Sam Drew

About Sam Drew

For years, I watched medical device reps walk into surgeon meetings with tools never designed for what they were being asked to do — repurposed procedural education models pressed into service as demonstration and development tools. The results were predictable: inconsistent experiences, high logistics burden, and surgeons who left unconvinced.That gap stuck with me.In 2024, my co-founder Tim Sullivan and I founded Surgical Training Simulators (STS) to close it. Tim had already built a prototype simulator purpose-designed for device demonstration — not adapted from education, not borrowed from research. We saw the opportunity to commercialize it and, as we went deeper into the market, discovered the same infrastructure gap running across product development and sales enablement for medical device companies broadly.STS is building the standard physical infrastructure layer for surgical innovation: portable, real-tissue simulators that give medical device companies consistent, on-demand access to hands-on evaluation environments — without lab constraints. We\'re already operating under a 3-year Master Services Agreement with a Fortune 300 device company, with commercial expansion accelerating in 2026.I lead STS the way I try to lead everything — as a servant-leader, in the tradition Jim Collins describes in Good to Great. My job is to clear the path for exceptional people to do their best work. The three values I hire and build around are integrity, humanity, and humility. If those resonate with you, I\'d love to connect.Prior to STS, I was CEO of KindHeart, where I built and scaled real-tissue surgical simulation infrastructure before the company was acquired by Intuitive Surgical. That experience gave me a rare vantage point on what it takes to build trusted physical infrastructure inside a conservative industry — and the conviction that the opportunity ahead with STS is significantly larger.If you\'re a medical device executive looking for better evaluation tools, an investor interested in infrastructure plays in surgical innovation, or a biomedical engineer who wants to build something that matters — let\'s talk. s•••••••@surgicaltrainingsimulators.com surgicaltrainingsimulators.com

Experience

1. Founder, CEO and President

   Surgical Training Simulators, Inc

   Jun 2024 — Present · Chapel Hill, NC, US

   Founding and scaling the standard physical infrastructure layer for surgical device innovation. STS delivers portable, real-tissue surgical simulators purpose-built for medical device sales enablement, product development, and training — not repurposed from procedural education.• 3-year Master Services Agreement with Fortune 300 medical device company• ~$100K revenue run rate with 44% repeat utilization• Raising $4M Seed+ round (preferred equity) to scale commercial engine and establish dedicated tissue production infrastructure• Platform addresses $1.6B Sales Enablement and $600M Product Development TAM

Education

• University of Melbourne

  Bachelor of Geomatics (Hons)

  1992 — 1997

• UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

  MBA, Entrepreneurship

  2010 — 2012

• University of Melbourne

  Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Environmental Science

  1992 — 1997