Interview with Anestand Founder: Trevor Gibbs MD
We have all had that moment in the OR when we think this would be a cool idea that could take off and sell. But that is as far as we ever go, an idea. Discover how this anesthesiologist took an idea to market and how you can to.
The “Beyond the Practice” Series has been created to give you an insight and advantage into the professional side of anesthesia through interviews conducted with leaders in the industry. In this interview, Trevor Gibbs, an anesthesiologist and founder of Anestand shares with you his story and advice for taking that great idea and bringing it to the market.
BagMask: Let’s start at the beginning. When and where were you when you came up with the idea for the Anestand?
Trevor: The idea struck me several years ago while I was doing a rapid sequence induction on a morbidly obese patient that was not NPO. I set the supplies on the patient’s chest, like we always do, and started to induce. That’s when everything went sideways. First, my sux rolled off the patient and onto the floor. The nurse was holding cricoid and I reached down to grab it. At this point, the SATs are already starting to drop. I go to get my IV port, which is now underneath the wheel of the IV pole, and as I’m pulling on that the SATs continue to plummet. I’m getting frustrated and think there has to be a better way. That disaster of an episode was the inspiration.
I started to think of what I would want to hold my supplies. Where would I want that to be located? How would it work in our workflow? Could it hold my IV or suction tubing since they are always falling on the ground?
From these questions, I started to brainstorm ideas and the first one was a small Mayo stand that would slide under the mattress. But what if I went Trendelenburg, then everything would just slide off. I also wanted it to be able to help me if I was doing something on the arm board like placing an IV or A-line. So how about putting a clamp on it to hold the tray out by where I was working and level? I went through this whole mental exercise of making this product that could help me and then I just sat on the idea because I didn’t know how to take that first step.
BagMask: What was it that took you from just an idea to actually taking that first step of making prototype Anestand?
Trevor: Every once in awhile I would think about it, but I didn’t it do anything until I had another similar rapid sequence induction and said “That’s it. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to make this stand.” It wasn’t even an entrepreneurial venture, I just wanted one for me.
Initially, I looked to see if there was a place I could order one. I found there was no anesthesia specific stand that fits in our workspace and workflow. I thought, “Well then, let me look into how I could make one.”
Finding where to start can be difficult, but I discovered an organization called SCORE, which is a society of retired executives and entrepreneurs. I looked up a local chapter and read over the list of mentors trying to find who would be a good match. Ultimately, I decided on a mentor who had gotten a patent, started a company and then sold it. We connected and part of the process was to create a presentation for him to review.
I went to work creating the presentation. I took pictures of the table, the circuitry, anything that had to do with the workflow and wrote information about the problem and the solution to address it. Then it was time to present it and at the end of the presentation he said, “I see a lot of things come across my table, but I think this has some legs.”
Shortly after that we met with a patent attorney and, by the end of the week, I was at a prototyping lab discussing the product with a project manager.
BagMask: That all happened very quickly.
Trevor: Once I met the right contact, within a week we were off and running. This was in 2016.
BagMask: What I am curious about is what the patent process entails?
Trevor: Safeguarding intellectual property can be expensive, but there are several ways to approach it.
The first thing I did was submit a provisional patent. It’s a hundred dollars to file it and doesn’t have all the details of your full patent. However, it allows you to put the idea down on a piece of paper, submit it and then you have one year from that date to file your full patent. As long as you do it within one year, the date your provisional patent was accepted now becomes the official filing date for the patent.
The year time frame gives you time to explore the idea to make sure it’s going to be worth your while to invest in it and, most importantly, protect it during this exploration phase. Knowing about the provisional patent was a big help. After talking with my lawyer, we didn’t file the provisional patent until my first prototype was ready so we would have a full year before committing to going forward.
Having the provisional patent allowed me to show the prototype without fear of someone stealing my idea. And having that year allowed me to validate that I was onto something before investing time and money into the patent. The provisional patent was one of the best things I’ve learned about early on.
Bagmask: You mentioned it can be expensive to file a patent. Did you bring on investors early on or was it just you working on it during spare time and self-funding the project?
Trevor: The first two years, it was self-funding and a lot of hustle. When it came to the patent, I could have had the lawyer write up the needed information but that would have gotten expensive very quickly so I wrote everything that I could. The lawyer would say, “We need the background information,” or “Describe the product, you write and I will edit.” So I wrote as much as possible and it saved money.
In the end, it still cost around
