Let's delve into the inspiring journey of CEO Keren Leshem.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your family?
My name is Keren Leshem, I’m currently a board director and CEO at OCON Therapeutics, a mother of 3, and a cooking amateur. I grew up in the USA and moved back to Israel to join the Army.
It was only after this, that I started working in the Bio-tech industry — initially involved in the accelerator/incubator programs that are widely available in Israel and later at an investment firm managing a portfolio company. I moved on to a large(r) pharmaceutical company in Europe in 2017, where I headed all of its corporate development activities, which was not the best experience for an entrepreneurial minded professional that wants to deal with a multitude of projects and challenges which led to my work here at OCON Therapeutics.
In addition, I serve as a Board Director at a Swiss women’s health company: ASPIVIX, am a steering committee member with the NIH - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation IEF (Innovation Equity Forum), joined UK’s FemTech Lab’s admissions and advisory Board as well as LSX’s Advisory Board and am a Mentor at the Israeli 8400 Healthtech Network program.
I believe in strengthening women and make sure to lead with passion, integrity and focus on my 85% female-led team. I make sure to donate my time and earnings to and with women that are starting out their career path and those who have made choices that require mentoring.
Have you had any formal training or family business?
My education played a certain role in commencing my career. Most of what I know and do today is primarily based on my experience and roles I’ve been very fortunate to fill in the past and present.
I always wanted to contribute to the healthcare community through business management and leadership and quickly made sure my path reflected those ambitions and completed my MBA.
How did you come up with the idea for your business, and what was the process of turning that idea into a reality?
I really found myself working in women’s health almost by accident. I had a 15 year history of working in the Ophthalmology space in various roles. It was a few months before COVID hit and I was contemplating a job overseas or one locally and thankfully I decided to join OCON Therapeutics!
I initially started as the company’s VP Sales & BD and very quickly was approached by the board to see if I was willing to take over with a new strategy with a full pivot/re-start. We’ve done wonders since then, strengthened and built a unique IP portfolio, won a ton of technology prizes and global awards and awards and are on the way to build a unicorn in women’s health.
I’m so grateful for my team and board for supporting our mission and direction. The company was founded by an OBGYN that, rightfully, thought that the uterus, being a cavity in the body, requires a non-sharp, non-invasive round shaped device so that issues he has seen and observed over years of placing IUDs can be a thing of the past.
The 3D stent we are currently developing has its roots in that idea to fit the product to women’s anatomy safely and efficiently.
How have you grown as a leader since starting your company, and what have been some of the key lessons you've learned along the way?
Running a start-up company as a CEO can be an incredibly turbulent experience. The constant pressure to raise funds, meet milestones, and gain first-mover advantage can be overwhelming. However, this chaos makes a CEO grow as a leader really fast. I learned to be ‘anti-fragile’ (resilient), adapting to unexpected challenges and using them to become stronger.
I realize the importance of delegating tasks, building a strong team you can turn to and count on, and making tough decisions, quickly. And, I learned to embrace failure as a learning opportunity and become comfortable with taking risks. Ultimately, running a start-up as a CEO can be a difficult but very rewarding journey that teaches invaluable lessons in leadership and resilience, and I am very grateful for my incredible team that is constantly adapting to new realities and strategies making this journey even more fun and rewarding.
Last but not least, we are building a vision and under a mission to provide women with choices for their health and quality of life – what can be more important than that?
Can you tell us about a time when you faced a major setback or failure in your business, and how you overcame it?
When I was a young CEO, actually my first CEO position I brought a VC and an Angel to invest in the company.
I quickly learned that the ‘north star’ for either of them is extremely different so that the VC had the breadth to allow the company to develop a product that is more robust and comprehensive while the Angel wanted a quick return and had no patience to continue to fund the company. They continued to argue and fight about the product’s target product profile and priorities and the company eventually closed.
Have fully considered ‘motivations’ for various investors when fund raising (since then over $100M).
How do you stay motivated and focused on your goals, especially during challenging times?
Staying motivated and focused can sometimes be a challenge, but I've found that humor is the best prescription. When things get tough, I make a point to lighten the mood and laugh to lift everyone's spirits (including my own). I also remind myself that laughter is contagious and can help us all power through the toughest of times.
But all jokes aside, working on technology that can truly make a difference in women’s lives and stop their suffering, it is incredibly rewarding and keeps us – a 85% female team – incredibly motivated every day. We all know what it is like for our diseases not being taken seriously and having very limited treatment options.
