This week Paul talks to 2002 Head Girl Sheridan Gho about her medical startup company, twins, her time at IGS and much, much more….
Paul Galea:
Sheridan Gho, 2002. Head Girl and all around champion. It’s Paul Galea from International Grammar, ringing to see how you are and what you’re up to. How are you, Sheridan?
Sheridan:
I’m really well, thanks, Paul. How are you?
Paul Galea:
Good. But hot. But anyway, that’s okay. I’m just trying to stay in the shade for a little while. I just sort of introduced you then but for people who don’t know you, I remember you as being a girl who got stuck into absolutely everything when you were at school. You were very sporty, you were involved in a lot of different things around the place and you ended up being Head Girl, which I think is a testament to your commitment to being involved. And you were a good student, too. So, if we’re going on that, you were a person who was probably going places. Then we had our 20 year reunion not so long ago, and you and I had a long chat about what you’re doing, and I’m not going to tell a lie. I can’t really remember exactly what you were telling me, but I knew I’ve got to interview this person. So we’re doing it, Sheridan. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve done since you left school and what you’re doing now.
Sheridan:
Thanks. Well, hopefully I haven’t changed too much from the person you remember. Hopefully, still that person that’s into everything. So right now I’m the CEO and founder of a medical technology company. We use research and innovation and engineering innovations to come up with ways to create devices that improve people’s lives. We’re currently focused on the technology for the assessment and management of a condition called lymphedema.
Paul Galea:
Okay, lymphedema. You better explain to us what that is.
Sheridan:
So lymphedema is a swelling condition, and it’s usually caused by a damaged lymphatic system. And one of the most common way to damage the lymphatic system is through treatments for cancer. Those are often pretty invasive and they can damage your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic systems are responsible for returning a lot of the fluid that gets pushed out by the cardiovascular system into yourself. It turns a lot of that fluid back to your heart, essentially your cardiovascular system. So when you have a damaged lymphatic system, what happens is that sits in other regions, and it can’t return. And then if you don’t treat it, it can become pretty dangerous and damaging to your health and cause a whole lot of other health complications.
Paul Galea:
Okay, so you said you’re developing devices to help. So you’re developing little, pretty little machines that can help?
Sheridan:
Yeah, definitely. So we’re developing a wearable; something that can be worn on a person that can measure the amount of fluid, sitting under their skin, that can then also make an assessment on whether their condition is improving or regressing and then help them make better clinical decisions. So it’s kind of like a bit more of a medical Fitbit for a specific condition.
Paul Galea:
That’s interesting to me and sounds extremely complicated. Tell me, how did you come to be in the position you’re in now? Was it a pretty straightforward journey, did you go to university? Tell us about that pathway.
Sheridan:
Yeah, sure. I would say that it was a little bit of the path of least resistance combined with a lot of hard bloody work. So, as you mentioned, I love sports, and I continue to love sport. I still play socially. So when I left school, I actually took a ‘gap year’ and participated in the South Pacific Games, for Fiji in Ocean Canoeing. And then I came back and did an Exercise Science Degree at the University of Wollongong. And at around about pretty much second year, I was sitting in a particular lecture and it was in Biomechanics, and I just thought, “Wow, this is fascinating!” I found that just to be an extremely interesting subject, right up my alley. So I was able to join the biomechanics lab at the uni and did a bit of research with them, went on to do Honours and then completed a PhD in Biomechanics. Coming up to the end of my PhD, I was encouraged to do a medical device commercialisation training program. And I was quite excited about it because I also completed a Graduate Certificate in Research Commercialisation, and I could see that there was a really significant gap between what we were developing in the university, in terms of research and great outputs, and what people were actually able to purchase and buy in the marketplace to improve their lives. And so I thought this would be a really interesting space to be in; this gap essentially that exists between research, commercial research, and then commercialisation. I went on to do that training programme and at the conclusion of the program, I was fortunate enough to win a fellowship to go to San Francisco for two years. So I moved overseas, to San Francisco. I actually went with my co-founder, who was also a very good friend of mine and his background is in Mechatronic Engineering. So we had a really good partnership across the science and engineering base. We went to San Francisco. We worked out of UCSF, which is the University of California, and developed not only a device, a concept, but also the beginnings of the business understanding and creating the business opportunity around that particular device and need and solution. So upon returning to Australia, we founded our company and have been working on it. We were fortunate again to raise money from a New South Wales Medical Devices Fund grant and have been working at it ever since.
