Derek Herrera is the founder of Spinal Singularity, a medical device company that develops products to improve lives for those with spinal injury. He started the company in 2015 after working for another startup medical device company to learn a bit of the ropes.
We discussed his path to becoming an entrepreneur and journey so far.Derek graduated from the Naval Academy and was a Marine Corps officer for many years. He was shot and injured while on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and was paralyzed. He has been a very active advocate for Marines and veterans and is on the board of several foundations. It is amazing how many parallels his military experience and startup journey have, and his training there has been very helpful to him.
He’s also been building community amongst medical device industry founders in the area, so we’re kindred spirits in trying to connect more people here for greater support, encouragement and advantage. Derek is exactly the type of entrepreneur we need to support, encourage and provide "unfair advantage" to for creating an innovative company here in Orange County.
When Passion Meets a Market Need - Nicky Senyard, Co-founder & CEO of Fintel Connect
Launching a Startup within a Bank - Nathan Baumeister, Co-founder & CEO of ZSuite
Building a Personal Brand and Enjoying It - Teddy Mitrosilis of The Mitrosilis Group
Community-building as a Path to a VC Career - Rex Salisbury, Founder & GP at Cambrian
Charles Potts - Chief Innovation Officer at ICBA
Eric Sprink - President & CEO of Coastal Community Bank
Wayne Miller - SVP Innovation Programs at ICBA
Brent Jackson - Founder & CEO of Torpago
Ron Shevlin - Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone; Senior Contributor at Forbes
Howard Makler - Founder & CEO of Innovation Refunds
David Wexler - Co-founder & CEO of PortX
Zack DeFord - Co-founder & CEO of Smerf
Cat Berman - Co-founder & CEO of CNote
Jason Yeh - Founder of Adamant, Teaching Founders To Be Better Fundraisers
Bradley Leimer - Co-founder of Unconventional Ventures, Author of Beyond Good
Kiah Haslett - Managing Editor of Bank Director
Mark Forbis - Former CTO of Jack Henry; now Board Director & Fintech Investor
Alice Frazier - President & CEO of Bank of Charles Town (BCT)
Doug Holte - Founder & CEO of Agile Workweek Investments
Fred Thiel - CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings
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