“As a coach, my dad stressed the value of teamwork. He taught me to be a good team player, to be coachable, to care about my teammates, to put team before self. As an engineer, he taught me the joy of making something, of solving problems that couldn’t be solved, of creating things that hadn’t existed before. My Dad taught me to see solutions in the world rather than problems.”
Dave Ferrera has spent his life defying labels. Growing up in Massachusetts, Dave was a two-sport athlete who would read the newsletter from the US Patent and Trademark Office “just for kicks.” His father, a plastic mold maker, coached Dave’s hockey and baseball teams and thought Dave might make it into professional baseball someday. When an injury in college dashed his hopes for the majors, Dave turned his focus to his second passion- -innovation.
While an undergraduate, Dave’s grandfather suffered an ischemic stroke. The doctors explained to the family that this would likely transform into a hemorrhagic stroke. Visiting the hospital, Dave had a life-altering conversation with his grandfather’s physician. Dave wanted to know if there was anything he could do. The doctor told him no, but that if he really wanted to do something for his grandfather, he should continue with his engineering studies and invent something that could be used to treat people like his grandfather.
These words were a body blow, but they echoed in Dave’s ears for years to come.
Dave went on to graduate from University of Massachusetts Lowell with a B.S. in Plastics Engineering and a minor in Chemistry and became the co-inventor of the stent retriever, the very first treatment for ischemic stroke. He has been innovating new products and building and selling companies ever since.
Today, Dave Ferrera is a general partner of Treadstone Holdings LLC, a Venture Studio based in Orange County, CA. Dave is a patent-holder who specializes in designing and developing medical devices for the interventional radiology and neuroradiology markets. At Treadstone Holdings, he works with early-stage product development and clinical research for interventional radiology products. Dave is a frequent speaker on team innovation and ethics in entrepreneurialism, and the author of Innovation in Translation, how Big Ideas Really Happen, out now from ForbesBooks. Dave lives in Orange County, California, with his three children, his life partner Kim, and two wild and crazy King Charles Spaniels.
