Health Tech: Brent Lucas of Envoy Medical On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

Iwas born and raised in Minnesota. I am the third of four children to two loving parents who valued education and the opportunity education provided. My father was one of the key employees and executives to take a struggling hematology company and turn it into an international biotechnology juggernaut (Bio-Techne, Nasdaq: TECH). I grew up around the drive and persistence it takes to bring company from obscurity to a mainstream success story, and I believe we have an opportunity to repeat that success story with Envoy Medical (Nasdaq: COCH).

I continue to live in Minnesota with my incredible wife and two kids. It would be a tall order to get me to leave this great state and everything it has to offer my family and Envoy Medical's employees.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Several of us often joke that this story could not be told in one book or one movie - you would need a few seasons of an in-depth mini-series to do the story and all the characters enough justice. My personal journey with Envoy Medical started when my mother and father first invested in a brand-new start-up company called St. Croix Medical back in 1995, nearly 30 years ago. I then began to work for the company in 2007 after it had already changed its name to Envoy Medical. I have been through a lot of "interesting stories" with the company, and to pick one is to leave so many deserving ones out of the conversation. Perhaps the most interesting story for your readers is the general story that Envoy Medical has defied the odds over 30 years to not only survive its misfortunes and strategic mistakes but to now be well-positioned to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar hearing industry.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have had several people help me throughout my career. Obviously, without the steadfast support and understanding of my wife, Darya, I could have never had the opportunity to turn Envoy Medical around. We've been on this road together the whole time, and whenever I have needed someone to calm me down, build me up, or keep me focused, she's been there to say the right thing at the right time. In addition, I am not an engineer and can barely wire a light-switch without hurting myself, so Envoy Medical needed a technical genius to make this happen. I had an amazing friend, business partner, and Chief Technical Officer in Paul Mazanec, who was the person who led the team that took a somewhat crazy idea and made it a reality. Finally, I am continuously humbled to have had the trust, mentorship, and financial investment of Glen Taylor. Roughly 10 years ago, I asked Mr. Taylor to fund the fully implanted cochlear project when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Most people would have thrown me out of their office, but instead I left with a handshake and a commitment that still stands today. He was convinced that if we were successful, we would make the world a better place and create jobs and opportunities in the process - I intend to prove him right. Forget about me, Envoy Medical would not be in the amazing position it is today without these three people supporting the idea of creating something truly special and allowing me the grace and opportunity I need to see it through. There are dozens of other investors, employees, and board members who have been instrumental and absolutely critical to Envoy Medical's success. I am a very lucky person.

Can you please give us your favorite "Life Lesson Quote"? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There is a scene in Empire Strikes Back (the second installment of the original Star Wars trilogy) where Yoda is training Luke Skywalker next to a swamp. The scene is built around Yoda trying to teach Luke how to use the Force to raise his submerged fighter jet out of the swamp. At one point, Luke says, in an unconvincing voice, "Alright, I'll try." Yoda sternly says in response, "NO! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." Luke proceeds to try for a moment and then quickly gives up when things do not go his way. Dejected, he tells Yoda that he thinks Yoda is asking for the impossible. Yoda then calmly uses the Force to take the jet out of the swamp and gently places it on the ground. After witnessing it happen, Luke says, "I don't believe it." Yoda replies with, "That, is why you fail."

My father often refenced that scene when I was growing up, and I have carried it with me. Once we made the decision to move forward and rebuild Envoy Medical around a fully implanted cochlear implant, there was no "trying" option for us. We were going to get it done and see this through, and we were going to complete what we set out to accomplish. In addition, the only way we could do that is if we truly believed in ourselves, the team, and the opportunity in front of us. The rest of the world is always going to cast doubt and fill you with uncertainty. You better believe in yourself if you want to accomplish your goals, especially when things are not easy.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Persistent, Trustworthy, and Straightforward.

Persistence has allowed me to remain on the path when others would have given up or turned around. You need to be able to know where you are going and why you are headed there, and that it is always darkest before the dawn.

