Founders Readers - Ep 38 - Dr Smriti Zaneveld & Dr Jacques Zeneveld of Lazarus 3D

The Founders Keepers podcast, podded

The Founders Readers pod-letter is not a transcript, but an accompaniment to the weekly podcast detailing key insights from that exact conversation.

Whether you’re too short on time to listen to the full episode or just prefer written content, you can find it here 👇

This week, we’re speaking with Dr Smriti Zaneveld & Dr Jacques Zeneveld about their company, Lazarus 3D: A seed-stage US-based organisation that produces 3-dimensional printed synthetic human tissue models for surgical training...

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💬 Quote from the pod:

“The better prepared your surgeon is, the more likely the patient is to have a better outcome.”

- Dr Jacques Zaneveld, CEO and co-founder

🔑 Key insights from the episode:

• Why their “why” is important: The idea for Lazarus 3D came following a family member diagnosis of breast cancer, which was found to have metastasised to the point where it was terminal owing to a residual amount of tumour post-surgery remaining and spreading. Both Smriti and Jacques realised that there was “no intermediary for practising surgical operations” to minimise the risk of this situation occurring, and across the operating field in general.

• Why titles don’t really matter: Both Smriti and Jacques have defined roles in the company but by their own admission are not precious about their titles. However, they have also found that even where Smriti is leading a task or a negotiation, clients will often defer to Jacques even where it falls outside of his remit - this provides a useful sense-check as to who they can respect and want to work with going forwards, including both investors and healthcare partners.

• On the future of surgical training: Both Smriti and Jacques’ aim with Lazarus 3D is to branch out into, broadly, all disease areas and fields to enable surgical modelling and training, not just limit to one particular remit or area of surgery: Fundamentally improving surgeon confidence from medical students all the way through to experienced and seasoned surgeons with years of experience already, and thus improving patient confidence, safety and outcomes.

📖 Background:

• Founded: 2014

• Location: Albany, Oregon, USA

• IPO status: Private

• Industry: Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories

• Employees: 2-10 employees

• Funding stage: Seed

• Total funding to date: USD $6 million

• Lead investor(s): Ecliptic Capital

🔍 What:

• A seed-stage HealthTech startup that aims to improve medical training and surgery outcomes by enabling pre-operative surgical rehearsals on realistic, 3D-printed models

🔧 How:

• Lazarus 3D’s Pre-Sure® (PRE-operative SUrgical REhearsal) models are made with soft silicones and hydrogels that mimic human tissue making them ideal for practicing incisions and sutures.

• These models allow trainees to practice on a 3D printed, patient-specific replica before operating: Improving patient experiences, maximizing safety and driving better outcomes.

🏙 Company tagline:

• “Practice Perfection”

👉 Find out more:

Website: https://www.lazarus3d.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lazarus-3d/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lazarus_3d/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Lazarus_3D

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