Most people know Dr. Fogarty as a visionary and a trailblazer. Someone whose impact on medtech and healthcare is unsurpassed. And someone who has been described as “about as touchy-feely as a steel screw.” But not everyone was privy to his other sides. As Casey McGlynn said, “He had a big bark, a big bite and a soft heart.”
Here are just a few of our favorites from the many that were shared with us.
For Innovators
“Go see a case.”
“He would say, do you know how this is done? Have you been in the room? His point was that you can’t innovate in a vacuum. You have to go and observe and not let your ego drive a solution.
—Jon Coe
“Get more feedback.”
The corollary to “Go see a case,” but in reference to the customer (patients) —Véronique Peiffer
“Everything is a process.”
“I learned this from him too – that you never really cross anything off your list in medtech innovation. You may think that one day you’ll be done with your intellectual property or your device, but these are all journeys and they’re continuous. It’s the same with leadership. You don’t just wake up one day and know how to lead. You grow into it.” —Gabriel Sanchez
“Focus on what matters.”
“I remember one board meeting in which we spent a lot of time discussing a potential minor adverse event that could hypothetically happen in our clinical trial. I talked through a bunch of experiments we were planning, and then Tom said, ‘Has this ever happened to one of your patients?’ I told him it hadn’t. And he said, ‘I hate when people spend all their time trying to solve problems that aren’t even problems, when there are still plenty of real problems left to solve.’
The takeaway was prioritizing real issues over ‘BS’ ones. You only have so much time, so focus on what really matters in what you think about, what you present, and what you spend dollars on.” —Fletcher Wilson
“Go get a vein and do it.”
“It’s about expediency. Don’t waste time trying to design the perfect experiment. Go try something on the kitchen table and see what you can learn.” —Fletcher Wilson
“Find common ground.”
“Dr. Fogarty was really good at not being deterred when the things didn’t go your way. He was convinced that there was always another path forward. If the problem involved a person – for example, if you couldn’t get a physician to adopt a technology, or you couldn’t secure the IRB needed to get a clinical study – his approach was to reach out, work backwards to a point of shared fundamental truths, and then use that as the base to sort out differences and find a path forward.” —Brian Fahey
“The only job of a sales rep is to transfer information.”
“Prescient Surgical had graduated Fogarty Innovation and we were out trying to sell. And I was really struggling with it. I came back to Fogarty to give a talk, and afterwards, Tom pulled me aside, got into a boxing pose, roughed me up a bit, and then shared that bit of wisdom. And that did it for me – it took away all the pressure and made me realize that my job is to accurately communicate and transfer the information about the benefits of the technology, and then the sale either happens or it doesn’t and you have to let the market decide. It gave me some peace with it.” —Jon Coe
On Companies and People
“Well, I think you don’t poke a skunk!”
“We were at a board meeting talking about a company that had developed a competitive product that we believed infringed our strong patent position. We were discussing how we should approach this problem. Meanwhile, Tom was sitting quietly and when I asked his thoughts, he simply said “Well, I believe you just don’t poke a skunk” and that promptly ended our discussion. In other words, you just leave it alone, don’t go after them and cause a problem for yourself. You focus on bringing your product to market, getting there with the best product and then worry about the rest later.”—Allan Will
“Give people some rope and ultimately, they’ll hang themselves.”
“Dr. Fogarty believed that trust is something that needs to be earned. If you take your time getting to know people and give them opportunities, you’ll find out if they’re on the straight and narrow or not being honest.” —Gail Lebovic, MD
“I think you’re crazy…But it’s the good kind of crazy. People like you who have ideas keep having them. So I’m gonna keep you close to me.”
“That’s what he said the first day that I met him — and we went on to co-found multiple companies together. They all had great exits, and the products are still on the market today, having transformed the course of women’s healthcare.” —Gail Lebovic, MD
“You get somebody to do this.”
“We had breakfast at Tom’s office when we were seeking the initial funding for what eventually became the MitraClip (Oct. 1998). Tom initially listened to our pitch so quietly that I actually thought he might be sleeping. Then, out of nowhere, he sprang to life and blasted us with a barrage of incredibly insightful questions. He proceeded to say, ‘Damn it, this just might work. I better support you guys,’ and he wrote us our first check. I saw this happen many times over the years. It wasn’t always obvious, but his gears would fire big time when it really mattered. It was that ‘Fogarty Magic’” —Fred St Goar
Just for Fun
“Do you wanna fight?”
“On my first day coming to work at Fogarty Innovation, Tom greeted me at the door with his fists up in a boxer’s pose. I was taken completely aback, and stammered, ‘Why would I want to fight?’ And he replied, ‘Well your Irish, aren’t you? The Irish were born to fight!’” —Mike Regan
“You’re so damn ugly.”
“Literally the first time I met Dr. Fogarty, I came to the Melchor building and gave a presentation with the goal of joining the incubator. And he said, “I like everything about you, but you’re so damn ugly.” I was completely taken aback—no one had ever talked to me like that before. Over time I learned his style and realized this was how he showed affection. Years later, after we had built a rapport, I told him that his was the face that sank a thousand ships, and he loved it.” —Gabriel Sanchez
“You know, in my experience, awards are a lot like hemorrhoids. Eventually every asshole gets one…so… [so-and-so] come on up.”
“The top prize in our vascular division at Edwards Lifesciences is the Thomas Fogarty Award. So we thought it would be great if we had Tom come and actually present the Thomas Fogarty award to the winner one year. And that’s what he said…honest to God. It brought the house down, as you could imagine. But it’s typical Fogarty humor.” —Mike Mussallem
“Would you wear that in Wisconsin?”
We had a shared Midwestern background, and there’s no pretense. Phony doesn’t work in the Midwest, so when sometimes I’d wear a sport coat, and I’d put a little handkerchief in as decoration, he’d let me know what he thought about that!” —Tom Krummel, MD
“If you trust him, let him do whatever he feels is best. Don’t interfere.”
“I called him while he was on a hunting trip as I was going in for an emergency angiogram to ask what stent or procedure he would recommend. Instead, he asked if I had a good doctor and whether I believed in him. When I said yes, he said ‘let him use whatever he wants to, he’ll know what’s best.’ It was classic Fogarty wisdom.” —Gail Lebovic, MD
“You pulled a Fogarty.”
“One night when we were eating out, I realized I’d forgotten my wallet. Now, most people know that Tom typically let others pay for dinner. When I told him what had happened, he burst out laughing and said, ‘You pulled a Fogarty!’
Whenever Tom did pay, I made sure to take a picture of him pulling out his credit card. Every so often, I’d send the photos to him, just to tweak him a little bit. But Tom wasn’t cheap when it really counted—I think it was all part of maintaining his façade. Some investors try to get talent as cheaply as possible, but when it came to equity, raises, or bonuses, Tom never did. He believed that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ meaning that if one person did well, everybody did well, and he wasn’t afraid to share.” —Allan Will
“You know, some people when they’re out in their car, they just drive.”
“Tom was a terrible driver. I never liked to get in the car with him. But one day at lunch, we were talking about how he came up with ideas, and that’s what he said. And the three of us started laughing, because now we understand why he was such a terrible driver—he was always thinking, churning and processing—and not paying attention.” -—Tom Krummel, MD