StarFish Medical Hosts MedTech Unscripted on Building MedTech Companies for Exit
Built for Exit brings together StarFish Medical CEO Scott Phillips and diagnostics pioneer Mickey Urdea for a candid discussion on value creation and commercial outcomes
Victoria, BC (April 1) StarFish Medical, a leading MedTech design and development partner, today announced an upcoming MedTech Unscripted, Built for Exit: What Drives MedTech Success, taking place on Wednesday, April 22 at 1:00 pm ET / 10:00 am PT.
As MedTech founders and executives navigate a more selective capital environment and longer, less predictable exit timelines, understanding how to build companies with exit in mind has become increasingly important. Scott Phillips, CEO of StarFish Medical, will sit down with Mickey Urdea, PhD, Founder and Partner at Halteres Associates, LLC, and former executive at Chiron and Bayer, to explore how early decisions shape long-term value and commercial outcomes.
Drawing on decades of experience as a serial entrepreneur, diagnostics pioneer, and advisor to hundreds of companies, Mickey will share candid insights on the decisions that matter most across the product lifecycle. The discussion will examine how foundational choices around product, team, capital strategy, and market fit influence exit potential, and where companies encounter critical inflection points.
Topics will include how to build with exit in mind from the earliest stages, common missteps that can limit optionality or reduce valuation, and how to navigate the strategic trade-offs that emerge as companies scale. The discussion will also explore how founders and executives can better position their companies for successful commercial outcomes in today’s evolving MedTech landscape.
The webcast will include a live audience Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to ask candid questions and gain practical, experience-based insight into building and scaling MedTech companies.
This MedTech Unscripted is designed for MedTech founders, executives, and leadership teams who want a clearer understanding of how to create long-term value and position their companies for successful exits.
Registration is now open. Interested participants can reserve their spot online.
Presenter Bios:
Mickey Urdea
Dr. Mickey Urdea is Founder and Partner for Halteres Associates, a biotechnology consulting firm. He also founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Tethys Bioscience, a proteomics-based diagnostics company that has been involved in the prevention of type-2 diabetes (acquired by HDL), and was Chief Executive Officer of Quantum Dots Corporation (acquired by Life Technologies). Additionally, Dr. Urdea is a founder and the Chairman of Catalysis Foundation for Health (CFH), a non-profit organization addressing gaps in global healthcare caused by inefficiencies in disease diagnosis and monitoring. Dr. Urdea is a member of the University of California at San Francisco Leadership Council for the Institute of Global Health. He serves as a consultant to the life sciences industry and is on the scientific advisory boards and boards of directors of a number of biotechnology and diagnostics companies. Prior to his current activities, Dr. Urdea founded the Nucleic Acid Diagnostics business at Chiron Corporation, where he pioneered viral load assays for the human hepatitis B, hepatitis C and immunodeficiency viruses; his team introduced the first commercial viral load assays for all three viruses. Dr. Urdea also headed the Oncology Diagnostics business unit at Chiron. He then became Senior Vice President of the Molecular Diagnostics group and Chief Scientific Officer at Bayer Diagnostics. He served as an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for more than 15 years. Dr. Urdea is an author on over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has more than 125 issued and pending patents. He received his BS in Biology and Chemistry from Northern Arizona University (NAU; Flagstaff, Arizona), his PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University (Pullman, Washington) and had an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California (San Francisco, California). Dr Urdea received an honorary PhD degree rom NAU in 2022.
Scott Phillips
Scott holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia. Prior to starting StarFish, he worked in diverse areas such as lithium battery development and manufacturing, UV spectroscopy instrumentation and hi-fi audio speakers. Under his leadership StarFish has grown into a diverse professional organization with clients around the world and 100% focus on medical devices. Scott is a past Chair and current member of the LifeSciences British Columbia board, member of the 2022 VIATEC Board of Directors, Fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering, winner of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2017 Pacific Awards Technology category, 2017 recipient of the VIATEC Technology Champion award, and volunteers with Junior Achievement, Entrepreneurs Organization, and University of British Columbia.