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Daria Lemann-Blumenthal Co-founded BELKIN in 2013 and was previously CEO of the Ein Tal Eye Center for 6 years. She has extensive managerial experience, including business development, project management, and team leadership.
Mrs. Lemann-Blumenthal completed her LL.B. at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an Executive MBA at Tel-Aviv University, both degrees awarded with Dean’s Honors.
BELKIN Laser is a clinical-stage medical device company developing an intuitive automated one-second glaucoma laser treatment, which will revolutionize accessibility to glaucoma care. It is a simple, painless, non-invasive procedure controlled by an image acquisition algorithm and an advanced eye-tracker. BELKIN Laser’s technology is applicable for the prevalent open-angle-glaucoma, and it will also pioneer treatment to angle-closure-glaucoma, which is most common among Asian populations.
In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Daria says:
First and foremost, the mission of saving the vision of millions of people inspires me. I love what I do. I love people, ask questions, learn from others. I never pretend to know everything. I see it as a strength to share your thoughts, concerns, solutions, failures, and successes with others and hear their opinions.
- If you want something, make it happen, go after it. Don’t expect others to do it; do it yourself
- Be generous as a default – people are good. Trust them
- The golden rule – Treat others as you want to be treated
Read on to know more about Daria Lemann-Blumenthal and her journey.
https://youtu.be/ptWTFaUIGI4
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: I come from a long line of ophthalmologists – my grandparents and father were all ophthalmologists – my father, Prof Michael Blumenthal, was a world-renown ophthalmologist, and the only Israeli who served as the president of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ESCRS).
Before establishing BELKIN Laser, I was managing the largest private eye hospital in Israel, Ein-Tal. When I was approached by Rad Biomed Accelerator to lead the new startup, I was fascinated by the opportunity to lead a company that will save millions of people’s vision.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: BELKIN Laser’s technology is an automated-one-second laser treatment for glaucoma. Simple and intuitive, our vision is to be the primary treatment for glaucoma patients. The procedure overcomes the problem of low compliance associated with eye drops.
BELKIN’s technology is applicable for the prevalent open-angle glaucoma, and remarkably, it will pioneer treatment for angle-closure glaucoma, especially prevalent in Asian populations.
BELKIN’s Direct Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (DSLT) technology is exclusively designed to provide an intuitive, easy, and fast laser treatment. The procedure is non-contact and painless treatment activated by a touchscreen, controlled by a high-resolution image acquisition algorithm and a proprietary eye tracker. It can be easily used by any ophthalmologist and other eye care providers in both developed and developing countries, dramatically increasing the number of treated patients at any given geography or setup, opening a new revenue stream.
140 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma and ocular hypertension (OHT).
However, there are just 200,000 ophthalmologists and 6,000 glaucoma specialists to treat them.
Our goal is to bridge the gap between the enormous number of glaucoma patients and the limited number of ophthalmologists by enabling the physician to offer our first-line laser treatment to many more patients.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: The company has raised to-date $19M in equity and grants. Particularly encouraging was winning the prestigious European Horizon 2020 grant in 2016 of €2.5M. We recently closed our Series B fundraising with $12.25M raised. We have received a huge vote of confidence from our investors Rimonci Capital, Santen Ventures, Inc., CR-CP Life Science Fund, our largest investor, C-Mer Eye Care Holdings, BioLight Life Sciences, and ZIG Ventures.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: Since founding the company in 2013, I’ve met hundreds of investors. In the beginning, if I received a no, I’d be devastated. It was the first time I’d been in a position of asking instead of giving. Earning potential investors’ trust and convincing them to take a chance on both myself and our company was very challenging. After more than 7 years of raising capital for the company, I must confess I love it. I love people, meet new people, understand different interests, and continuously improve the way I tell our story.
There are various channels to meet investors, either by word of mouth, through dedicated conventions and meetings, or via finders, bankers – each can work, as long as you are serious, invest effort and time.
In the past 8 years, I’ve learned to take any and every potential investor seriously, and the most important factor is to have the right chemistry or personal connection.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: The biggest challenge is, without a doubt getting in front of the right people and conveying our story and value proposition in the best way possible. I always recommend leveraging your network as much as possible.
Especially in Israel, the startup ecosystem is very active and very supportive. I’ve definitely benefitted from this help. However, Israel is a small country, and the number of investors is limited, so you have to establish a network that would take you to overseas investors.
As a CEO, you have to be proactive in communicating with your board members, investors, employees, KOLs, and advisors. Sometimes, the potential investor could be one of their friends, co-investors, etc.
The company started its life in the Rad Biomed accelerator as part of Israel’s Incubator Program, which was the right decision at that time. As everyone knows, the most difficult fundraising is when this incubation period ends, and you have to approach the market for funds. If I could start all over again, I would have started to work immediately with engaged employees who took a device from idea to market. Usually, startup companies, due to budget constraints, work with advisors to save money. Some advisors are better than others, though the difference is accountability. This would have saved us valuable time. Today BELKIN Laser, a more mature company, works this way.
When reaching the “death valley” stage, I took a chance and submitted a proposal for the EU Horizon 2020 program finishing the incubator period. My team and I invested substantial time and effort, and the very last funds we had in our bank account to make the best possible submission. Out of 400 candidates, 15 won. We were one of them. A $3M grant made the difference. This is another lesson – anything is possible; just do it the best way possible.
