Meet TechAlliance’s newest Startup Advisor, Marty Smith

It is no surprise to us that there is astonishing growth in the region’s tech and innovation ecosystem. Going into this year as one of the top emerging tech sectors in the North American market motivates us to create more opportunities and continue advocating for the regional change-makers of tomorrow.

 Driven by this vision, we are thrilled to welcome Marty Smith, our newest Startup Advisor. With an extensive background in medical, healthcare and business development, Dr. bolstering the medtech sector, IP strategies, and business commercialization to our Venture Growth team. Embracing the best of both worlds, he comes with an elaborate background in the field of life sciences and business. With a PhD in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Dr. a Research Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children, where his work was focused on microscopy and digital pathologies. He soon realized his interest lies in the commercialization of medical technologies and innovation rather than academically driven research. When he came across The University Health Network, a public research and teaching hospital network, Dr. . “As a business analyst, I was writing proposals and pitches for new technologies that were coming out of the University and working with the lawyers on patent applications. These experiences along with innovative ideas coming from incredible founders in the Southwestern Ontario region got me excited about the commercialization field and the tech and innovation sector,” shares Dr. Smith.

Building on his passion for supporting founders and innovators by leveraging his expansive knowledge in the science and medical industry, Dr. WORLDiscoveries. Under the Medical Innovation Fellowship, he actively worked on developing new AI-based technologies, but also supported efforts of commercialization to bring novel innovation to market. While this digital pathology technology successfully materialized, his tenure came to an end and so, he subsequently went back to the world of research with Alimentiv as their Business Commercialization and Intellectual Property Analyst, where he focused on identifying new opportunities around clinical trials. Fostering innovation in healthcare through that role, Dr. Smith climbed the ladder to become the Strategy Development Director and was responsible for curating portfolios and building commercial strategies for the business.

From successfully launching a clinical lab out of California to having a startup adventure during his tenure at The Hospital for Sick Kids, Dr. I am very passionate about microscopy and digital pathology, and you can often see that through my work experience and projects, but I also get very excited about helping entrepreneurs. Trying to launch a business of my own, I know the struggles that entrepreneurs face, so to have the opportunity to help those founders grow at TechAlliance is what excites me the most.” Dr. Smith also eagerly looks forward to strengthening our current stakeholder relationships and forming new connections through his role.

TechAlliance’s CEO, Christina Fox shares her excitement about Dr. Smith joining the team, “Our region has seen significant strides in life sciences and medtech sector for the past couple of decades. Having an incredibly talented, experienced leader join our team to provide expertise to innovators and founders in this strong vertical is indeed exciting.” 
 
To learn more about Marty or to book a discovery call with him, click here.