Dr. Stuart Grant, Founder And Principal Consultant at Archetype MedTech, Tells TechRound About His Firm’s New “Expertise For Equity” Model

We sat down with Dr. Stuart Grant, Founder and Principal Consultant at Archetype Medtech, to discuss his firm’s new “Expertise for Equity” model and how it’s helping early-stage medtech companies bridge the gap between concept and commercialisation.

Here’s what he had to say.

Dr. Grant, Can You Share a Bit About Your Journey and Your Vision for Archetype Medtech?

Dr Stuart Grant: I’ve spent my entire career on the front line of MedTech innovation. Before launching Archetype Medtech, I spent 25 years at Johnson & Johnson, where I was deeply involved in the nuts and bolts of getting complex medical products to market.

I’m an engineer and am the named inventor on multiple medical devices myself, so I understand the process from the inside out. I know what it feels like to have that initial spark of an idea, but I also know how difficult it actually is to turn that spark into a viable, approved product. I essentially founded Archetype to help other innovators overcome obstacles that can derail innovations that could well be capable of changing patients’ lives.

You’ve Recently Launched An “Expertise for Equity” Model. How Does That Work, and What Was the thinking behind it?

It came from a recognition of a fundamental friction in the MedTech startup ecosystem, which is that the vast majority of the MedTech industry is comprised of small-to-medium enterprises who simply do not have the funding to access the high-level expertise they need to get their product to market.

Many of the most promising innovators are cash-strapped at precisely the moment they need outside help the most, leaving them with the choice of burning through their limited budget by hiring consultants, or cutting corners on things like regulatory strategy and paying the price later.

Our ‘Expertise for Equity’ model allows us to “hold the ladder” for innovators. We provide our full suite of services, which includes innovation management, regulatory compliance, and design engineering, in exchange for an equity share. It aligns our incentives perfectly with the founders’. We are not just a service provider, billing by the hour, who then walks away. We are an embedded partner committed to the long-term commercial success of the product.

Can You Tell Us About Some of the Companies You Are Working with On This Basis?

LumipenPro™ is a fantastic example of the kind of practical, high-impact innovation we love. It’s a unique illumination, suction, and smoke evacuation tool that snaps onto standard electrocautery pens used in aesthetic surgery. The surgeon behind it solved a real problem and has enjoyed great success in the US, but the European market is very different.

In the first instance we partnered with them to secure EU MDR (Medical Device Regulation) approval, which is a rigorous process that is often the undoing of US companies. Beyond that, our equity partnership means we are now working on the next-generation device. We are making it smaller, brighter, and even more efficient. Our engineering and regulatory experts are working alongside LumipenPro’s commercial leads to scale the business globally.

Another example is a company called C-True, which is tackling one of the most technically demanding areas of orthopaedics: total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) . Currently, most shoulder replacements are done freehand, guided only by 2D imaging and the surgeon’s experience. Existing robotic or navigation solutions are often bulky, expensive, and invasive, but C-True has developed a handheld, marker-less navigation system that uses AI and augmented reality to guide the surgeon. It offers CT-level accuracy without the need for large consoles or invasive trackers, and it registers the anatomy in under ten seconds.

What Is Archetype’s Role In Bringing C-True To Market?

C-True has a strong, validated prototype and excellent pre-clinical data showing sub-2mm accuracy. But moving from a prototype to a regulatory-ready medical device is a huge leap.

As part of our equity for expertise model we are acting as their embedded innovation partner to refine the system for manufacture and ensure it fits seamlessly into the surgical workflow. We are building the full design control framework in line with ISO 13485, managing the risk analysis, and planning the first-in-human clinical evaluation strategy.

For Investors Reading This, Why Is This Model Attractive?

For investors, the biggest risk in MedTech is “failure to launch”. You can have great IP, but if the regulatory strategy is flawed or the design controls aren’t watertight, the product effectively hits a wall.

When we step in as equity partners, we are essentially helping you to de-risk. We conduct a full strategic review that leaves inefficiencies nowhere to hide. We ensure that the product isn’t just clever technology, but a compliant, viable medical device.

Finally, What Advice Would You Give To MedTech Entrepreneurs Starting Out Today?

I’d say that you don’t have as much time as you think. You might have a window of roughly 18 to 24 months before tech advances might render your idea outdated. Your idea will not be ‘new’ forever. Even if you think you’ve developed something totally groundbreaking that will genuinely change patients’ lives, if you don’t know how to navigate the obstacles in getting that invention to the patient – and there are many – then it will never see the light of day. Whether you work with us or build your own team, you need to ensure that you have someone in the room who understands what needs to be done and when, to get a product to market.