To summarize, the CEO has to align himself or herself with professionals who believe in the technology, care about the company, want it to succeed, and trust the CEO. These true partners will open doors and support the fundraising process.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: Three main milestones are planned to increase value towards the next round. Finalizing the GLAUrious randomized controlled trial in Europe, achieving the CE mark, and launching clinical trials in China, our external treatment approach is perfect for these glaucoma types prevalent in Asian populations.
Once clinical evidence is established, we are working in parallel on creating the best business model and the next phase of commercialization for where to take the company next.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: As we’re at the very beginning of our marketing journey, the best feedback we can get is from our medical advisors and the principal investigators in our trials. While we value their support, we are very attentive to their constructive feedback on how to improve. We emphasized the “voice of the customer” and made sure we focus all our efforts on our achieving our vision – providing a first-line intuitive and simple solution to be applied by an ophthalmologist. If you stick to your vision and apply the feedback from trusted users, you will not get lost in the process.
Currently, we have also started to work with a top industry & commercial expert who understands the market and how to best approach it. For the Asian market, we also engaged in-house consultants who can help us bridge the cultural and language gap.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: We love using social media like LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with our various audiences like investors, the tech industry, and medical professionals. As well as continuing to develop our SEO, we will be looking to maximize the opportunity of the many forms of social media channels available as we evolve and plan for launch and the ongoing communication to our customers, employees, shareholders, and industry.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: Many startups do not recognize the importance of a comprehensive marketing and commercial execution plan to support the business plan. Critical for clinical and early funding stages, the business plan details what will be achieved, while the marketing plan will provide the detail on how the business plan will be implemented. This will include fine detail on the go-to-market strategy and programs that define success. They are time-based and measurable to be monitored, managed, and executed successfully.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: Traditionally, Israeli companies looking to expand first in European markets – the closest market, and the US – the highest revenue market. Since our technology has unique characteristics that can specifically address glaucoma in Asian populations, we are looking to Asia as a primary market. Many of our investment partners are in Asia-pacific, and we are currently planning on opening clinical trials in China within the next year.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: Too much too soon. It’s important to evaluate global partners to ensure the right synergies and critically – to make sure they have the right level of commitment towards your product. Choosing the right partners for BELKIN Laser that have the capability, resource, and common shared priority and values for our product is key. If this is not carefully planned and agreed, then you will not set yourself up for success. In many markets, these will likely be distributor organizations. They have to buy in to present the company, go to market strategy and product brand consistently, and align with the values of BELKIN. The trick is not to move so quickly with a commercial expansion that you lose control but equally have a sense of urgency to ensure that key markets come on stream efficiently, maximizing the market potential.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: COVID-19 thus far has caused a mild disruption to our business. Being a small startup during the outbreak has had its benefits. Our size and quick decision-making capabilities allowed us to pivot our plans for clinical trials easily. Instead of opening some planned sites in Europe, we diverted them to Israel instead of more easily coordinating logistics and mitigating risk. Clinical trial recruitment poses a big challenge to any company, and it’s even bigger with the outbreak, as patients are more reluctant to leave their homes. However, I’m confident that our clinical team, led by Dr. Yoram Solberg, will find the right solutions and overcome these hurdles.
BELKIN’s R & D team, led by Eli Makdasi, has been able to continue to work safely at our facility and labs, which enabled us to progress as planned with our commercial device’s manufacturing towards regulatory approvals. When Israel was in lockdown, as a medical device company, we were allowed to continue working. We didn’t miss any working days.
I should also mention the flexibility our service providers showed. For example, our QA/RA director, Tamar Weizman, had to be in quarantine on the first day of our extremely important ISO audit. The audit company did their best to adjust to this change, and the 3-day audit had to delay the start by a day. The ability to change plans, be agile, and execute quickly is a common denominator amongst Israeli startups and a clear advantage.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: I view a founder’s company as a baby. You have to let the baby grow up and go off on its own at a certain point. This can be difficult to give away control, but if you choose your team well and establish trust, great success can happen.
Prof. Belkin, our founder and a serial entrepreneur, understood a long time ago that if he wanted his ideas to become a reality, he should partner with others who know how to execute. This isn’t trivial; to give away your child to someone else to raise them, you need high levels of trust and the understanding where your contribution is the best placed.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: My mother has always said – if you do – there will be. If you don’t – don’t be surprised why things don’t happen. Initiate and do it. That’s my role as CEO to make things happen.
When I made mistakes in my life, my father used to tell me a Yiddish saying, “Rebbe Gelt” – a small price to pay for a significant learning experience. You learn from your failure and succeed the next time.
I also believe in generosity. When you are generous, even if you are a lean company, this will pay dividends in the end, and the company will have higher chances to earn more in the future.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: As a full-time CEO with 5 kids, I, unfortunately, don’t have much time for leisure reading; however, I hope this changes in the future. Some books have really stuck with me – Angela’s Ashes, The Glass Castle, and Out of the Depths: The story of a child of Buchenwald who returned home at last. These books are about young children who have to cope with an unbearable life, survive and find a way to live a new and full life. I love stories of hope and overcoming great obstacles.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: First and foremost, the mission of saving the vision of millions of people inspires me. I love what I do. I love people, ask questions, learn from others. I never pretend to know everything. I see it as a strength to share your thoughts, concerns, solutions, failures, and successes with others and hear their opinions.
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal:
Daria Lemann-Blumenthal: I’m not there yet!
You can follow Daria Lemann-Blumenthal here.
https://twitter.com/BelkinLaser
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