Daniela
Schardinger
CEO & Founder at ELAFY Consulting
"Scaling Medtech Without Burning Markets: Lessons From 30 Launches"
"Scaling Medtech Without Burning Markets: Lessons From 30 Launches"
Don’t miss out and join visionaries, innovators, and thought leaders from all over the world at the Women in Tech Global Conference.
Vote by Sharing
Unite 100 000 Women in Tech to Drive Change with Purpose and Impact.
Do you want to see this session? Help increase the sharing count and the session visibility. Sessions with +10 votes will be available to career ticket holders.
Please note that it might take some time until your share & vote is reflected.
Session: Scaling Medtech Without Burning Markets: Lessons From 30 Launches
Launching a medtech product is often treated as a milestone. In reality, it is a point of no return. Once commercialization begins, expectations reset, regulatory scrutiny intensifies, early numbers shape long-term narratives, and markets develop memory that is difficult to undo.In this keynote, Daniela Schardinger shares practical lessons from launching medical technologies across nearly 30 global markets, through both distributor networks and direct commercial efforts. Drawing on real-world experiences from Europe, Asia, and the United States, she explores what founders consistently underestimate: the operational burden of adoption, the fragility of early market trust, the hidden complexity of distributor-led expansion, and why early traction can trigger competitive and regulatory reactions long before a startup is structurally ready.
The talk offers an unfiltered founder’s perspective on scaling without prematurely exhausting key markets, and challenges the audience to rethink go-to-market strategy as a discipline of sequencing, infrastructure, reimbursement planning, and strategic partnership.
For medtech founders, the goal is not launching faster. It is launching sustainably, without burning the very markets you need most.
Key Takeaways
- Frameworks to sequence launches and decide when to partner instead.
- How early revenue resets expectations overnight.
- What global launches teach about real-world adoption complexity.
- Why distributors can amplify risk and shape misleading narratives.
- How training gaps and reporting behavior impact trust and regulators.
Bio
Daniela Schardinger is a global medtech leader with experience launching medical technologies across nearly 30 international markets. She advises startups, has held leadership roles at innovative medical device companies including OCON Therapeutics, and serves on the Innovation Equity Steering Committee in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the NIH.Daniela is part of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer community and contributes to global health innovation through the Women’s Health Alliance, Springboard Enterprises Accelerator Council, and the Forbes Business Council. She has been recognized for her impact in healthcare innovation, including being named Advocate of the Year by the California State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
