Most innovation stories are told as clean upward lines. A founder has an idea. Investors come in. The product launches. Growth follows. Eventually there is an acquisition or an IPO, and the story looks inevitable in hindsight.
But in women’s health, progress rarely looks like that.
More often, there is a long stretch where the science works and yet nothing seems to move. Inside that stretch, entrepreneurs are judged, investors grow impatient, and real progress is often mistaken for failure.
In a recent episode of Blindspot Capital, I sat down with Skip Baldino, former CEO of Gynesonics, to talk about what it actually takes to move a women’s health medical technology through a system that was never designed to adopt change quickly.
Much of what looks like an “exit” from the outside is, in reality, the end of a very long middle.
Gynesonics, which developed a minimally invasive treatment for uterine fibroids as an alternative to hysterectomy, was acquired by Hologic for $350 million last year. Headlines called it a success story. But the journey was not a straight line. It included multiple leadership transitions, product iterations, clinical trials, reimbursement battles, investor fatigue, and even the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank during one of the most fragile moments in the company’s history.
At several points, the company could easily have disappeared. Instead, a small group of investors stayed in when others could not or would not. Importantly, the employees stayed in and the company continued building toward a future that was still invisible to the outside world.
We talk about:
The hysterectomy default: why 600,000 procedures still happen annually in the U.S. and what it takes to shift the standard
The real work of medtech commercialization: clinical outcomes, economic proof, reimbursement, and payer dynamics
The do-or-die year at Gynesonics and why key opinion leaders matter
The Blackstone signal: what major capital moving into women’s health could mean for founders and exits
This conversation offers a grounded view of how innovation actually moves through healthcare and why patience, conviction, and sustained capital matter more than headlines suggest.
If you care about women’s health innovation, this episode offers a rare look inside the part of the journey most people never see.
🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube
📄 Learn more about the Learn more about uterine-sparing fibroid treatment and minimally invasive options.
🔎 Explore Channel Medsystems and innovation in heavy menstrual bleeding
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