Venture Leaders Medtech 2025: Captain's blog by Stefan Tuchschmid, Co-Founder of Scanvio Medical

13.10.2025 10:00, Rita Longobardi

In early October, the Venture Leaders Medtech 2025 team set out for Boston with a focused mission: to connect with leading investors and experts in one of the world's top hubs for Medtech and Biotech. Today, we're pleased to welcome Stefan Tuchschmid, Team Captain of Venture Leaders Medtech 2025, as he shares his firsthand experiences and offers an insider's perspective on the eventful week-long roadshow.

The Venture Leaders Medtech program started a few weeks before the actual roadshow when we all met in Zurich for a full-day kick-off event. The investor and business development roadshow took place from September 28th to October 3rd, 2025, in Boston.

Day 1 – Monday, September 29
What a start to the week: an early morning, great inputs from NEMIC (New England Medical Innovation Center), pitching to Rahul Rakhit from Johnson & Johnson MedTech, and legal insights from Christian Wyss at VISCHER. We also stopped by Biognosys before ending the day with a wonderful hosted dinner at the residence of Swissnex CEO and Consul Philippe Roesle, who just arrived in Boston with his family. His hospitality made everyone feel at home.

As proud team captain, I introduced the first two members of our ten Venture Leaders Medtech 2025. Zina Yudina from Babylat, who develops on-site human milk fortifiers for preterm neonates in NICUs, reminded us not to wait too long before heading to the US market. And Matthew Lapinski from Clee Medical, transforming brain surgery with real-time vision and control, represented Switzerland with pride at the consulate.

Personally, I was glad to get some good pitching practice in for Scanvio Medical. Excited for what the coming days will bring – but first, time to recharge.



Day 2
Tuesday was a premiere: the Venture Leaders joined a tradeshow for the first time and we picked the MED Device Boston. Each of us explored the sessions most relevant to our startups, and in the afternoon, four of us – Clee Medical, Nx-Spine, OrthoSens, and Scanvio Medical – pitched at the inaugural NEMIC First International Pitch alongside four startups from Korea and six from the US.

Today’s featured teammates were Eric Ménétré from dEEGtal, developing AI-powered epilepsy diagnostics and learning that storytelling must strike the right balance between emotion and focus, and Nour Ghalia Abassi from DigeHealth, whose non-invasive solution for bowel obstruction prevention reminded her how much there is to learn about the US market.

My day started with an early run and swim with fellow Venture Leaders, followed by completing our Innosuisse Startup Innovation Project submission, a full afternoon of pitching, and then rich discussions with the team in the evening. We have grown closer as a group – and over a beer, we agreed that sometimes a bit of naivety is not only healthy but essential. Sometimes it’s good that we don’t know what we don’t know.

Day 3
We spent the day at the MedDevice Boston congress, diving into sessions and meeting people across the ecosystem. In the evening came a cultural highlight: watching the legendary Red Sox–Yankees rivalry in a true Boston sports bar, complete with good food and plenty of laughter. Big thanks to Matthew Lapinski for organizing it.

Our two featured Venture Leaders were Alexander Tanno from Hemetron, improving health through at-home blood monitoring and reflecting on how being in Boston’s medtech hub helps shape go-to-market strategies, and Hugo Meley from InTeeth, developing aesthetic, patient-friendly orthodontics and benefiting from our internal pitch session that turned out to be incredibly valuable.

For me, it was a day of learning, reflection, and a few curveballs – but just like in baseball, every pitch teaches something. We’re stepping up to the plate, taking our swings, and ready for the next round. Two more days to go.

Day 4
Probably our busiest day yet – three pitches in three locations, with ten presenters each time. Somehow, we made it work. We started the morning at Helbling Technik with an overview of their innovation and engineering capabilities, followed by a session with Melissa Ceruolo, who shared her journey from startup to exit and beyond. Then came back-to-back pitches, an afternoon session at Arnold & Porter with MedScience Ventures and discussions on US reimbursement and regulatory topics, and finally, an evening investor session over apero.

Our featured Venture Leaders were Leanna Caron from Nexilis, focusing on safe reinforcement of bone and realizing how valuable targeted feedback between pitches can be, and Gwenael Hannema from OrthoSens, whose talking implants reminded us that regulatory approval and reimbursement are two different battles – and the latter can be the tougher one.

Huge thanks to Todd Boudreau and the Arnold & Porter team for hosting us. It was a packed and powerful day but we were ready for Day 5.



Day 5
A golden finish to an unforgettable week. We started the day with a focused session and 1:1 meetings with Jamie Sundsbak and Steve Bethke from the Mayo Clinic Platform, and learned more about this great opportunity to interface with and access data at true scale. In the afternoon, we visited Portal Instruments, where CEO Patrick Anquetil shared startup and scale-up experiences that resonated deeply.

Then came our own Venture Leaders Awards ceremony – complete with trophies, courtesy of Matthew Lapinski and Emily Thompson. Hugo Meley from InTeeth received “Most Improved,” Matthew Lapinski from Clee Medical “First to Exit,” Nour Ghalia Abassi from DigeHealth “Best Pitch,” and Eric Ménétré from dEEGtal “Most Likely Future Unicorn.”

After our first goodbyes, we took a walking tour across the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus – and by pure chance ran into Nevan Clancy Hanumara, a Research Scientist in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, proving that networking can happen anywhere.

The final two Venture Leaders of the week were Emily Thompson from Pace Locator, improving patient care through novel heartbeat visualizations and reminding us that opportunities appear in unexpected places, and I learned once more that when startup life goes up and down, the mission keeps you grounded.

Looking back, what stands out most is the power of human connection. How a group of strangers can become a team – and then something more – in just five days is remarkable. Hats off to Stefan Steiner, Maurice Staeheli, and the whole Venturelab team for creating the space, rhythm, and magic that made it all happen. Now it's time to rest, reflect, and recharge.