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.
Niall McSheffrey - Managing Partner of Elementz Ventures
Dean Kline - Senior Managing Director at USC Rossier EdVentures
Carson Lappetito - President of Sunwest Bank
Special Episode - with Bill Carpou, CEO of Octane
Mike Gentile - Founder, CEO of CISO Share
Matt Case - President of Bionatus
Special Episode - Non-profit leadership during a crisis with Dawn Reese of The Wooden Floor
Sinan Kanatsiz - Founder and CEO of KCOMM, Founder of Internet Marketing Association
Special Episode - Intro to OC4 Venture Studio with Kyle Kamrooz & Carey Ransom
Matt Hayden - Founder of Sea Purity Investments, Chairman of MZ Group
Hicham Semaan - President of Tech Coast Angels, Orange County Chapter
Jeff Bocan - Partner at Okapi Venture Capital
Doug Wilson - Founder & Chairman of CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County
Toby Corey - Stanford Lecturer, Former President of Tesla
Marinela Gombosev - CEO of Evoke Neuroscience
Sergey Sundukovskiy - CTO & CPO of Certemy
Andy Fathollahi - Founder/CEO of The Kanvas Company; Founder/Chairman of Incipio Group
Tom Baine - President of Landsea Homes
Nick Smoot - Founder & CEO of Innovation Collective
Sue Parks - CEO of Orange County United Way
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