Using Lean Startup for Social Impact with Mark Adkins

Mark Adkins is the Co-founder & CEO of LeanMed, a medical device company that aims to bring essential treatment to underserved and remote regions with the help of innovative products and technologies. Their first successful product is the O2 Cube, a solar-powered oxygen production system meant to help rural hospitals without medical access to oxygen. Mark is also the Director & Chair of the Product Development Management Association (PDMA), an international community of professors, professionals, and students deeply interested in innovation. Mark joins me today to discuss how LeanMed came to be and how they plan to innovate the medical industry in underserved regions. He elaborates on Africa’s problems with pneumonia and hospitals lacking medical oxygen. He describes why you can’t crowdsource medical equipment and how you can use your network to develop solutions for problems worth solving. Mark also explains why scaling is necessary to have a social impact. "If you want to make the world a better place, you have to have social impact. Social scale equals social impact.” - Mark Adkins This week on Innovation Talks: ●     LeanMed and the services they offer●     How pneumonia in Nigeria spurred the need for Mark to start LeanMed●     Finding a problem worth solving●     The difference between innovation and research companies●     Why you can't crowdsource medical equipment●     The ecosystems you encounter in innovation●     The challenge of getting their product out in the market●     Why scale means social impact●     Mark's actionable advice to startups Resources Mentioned: ●     Oxygen as a Utility Report (https://www.path.org/resources/oxygen-utility-report/) Connect with Mark Adkins: ●     LeanMed (https://leanmedinnovation.com/)●     Product Development Management Association (https://www.pdma.org/)●     Mark Adkins on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwadkins/) This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovation-talks/id1555857396) | TuneIn (https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/Innovation-Talks-p1412337/) | GooglePlay (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbm5vdmF0aW9udGFsa3MubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M%3D) | Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=614195) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1dX5b8tWI29YbgeMwZF5Uh) | iHeart (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-innovation-talks-82985745/) Be sure to connect with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SopheonCorp/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/sopheon), and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sopheon/), and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.