Cui Teng of Laino Medical: Build a world-class platform company and never look back

---Original text reprinted from 'Medical Rubik's Cube Invest'

In addition to being cold and rational like an investor, Cui Teng still shows the passionate core that only entrepreneurs can have.

'People with an entrepreneurial spirit always have a restless heart, always thinking about what else they can do better.' This is the day before the static management of Puxi, Shanghai. Cui Teng, founder of Laino Medical, The first words spoken by the Shanghai office to the Medical Rubik’s Cube Invest reporter.

At the age of 23, an age when most people are still working for others, Cui Teng has already started a business and become a CEO.According to him, it was a time when he started his business based entirely on his passion, full of the joy of success as a teenager. The company successfully exited the company after more than three years of business.

After an absence of more than 20 years, Cui Teng has returned to the battlefield of entrepreneurship. It is no longer just a passion in his youth.After the success of his first business venture, Cui Teng went to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the world's number one business school, for further studies. He later served as a senior consultant at the well-known Boston Consulting Group, and served as the vice president of CITIC Capital, responsible for the Greater China Healthcare Region. , agricultural and bio-industry project investment, Laino Medical is the product of Cui Teng’s rational thinking and in-depth insight.



Cui Teng, founder and chairman of Laino Medical

'You may have heard that many people start businesses out of personal perceptual knowledge, such as based on their understanding of a certain product, interest in a certain disease field or technology, but frankly speaking, the team of Laino Medical chose otolaryngology medical care The equipment track is completely the result of rational thinking of business logic. We have seen the consumption attributes, competitive environment advantages and future development trends of this field, and are willing to stay in this track and provide the most complete solutions.' Cui Teng said bluntly .

The growth of Laino Medical is as rational and rapid as Cui Teng envisioned.Since its establishment in 2015, Laino Medical has completed multiple rounds of financing totaling more than 100 million US dollars, and has successfully acquired mature companies such as Chengdu Meichuang Medical and the well-known German endoscopy company Endodoctor. In the past four years, Laino Medical’s annual average The compound growth rate exceeds 200%.

But after removing the rational shell, Cui Teng still has a throbbing feeling behind his founding of Laino Medical, which demonstrates his strong desire to pursue the meaning of life.

'I have almost never talked to anyone, and that event triggered me to consider starting a business again. That was one day 10 years ago. As an investor, I visited a German company that made artificial robotic arms. A high-level amputee with both arms After more than three years of training, the patient was actually able to use the robotic arm to complete some simple grasping and handshaking movements. I was shocked at the time. This was a scene that only appeared in science fiction movies. I saw the impact of technological progress on medical treatment. I am willing to look for my own opportunities to make some real changes.' Cui Teng said.

Reason and passion, seriousness and desire, are quite contradictory and quite harmonious in the process of Cui Teng's founding of Lano Medical. Perhaps this state can be best described by borrowing Elon Musk's popular words: 'The so-called Entrepreneurial life is about chewing glass and staring into the abyss.'

Intensive product control

From the outside, the record of mergers and acquisitions is the most intuitive label of Laino Medical: At the end of 2019, Laino Medical successfully acquired Chengdu Meichuang Medical, which was dozens of times its size at the time.

On December 23, 2021, Laino Medical announced the completion of the comprehensive acquisition of Endodoctor, a well-known German endoscope R&D, manufacturing and service company. This transaction is the first overseas completion by a local medical device company in the ENT track in the field of endoscopy. acquisition.

This seems to be repeating Cui Teng's successful experience as an investor in the past, but for his second venture, Cui Teng is no longer an investor who simply focuses on the return rate of each project. He focuses on Laino Medical, which he founded, and chooses Staring deeper into the abyss, he wanted to gain the inner strength to make more perfect products.

Cui Teng said that unlike the pharmaceutical field, the focus of medical devices, whether it is BD transactions or mergers and acquisitions, is not to obtain patents or commercial rights, but more importantly, to localize core processes and advanced technologies based on their own capabilities, so that they can R&D capabilities are improved faster.

'Our License-in does not simply copy the entire technology of the transaction party, but introduces the technical capabilities and patents that others have advantages in. We still do most of the research and development ourselves.' Cui Teng added, 'And Our transaction logic is also very clear. It is often not for the commercialization rights of a single product, because these BD transactions are easier to obtain. We are more concerned about the core process technology that is currently lacking.'

Although he is not a medical major, Cui Teng’s background in science and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University makes Cui Teng very interested in hard-core technical details. Coupled with his habit of being close to the market and having keen insights, he can often make surprising suggestions on product optimization and improvement. Unexpected creativity.

'Cui Teng has put a lot of effort into visiting clinical experts and understanding doctors and market needs. He has also always emphasized to the team that work must serve the market. It is precisely because of this that he has a particularly in-depth insight into the market and clinical pain points. He often gives these feedbacks to R&D personnel to verify improvements. He is not a professional in the relevant field, but he is better than an expert.' Zou Qianwen, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy of Lenno Medical, said of her boss.

