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Avi Yaron Invented a 3D solution for brain surgeons;

\\u201cIf you ask me what is my greatest achievement, it\\u2019s being able to save lives worldwide.\\u201d 

Hi, Reachers. 

This week I continue to dedicating this podcast to the entrepreneurs that choose to make this world a better place and to bring (for the 2nd time) the story of Avi Yaron.

Avi Yaron is a visionary entrepreneur, Executive Chairman, and strategic adviser with extensive knowledge of medical / Neuro technology arenas.

Passionate about disrupting medicine, for enhancing life quality, and utilizing advanced technologies.

Invented, founded, and led disruptive companies targeting un-met needs. Envisioned \\u201cemotion based personalized predictive preventative solutions\\u201d (see TEDxAmsterdam talk), set strategy and led Joy Ventures, to pioneer and cultivate a Neuro-Wellness consumer product ecosystem.

Most passionate about

• I prefer to help them to stay healthy and happy, or even delay the onset of disease Instead of helping people after they already developed the disease. As a technologist, this is what I\\u2019m focusing on.
• I would like to develop global, sustainable companies and services that can help mankind. After my TedTalk, I founded, with a team, joint ventures, which basically bank on the neural wellness products for individuals. This is not medical, but to enhance their resilience, reduce stress levels, improve moods, should be a gigantic market and joint ventures. I left them, but they are still continuing and are developing an ecosystem, both among the entrepreneurs and among academia, meaning funding long term start-ups and providing grants to academia to research the field.

Avi\\u2019s best advice about customer focus, marketing, and sales

• Everyone is my customer. My employees are my customers, the physicians are my customers, the CFO in the hospital is my customer, and I\\u2019m here to serve. Meaning, they are always right, and I\\u2019m always thankful for whoever tells me that I\\u2019m wrong because I would like to improve all the time, continuous improvements. I would say that generally I don\\u2019t give advice and I don\\u2019t believe in teaching; I believe in learning.

Biggest failure with a customer

• The difference between success and failure is very thin, and each of my companies, before eventually succeeding, failed miserably. Only because I had a phenomenal team and only because we were mentally flexible, and only because I gave a hug to whoever told me that I\\u2019m wrong, that we made it.
• There is a case study that I taught in Stanford MIT about my biggest failure. We were in the process of raising $20 million with one of the best banks, called Piper Jaffray for the go to market phase in 2001, when the big crash happened. My friend in Piper Jaffray called me one day and told me, \\u2018I\\u2019m so sorry, it\\u2019s not personal, everything is crashing. We can\\u2019t raise the money.\\u2019 I set an immediate board meeting. Before this point, they told me, \\u2018Avi, the company is great, you\\u2019re great, we\\u2019re always behind you,\\u2019 because I always manage risks, and then they told me, \\u2018Avi, we\\u2019re sorry, things have changed. We will not support you. You need to close the company.\\u2019 The company was a phenomenal success before then. We managed to get a FDA clearance in 18 months and here we were, in early sales globally, with a burn rate of $450,000, and then we learned that we had no more money and I had $1 million in the bank. That weekend, instead of closing the company, two board members and myself instituted a completely different plan and I had to let go a majority of the employees, buy back all the product that we sold, give back most offices that we had, and reduce the burn rate to $80,000, delay all payments, etc. Keep the company alive, and all of this over a weekend. Then, on Sunday, I called my...'