Trustworthiness is critical when you are asking employees to work for you, investors to support you, and people to use your products. I am not a "salesy" person and do not feel it necessary to charm people into working with me. I am known to my employees and customers to be trustworthy, relied upon to tell the truth, and stand behind what I have said and committed to. It is a lot easier to have people believe you and allow you to lead when you have a history of being honest and telling the truth.

When it comes to being straightforward, I believe it moves things forward with a greater sense of trust and understanding. I am not someone who tries to hide the ball in a conversation. I am straightforward in my approach, and I believe in my position when I take one. This also means that because I believe in Envoy Medical and our opportunity, I will not be shy about it.

Ok super. Let's now shift to the main part of our discussion about the technology or medical devices that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

We are currently focused on creating implantable devices to address significant levels of hearing loss. When you look at the hearing loss market in detail, you will notice that a large proportion of people who have hearing loss that could benefit from hearing technology choose not to pursue those technologies. If you further narrow in and focus on the portion of the hearing loss population that could be candidates for cochlear implants (roughly three to four million adults in the United States), there is an even larger proportion of people who do not get one. These people are left with untreated or under-treated hearing loss. There are long-established connections between untreated or under-treated hearing loss and other costly health conditions and there is growing evidence to support a correlation to early cognitive decline.

We hope to create solutions that will encourage more people to treat their hearing loss and enjoy a better quality of life as a result.

How do you think your technology can address this?

By providing hearing loss sufferers with something new, innovative, and discrete. It is a largely unsaid reality that many people with hearing loss avoid treating it because they do not want to have anything external, visible, or in the way of their daily lives and activities. Our belief is that many people avoid treating their hearing loss because they would rather not have to tell the world that they have a hearing disability. With our fully internal devices, people with hearing loss can treat their hearing loss on their own terms.

We are different from every other hearing company in that we have two fully internal hearing implants that use the ear to pick up sound rather than rely on a microphone. One of our devices, the Esteem, is an FDA-approved fully implanted active middle ear implant that has been available on the market since 2010. Our newest device, the Acclaim, is a fully implanted cochlear implant that received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA and is currently in clinical trials.

Both of these products use our piezoelectric sensor technology to leverage the natural outer ear and middle ear to pick up sound rather than use an artificial microphone. We sometimes refer to our technology as using Nature's Microphone.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

Hearing loss is quite common and just about every family has been impacted by someone experiencing a level of hearing loss that disrupts not only their life but the lives of those around them. My grandfather had a significant level of hearing loss later in his life and many family events were punctuated with my father yelling at my grandfather to ask, "WHERE ARE YOUR HEARING AIDS?" It is a common situation that is often made light of in certain situations or in TV and movies, but when you start to dig deeper you realize the massive impact hearing loss has on people's lives. Those who live with hearing loss often feel isolated and alone and that has a trickle-down effect that leads to a large number of other issues. The more involved I became with Envoy Medical, the more I realized that this population was not being given enough options to address their disability and that there is a strong demand for something new and fully implanted.

How do you think this might change the world?

I believe that more people addressing their hearing loss would result in a better world with more people living better, more fulfilled lives. What is more important to someone than their ability to connect and communicate with other human beings and loved ones? Giving people an opportunity to address their hearing loss in a discrete manner and on their own terms could have a positive impact on the proportion of people who chose to address their hearing loss and stay connected to their loved ones. I believe that will have a positive spillover effect in many different areas including, potentially, lowering the overall societal cost of hearing loss, keeping people with hearing loss active in their career and employed longer, and helping our elderly populations live independently and with dignity for significantly longer.

Keeping "Black Mirror" and the "Law of Unintended Consequences" in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

I do not foresee any unknown consequences of helping people address their hearing loss. There are known risks with getting any type of surgery and both of our current devices are fully implanted and therefore require surgery. Patients are informed of potential risks and alternatives when they consider our products with their healthcare providers.

