The lessons StartBox CEO David Lane and his team learned in the military became the foundation of the Atlanta-based health tech startup’s product.
StartBox markets a data-driven cloud system and device that aims to prevent wrong-site surgeries on patients, such as a surgeon operating on someone's left rather than right hand. It was the military’s emphasis on precision and safety that led the team to see the need for this type of product, Lane said.
“We knew there was a problem, and we solved it in a military manner,” Lane said. “If you look at the principles of what we’re based on, it ties directly on how we were taught safety — literally like what safety protocols are in firing cannons in the Marine Corps.”
Wrong-site surgeries are based on human error — wrong patient, wrong procedural type or wrong body part. By standardizing surgeries, StartBox wants to eliminate those mistakes.
Lane said the startup is based on enhancing communication, accuracy and empowering everyone involved to speak up if there’s a problem.
The startup, which was founded in 2016, took a hit when COVID-19 shutdowns stopped people from getting elective surgeries, which was its biggest market. Lane reported raising $1.5 million in a family and friends round this month to help the startup get back into gear.
StartBox has been funded by about 40 investors, all family and friends, Lane said. StartBox previously raised $8.3 million over four funding rounds, according to SEC filings.
How it works
StartBox’s functionality starts when a patient and doctor are working out details on a surgery. A device records the conversation and the agreement and stores it in a cloud system, which includes the procedure type, patient name and location. Having a recording means less room for transcription errors, Lane said.
The surgeon listens to the agreement before starting the operation. Then the surgeon can open the “StartBox,” which is a color-coded box that stores the initial surgical blade. The colors represent the exact body part on which the surgery should be performed.
“The human psyche is set up to recognize color first,” Lane said. “We utilize that to our advantage by creating a color awareness for the greatest likelihood of error in a surgery, which is left versus right.”
Johnathan Spangler, a two-time investor in StartBox, knows Lane through their days working for NuVasive, a California-based medical device company. Spangler invested in the startup because he saw the device as a way to prevent harm to patients.
"It’s terrible what can happen, and it’s entirely preventable if you embrace technology,” Spangler said. “By having this data-driven approach, you check human error. It’s powerful, yet very simple.”
The company is working to form more partnerships with medical groups to get their products in operating rooms. Lane said StartBox works with some small-business surgeon groups in Tennessee, Indiana, Florida and Georgia. He hopes to see his product expand into bigger hospital systems but wants to get data proving it works before pitching it to larger entities.
It's been difficult to form those partnerships in the months after the pandemic, Lane said, but the slowdown in business has given the company time to enhance the product's security features.
Lane’s team, many of whom he knew from the military, helped keep the company on track during the pandemic.
“There’s no one who would have done what these guys did throughout the last nine months when we had no business opportunity in front of us,” Lane said. “As tough as it’s been to survive that, we’ve continued to raise money and develop to keep improving.”
