POSTED BY
Liz Moyles
Marissa Fayer,
CEO of DeepLook Medical;
Nonprofit CEO of HERhealthEQ;
Co-Chair US AI for Good;
Investment Committee at Goddess Gaia Ventures;
EIR at Graybella Capital;
TEDx Speaker.
I spoke with Marissa just a few weeks ago. Marissa as many of you know, is a sheer force of nature. I think I can multi -task BUT Marissa is something else – she makes me look like an amateur. She is so powerful, inspiring and motivational. I wanted to change the world after speaking with her. If she enters the room, people know she is there, she attracts people towards her energy, but she is also very down to earth, egoless, and very open about the sheer hard work and roller coaster of highs and lows it is to be leading as a CEO in this current environment.
Marissa started life intent on becoming an Astronaut! An economic downturn her to Medical Devices and that was that! Her fate was sealed! Her roles have taken her many places including Costa Rica- where everything was very different, and where she mastered the art of driving around Oxen in the road!
Marissa is the CEO of DeepLook Medical, a wonderful company using AI and Imaging to help visualize cancer in individuals with dense breast tissue- a historically challenging population to accurately diagnose.
Somehow, she manages to also hold various other roles and positions -many involving women and women’s health. She is the CEO and founder of HERhealthEQ, Co-Chair US AI For Good, sits on the Investment Committee at Goddess Gaia Ventures, is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Graybella Capital and in between is also a TEDx Speaker. Wow …………….!
- Marissa, what attracted you to move into MedTech? Was this something you considered as a child / teenager?
Not me! No, I was set on becoming an Astronaut. I interned with aerospace companies as I was focused on Aerospace Engineering but as there was a downturn and recession, I ended up falling into Medical Devices. I never looked back. I think I would have found this space eventually anyway, but I was incredibly lucky.
- Wow, from Aerospace to Medical Devices – that’s a little bit different. So, what was your first role in this world and what did you appreciate?
I became a Manufacturing Engineer for a couple of MedTech companies, and I loved it. I became immersed in projects and NPD and led product launches as an engineer. It was great. I was a female in a generally male department / function, at that time. I think that maybe was when my interest in making sure women had a voice and representation really began sparking!
However, my passion for Women & STEM probably came to a head when I joined Hologic. I started as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer and left leading large strategic projects around the world as a result of M&A activities. At the time, I was flexible and open to opportunities, and I jumped at the chance to travel with my role to places such as Costa Rica, where I lived for 3 years, then Canada. I went to many places after that including New York, California, Africa.
- It sounds like you enjoy taking opportunities. Were there ever any opportunities or roles you thought were too big for you or too challenging?
Yes. All of them! I created my role in Costa Rica and set off for the destination within 3 weeks of convincing Hologic the role was required. I didn’t really have time to probably think about what I was doing.
Going to Costa Rica was the best experience at Hologic for me. It was another country, another job, a promotion, different people, a different culture. I felt soooooo out of my comfort zone. Everything was new and I was just trying to figure everything out. I even had to figure out how to drive around the Ox in the middle of the road. I was speaking with people using words which meant one thing to me and something different to the other person. It was a complete culture shock and a culture realisation / a cultural diversity awakening in the nicest way. I saw the world through different eyes, and I suddenly realised how blessed I was and how blessed many of the people the USA are compared to some people living in non-urban situations in other countries with little to support or help them thrive.
I think if you’re not scared or nervous when you take on a new role, it is a sign that you have waited too long. You are over-prepared / you’ve been too cautious. No-one and nothing is perfect. Just go for it. Take a leap of faith. That’s what I do. I take leaps of faith – many of them. I knew then that if I was ever to grow, I would need to fail at some point.
Failing is a valuable learning experience as is taking leaps of faith.
I fought for everything I wanted and looking back I realise at the time, that I didn’t always think about the impact I had on others. However, I did as I went along. I learned so much from my experiences, and they changed me, and I changed too.
- How do you manage to have time to do all the things you do as well as being a CEO at DeepLook Medical e.g. your work at Graybella Capital , being an advisor at Welwaze Medical, being on the investment committee at Goddess Gaia Ventures, being co-Chair at the Silicon Valley Innovation Factory , CEO of HERhealthEQ?
I am a CEO and that is sheer hard work and yet there is something in me which just drives me. I have this passion and energy, and I work weekend and nights, but it isn’t work for me. It’s nourishing, it’s revitalising. It’s not a choice – I don’t make a conscious decision to do things really…. it’s just me being me.
- Tell me more about ‘giving women a voice and ensuring they have representation’ = we have spoken about this previously you and I.
Years ago, women didn’t really have as much of a voice as they do now. I don’t know if it’s because more of us are entrepreneurs. I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was then. We just didn’t talk about many of the things people do so openly now. There are more women in roles in science now and more women in Board rooms, more women in leadership positions and women entrepreneurs. There are more business which are for women – women’s health and welfare, and so more people, men and women, are more openly talking about issues which were once whispered about only, e.g. menopause, endometriosis, post-natal depression. Where there’s problems, there’s opportunities. The more people voice the problems that women -only experience, the more opportunities for new solutions, technology, companies, ides, innovation. It enriches society and benefits it in many ways.
Women are 51% of the population and yet investment in solutions, healthcare and women’s health has not been there. The investment in women’s health has been massively underfunded. Now both men and maybe more significantly, more women, are demanding money for women.
