The Market for Interbody Fusion Devices

The market for spinal fusion includes interbody devices, artificial discs, repair products, and spinal fusion instrumentation among others. The market is expected to grow to $9.0Bn in 2023 from $7.1Bn in 2016 at a CAGR 3.4% according to a GlobalData report. According to Allied Market Research, this growth will be driven by the “advent of minimally invasive spine surgery techniques and rise in incidence of spinal disorders. In addition, surge in geriatric population is anticipated to fuel the demand for spinal fusion devices, globally. (sic)”

While studies have concluded that patients who undergo spinal fusion surgery tend to be slightly better off compared to those who don’t (68.5% with surgery reported improvements in back pain compared with 53.4% who decided to forego an operation), their long-term effectiveness has been a subject of debate. The perceived effectiveness of spinal fusion surgeries and interbody devices is a challenge faced by players in this industry. Other factors that emerge as challenges are reimbursement approvals and regulatory processes.

The Story of Titan Spine LLC

Titan Spine LLC is trying to overcome these challenges with cutting-edge research that helps increase the confidence of the public in such devices. Titan Spine’s breakthrough has been designing products that promote natural bone growth by using titanium instead of plastic in their devices. Simultaneously, they have also worked on the design of the devices to make products which they claim work better at macro, micro, and nano levels.

The company has been growing at a rate of 40% over the last 10 years. Its 2017 revenue was $63M, up from $33.5M in 2015. They have achieved impressive sales figures with more than 70K implants of its devices and over 50 patents to its name. Titan Spine has received 10 FDA clearances for its products including one for its Endoskeleton device that included its nanotechnology surface. Dr Ullrich claims it was the first time ever that FDA gave the nanotechnology approval.

The industry has taken notice of the work Titan Spine was doing. It has been able to raise $50.6M over 5 rounds, the latest in November 2018. The first two venture rounds were in 2016 and 2017, bringing in $7.9Mn and $9.1Mn respectively. The company then went for Series B over three rounds – $1.8Mn in 2017, $15Mn in 2018 and $16.7Mn again in 2018. Southlake Equity group has been the major investor so far, having invested in the venture rounds as well as Series B rounds.

The Men behind the Mission – Dr Peter Ullrich and Kevin Gemas

Dr. Peter Ullrich, the founder and CEO, is a former spine surgeon who developed Titan Spine’s first endoskeleton lumbar interbody fusion device. He completed his medical degree from the Wisconsin Medical School and is also the co-founder of Spine-Health.com, an educational website. When he came up with his idea of interbody devices and decided to start Titan Spine, he had then turned to his school friend, Kevin Gemas, for managing the business side of things. Kevin today serves as the President of Titan Spine Surface technologies and is credited with having started three companies in the past.

After developing the Endoskeleton, Titan Spine went on to develop Original Surface in 2007, a technology where an interbody device helps promote bone growth. A little later, they developed the nanoLOCK ® which helped promote bone growth even more. These technologies have helped it compete in a market with competitors like Spinal Elements (revenue $12M) and Spine Wave (revenue $20.4M). With each of the players competing on research and technology – Spinal Elements, for example, also works in Tissue Grafting – we can only assume that this will mean better and better patient care and treatment.

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There was nothing wrong with Fadiman. She merely had a different taste. 

You may see a little bit of yourself in Fadiman (I know I do) but if seeing a taste researcher seems difficult, don’t worry. Two MIT students have created an alternative.

Boston-based startup Bright Cellars that just raised a $2.8 million funding round led by venture fund Cleveland Avenue, Cream City Venture Capital and CSA Partners has built an algorithm which identifies your taste in wine through a seven-question taste palette quiz.

It’s the virtual sommelier or wine club that can help you save face and reserve your mmms and aahs for wines you really like.

The quiz questions range from your favourite type of chocolate (dark, white, milk, candy…), your go-to drink (other than wine, of course), your pick between red and white wine, to some psychological ones: How do you pair your wine? (A good book, a group of friends, etc.).

