Ethan Drower is the Co-Founder and Operating Partner of CiteMed, which is revolutionizing the European Union Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) process. Literature Search and Review is the cornerstone of medical device companies’ Clinical Evaluation Report, and CiteMed has made this process more streamlined and optimized than ever. The CiteMed team was formed to deliver a high volume of beautifully written and formatted Literature Reviews on timelines that will enable companies to meet their EU MDR goals.
CiteMed’s top goal is to help companies get their medical products to market as quickly as possible, all while maintaining state-of-the-art compliance with the European Commission regulations. A renowned business expert, Ethan educates others on the fundamentals of launching a successful software product, tips for aspiring entrepreneurs, and more
What is CiteMed all about?
I am the Co-Founder and Operating Partner of CiteMed, which is revolutionizing the European Union Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) process. Literature Search and Review is the cornerstone of medical device companies’ Clinical Evaluation Report, and CiteMed has made this process more streamlined and optimized than ever.
The CiteMed team was formed to deliver a high volume of beautifully written and formatted Literature Reviews on timelines that will enable companies to meet their EU MDR goals. CiteMed’s top goal is to help companies get their medical products to market as quickly as possible, all while maintaining state-of-the-art compliance with the European Commission regulations.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
“We saw a massive need rise with the implementation of the EU Medical Device Regulation in 2020 and 2021. Manufacturers were suddenly buried with work, especially when it came to Clinical Evaluation and Post Market Surveillance. Someone had to come in and innovate the space, because current best practices simply wouldn’t be enough to comply with the new regulation — we launched CiteMed to do just that.
CiteMed leverages a software platform that we built in-house to perfect the formatting of uniform and error-free submissions. Humans read and write, while CiteMed’s machines handle the arduous tasks of formatting and error handling. The result is consistency across all literature review submissions.”
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- “The most important trait is the ability to tolerate risk and uncertainty. The truth is, no one has any idea what will work, what will sell, and what will succeed in the long term. The entrepreneurs that do the best overall are ones that can be comfortable with not knowing what the future will hold. Instead, they simply are confident that they can always grow and adapt to whatever the world throws their way.
- The ability to successfully sell what you build is another quintessential skill for a startup founder, and while fundamental, it is surprisingly overlooked. I spent a lot of years of my youth laser-focused on building things, and then forgot to go out and try to sell them! The most useful ideas in the world will remain unknown, unless you learn how to sell them as well as you can build them.
- Finally, I would say that in order to be successful, an entrepreneur must have empathy and resilience to rejection.”
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
‘The CiteMed Edge’ has been our ability to bring together amazing technologists and industry-leading medical writers and regulatory consultants. It’s the collaboration between these groups that has allowed us to build tools unlike anything used in Regulatory Affairs and scientific literature review today.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- One mistake was underestimating the amount of time it takes to build relationships and make sales. It really is a full-time job to make contacts and follow up on leads in order to ultimately close a deal. It can’t be a part-time focus.
- Another mistake was not understanding our customers’ needs fully. We got into business with only a hazy idea of the exact problems that our potential customers were facing. The lesson here is simple: ask! Before you really get into business, you need to be crystal clear on the problem you are solving, and how your product/solution helps.
- One last mistake was not hiring staff soon enough. We did a LOT of work amongst the first founders/staff instead of focusing on hiring and growth. In the end, this only slowed our progress in exchange for barely increasing our short-term profit margins.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Content and providing free value to our customers will always be our best channel for marketing. We invest heavily in producing whitepapers and guides on the regulations that anyone can benefit from, not just our clients. Leading with value is always the best way to build a brand relationship and recognition with potential customers.
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
- If I could start my business again, I would give my younger self advice that Felix Dennis gave to me: ‘Ignore great ideas, focus on great execution.’ Most tech entrepreneurs are not short on ideas, but they are short on time and focus. When I look back at all of my previous business ventures, it’s become clear to me that any one of them could have been wildly successful if I had just stayed the course and continued to execute on it. Far too often, we give up our current project for a more exciting, shinier item.
- Another piece of advice I would give my younger self is also advice that another person once gave to me: ‘Learn to sell and learn to build’. These really are the quintessential skills for a startup founder, and while fundamental, they are surprisingly overlooked. I spent a lot of years of my youth laser-focused on building things, and then forgot to go out and try to sell them! The most useful ideas in the world will remain unknown, unless you learn how to sell them as well as you can build them.
- Finally, I would say that in order to be successful, an entrepreneur must have empathy, resilience to rejection, and a love for building useful things.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Monday.com has been our project management and company organization tool for over 6 months now, and we love it! It has helped us keep client projects on track, as well as drive progress on all of our internal projects.
- SurferSEO is another great tool that’s become integral to our content process. It helps us write and structure our posts so that they show up for the right people searching for help.
- Hubspot has taken over all of our sales and relationship management needs. We rely on it heavily for not only closing new deals, but also maintaining customer satisfaction and amongst our existing clients.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
I try to plan my weeks ahead of time so that each day has 2-3 ‘essential’ tasks scheduled. If I can get my important tasks done (and I try to do them first), then I consider the day productive.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs?
- ‘100 Million Dollar Offer’ by Alex Hormozi is a great book for entrepreneurs to read. Hormozi is a master salesman, and even if your business model isn’t a fit with what he does exactly, you can improve your product offering and salesmanship tenfold just by watching what he does.”
- Also, Naval Ravikant has probably had the most profound effect on how I approach business and company building. He thinks of everything in terms of time (how much will doing this action cost you) and leverage (what things can we do to increase the impact of our time). His podcasts teach you to think in terms of long-term, strategic moves.”
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Service-based businesses are the easiest to start with little to no capital. So we would probably do the same thing all over again, but focus more on consulting and less on software products/tools for our clients.
What is your favorite quote?
“My favorite quote is this:
‘People who never risk anything suffer the worst anxiety of all’
This quote had a powerful impact on me when first starting CiteMed. A new company in an old industry is a daunting task, especially when you have every intention of completely turning the current methods upside down. But the decision to press onward was made simple by realizing that I would feel worse if I never tried than if I would try and fail.”
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
You have to confirm that there is a market for what you are selling. This sounds overly simple, but most people waste years building a product that no one wants. Find the simplest, cheapest version of what you want to sell, and then go try and sell it! The feedback you get from this initial process is invaluable as an entrepreneur.
How can readers get in touch with you?
To get in touch, you can visit our website at citemedical.com and connect with us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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