We are all in this together to push forward an underserved area that caters to 50% of the population and deserves modern, non-invasive and non-painful treatment options to alleviate the agony.
How do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business?
I have an incredible family that give me a wonderful support system. It’s hard to manage perfectly with so many hours and attention dedicated to push forward all the important work and impact we’re creating.
For now the family and personal hobbies are taking a bit of a ‘back seat’ but this ratio will be more aligned once we have made a bit more progress I’m sure of it (at least that’s what I tell myself! 😊)
What are your plans for the future of your business, and how do you see yourself evolving as a founder and leader?
Our goal is to become the new standard of care for doctors treating uterine pathologies, away from deliberating hospital procedures and hysterectomies (full removal of the uterus). Any and every uterus deserves to be preserved for as long as possible.
Women’s suffering needs to be taken seriously and women definitely need more choices that are safe and less invasive and not necessarily with daily oral pills that suffer from side effects that can affect our quality of life. Being part of the World Economic Forum and other prominent Advisory Boards I get to shape future policy in women’s health.
I have made it my mission to extend this area to more than just pregnancy and babies. We are so much more than that and our unique anatomy extends into complicated disease areas that aren’t really addressed today. 1 in 3 women suffers from heavy or abnormal uterine bleeding. 7 in 10 women will have a uterine fibroid by the age of 50 / 8 women of colour.
It takes up to 10 years and 10 doctors to diagnose endometriosis. Governments are trying to solve these issues by sending these women on paid period leave.
But is this really the solution?
To send women home to suffer in silence and create an even bigger gender gap in the workplace. We need treatments that tackle these issues at the source. This is what we are working on daily!
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
If I could go back in time and give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to be confident in her abilities and to not be afraid to take risks – and you know what – be loud!
As a woman in a male-dominated field, it can be easy to doubt yourself and your abilities, be silenced or pushed out of discussions but it's important to believe in yourself and your vision for what you want to achieve and share it with the world as loudly as you can!
What's the most unconventional thing you've done to grow your business, and what was the result?
When growing traction of our first product, we went and partnered with companies that sold FULLY COMPETITIVE products.
They knew the market ins-and-outs, understood the training requirements and had strong ties to key opinion leaders in the field.
We saw that these highly specialized firms were the best fit and they gained higher market shares. Although a risky move – it paid off in the end.
What's the most important lesson you've learned from a failure, and how have you applied it to your business?
Be anti-fragile. An anti-fragile personality and team is one that thrives and grows stronger in the face of failure or adversity.
Such a team has built resilience, adaptability, and a culture of continuous learning into its DNA. When confronted with failure, an anti-fragile team will view it as an opportunity to learn, iterate, and improve.
Instead of succumbing to pressure or blaming others, the team will analyze the situation, identify the root cause of the failure, and use the insights gained to develop a better approach or strategy.
By embracing failure as a teacher and applying the lessons learned to future endeavors, an anti-fragile team can overcome any setback and emerge stronger and more capable than before. Just like a muscle – when pressure is put on it, it grows stronger!
I’m fortunate to have a team that is fully anti-fragile!
What's the most meaningful compliment or feedback you've ever received from a customer, and why did it resonate with you?
A woman, that went through our IUB SEAD® procedure – a non-invasive, 30-minute, in-office procedure to ablate the endometrium to relieve women of their heavy or abnormal menstrual bleeding currently in pre-pivotal studies – told us, that she couldn’t leave the house with an extra set of clothing during her menstruation. She was anemic and suffering every month.
After a single procedure with our disruptive technology, her menstruation reduced significantly, and she got her life back.
It’s such an honor to serve women, being able to impact their quality of life knowing how much they suffer and the limited option we all have.
If you had to choose one thing that makes your company truly unique and sets it apart from the competition, what would it be, and why?
Our IP Portfolio. We own the 3D space inside the uterus to treat prevalent and devastating diseases for women in a less-invasive, safer and more anatomically fitting way directly at the target tissue.
Our technology allows for a more homogenous spread of therapeutic to treat different uterine pathologies where current uterine technology has limitations in terms of reach, size, and shape.
Get to know more about Keren’s work here
Find Keren Leshem on Social Media:
LinkedIn Personal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keren-leshem-b67908a/
LinkedIn Company - https://www.linkedin.com/company/o-con-medical