The answers make way for a shortlist of four wines from around the world that Bright Cellar’s algorithm decides you will appreciate. A note on the main ingredients and a flowery description accompanies each choice and if you are put off by a particular pick, just click on the ‘Don’t like’ button and ask for it to be swapped. The cost? $60 ($15 each) excluding the shipping costs and taxes.

With this personal palette quiz, Bright Cellars’ wine club hopes to create a returning customer out of you. You sign up to receive four new wines that match your taste every month. Of course, you can change the frequency or cancel any time but most items are non-refundable. However, the wine club is publicising a Delight Guarantee where if you don’t like the bottle you’re delivered, a concierge will help you select a free replacement bottle the following month.

Delivering world-class wines

Co-founders Richard Yau and Joe Laurendi came up with the idea for Bright Cellars in the wine aisle of a supermarket. Both had graduated from MIT and were former roommates. Yau studied management, music and arts and Laurendi majored in mathematics, computer science and engineering. After MIT, Lorendi developed software for PushPage, a Boston area startup and Yau helped bootstrap another Boston start-up, Nutraclick to $65M revenue in four years. He also had an internship experience at the Department of Water in San Francisco.

In the wine aisle at the supermarket, the two friends were overwhelmed with the available choices. The Bright Cellar blog discusses how they discovered that like many others, they too were buying wine based on familiarity, price, the label design, or posted ratings, than taste. 

But other wine subscription companies or clubs like Winc or Wine Awesomeness existed, so how different could Bright Cellars be?

Yau says, “Other wine subscriptions have focused heavily on discounting and no one has solved the heart of the problem yet”. The heart of the problem was introducing consumers to world-class wines that they probably wouldn’t have access to. But first, they had their own learning to do: Yau says he took two semester-long wine classes at Boston University, featuring tastings, lectures and assigned readings about wine regions and grape varietals.

PC: Pexels.com

The wine club was launched in 2014 and one year later, it was picked up by Gener8tor, an accelerator that invests in early-stage and high-growth startups for its three-month program in Madison. It provided Bright Cellars with mentors, a thriving startup community, and paid them $70k.

The inspiration for Yau and Laurendi was the trend of recommendation that has personalized everything today: from food to music. They only had to think of a way to bring the personalization to wines.

With their combined skills, the co-founders thought of creating a platform that would use machine-learning to curate a list of wines for people based on their tastes. But Laurendi admitted that, “creating a product that caters to every specific person’s tastes and adventurousness is actually quite difficult.”

Then came the idea to ask people a series of questions about their tastes – taking users’ opinion before offering the product which is used in several industries from financial planning to fashion.  

But is a seven-question quiz sufficient to understand a person’s true palette? Probably not, and therefore, the internet is rife with reviews where people have claimed that their wine shortlist remained the same even when they changed their answers, or that they didn’t like the picks at all. Some have also complained about shipping issues or receiving spoiled wines. But Bright Cellars claims that the quiz is just the beginning.

The startup employs many concierges who spend their time answering emails from “general wine questions to subscription adjustments to taste profile updates.” One concierge, Brook Spors says that it is a misconception that the “initial quiz answers are the only bits of information that we use to pair them (members) with their monthly wine matches”

Instead, they rely on a constant interaction with the consumer for better results. Chances are, the company will get your taste right only in the third of fourth month, as Spors reiterates: We’re here to help you discover wine(s) you’ve never thought about trying.

And wines that you’ve probably never heard of.

PC: Pexels.com

Bright Cellars claims that only one in 12 wines tasted at Bright Cellars makes it to the monthly collection. These wines are then sold for $15 a club and since they are unusual and hard to source, it is difficult for the consumer to compare prices. The only way to bring the cost down is by referring your friends and increasing the Bright Cellars 16,000-member community.

But the founders have bigger dreams, as Yau says, “I think we can do for wine what craft beer has done for the beer industry.”

The post Bright Cellars – A Wine Club Trying To Guess Your Favorite Wine appeared first on Techweek.