Mizzou Founder Features: Gregg Scheller

In 1974, Gregg Scheller's first step into Mizzou's engineering school marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey. He wasn't just a diligent student; he was deeply involved in engineering, getting involved in high honor societies like Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma, laying the groundwork for what would become an illustrious career. Today, Gregg’s resume reads like that of an inventor’s dream diary, with over 375 patents, the founding of four multi-million dollar companies, and a remarkable 40-year tenure as a CEO. His impact on the fields of ophthalmology and neurosurgery is immeasurable, with innovations from his companies continuing to save lives and vision globally. The incredible legacy Gregg has left and the opportunities that led him there he traces back to Mizzou:

“Engineering school at Mizzou gave me many tools. The most valuable tool that I received was the ability to hone my skills as a problem solver. While I was in school, I did not realize that my brain was being trained through classroom repetition to assess a situation and make the best decision.” Gregg says this is the greatest gift Mizzou could have ever given him.

After graduating in 1979, he worked as staff engineer at McDonnell Douglas, a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, until 1982 when he took on a lead engineer, and eventually product manager, role at Storz Instruments. However, it was in 1986 that he took the leap to start his own surgical products company, marking the beginning of his transformative impact on the medical industry.

Gregg was a co-founder and CEO of Advanced Surgical Products from 1986 to 1990. The first ASP model marked the invention of the first disposable light pipe for Retina surgical endoillumination. This first prototype was produced in 1985 on a kitchen table. By 1990, the company was producing over 180,000 light pipes annually This supplied the entirety of the industry, including the Storz, Alcon, and Grieshaber brands. At this point, Gregg sold the company and went on to found another. 

Two years after selling Advanced Surgical Products, Gregg founded Synergetics, a leading surgical device company that specializes in the vitreoretinal, neurosurgery, and ear, nose, and throat surgery markets. Its 2004 invention, the Photon illumination device, delivered eight times more light safely, enabling smaller gauge instrumentation in retinal surgery. Synergetics also created the first ultrasonic bone cutter for use in neurosurgery. Over 16 years, Gregg transformed Synergetics from a startup in a garage to a NASDAQ listing in 2006 with $55 million in revenue. He left in 2008 and the company was sold in 2015 to Bausch and Lomb.

Gregg went back to his Mizzou roots in 2008 to serve as the Director of Entrepreneurship and Co-Director of the University of Missouri BioDesign Project until 2010. Without missing a beat, he founded and served as CEO of Katalyst Surgical from 2010 to 2022, eventually selling the company in 2022 with $12 million in revenue. Today, when retina surgeons all over the world think of the Katalyst brand, they think of surgical innovation — and rightly so. Sandwiched in between his journey with Katalyst Surgical, he founded sister company Kogent Surgical, a legacy neurosurgery innovator medical device manufacturer specializing in electrosurgery, surgical site illumination, and microsurgical instrumentation. In 2022, Gregg sold the company that, at the time, had brought $6 million in revenue. Both Katalyst and Kogent found a new home when they were acquired by Carl Zeiss Meditec. Gregg continued his journey there as the head of surgical innovation from 2022 to 2023 before gradually slowing down, retiring as of this past August. 

His remarkable achievements have earned him prestigious accolades, including the 2007 Ernst and Young Midwest Life Sciences Entrepreneur of the Year, the 2013 University of Missouri Engineering School Honor Award, and recognition as the 2015 St. Louis Bar Association Inventor of the Year. Gregg Scheller's legacy as a visionary entrepreneur and innovator in the surgical domain continues to influence the industry, leaving an indelible mark on the world of medicine and entrepreneurship.

We admire relentless entrepreneurs, and Gregg is one of the greatest examples of that. Wanting to learn more about the man behind the operations, we asked Gregg some questions about his philosophies, advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and an inside look into his wealth of insights.

Can you share one of your favorite quotes?

Leadership is often about listening to trusted advisors, but then making a decision on your own. Sometimes these decisions are in conflict with some of your trusted advisors’ opinions. This can result in unhappiness among the staff.

Early in my career at my first company, I really only had two staff members. Of all things, a question came up about the dress code in the office. Many were pushing for casual Fridays at a time where we were still wearing neck ties and dresses to work. Some of the women wanted to wear “skorts” to work on Fridays. I did not know what they were, so I said go ahead and I will let you know if they are acceptable. They did and they were. The following Friday, my two male staff members decided they would wear shorts.  When I asked about their decision I got, “We voted and decided if they can do it, we can do it.” At this moment, my now famous quote spontaneously came out; “Apparently, you believe that this is a democracy. It is not. It is a dictatorship.” The shorts went away. We all laughed about it later, but this highlights one of the qualities that need to be developed in order to successfully lead an organization.