'Among the products and technologies we developed, there is a unique design nicknamed 'Cui's handle', which is a masterpiece contributed by Cui Teng.' As a partner of Laino Medical's early investment institution, he later devoted himself to Laino Medical's Vice President Wang Chen mentioned.

'When performing functional endoscopic sinus surgery, the doctor will use a surgical power system. Simply put, a grinding bit and a planing bit are used. Each bit needs to be connected to a The handle follows the standards set by foreign-funded enterprises. This handle is in the shape of a 'straight pen'. Doctors seem to be accustomed to the wrist posture of holding a pen for a long time. However, after an operation, the doctor will feel tired and the wrist will be stiff. It will directly affect the next operation.' Wang Chen said.

'And Cui Teng thought, could the 'pen' shape of the handle be transformed into a 'pistol' shape, and add a grip to the handle to provide support for the doctor's hand? At the same time, the grip is detachable, so the doctor can You can choose to use it or not at any time according to the surgical process and location. Unexpectedly, after asking doctors to try the prototype, the response was very good. Everyone couldn't put it down the new handle and thought the design was amazing!' Wang Chen added.

For so long in the past, neither manufacturers nor doctors thought of improving the handle, because every multinational foreign company has a 'straight pen' type handle, but Cui Teng thought of it.' Wang Chen pointed out, 'This is what makes him unique. He can always think out of the box and solve problems within the system from outside the system.\

Although he was reluctant to discuss the details of past successful acquisitions of Laino Medical, the post-acquisition system integration results that Cui Teng showed to the Medical Cube Invest reporter were very eye-catching.

'When we acquired Chengdu Meichuang Medical, its annual sales were only 70 million yuan. After our integration and optimization, its annual sales last year exceeded 200 million yuan,' Cui Teng said.

Achieving such results relies on a series of meticulous and precise operational integration led by Cui Teng.Zou Qianwen mentioned that in general M&A transactions, various factors before the transaction can only affect 50% of the success rate of the transaction. The success of the M&A project is more importantly the operational integration after the M&A, and this is what Cui Teng and his team have devoted their efforts to. the key of.

'Cui Teng's integrated operation of the acquired company is like performing a very delicate surgical operation, opening up the nerves and blood vessels of the two companies, allowing the two living entities to achieve an organic connection, and create synergistic departments. and resources are integrated. Normally, important functions are managed and arranged by the headquarters, and other functions are mainly managed by subsidiaries to achieve rapid response and flexibility. For the acquisition of Meichuang, Leno and Meichuang have been integrated into one The team, information flow, logistics, talent, etc. have all been fully connected.' Zou Qianwen believes that her boss has strong operational management capabilities.

Cui Teng currently spends 90% of his time and energy on business operations.

'Many people see that Laino Medical has done a lot of mergers and acquisitions in its early stage, and mistakenly think that it is an investment company. This is actually a complete misunderstanding. I have changed from an investor to an entrepreneur, and I just don’t want to be in the company. Many projects are only dabbled in and distracted, but we should seriously invest time and efforts on the right track, achieve '1+1>2' through operational integration, and give the team enough incentives to make real changes.' Cui Teng said.

Cui Teng’s belief in leading Laino Medical to deeply explore the otolaryngology subdivision track is due to his bold prediction of industry changes, which has achieved the advantage of being one step ahead.

'China's medical device industry has shifted from rapid expansion to fierce competition. Integration is a major trend. We have been thinking about how the entire Chinese medical device sector should operate in the future. We believe that China's medical device giants in the future must be organized around different departments and departments. A platform company that diagnoses and treats diseases and integrates technologies.' Cui Teng said.

Cui Teng said that the current otolaryngology segment is at a very early stage. The penetration rate of the Chinese market is less than 10%, about 5%, and the United States is about 20%. There is a lack of a domestic company with a diversified product portfolio. Platform company.Leno is using a three-pronged approach of independent research and development + authorized introduction + mergers and acquisitions to build a moat of integrated products of 'diagnosis + equipment + consumables' to fill this gap.

Precisely because of such a forward-looking concept, when Cui Teng founded Laino Medical, it was not generally favored by the market.'When I first came into contact with Cui Teng and Laino, the mainstream VC investment style was still to invest in popular imitation products with the concept of import substitution. Cui Teng proposed from the beginning 7 years ago to build Laino Medical into a platform company. The idea was regarded as an alternative at the time.' Wang Chen, who was an early investor in Laino Medical, recalled: 'But I recognized this high-dimensional insight, which was why I later decided to all-in and join Laino Medical. one of the reasons.'

In the past few years, Laino Medical has verified Cui Teng's judgment with its rapid development. Laino Medical has also grown from an entrepreneurial company starting in Suzhou to a company covering domestic and overseas products and group operations.

Looking into the future, Cui Teng said that in the next 5-10 years, China's medical device industry will not be turbulent, but at least there will be a large wave of consolidation.Enterprises with clear strategic positioning, execution capabilities, attention to the market, and product strength will eventually stand out from the integration and become large platform enterprises.Just as China's traditional manufacturing industry, energy industry, and TMT industry have given birth to world-class leading companies, these large platform companies will give birth to world-class leading medical and health companies.

'We also want to be one of them.'