Tamara Chayo, MEDU | Selling Into a Regulated Market and Founding at 20 [Ep. 97]

The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.

Our guest left university, launched her company, and raised millions of dollars to innovate in a very traditional and regulated industry: health.

We spoke with Tamara Chayo, CEO and founder of MEDU Protection, a startup that created a durable material for manufacturing medical protective apparel that can be reused up to 50 times without losing its effectiveness, while traditional equipment is discarded almost daily.

We talked about the problem of medical waste and how to navigate and sell in a market highly regulated by institutions such as the FDA and COFEPRIS. We also talked about her experience starting a company so young after leaving university and being selected for the Thiel Fellowship.

To date, MEDU has raised more than USD $4M from funds such as MAC Venture Capital and Halcyon Capital.

Youtube Timestamps*

[1:29] - Intro to Medical Material Waste

How did Tamara arrive at the fascinating world of startups?
According to the WHO, before COVID, 300 billion tons of medical waste were generated per year and, during the first six months of the pandemic, this figure tripled. What are its parts, where does the largest amount of waste originate, and why has the generation of waste become normalized?
What are the technical challenges and risks behind a product like MEDU’s?
How are products of this kind put to the test?

[13:10] - How to Navigate and Sell in a Regulated Market

Hospitals are one of the hardest customers to sell to. They are not only large companies, but it is an industry averse to change, because a small risk can mean a large cost. What did the first version of MEDU’s product look like, and why did they decide to give it away for free?
How did Tamara convince the hospital to trust the product of a startup led by a 20-year-old young woman?
What kinds of questions did Tamara ask the doctors after making iterations on her product?
Once they had the MVP, what was the step-by-step process they took at MEDU to turn that first customer into a paying one?
How does the typical purchasing process inside a hospital work, and what lessons has Tamara learned about how to make an effective sale in the health system?
What resources or people did Tamara rely on to learn about sales and build trust in this industry, and what would she recommend to founders in similar sectors with large customers and regulation?
What advice would Tamara give for raising a crowdfunding round?

[44:33] - Starting Young and the Thiel Fellowship

Tamara is the fifth Thiel Fellow on our podcast, after Pamela from Beek, Poncho from Nowports, Ian from Examedi, and Julian from Eva. What is the Thiel Fellowship, and what role has it played on her path as a founder?
Many people tend to minimize the role and impact of university in past interviews. Tamara says she comes away with a great memory of university and that leaving it was not an easy decision. How did she make the decision, and how do you recommend that other young people of university age think about the risk of starting a company?

[1:00:02] - Rapid-Fire Questions

If she had to start a company from scratch, what is the main piece of advice Tamara would give herself?
What has been the most influential book in Tamara’s career?
Changes Tamara would like to see in Latin America’s startup ecosystem