every single piece of the the every single component of the system is is critical. And so to to have ah None of the most critical parts of this system in the hands of the strategic partner that you trust for many many years help helps you sleep at night certainly but they ah they ran into they ran into trouble and they they ran into ah problems on the market and they eventually had to file for bankruptcy. Um, and so how we recovered from that was was was not easy. Um number one we tried to save ourselves by saving them which which was perhaps a dead ah dead end. We tried to save ourselves by buying them which out of bankruptcy. Ah, which which we were outbid and so at the end of the day you say well somebody else has bought your strategic partner. Are they friendly to you or are they not do they want to continue working with you or do they not and so luckily ah, many of those stars aligned and we have a a new relationship with the acquirer of this strategic partner. But I can’t say that it was easy living through their bankruptcy um another I’ll actually go ahead a alexander if you want to tee up another question.

Alejandro Cremades: Now was just going to ask you to because in that line you know of of deal making you know. Also you guys experienced that first hand when you went through a failed exit through an acquisition that you know ended up not having the outcome that they that you had thought you know at the beginning. So what.

Andre Mercanzini: Be.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, yeah, and in the long chain of events of developing health care technology the vcs invest in you because they believe your R and D or your device or your therapy is further ahead of your competitors then those competitors are multinational.

Alejandro Cremades: What what was going on.

Andre Mercanzini: Ah, you know North of $10 publicly listed companies and you’re you’re this little company that has raised. You know its none 10 or or None and so you have to move faster than them and you have to publish in our in our field we have to publish clinical data faster than them. And that did happen we we were moving ah significantly faster introducing a very new modality into the treatment of parkinson’s disease and we’re still recognized as the company that introduced this modality and so right after that none series of publications and the first I would say reports that our technology was working. Ah, we we were approached to you know for for for the acquisition of the company and that would have been one of the points that that is kind of the highest value value inflection point in the company’s lifetime where it would have been a sound choice to um to sell the company and um. For for various reasons. Not only hours, but for various reasons that that exit failed and and so you you dedicate? Let’s say you dedicate the company still a small company still working in a capital restricted mode. For four months or six months or eight months and and obviously the sea level in the management is None into this towards the acquisition towards the diligence towards the negotiation and then um, you know it it. It falls through and so now you say well that time is now lost and how do you recover from this. How do you recover yourself as an entrepreneur emotionally because because that that takes time to process. Um, it’s not about you know the money that didn’t materialize. It’s more about um the pathway of your innovation treating patients and getting into the market that that that hurts the most really and so um and then you have to. You know, have your shareholders go through the the grieving process of a failed exit and the recovery from that you know because obviously what they can imagine is that the the acquiring company walked away because they didn’t like it in the end and that that was not the case and so you have to explain yourself, but you are immediately put into. Would say a defensive mode of how you explain this and and and and how you I would say re-energize the team and and and recalibrate the team towards a new vision and a new mission once you’ve once you’ve gone through a failed exit.

Alejandro Cremades: Absolutely I mean because that’s signaling you say it could be catastrophic if you’re not able to manage that now you were alluding to it earlier. You know with talking about vcs. How much capital have you guys raised to date and what has been The. Ah, experience or the different financing cycles that you’ve gone through because I think that for ah opportunity like this one. It’s a little bit more different to you know if you were to raise for like a saas you know base type of Company. You know, typically it’s more the traditional thing that folks that are listening. You know would would tend to to endure. But.

Andre Mercanzini: That.