Paul Galea:
Wow, so, actually, I could call you ‘Doctor Sheridan Gho’!
Sheridan:
You could, yeah.
Paul Galea:
That’s fascinating. And how did you like San Francisco? I mean, obviously, in terms of your study, it would have been fantastic. But what about just as a life experience?
Sheridan:
It was really fantastic. You know, in all honesty, prior to that experience, I don’t think I would have looked at the States or the US as a place that I necessarily wanted to go and live and work in but having had that opportunity come up and then being able to go there and experience that; it was really life changing. Particularly if you’re in a startup ecosystem as everyone in San Francisco is in a startup, and so they just live and breathe that type of energy. So that was a really great experience. And then on top of it, I actually met my partner there and we now have twins. So we’ve moved back to Australia and have kids. So in many ways, it was a life changing experience for me.
Paul Galea:
Okay, so you met your partner. You’ve got twins. You know, I’ve got twins. We were discussing that at our reunion. We both know that having twins is twice the joy but also twice the work! So that San Francisco trip was a huge thing to you when you think about it. And when you went over there, were you worried about going? Was there any trepidation about going or you were just saying, “Okay, I’ve got to go to do this course, and I’m going to do it.” I’m interested in that because a lot of the kids or people who listen to this, but also the people who are interviewed have done something similar. And it’s quite a big thing to do. I’m just wondering how you were feeling?
Sheridan:
I think I sort of felt excited about the opportunity, so I would always be interested in moving to a different space and trying something new. I love to learn new things. I was excited about the opportunity, but at the same time, because it was a two year fellowship, I also knew that there was always that safety net or that catch of I had some space to come back to. And so I think knowing, that you’ve always got a place at home and you’ve always got a safety net behind you or people that can assist you. But then being willing to just take a little bit of a risk and step outside and try something new, I think for me personally, it was pretty exciting because of that opportunity, and it was not so daunting because of knowing that Australia was there if I needed it.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, it’s nice. I did a lot of travelling and one of the things that always was in the background was, you know, that there are better places to visit but there’s not that many better places to live than in Australia, so it is nice to have that in the background. Okay, so that’s really interesting. And with the startup side of your venture, you’re still with your business partner; he’s still with you in that space?
Sheridan:
Yeah, I’m still with my co-founder and we’ve got another full time engineer on board as well. And then we usually use contractors for the other bits of work that we need to get done without getting someone fully on board.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, so do you look for a gap in the market to fill? Obviously that’s something you’ve got to do. You’ve got to find a gap. You’ve obviously been looking at the lymphatic system first, but have you got other things in the pipeline, where you can see that there’s a space for you? Perhaps?
Sheridan:
Absolutely. So a gap in the market? Yeah. I mean, whenever you’re in a startup, usually what happens is you see a problem first, and then you try and invent a solution for that. When you come from the university setting, often you actually come up with the technology first. Like, you’re tinkering away and you invent something, and then you look around for a problem which it can solve. So I feel like we sort of started in that end where we had these, especially at the time, they were electro materials, and we we looked at this particular material and we thought, “Oh, well, this is a problem that we could probably solve with it.” But since then, we’ve realised that the technology that we were building didn’t solve the problem in the way that we needed to do. We realised that by talking to a lot of people who had lymphedema and other people that were experts, clinical experts. So I think you can go either way. I think you can look at problems and then try to solve them. Or I think you can sort of come up with a really great idea and then find a problem that fits as far as what we’re building. I mean, we’re very focused on the lymphedema market. But essentially what we’re building is a device that can, like I said, measure fluids and other other parameters on the human body in a non invasive way. So there’s a lot of pipeline for that.
