Oculogica builds Minneapolis-based marketing team in commercialization push

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Oculogica Inc. has built out its first sales and marketing team, doubling the company's employee count and maximizing its ability to commercialize its eye-tracking technology for diagnosing concussions. 

Chris Massoll is joining as Oculogica's chief sales officer, Renee Koziol is joining as VP of Marketing and Laura Schuh is joining as a marketing manager.

Massoll is a medical-device industry veteran with sales leadership experience at Medtronic and Phillips Healthcare. Koziol is another medical-device veteran with experience spanning Fortune 100 and startup companies. In Schuh’s previous role, she worked with European manufacturers to expand into the North American market.

CEO Dr. Rosina Samadani said the new hires will help the company to shift from strictly focusing on research and development to putting its EyeBox device in more doctor's offices. 

"There's no point in inventing powerful devices if they remain unknown.” Samadani said in a phone interview Monday. “We are augmenting our rockstar engineering group, with a rockstar commercialization group to make sure we address that.”

Samadani said the business unit was formed with the intention of working remotely, but pivoted to a Minneapolis-based team based on the strength of the local applicants.

In addition to expanding the company's brand presence, the team will work to get direct feedback from customers to further improve the company's offerings.

Oculogica is currently studying how EyeBox could be used to study chronic traumatic encephalopathy. And it is working to deploy CannaBox, which will instantly diagnose cannabis impairment without the use of blood or urine samples.

Oculogica is based in New York City, and was founded by Samadani's sister, Dr. Uzma Samadani, a neurosurgeon at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. 

The company is backed by Minnesota angel investor groups, including Sofia Fund and Gopher Angels.

Oculogica currently has five job openings for roles such as developers, marketers and project managers.