Finding Opportunities When Curveballs Come Your Way: Interview with Cytovale CEO Ajay Shah

In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Ajay Shah, co-founder and CEO of Cytovale. The company is helping solve the sepsis problem with IntelliSep, a simple, cost-effective, and quick sepsis test.  Ajay is a serial entrepreneur and engineer with expertise in cell-based diagnostic technologies. Before Cytovale, Ajay co-founded two other life sciences startups, one of which was acquired in 2012. In 2023, Ajay raised a Series C financing round of over $80 million and brought Cytovale’s sepsis test to market.  In this interview, Ajay shares why CEOs should immerse themselves in the problem they’re hoping to tackle, how he nurtures relationships with investors over time, and his opinions on making the transition to entrepreneurship from a non-commercial career path.  Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things: First, if you’re into learning from medical device and health technology founders and CEOs, and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter. Second, if you want to peek behind the curtain of the world's most successful startups, you should consider a Medsider premium membership. You’ll learn the strategies and tactics that founders and CEOs use to build and grow companies like Silk Road Medical, AliveCor, Shockwave Medical, and hundreds more! We recently introduced some fantastic additions exclusively for Medsider premium members, including playbooks, which are curated collections of our top Medsider interviews on key topics like capital fundraising and risk mitigation, and a curated investor database to help you discover your next medical device or health technology investor! In addition to the entire back catalog of Medsider interviews over the past decade, premium members also get a copy of every volume of Medsider Mentors at no additional cost, including the latest Medsider Mentors Volume VI. If you’re interested, go to medsider.com/subscribe to learn more. Lastly, if you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Ajay Shah.