Venture is First and Foremost an Adventure with Iwan van Vijfeijken

In this episode, host Henry Norton sits down with Iwan van Vijfeijken, CEO of Microsure and a four-time medtech entrepreneur who's been through the full cycle of startup life.

Iwan made the jump from NXP Semiconductors to medtech 15 years ago, starting as employee number one at Dermasun Medical. Since then, he's navigated three more ventures including Pulsify Medical, a cardiac monitoring startup that raised €10M before going bankrupt.

Today at Microsure, Iwan leads a surgical robotics company that's 100% focused on open microsurgery with their MUSA robot. Unlike the crowded minimally invasive space, Microsure is tackling procedures that can't be done laparoscopically.

This conversation goes deep on entrepreneurial resilience, the brutal statistics of failure in medtech, and what it really costs to keep going when cash is running out and families depend on you.

Key Topics:

• Transitioning from corporate semiconductors to medtech startups

• The journey through four ventures: UV therapy, cardiac monitoring, and surgical robotics

• Why Pulsify Medical collapsed despite breakthrough technology and strong funding

• Microsure's strategic bet on open microsurgery versus minimally invasive robotics

• The harsh reality: more medtech companies fail than succeed

Related Insights:

• Why small medtech startups can out-innovate billion-dollar corporates

• The personal grief and emotional toll of venture failure

• How to go all-in while still protecting yourself and your team

• Why encouraging your team to explore external opportunities isn't being unfaithful

Core Challenges:

• Pulsify Medical attempted two massive technical challenges at once: pioneering new semiconductor fabrication AND developing a wearable cardiac device. After raising €10M, European investors wouldn't fund the next stage. The company went bankrupt, a painful reality that took months for Iwan to process and move past.

• Microsure is carving out its niche in open microsurgery, deliberately avoiding the saturated minimally invasive market. The bet is that there's a vast, underserved market in procedures that simply can't be done laparoscopically. This requires absolute focus and the discipline to say no to adjacent opportunities.

Tune in now to hear the unvarnished truth about surviving, failing, and thriving in medtech entrepreneurship.

The Crux of MedTech podcast is brought to you by Cruxx, a specialist surgical robotics recruitment agency.

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A big thank you to our sponsors on this season of the podcast;

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