Alejandro Cremades: But how was it for you guys raising the money and going through the hoops from one cycle to the next.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, so ah, we have raised in total 70,0,0 equivalent of us dollars 70 so far through through None financing rounds about 40% of that capital came from venture capitalists and that was certainly in the beginning. And then 60% of that capital has come from family offices so these are high net worth individuals here in Europe and and and in Switzerland families that um, have net worths you know well over ten billion that ah that invest in companies that are therapeutic or ah biotech or medical device companies. That are the therapeutic or or clinical stage of development. So ah, we so like I can speak to a couple of things here number None is that um we founded the company in 28 in July and three months later lemon brothers collapsed so so it was a very dry period between 28 and 2010 and so we were lucky enough to be able to live off of grants I was a postdoc and and so we were living off of a grant that allowed us to make devices. But in 2010 we got our none business angel investments from business angels that had worked in the medical device field previously. And that got us on track to be able to raise a more significant Vc financing round a year later in 2011 of 14 and that financing round its use of proceeds was basically to build a human use device which we had not done. We hadn’t made many prototypes but we hadn’t. Brought something to the level that it was implantable in a human and and to conduct a clinical study in in a small group of patients to demonstrate whether our concept whether our modality worked in in the brain and so we were very lucky that we were able to use that capital incredibly efficiently in the beginning to implant. None patients human patients with parkinson’s disease um to to ah temporarily during during a surgery for for None ur and then publish those results as the very none indication that our technology was working and that our modality and our new modality was working from that point on um, again, you know there’s there’s there’s some stories there of a failed exit and so on. But. We were able to raise significantly more capital with with family offices. Our vcs continued with us but we were able to raise significantly more capital with family offices that were starting I would say in 2015 and 16 to understand the importance of neurotechnology for the treatment of brain diseases and so. This is still before Elon Musk but the the it was an easier cell I would say in 28 than 28 it was an easier sell in 2015 than in 28 when we already had clinical data behind us when we already had strategic partners with us that believed in this vision of treating yourological diseases using implantable devices.

Andre Mercanzini: So it got I would say significantly easier but the amount of capital you have to raise to submit for the ce mark which is our regulatory requirement here in Europe and and and the Fda in the United States the amount of capital and the amount of I would say preclinical data required. Become significant and so you need to be able to raise significantly more financing ah to to direct towards the efforts of ah of a regulatory approval. So in 2019, we actually achieved the ce mark in Europe and we were able to um to to commercialize in Europe. And um, and then about a year later very recently we we we released this. We submitted to the Fda and we have received our Fda investigational device exemption earlier this year in February so that’s the year Twenty Twenty two so that’s fourteen years after um, you know the the company started. Ah, 3 years after european approval. So so these are long processes that are very capital intensive and what is difficult during those times is that your investors if they are not used to the I would say protracted ah time element of developing a new. Ah, therapy and the long months where the Fda says nothing and you don’t really know how things are going that can really wear on you as an entrepreneur and within the management and so that’s why it becomes incredibly important to have a team around you that has been through this before. Ah, that is able to accept these challenges really and how long things take to come back from the regulatory bodies and and and again shareholders and investors that have the patience to see this through and and to go all the way through and we were very lucky I would say fortunate or else I wouldn’t be here today but we were very lucky that. All of those stars aligned we had the right team members. We had the right managers around the the company and and we had the right shareholders who understand that this is this is a long process that creates a lot of value along the way. But it’s a long process. Um, so so that culminates really in us arriving onto the market in the year Early twenty twenty in in Europe yeah

Alejandro Cremades: Nice now for you guys too I mean spinoffs you know has been you know something that has come to light too. So so why spinoffs you know what point do you realize that you can spin up some stuff out of the technology that you’ve created.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, it’s it’s ah it’s it’s important to ah I would say focus the company, especially a therapeutic company on None product in order to get that all the way through clinical studies. But as as an entrepreneur and and and as the founder of the company. Ah, your mind continues to race and your mind continues to look at at at other things that you can do with the technology you’re trying to capture all the value that you possibly can and so you have to you’re walking a very fine line between focusing and you know not getting distracted but also capturing value and so you you need help in kind of making that decision and and and and formulating. What you should spin off or what you should just not. You know, pay attention to and and come back to kind of the the core business. Um, when when we were approached by one of the world’s leading epilepsy device distribution companies. Um, a lot of um, a lot of their values set and a lot of our value set matched. Don’t forget that we started working on parkinson’s and epilepsy to make these devices. We had only been working on parkinson’s recently and so epilepsy was really in the Dna of the of the company since the beginning because. Those surgical problems are are difficult and and we can solve them with our technology so in ah in 20 and and and None we were approached and we started working with ah with Dixie. Ah, which is in Europe the largest distributor of epilepsy devices in order to create. Um, a new device using our technology smaller much more precise much less traumatic upon insurtion into into the brain. Um and adept was born and adept actually stands for Aliva Dixie Epilepsy Technologies ah so it was a joint venture which was fully funded by by by dixie medical and we worked very hard in order to achieve design freeze of that device and you know we we are still ah I would say a couple of years away from reaching the clinic. But now that technology is safely in the hands of dixie and and they will carry that forward and they have the commercial muscle to do so so that was a very satisfying I would say spinoff and we are looking at others I mean when you have a technology that is long-term implantable. And and you have proven your modality your technology and parkinson’s disease where our partner will prove it for us and in epilepsy. Ah there are other opportunities that we’re looking at other places of the body and and and and other ah regions of the brain.