The women who are in this MedTech, FemTech space now, have grown up surrounded by women in work, women in more senior position in greater numbers. It is a different generation, and they are at an age and in a space where they feel they have the right and ability to influence the moment, make a noise, have a voice at the table and influence the movement of capital resource and investment.
It’s like a perfect storm and we are making waves!
- You certainly are Marissa! You mentioned not knowing what entrepreneurship was and yet you are the definition of entrepreneurship. What happened and when did you leave the corporate world then?
I was in the corporate world for 15 years and eventually there was a downsizing at Hologic, and I was let go. After Hologic I took on another role in Engineering as a Director, of Global Engineering and Project Management. That was my last pure engineering role.
I decided there and then I wanted a change. Everyone kept saying to me that I should go into consulting and join McKinsey’s or Deloitte’s. Instead, me being me, I set up my own company and entered the world of entrepreneurship! I learned what it was by doing it! I became an entrepreneur by happenchance.
I loved it – I worked with new and small companies, with larger companies on mergers and acquisitions and then integration. I knew how to integrate companies, how to run assessments very quickly as to whether two companies might be compatible and should be and could be integrated. And yet people kept asking me “when are you going to get a real job?” ☺
I then got approached by a VC ; they said they had heard about my abilities with M&As, deals and I moved into Business Development and found I was good at it. I then worked with Investment Funds, Investment Platforms in Life Sciences, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and more.
- So, given your experience on that side of the table as a member of a VC, what advice do you have for individuals trying to raise money and pitching to VCs?
- Be very clear and concise about where you are, what you are and what you are asking for.
- Know your market.
- Know who you are talking to – what does the VC specialise in? is it even working in your sector? e.g. don’t pitch about packaging if it’s a Health VC.
- Know the stage of investor you’re speaking to.
- Do your research, or the VCs won’t talk to you.
- Let’s go back to DeepLook Medical -what attracted you to the company?
It happened again, I was simply in the right place at the right time and the convincing presentation of DeepLook’s solution from the founders when we met, was so compelling, I simply had to join!
I wanted to take that leap.
I wasn’t ready to be a CEO – but I did it. I became the CEO of a small company learned the ropes, loved it and I have grown so much.
I had been in imaging previously at Hologic and I also knew the world of AI from my time at Ultrasound AI. I knew that AI was HOT, and I knew the challenges of radiology in breast imaging.
At DeepLook Medical we have developed a proprietary image analysis and display software to provide a powerful new decision support tool to radiologists using AI in mammography and other imaging moadalities. We have what we call, a “point-and click” digital tool. It is device agnostic, and it integrates seamlessly with all the FDA-approved viewing systems, enabling radiologists to probe through dense tissue and reveal underlying tumour data which is invisible to the eye.
Detecting tumours can be difficult anyway, but in dense breast tissue it is even more of a challenge. Dense Breast Tissue affects 45% of women. I didn’t even know about it till I moved into this space.
Our technology leverages the radiologist’s expertise to augment AI technology give them much greater diagnostic accuracy and allowing for better patient outcomes at lower costs.
- What Do You Admire About Your Team?
I am proud that we are so resilient. That we are fast. That we respond to customers and their needs quickly. I am proud of the fact we are saving people’s lives, - women’s lives and their families happiness. I love the people and their commitment, their intelligence, support, friendship.
- Before we wrap up, please tell me about HERhealthEQ as I know it is very important to you and Pamela Bonnett and many others. What should we know about it?
HERhealthEQ is my passion. Health equity for all women should be a right, not a gift. Women should have equal access to quality healthcare, especially medical equipment, regardless of where they live. And in the US and Europe, we are so wasteful!! HERhealthEQ is providing medical equipment to developing countries with a focus on diseases that affect women such as maternal health, cervical cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease. These are pieces of equipment which can detect, prevent, or treat NCD’s affecting women. It’s important because around the world, women are the ones who build and grow our society and without their health, they are not able to do that for themselves, their families, or their communities. We either deploy new or slightly used pieces of medical equipment to local doctors and clinics in specific locations. We have equipment now in 10 countries and about to be an 11th.
We are looking to partner with medical device companies for both donations of medical equipment and also need financial support for our growing projects. We are focused on maternal health in Mexico, Cervical Cancer in Nigeria the Philippines, and heart disease in Colombia and Indonesia. We also can create custom projects with donors and supporters to expand our work.
Anyone can reach out to HERhealthEQ on our website www.herhealtheq.org, to me personally on email or LinkedIn, or any of our team or board members like Pam Bonnett who you recently featured.
- So, what next for you?
I would like to negotiate a successful exit for DeepLook to a strategic. I would like to be a woman who has sold a women’s’ health company and had a successful exit.
There’s so much to do. I have so much energy and so much more work to do on women’s’ health and in Medtech and with cutting edge innovation. So I will see what’s next but it’s certainly supporting women and women’s health companies, probably from the investor side.
- Finally, I am dying to know, what sing gets you on the dance floor or on the karaoke?
Dancing Queen by Abba and September by Earth Wind and Fire…. They’re old school but I love them.
Thanks, Marissa, for such an entertaining and inspirational interview. I am honoured to have spoken with you.
And if anyone wants to send Marissa Fayer, any donations of funding or equipment for HERhealthEQ please contact either Marissa, Pamela Bonnett or myself.
Thank you for being so honest, entertaining, interesting and inspiring!
Liz
