SXSW Pitch Finalist: Hemafuse
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 20, 2020
Technology impacts all facets of human life, and sometimes it can save it. That’s the mission driving products like Hemafuse, one of 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2020.
Because of a global donor blood shortage, particularly in emerging markets, clinicians and patients don’t have enough access to donor blood.
“Right now, across parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, people are literally using a kitchen soup ladle and cheesecloth to salvage blood,” says Carolyn Yarina of Sisu Global Health, creator of Hemafuse.
With the “soup ladle” method, a doctor may open a woman’s abdomen, scoop out blood using a ladle, filter it through gauze and then use it to re-infuse to the patient. This unsanitary method greatly increases risk of blood contamination and clinician health.
Hemafuse can salvage, filter, and recycle blood from internal bleeding. It is currently sold in Africa through Kenya’s largest medical distributor. Over the next four years, Sisu, which strives to be the future of medical devices in emerging markets, expects to impact 14 million lives with Hemafuse — direct lives saved with the device as well as donor blood saved that could contribute to other life-saving procedures.
See the Hemafuse pitch in the category of Health, Wearables & Wellbeing Technology (5 pm to 6 pm Sunday, March 15) before a live audience and a panel of expert judges.
Winners in each of the 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Awards Ceremony, at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 15. SXSW attendees are also invited to Meet the Finalists from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Monday, March 16. All SXSW Pitch events take place at the Hilton Austin Downtown.
Sisu is currently expanding its product portfolio and geographic scale to develop additional cutting-edge, patented, clinically proven medical devices, and to create a system for medical device commercialization in emerging markets.
Yarina, Co-Founder and CEO of Sisu Global, was recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Healthcare, one of many awards the company has received for its work.
Prior to Sisu, Yarina founded a medical device non-profit working with rural mobile clinics in India. In addition to entrepreneurship, she has a background in chemical engineering, supply chain management, biomedical engineering research, microbiology research, and new product development for U.S. and Indian companies. She is the primary inventor of a modular centrifuge that operates with or without electricity. She speaks three languages, including Turkish and basic Hindi.
Yarina spoke about the meaning of Sisu in Finnish, the importance of building community, and what she loves about being in Baltimore.
What is your top goal for Sisu Global for 2020?
Our top goal is to break into new markets and add new products to our portfolio. We need to build on the success of Hemafuse to introduce new product lines. Only after we have at least two products scaling successfully in at least two emerging market regions, will we have proven the commercial model for medical device design with and for emerging markets.
This will require new partners, new skill sets, and new business model innovation. We’ve already proven our ability to work together as a team and execute, and I am confident in our ability to move our company to the next stage. Our dual 2020 goals are continued geographic scale of Hemafuse to achieve a $1M revenue run rate and a pilot of our second portfolio product.
Tell us your favorite thing about being based in Baltimore.
We are proud to be a Baltimore-based company with global reach. We moved our company from Michigan to Baltimore in 2015, and it was a great decision for us. We have had a wonderful community of peers, mentors, and we get to work with some of the best universities in the U.S. (Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland). The majority of our $2.9M of investment raised has come from the Baltimore/DC area. My favorite thing about Baltimore is the community and the support. We wouldn’t be where we are without it.
With the exception of Hemafuse, what tech trend is your team most excited about?
We are excited about the growing focus of medical devices R&D for emerging markets. To quote the Boston Consulting Group, “Demand for health care is growing rapidly in emerging markets, a function of rising household incomes, increased discretionary spending, and aging populations. Governments are also investing heavily in health care to combat chronic and critical illnesses.”
It is not only U.S-. or Europe-based medical device companies that are tapping into this trend. Medical device companies based in emerging markets are growing and increasing their market share; Companies like Mindray Medical International and BGI of China, and Transasia Bio-Medicals of India, and Ascendis Health of South Africa. We are excited to see this continue global trend in medical device development for emerging markets and we are proud to be at the forefront of this wave in the U.S.
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
The name of our company, Sisu, means, in Finnish, persevering in the face of adversity. When I grew up we used “sisu” to describe surviving winter in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Little did I realize how apt of a name that would be.
The start-up experience has taught me the meaning of Sisu: of grit, tenacity, and perseverance. I learned that creating a business isn’t about having a magic idea — it is about hard work and tenacity to make that ideal a reality. An idea can be made by one person — a company takes the input and support of hundreds of people believing in the same vision. In that way, it is very like all facets of life; to achieve success we can’t give up and we can’t do it alone.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten — or given?
I’ve thought about the advice I would give a younger me, or would give to a new entrepreneur with a big idea: Follow the philosophy of “learn the most and regret the least.”
The next 10 years will have both high points and extreme low points, but they will make you a stronger person. You have the ability to change the world, just persevere and know that you have the strength within yourself, within your team, your family, and your partnerships. Business and life are about relationships, your network is what will lift you up. Believe in yourself and believe in the people around you.
Tell us about a memorable celebrity encounter.
Shortly after we moved our company from Michigan to Baltimore, we were fortunate to participate in Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest Pitch Competition. With 10 slides, we convinced Steve Case, the founder of AOL, to invest $100,000 in Sisu Global. That investment was an important step in our journey. It cemented our decision that moving our company to Baltimore had been the right move. It was also a confidence boost that such an accomplished entrepreneur believed in our vision.
We are glad to be a part of the ethos of Steve Case’s and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund that we can build big businesses outside of the major tech cities. We can build scalable businesses that provide a great financial return and lift up our communities. We can leverage the unique assets in our home base of Baltimore that are available nowhere else in the world.
Look for more interviews with other finalists in this space between now and the start of SXSW Pitch on Saturday, March 14. Visit this page to see all previous interviews in this series as well as a list of all finalists.
If you are an entrepreneur, check out the SXSW 2020 Startups Track, which runs March 13–17. This track brings together founders and funders and showcases exciting new companies, products, services, and business models across different verticals and industries.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