Andre Mercanzini: That are I would say open to innovation and open to disrupting the way that the therapy is conducted today and those are interesting places for us for spinoffs.

Alejandro Cremades: Now in this case for you guys. You know what would you say if you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world where the vision of alivi is fully realized what does that word look like.

Andre Mercanzini: Yeah, Ah, you know what? what we want to do is make sure that patients have the power to control their therapy in order to have the best possible outcome. So A parkinson’s patient has trouble. Ah, walking they want to they have trouble holding things they have obviously ah all the side effects of the medication that they’re taking so for us the ideal world is where that patient has reduced as much as possible. The medication that they have to take which is what is causing the most side effects and they have. The highest quality of life that they can achieve. Um, after after having received our therapy that really is the ideal world for us and that means that the patient can work with their doctor but can also work with themselves to understand how the therapy that we that that they have um. Implanted in their body can actually improve their outcomes and their day-to-day and we just want to bring them as close as possible. Obviously it’s not a cure but we want to bring them as close as possible to the healthy state where they can enjoy their lives and and and enjoy those years.

Alejandro Cremades: Now one of the things that is very interesting. Is you know you just started really going to market here with something more tangible in 2020 you know after years and years and years of being the making I’m sure that during those years there were like. Really tough times really tough times right of of hey you know we’re just like hoping and frustrated because you want it to get faster not to to reach that light at the end of the tunnel and I’m sure that you know during that during you know that path during that journey. You’ve learned a ton of a ton of stuff. So.

Andre Mercanzini: Um.

Alejandro Cremades: I’m sure that you’re also not the same person right? You know like you’ve learned a lot. You know, many lessons along the way. So if I was to give you the opportunity of getting into a time machine and going back in time to perhaps that younger and drake. You know None years ago that was you know started to think about like how this could look like and maybe doing something around it. You know with with professor renat with a cloududio as well. I mean if you could go back in time and give yourself None piece of advice before launching a leo. What would that be and why given what you know now.

Andre Mercanzini: I think the major piece of advice I would give myself is that ah as engineers as builders as designers were not the greatest communicators and I think where I have run into trouble the most is where. I underestimated the amount of communication that was required ah either at the board level. Ah either with the team either with our customers. Um, and I think that um you know, um, as an entrepreneur you you are working with your board. You’re working with your shareholders to bring your vision. Um, and into the world and to change the world the way that you had envisioned and we have the tendency to build and and and we have the tendency to engineer that vision but I would say that where my weak point was was on the communication and um, how helping. My shareholders and my board understand the thought process not just the output of the decision and and and I think that that would have served me over the past sixteen years certainly

Alejandro Cremades: Um, now for the people that are listening Andrea that would like to reach out and say hi what what is the best way for them to do so.

Andre Mercanzini: So Linkedin is the easiest for me. Um, and you can you can find me there I definitely look forward to anybody who is like I was at the time sitting on what they believe is an innovation that would help improve someone. Ah, improve the lives of people that are sick and so I routinely answer those those messages for postdocs or pht students for professors that that have been working on something many times on the length scale of decades. Um, and and they need some advice or they need some motivation I’m much I’m I’m very very happy to do so and them I’m I’m um, very committed to helping the next generation of inventors. Um with with that with bringing their invention to the clinic.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well Andre it has been an honor and a pleasure to have you with us. So thank you so much for being on the deal maker show with us today.

Andre Mercanzini: Thank you a Handra I Really appreciate the time and I thank you very much for what you’re doing and bringing these stories of the entrepreneurs out there and onto the podcast medium I Really appreciate it.

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