Aimee Garza, Founder & CEO. Aimee has 25 years’ experience in the medtech industry across multiple functional disciplines with advancing leadership responsibilities. Her combined technical knowledge and physician, patient and customer experience uniquely position her to translate real-world needs into new products and markets. She most recently led marketing and product management at Integer Holdings, a leading medical device outsourcing company. Prior to Integer Holdings, Mrs. Garza had an almost 20-year tenure at Medtronic where she received multiple awards and honors, including a Star of Excellence award for transforming a stagnant market into one of the fastest growing in company history. Aimee earned her BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and an MBA from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Business.
Aimee’s leadership extends to her extracurricular activities. During her tenure at Integer Holdings, she spearheaded the first gender Diversity and Inclusion Group, Integer’s Athena Alliance, and established a Corporate Social Responsibility program. She is a member of American Heart Association and Twin Cities Go Red for Women Executive Team. Entrepreneurial minded, Aimee has a passion for solving unmet medical needs that bring us closer to preventing cardiovascular disease worldwide.
Give us CoraVie Medical’s elevator pitch
CoraVie Medical’s patent-pending continuous blood pressure sensor informs treatment decisions and monitors therapy efficacy to reduce time to optimal treatment and prevent the progression of cardiovascular disease. The end-to-end solution seamlessly and remotely connects patients and clinicians through a cloud-based software and analytics platform to provide advanced warning of changing health status.
Where is your company based?
We’re based in Minneapolis, MN.
What led you to found CoraVie Medical?
I remember a patient saying he couldn’t walk to the mailbox without stopping to catch his breath. I decided it was time to focus on prevention of cardiovascular disease.
What’s the next big milestone for CoraVie Medical?
We just kicked off a collaboration with a major university research center to demonstrate proof of concept. We’re excited to demonstrate feasibility in a matter of months through this collaboration.
What about Medical Alley appeals to you?
Medical Alley is the one point of light that everyone in the medical community sees. It’s a great guiding resource to connect people, companies, missions, and passion.
Has COVID-19 changed the way you understand your company’s focus and goals?
Our focus and goals have remained the same, but we’ve developed different approaches to getting things done. We must be creative and practice tolerance during this time. Everyone handles the pandemic and the stress differently and we can all support each other in unique ways to get our job done.
How do you balance leading a startup with your everyday life?
My kids and family are my priority and I’m happy that I can show them the importance of hard work and determination in a career. There are trade-offs in everything in life. A mentor/friend of mine calls it work-life optimization rather than work-life balance because balance is not realistic. Work and life ebbs and flows.
What’s one thing people get wrong about startup life?
So far, most people have been on target about startup life. It is a roller coaster ride of emotions, success, disappointments, and redirects but I wouldn’t change it for anything.
What’s the best advice you received in your career? What’s the worst?
I learned the importance of setting values and establishing a culture early. CoraVie values respect, integrity, inclusion, customer-focus, and teamwork. We are problem solvers without an ego. Our goal is to make our customers look good, both internal and external. As leaders, we take responsibility for failures and celebrate those that enable success. We make sure everyone has a voice because by proactively including everyone we will deliver the best innovation and solve the most difficult problems.
I don’t know if I can think of one specific bad piece of advice I’ve received. I’ve certainly been told that there are certain things I can’t do or won’t accomplish. But those were just comments. Over the years, I’ve learned to surround myself with smart, passionate and driven people. That’s exactly what we’re doing at CoraVie Medical.
