# Sara Naab On Going From Idea to Funding to One of the Bay Area's Most Innovative Life Sciences Co's

- Show: [Global Medical Device Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast)
- Published: 2019-11-07
- Length: 21m
- Episode: 5
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative
- Listen: https://podcast.greenlight.guru/episode/sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative-life-sciences-cos

## Summary

Sara Naab, co-founder and director of quality and marketing at Sandstone Diagnostics, discusses the journey of building Trak, an over-the-counter male fertility monitoring system comprising a mini centrifuge and companion app. She highlights manufacturing, regulatory hurdles with the FDA, and investor relations as the primary challenges, contrasting them with the relative ease of their design control and quality systems. Naab explains how the company leverages agile software methodologies and a culture of humor to navigate the sensitive nature of sperm testing and achieve recognition as one of the Bay Area's most innovative life sciences companies.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=0) Introduction: Sara Naab and Sandstone Diagnostics
- [2:43](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=163) Startup Advice: Expecting Hardship and Funding Challenges
- [4:53](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=293) Origin Story: From Pregnancy to Sperm Counter Idea
- [6:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=375) The Clinical Problem: Archaic Sperm Counting Methods
- [9:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=541) Brand Strategy: Humor and Non-judgmental Culture
- [12:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=742) Product Details: Trak Centrifuge and App Functionality
- [14:17](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=857) Biggest Challenges: Manufacturing, Regulation, and Investors
- [17:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=1047) Secret Sauce: Agile Processes and Cross-Functional Learning
- [19:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2019-11-07-sara-naab-on-going-from-idea-to-funding-to-one-of-the-bay-areas-most-innovative#t=1197) Closing Advice: Know and Love Your Customer

## Topics

- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Medical & health devices](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/medical-devices)
- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [Certification & compliance](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/certification-and-compliance)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Sandstone Diagnostics (company)
- Trak (product)
- Greenlight Guru (company)
- don'tcookyourballs.com (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Episode 1 - The Hardware Story of Inito w/ Aayush Rai | Building a B2C medical hardware company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-story/2024-06-26-episode-1-the-hardware-story-of-inito-w-aayush-rai-building-a-b2c-medical-hardwa) (The Hardware Story)
- [017 - "Feet First" with Ahmed Zobi](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/lets-combinate/2022-01-26-017-feet-first-with-ahmed-zobi) (Let's Combinate)
- [S1E13 A Holistic View on Product Development | Devon Campbell](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2020-06-09-s1e13-a-holistic-view-on-product-development-devon-campbell) (Being an Engineer)
- [S1E23 A-Team Engineering, From Ireland to the United States | Ronan Jenkinson](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2020-07-24-s1e23-a-team-engineering-from-ireland-to-the-united-states-ronan-jenkinson) (Being an Engineer)
- [S1E12 Simplifying Quality Management | Jon Speer](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2020-06-05-s1e12-simplifying-quality-management-jon-speer) (Being an Engineer)

## Citing this page

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