Based on your experience and success, can you please share "Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact"?

1. It is not for the faint of heart. My father-in-law often reminds me, "If it were easy, everyone would do it." If you are going to create something, whether it is a technology, a set of services, or a company, you better be prepared for it to be extremely challenging most of the time. You will be faced with more time in the valleys than you will be on the peaks. You will need to understand that and be ready to ride the wave. Envoy Medical is a 30-year-old start-up company with its fair share of bumps and bruises, but we understood it would not be easy and we were up for the challenge of staying the course. If you want to pursue something easy, you should not try to create something new or meaningful.

2. You are only as good as the team around you. Envoy Medical has had the benefit of some amazing employees, advisors, investors, and board members over the years. As a Class III medical device company, we require a strong team with deep knowledge, experience, and integrity across the board. Personally, I have been able to leverage the knowledge and experience of some incredible people. I became Envoy Medical's CEO when I was 34 and relied heavily on the Board of Directors and management team around me to share their experience and wisdom to help guide my youth and enthusiasm.

3. It will not go according to plan. Mike Tyson was spot on when he said that "everyone has a plan until you get hit in the mouth." You will get hit in the mouth early and often. The plan you thought was going to work will not be the same plan you end up executing on through your journey. You need to be flexible and willing to adjust, sometimes on the fly. The COVID-19 pandemic was something none of us saw coming, but it became our reality and plans needed to adjust. The effects of the pandemic and shutdown are still felt throughout the medical device industry. We did not anticipate going public via a business combination with a SPAC, but that opportunity presented itself and made sense for our team to pursue.

4. Your end user must always be front and center in your mind. Everyone will have an opinion on everything you are doing. Key opinion leaders, employees, vendors, investors, bankers, competitors - literally everyone - will know what you should do and make sure you know their opinion. We believe that the North Star in that maze of infinite opinion and input is the end user. In our case, we need to always have the person suffering from significant hearing loss in our mind. Furthermore, we need to think about that person and how they live each day instead of just when they're in an audiologist's office or a sound booth. Thinking about the end user will guide you to the right answers when too many other people are polluting your thoughts with their biased takes or self-interest.

5. Most stakeholders in any established industry benefit from the status quo. Industry leaders likely spent decades getting to their position of influence and power, and these companies and individuals will not be in a rush to help you disrupt their view from the mountain top. At various points along the way, we assumed our mere existence with breakthrough technologies would bring interest, investment, and eventual adoption from other companies with a stake in hearing loss. We were disappointed to realize that change does not benefit the incumbents, and we would need to make our own momentum. Many years ago, we put up a giant sign at a trade show that said, "The Future is Fully Implanted." People sort of chuckled and thought it was cute. Now, the future of our industry is very much fully implanted hearing devices, and the industry leaders are finally starting to embrace it.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

Life is more fulfilling, and work is more rewarding, when you are doing something that positively impacts others. The opportunity to positively impact people's lives on a daily basis is not something to be taken lightly. You can make a living any number of ways, but it is all that much better when you can make a living and simultaneously make the world a better place.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would love an opportunity to sit down with the President of the United States and their policy advisors to discuss the serious gap in insurance coverage when it comes to all things hearing loss. Unfortunately, hearing loss is an "invisible disability" that is unfairly treated by most insurance providers, including Medicare and Medicaid, but the huge cost to society is not invisible. The World Health organization estimates that roughly $1 trillion (USD) may be lost globally every single year due to the failure to address hearing loss properly. In the US, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, has estimated an economic cost of around $300,000 for every person with age-related hearing loss. It would seem to make good economic sense globally and here in the US to take hearing loss more seriously. That requires our political leaders to hold insurance providers, including governmental agencies, accountable.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Our website is www.envoymedical.com. You can sign up for our newsletters and distribution lists to get more information as it becomes available.

In addition, Envoy Medical has a presence on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

You can also connect with or follow me personally on LinkedIn, where I tend to post updates on our progress.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.