Paul Galea:
I was going to say that that sounds as they have a multitude of different uses down the track and would be great if you could start to solve some of those issues in some of those areas. Wow, I’m pretty impressed and that sounds very, very, very high end. You’re a very clever woman, so that’s not going to be an issue for you.
Sheridan:
I’m surrounded by very clever people too.
Paul Galea:
You know what? That’s probably the cleverest thing you can do, getting people around you who compliment you and make you work better, and maybe in areas that you’re not so great in. That’s even more clever. We are going to go back in the past a bit now . Have you got any great memories or any special memories from your time at IGS, that you would like to share with us.
Sheridan:
I think we did a lot of things. Specific memories are difficult after a long time but I have to say, I will never forget the people and the cohort that we had. I feel like we had such a close knit cohort, and the teachers that we had were just absolutely brilliant. I actually came to IGS for Years 11 and 12, and I do have one memory in Year 11. It was quite close to the start of the year, it had to be in April because it was my birthday, actually. And I had come to this relatively new school and had just migrated as well. So in a new country and we’re still feeling a little bit, I think, out of sorts and out of water and I’m sitting in a classroom on my birthday. And then some of my friends, in my year level, walked in with this huge bunch of flowers and wished me happy birthday. And I didn’t even know that they knew that it was my birthday that day, but it just struck me as such a beautiful thing to do. It made me feel so much more at home and in place. Things like that. And there are other sort of probably little memories along the way that just put an immense amount of value on people. That’s what I recall from IGS and my time there.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, that’s nice memories. They are very nice bunch of kids, your cohort. And in fact, at the 20 Year Reunion, they were a very nice bunch of adults and grown ups, but some of them were behaving not so grown up on that night!! But anyway, let’s stop talking about that. The only other thing I think I’d like to ask you; you’ve made a success of your life, and you’re doing some really exciting things. Have you got any advice to people who are still studying here in Years 11 or 12? And you know any sorts of ideas on how for them to make their way? Any ideas that you think might be good for them – it doesn’t have to be, you know, too specific.
Sheridan:
Sure. One of them is, “Stop worrying so much about what you should do and start thinking about what you want to do. “ That speaks to following your passions and what you’re interested in because often your work ethic, your ability to stay on task, the opportunities that open up to you, they actually follow, where your heart goes. That’s not to say that when those opportunities open up, there isn’t a whole lot of hard work involved. For example, at school, I did, Visual Arts, Drama and PDHPE. So I didn’t have Science. But I went on and did a Science degree and then became a medical CEO. It actually had more to do with things that I was passionate about and interested in and choosing to work hard in those areas. So I would say, “Don’t stress so much about what you should be doing and really start thinking because it’s actually a lot harder than you think to work out what you want to do.” Then another thing would be that I would suggest, find a mentor. So having somebody that can mentor you, whether it’s academically or personally or both preferably, is so important. And this is, I find, particularly important for historically underrepresented groups. So, you know, women, people of colour, queer identifying people; you really need to find a champion and somebody that is experienced that will champion you, and help guide you and provide you with some insight and correction when you need it. So those are probably the two main things that I would look back on and say, these are things that really helped me.
Paul Galea:
Well, they are excellent bits of advice. I couldn’t agree with you more. Sheridan, you’re an incredibly articulate and impressive young woman. And I really thank you for talking to me. I feel a little bit inadequate talking to you because I’m feeling a little bit out of my depth there. But you know that, I’m always, even as an old man, still happy to learn and listen and learn from people who are doing great things in the world. Thanks again for talking Sheridan, and we’ll see you soon.
Sheridan:
You’re very welcome. Thanks, Paul.