Kirk Zeller is a veteran of the medical device industry and an entrepreneur, filmmaker, and U.S.-Japan collaborator. He is the Founder of Silicon Prairie Center, an entrepreneur who lives and works for an incubator community, and CEO & Founder of Progressive NEURO Inc., a company dedicated to the development of a portfolio of Progressive Stroke Solutions to provide physicians with next-generation treatment options beyond traditional aspiration and traditional thrombectomy. In an interview with The Western Connect Magazine, Kirk talks about his entrepreneurial journey, the inspiration behind the Silicon Prairie Center and Progressive NEURO Inc., and how the Silicon Prairie Center is empowering entrepreneurs to do more with less.
Kirk embarked upon his entrepreneurial journey as a teenager and always had a passion for creating and innovating. He learned a lot from the numerous businesses that he started over the years and augmented that learning through the study and research for a master’s and doctorate to build additional skills that have been invaluable for him as an entrepreneur. Talking about coping with and learning from failures, Kirk says, “I have learned an enormous amount from failures, and I believe those lessons stick with me far better than the things I learned from textbooks in business school.”
Various factors propelled Kirk to establish the Silicon Prairie Center. He was working to build companies in Silicon Valley, struggling with the tight labor market, high cost of doing business, and challenging business environment—and believed there must be a better way. Meanwhile, he was invited to speak at an event at the University of Nebraska’s College of Business—where he learned about the growth of the ecosystem for start-ups in Nebraska. This inspired Kirk to consider moving his businesses to Nebraska.
Another driving factor was Kirk’s innate desire to create an incubator environment where entrepreneurs are encouraged to take a creative approach to solve problems rather than the traditional path of improving upon what already exists. In the highly regulated healthcare industry, R&D teams often gravitate towards improving existing technology instead of thinking of new technology platforms that could address unmet clinical needs more effectively.
To inspire creative thinking, the Silicon Prairie Center co-located independent film production with start-ups, believing that cross-pollination would help healthcare start-up teams think more creatively. Referring to the film industry’s mindset of “if you can dream it, you can do it,” Kirk hopes this would inspire start-up teams to develop more ambitious ideas and create new technology platforms.
Progressive NEURO, Inc. is a prime example of a new solution-oriented, out-of-the-box thinking. Our company is dedicated to developing a portfolio of Progressive Stroke Solutions to provide physicians with next-generation treatment options beyond traditional aspiration and thrombectomy. It has received investment from Invest Nebraska and has completed pre-clinical testing with a grant from Nebraska Economic Development.
In the 1990s, Kirk often heard physicians referring to developing effective medical devices for ischemic stroke as the ‘holy grail’ of medical device development. He aspired to create someday a company to do the same. As companies started developing devices for ischemic stroke, he had the opportunity in 2007 to join Micrus Endovascular Inc.—one of the companies innovating in the space. In 2018, Kirk, alongside the co-founder of Progressive Neuro, Inc, Brett Follmer, leveraged their experience in ischemic stroke to found the company and work on new approaches to removing the clot from the brain.
The Silicon Prairie Center utilized a unique model that includes extensive use of virtual meetings, network growth through introductions by thought leaders, consultants, contractors, and entrepreneurs inside and outside companies and universities, local housing for entrepreneurial teams, and a development lab for the creation of prototypes and limited production. “We think The distinctive process of innovation presented here has practical applications. To a wide range of businesses, not just medical devices, which was our starting point. I should emphasize that innovation is not only creation or invention but includes development to commercialization. A demonstration of this was our success in applying the same concept to creating an award-winning movie during the pandemic,” according to Zeller.