In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Joanna Nathan, CEO and co-founder of Prana Surgical — a startup developing image-guided surgical platforms for precision oncology. 

Joanna's career spans translational research at Texas Heart Institute, product development at Saranas, and portfolio management at Mercury Fund and Johnson & Johnson's Center for Device Innovation. She mentors founders through her not-for-profit organization Enventure and teaches entrepreneurship at Rice University's Jones School of Business.

In this interview, Joanna shares her framework for evaluating which medtech ideas merit pursuit, revealing three critical signals every founder should look for: clinical urgency that requires no convincing, favorable asymmetry between value and technical risk, and optimal market timing. Joanna also demonstrates how systematic grant applications and strategic resource allocation can extend runway while building investor credibility, and addresses the unique psychological challenges of building life-critical devices.

Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:

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Lastly, if you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Joanna Nathan.