Yul Vanek is a big fan of projects. In fact, when there's not a massive undertaking happening at a company, he tends to get a bit restless.
"I'm a child of the '80s, from a computer standpoint; I was always tinkering, opening the early computers," he said. "What interests me at companies is, ‘Is there something tangible to do?' It's not just the day-in and day-out grind. It's, 'Let's build something, let's create, let's innovate.' As long as that's happening, I stay excited and when it's not, that's when I listen to the phone calls as they come."
The most recent phone call may lead Vanek to perhaps his biggest undertaking yet: becoming the COO of Immertec, the fast-growing Tampa-based medtech VR startup.
Vanek sat down for the inaugural Bytes with the Beat, a new Tampa Bay Inno event series that focuses on one-on-one, engaging conversations with local innovators making major moves in the region. He arrived this month at Immertec, after serving as vice president of technology solutions and services at Magic Leap, one of Florida's largest startups. He also previously worked at Accenture and was at Beats, the headphone device company, when it was acquired by Apple.
"To join a company (Immertec) this early, at this stage, to take the experiences I’ve had up until now, to help formulate the next several months, years of growth is exciting," he said. "It doesn't come along very often."
And the move was easy enough: Vanek already lived in the Tampa Bay area, in part because of proximity to family and friends but also because the startup scene simply impressed him more than the South Florida counterpart where Magic Leap is headquartered.
"It seemed to me to be a little bit more ... have more potential, let's put it that way," he said. "(With) Magic Leap, I wanted to make sure it went well but should there ever be a pivot, I wanted to be close to family and friends and potentially have another opportunity in the startup world."
And just like the startup scene itself, Vanek arrived at Immertec as it sits at the precipice of opportunity. The company snagged a deal with USF Health's CAMLS and then, as the coronavirus pandemic hit, saw a wave of interest as more and more hospitals had to pivot to remote. Now, Vanek's main goal as COO is to harness that potential into profit.
"Immertec was successful before the chain of events over the last several months and really, it's these events that have fueled the need for the solution we have," he said. "And it's positioned us to hopefully capitalize on it. But, now it comes down to us to execute. And that's why I'm here: I feel I have certain skills, background, experience that allow us the ability to execute the results we're looking for and our investors are looking for."
The company is now slated to roll out 100 of its operating room devices by the end of the year and "adding a zero" to that number by the end of 2021.
"We can really grow and demonstrate the platform this year and then accelerate our growth into next year," Vanek said. "That's the game plan."
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