How Surbhi Sarna Built A $275M Biotech Company From Nothing

TL;DR

Surbhi Sarna founded Envision Medical after a high school health scare with complex ovarian cysts that could not be reliably diagnosed as cancerous. Despite 50 investor rejections and bias against women’s health, she raised seed funding from two women investors, built a team, obtained FDA clearance for the first device to collect cells from the fallopian tube for malignancy evaluation, and sold th

Key insights

• The standard ultrasound and blood test for ovarian cysts could not determine malignancy; the blood test was no better than a coin toss, and biopsy risked spreading cancer cells, forcing a choice betwe
• Even after deciding to wait for months, Sarna considered her family “lucky” when the cyst turned out non-cancerous, which motivated her to start a company to prevent similar suffering.
• She validated her device concept by cold-calling her own gynecologist during a pelvic exam, then got introductions to other physicians at UC Davis and Stanford.