Why do some of the most brilliant medical technologies never reach patients, even when the science works?

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

If you’ve ever thought “build a great technology and the rest will follow,” this episode will challenge that fast. Because in healthcare, the system decides what survives, not just the science.

This conversation breaks down what actually makes or kills a MedTech company, and what you need to understand if you want to move from technical expertise to real-world impact.

• Why clinical workflow, incentives, and reimbursement matter more than your innovation
• The “value triangle” every MedTech product must satisfy to survive
• How to stop trying to be everything in a startup, and build the right team early

This is where a STEM career shifts from “doing the work” to understanding how the system works, and how to influence it.

If you want to think like a strategist, not just a scientist, play this episode and start seeing where great ideas actually fail.

🧠 About the Guest:

Ben Wright is a MedTech investor, advisor, and co-founder of Mimetic MedTech Foundry.

He started in biological sciences and hand transplant research, then moved into the business side after seeing firsthand that great technology alone doesn’t guarantee success.

Today, he works at the intersection of science, clinical practice, and business, helping turn early-stage ideas into viable companies by building the right structure around them.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 Why great medical technologies fail despite strong science

03:00 From researcher to startup builder, the first reality check

06:30 Why accelerators don’t prepare founders for real MedTech timelines

10:00 Should scientific founders be CEOs?

14:00 The “value triangle”: clinical outcome, convenience, cost

18:00 The oral chemotherapy example, when incentives block better care

21:00 Why human behavior and workflow kill adoption

24:00 When better tech loses to incumbent business models

28:00 True disruption, and why it’s harder than you think

33:00 Why Australia struggles to fund MedTech innovation

38:00 What a venture studio actually does differently

46:00 A real MedTech failure story, and what it teaches about risk

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• 🎧 Quick Fire Chat with Ben Wright
• https://shows.acast.com/multiple-hats/episodes/69ad4b747036d73902764808
• Mimetic MedTech Foundry
• 
  

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. Where are you focusing only on the “technology” in your work, and ignoring the system it needs to fit into?
2. If you stepped back, what part of your work is actually about influence, not execution?
3. What would change if you stopped trying to do everything yourself and built around your strengths instead?

This episode is a reality check.

Not to discourage you, but to show you where the real leverage is.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Building Your STEM Safety Net: Cassie Leonard on Being the Only Woman Engineer at Boeing and Leaving Corporate to Coach and Publish

The episode of Multiple Hats, released for International Women’s Day 2024, revisits a recorded interview with aeronautical engineer Cassie Leonard, who spent 16 years at Boeing after entering a 35-man team as the only woman. Cassie describes her path from aerospace study at UCLA to persistence in applying to Boeing, early intimidation, and career growth through frequent internal “bounces” that stretched her technically and as a leader, supported by an organic network of mentors and advocates. She recounts a difficult double-stretch role during her mother’s stage-four brain cancer diagnosis and how her network helped her recover by finding a new position. Cassie explains leaving Boeing methodically to focus on developing early leaders and supporting STEM parents, self-publishing her book STEM Mum, starting Elm Coaching and Publishing, learning marketing, redefining success beyond paycheck, and aiming to amplify underrepresented voices in STEM.

00:00 Only Woman at Boeing

01:41 Meet Cassie Leonard

03:29 Engineering Roots and Role Models

04:38 What Aerospace Engineers Do

06:30 Culture Shock in Engineering Classes

08:14 Landing Boeing Through Persistence

09:55 Finding Your Voice on the Team

11:23 Career Growth in Two Dimensions

14:44 Support Networks as Safety Nets

17:38 When Life Forces a Reset

21:07 Why She Left After 16 Years

22:50 Motherhood in a Male Workplace

27:13 Building a Methodical Exit Plan

29:18 From Pro Bono Coaching to Business

30:50 Yoga Detour and Finding a Niche

32:54 Marketing Through Community and Boards

34:11 Book Framework Origins

35:00 Science Mindset Coaching

37:12 Whole Life Career Stories

37:54 Holistic Planning YOLO

39:39 Writing Editing Timeline

40:26 Self Publishing Elm Press

42:32 Money Mindset Metrics

46:36 Building Business Systems

48:07 Pricing Coaching Services

50:10 Marketing Website Authenticity

54:31 Targeted Volunteering Myths

56:53 Presenteeism Performance Debate

01:01:39 Redefining Work Life Balance

01:04:02 No Going Back

01:04:23 Inspiration Book Song

01:05:28 Final Takeaways Village

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beyond the Pipeline: Why Women Leave STEM, How to Spot Burnout, and Advocate for Real Change

This episode will put words on what many women in STEM feel but have not articulated.

The podcast episode critiques performative International Women’s Day gestures and focuses on lived experiences behind why women leave STEM, featuring three co-authors of the collaborative book Beyond the Pipeline: Cassie Leonard, Associate Professor Jessica Borger, and Dr. Belinda Bartolo.

The 3 authors represent 3 paths within the STEM sector, pivoting and staying to change the system from within.

Host Angelique shares her own career pivots and ongoing struggles with high expectations and fatigue, while the guests describe identity shifts, loss of joy, and turning points that led them to stay and advocate within systems or pivot into new paths.

They discuss systemic drivers of attrition—burnout, feeling undervalued/imposter syndrome, and bias—illustrating bias through examples tied to motherhood and career interruptions, as well as bias toward non-parents.

The conversation covers boundaries, redefining success, portfolio careers, four types of burnout, and advocacy that is collective and non-performative, including allies’ roles and examples of media-driven national-level change during the pandemic.

00:00 IWD Hype vs Reality

01:16 Meet the Authors

01:44 Host Story and Stakes

03:22 Jess Finds Her Voice

06:04 Filters and Advocacy

07:30 Belinda Loses the Joy

11:25 Cassie Pressured Out

14:07 Boundaries and Glass Balls

18:34 Portfolio Careers in STEM

21:15 Why Women Leave STEM

23:29 Bias Stories and Language

29:03 Motherhood And Imposter Syndrome

30:45 Fixing Parental Leave Systems

32:34 Bias Against Childfree Workers

34:21 Finding The Right Workplace Fit

36:13 Career Visibility For Students

37:20 Four Types Of Burnout

42:01 Breaking The Busy Culture

43:56 Advocacy Without Performative Gestures

47:22 Allies Speaking Up Effectively

50:16 Pandemic Anger To National Change

52:38 How Media Advocacy Snowballed

53:37 Final Takeaways

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.