Spentys - Reinventing orthopaedics without finishing your studies - Florian De Boeck

Florian De Boeck created Spentys in 2017 with Louis-Philippe Broze, his childhood friend. The idea: to 3D print custom-made orthoses and prostheses.

The first euro of turnover fell three years later.

In between, there were shifts at Carrefour to finance a freelance designer at 50 euros, clinical studies in 4 countries, and the cessation of studies after an initial fundraising of 500,000 euros.

The initial financial plan was based on client hospitals in one or two years. They never were. A lot of R&D, good data, very interested people, and nothing that turned into a paid contract. Spentys therefore changed its target in February 2020 and started selling to orthopaedic technicians. Three weeks later, Covid closed all practices.

Twelve months without a single customer, with more than 100,000 euros going away every month.

What restarts the machine is a webinar organized after the first lockdown. Hundreds of participants, from all over the world, all wondering how to regain control of their production. Spentys stops billing by the unit and switches to subscription. Volumes are changing scale: from a few hundred devices to several tens of thousands per year.

Then comes the part that few founders tell in public. The raising of 20 million that is not happening. Valuations that collapse in 2022.

Three months of cash ahead of you. And a rescue round completed with investors already around the table. Florian also looks back on what he considers to be his real mistake: not having gone to live in the United States.

He gives his compensation figures straightforwardly. He explains how Spentys became profitable. And how he prepared for his exit from operations over six months before joining Wonka AI.

On the program:

• Create a medtech without a medical network and raise more than 5 million euros

• What "zero income for three years" really means

• Why hospitals don't become customers after a clinical study

• How to announce a pivot to your board and keep your confidence

• What a Forbes 30 under 30 pays for, and what it doesn't

• Get out of your own box without jeopardizing it