Brian Shields is the founder and chief executive of Neurent Medical, a medical device design and manufacturing business headquartered in Oranmore, Co Galway.
When Brian joined BioInnovate, an innovation fellowship at University of Galway, in 2014, he worked alongside ENT surgeons across Ireland and spotted an untapped opportunity – a new approach to treating rhinitis, one of the world’s most common chronic nasal diseases. That insight became the foundation for Neurent Medical.
The company’s mission is to provide symptom relief for patients suffering from rhinitis in a non-surgical setting.
Neurent markets Neuromark – a single-use device that enables the Neuromark procedure, performed by ENT [ear, nose and throat] specialists.
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What vision/light bulb moment prompted you to start up in business?
I spent years in healthcare watching patients struggle with conditions that had poor or no solutions. When I joined BioInnovate in 2014 and spent time with ENT surgeons across Ireland, the scale of the unmet need for rhinitis became impossible to ignore.
Rhinitis affects hundreds of millions of people globally and the available treatments at the time were inadequate. That clarity, combined with Ireland’s world-class medtech ecosystem, made starting Neurent feel less like a risk and more like a definite answer.
What is your greatest business achievement to date?
Building a world-leading ENT technology company from the village where I live in the west of Ireland, doing it on our terms and seeing the business woven into the fabric of the community is very special. We design and manufacture every Neuromark device in Oranmore.
We have treated approximately 20,000 patients, secured over 60 patents, and raised €150 million from Tier 1 global investors. I am so proud that all of this is happening in the west of Ireland.
What was your ‘back-to-the-wall’ moment and how did you overcome it?
Our second-generation device had serious usability and cost issues. We were losing money on every unit we sold. At the same time, our commercial momentum in the US was building and we couldn’t afford to slow down.
The decision to go back to the drawing board while sustaining sales was the hardest call we made. The Gen 3 device that emerged from that process is now setting the standard in ENT.
Best and worst pieces of advice you received when starting out?
Best advice: Success will not be achieved by the quality of the product, nor the size of the market; success will be achieved exclusively by the quality of the people around the table. Ruthlessly chase down the best team.
Worst advice: Raise as little money as you can in order to minimise your dilution. That philosophy doesn’t hold water in medtech.
Describe your growth funding path
Neurent began life with the largest venture capital financing for a university spin-out medical device company in history in Europe at that point. We raised a €9.3 million Series A financing, led by Fountain Healthcare Partners, in 2018. We followed that raise with a total Series B raise of €50 million round led by EQT Lifesciences, which first closed in late 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have recently closed our €62 million Series C, which was led by the US firm MVM Partners.
What makes your company a good place to work?
Neurent has built a strong, self-policing culture from day one, with many of our earliest team members growing alongside the company, taking on greater responsibility as we have scaled. We have put flexible working arrangements in place early, particularly to support family needs, because we believe people do their best work when they are trusted to manage life alongside career. We are also deeply embedded in our local community in Oranmore. We are strong advocates for Stem in the school systems, partaking in science and engineering in local primary and secondary schools.
What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur?
Have a go, put yourself and your product out there, but listen. Listen to your team as you define the strategy, listen to market feedback as you perfect the product/market fit, listen to your stakeholders to understand their changing needs. Distil this feedback, iterate very quickly and then win the market.
