Principal

Charlie Chi is an innovator, business advisor and serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of management, operations, product development, manufacturing and consulting experience in the medical device and high technology industries.  He has raised capital funding ranging from $5k to $5MM from private investors, private equity firms and venture capitalists. Prior to founding his consulting company (DrCharlieChi), Charlie Chi was president, CEO and chairman of the board of OtisMed, a medical device company co-founded by Dr. Chi when he was just 36 to address unmet clinical problems in orthopedics. Just one year after forming OtisMed in 2005, Dr. Chi closed $5 million in Series A funding from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and commercialized the company’s first product, Patient Specific Instrument (PSI). By 2007, Dr. Chi was generating positive cash flow for his start-up and, in 2008, led the company to profitability. After effectively creating a unique brand category, in 2009, OtisMed merged with Stryker Orthopaedics, a global leader in the development, manufacture and sale of orthopedic products and services. Dr. Chi served as vice president and general manager of Stryker Orthopaedics from 2009 to 2010. Prior to founding OtisMed, Charlie Chi was manager of research and development for Thoratec, a medical device company focused on treating cardiovascular disease with its VAD and LVAS implantable devices. Other positions held by Dr. Chi include: technical lead for OnWorld, an internationally recognized business intelligence company specializing in emerging wireless sensor markets; president of Wren Technologies, a business providing technical consulting services to the high-technology industry; senior systems engineer of Agilent Technologies, Optical Networking Division; director of systems engineering at C Speed Corporation; and, robot software engineer for Integrated Surgical Systems’ Robot Group. Dr. Chi has also taught courses in Control Theory at Cogswell Polytechnic University in Sunnyvale, CA. Over the years, Charlie Chi has been asked to speak at several high-profile technology and med-tech conferences, including Medtech Insight’s prestigious Investment in Innovation (In3) conference, MD&M West, the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and IFAC’s Symposium on Automation Control in Aerospace. Dr. Chi has also been featured prominently in the media with several bylined articles and op-eds appearing in a variety of respected trade and business publications. Charlie Chi graduated from UC Davis with a PhD in Electrical Engineering.  His research focused on using Artificial Intelligence in Robotics.  He holds more than 10+ patents in medical devices, biomaterials and consumer products. Besides starting his own companies, Charlie Chi takes great pleasure in giving back. He mentors budding entrepreneurs with ideas that solve a real market need in a variety of industries. Dr. Chi invites anyone who is starting a company to contact him for some business advice. READ MORE