While the above seems like a benign example, this demonstrates the “alone” feeling that you sometimes get as a leader. A more serious example was when a group of doctors approached me to use fetal stem cells for experiments in order to regrow retina tissue for research to cure blindness. Again, I sought advice from my advisors and received a number of different opinions. Ultimately, it was my decision to not support this kind of research due to the origin of the stem cells. Fortunately, science found a way to harvest stem cells in many other ways allowing the research to continue. Ultimately, it was a decision that I needed to live with and make a decision that was solely mine. There are a multitude of decisions that need to be made in any business, but especially in a small business. During the formative years of a small business, many of these decisions are critical to the future of the business.   

Reflecting on your upbringing in your hometown and attendance at Mizzou, how do you believe these experiences shaped your philosophies in business and life?

I am the oldest of three brothers. During my childhood, my parents believed in hard work. This was a core value at a young age. Even in the summertime leading up to college, my mother prepared a “Job Jar”. We were required to pull a task daily from this jar and complete it prior to being able to play with our friends. This embedded a work ethic in me (and my brothers) for my entire lifetime. We have all excelled, in part due to our ability to “outwork” our competition. Another quote that I live by is, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” While I think that this may seem ironic to many of the readers, the competition for grades that you feel in school is only the beginning. In your life, competition with your Company’s competitors, and even with your coworkers for that next promotion becomes intense.

I have found that my faith is also an important element of success. My faith in God has grown through my professional journey. I ask, and it has been delivered to me. Time and time again. Maybe not on my timetable, but it has happened too many times to be fate.

Mizzou engineering was a small program when I went to college. At that time, it was generally a second choice to Rolla. I chose Mizzou over Rolla at the time because I felt (and feel even more strongly currently) that one receives a more well-rounded education at Mizzou. In order to be successful in any venture, it is important to be able to relate to others. An important aspect of your personal development includes social interaction. The number of students, activities, and resources are just greater in Columbia. I feel like an important aspect of my successes have been related to my ability to effectively communicate with my coworkers.

How did you find your own mentor or advisor, and how did they impact your career journey?

I didn’t find this one person. I found successful investors that helped considerably along the way. These were generally people that had made some money along their careers and were willing to entrust me with some of it. One of these investors became my CFO in three companies. He had a special skill set that I knew I did not have. It was demonstrated to me during my first company, where our sales were growing rapidly and our profits were good, but we ran out of cash. With my engineering background, the concept of cash flow was not something that I understood. Nor did I understand that I could take my invoices, and balance sheet to the bank, and borrow against them. My second, third, and fourth companies were all formed with this finance expert. We maximized growth and exit strategies together. This could not have been done with either one of us alone.

Reflecting on your massive successes, being founder and CEO of 4 consecutive successful medical device companies along with a myriad of other great accomplishments, what aspects of your leadership style have evolved over time, and what catalyzed these changes?

Taking my second company public changed me. Even though I consider it a success for the investors, it was a disaster for me professionally. In my heart, I am an inventor.  Reporting to Wall Street, a board of directors, and a group of investors that only cared about the stock price was not what I was put on Earth to do. I changed how brain surgery and eye surgery was done over the course of my career. I can walk into any operating room performing these procedures anywhere in the world and point to developments that I have impacted. Becoming CEO of a public company sounds cool but it distracted me from my passion. As I tell my two adult boys (both Mizzou Engineering graduates), “Find your passion in your career and you will never work a day in your life.” I re-found my passion in Companies number 3 and 4.

Times certainly change. I would call myself a late adopter of change. During my second company, we were probably the last to get widespread email at each workstation.  For a long time, I believed that face to face communication was best. I still believe this. Near the end of my career, I once calculated that I received over 140 emails per day. This is a product of the “texting generation”. It was all that I could do to keep up with these responses. In spite of this daily barrage of emails, I made it a point to visit with each one of my key managers every two days. One on one. There was no agenda. It was only a check in. These check-in meetings became more valuable than the emails.

So, to try to answer your question, my approach has not changed. The fundamentals of success remain the same even when the environment changes dramatically.

 If you could sit down with freshman year Gregg, what would you tell him?

When I went to Mizzou, I enjoyed the social aspect of my freshman and half of my sophomore year. Resultantly, my grade point average suffered. As I walked through the engineering school halls one day, I noticed signup sheets for companies that were coming on campus to interview graduating engineers. Many of these companies included a note on their signup sheet to not apply if you had a grade point average below 3.0. At the time I was embroiled in a series of 3 calculus and a differential equations math program. At this moment, I realized that I was going to struggle through this curriculum, in order to get a second – class job offer. This was not the goal! From this point forward up to the end of my scholastic career, I got only one B. The rest were A’s.  I also participated in a co-op program with McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis because I needed to pay for part of my education. While I had considerably less fun from that moment forward, I learned about myself. The competition with my classmates became apparent to me, and I learned that my work-ethic would allow me to excel. I would never be the smartest person in the class, but I could be the one with the highest grades!

Speaking to freshman year Gregg, I would tell him that you can literally do anything that you want to do or become. I would tell him, however, that none of this is free! There is a price to be paid for what you want. A strong belief in yourself is necessary. A strong faith is also necessary. The problem-solving techniques that your brain will be taught at Mizzou will serve you throughout your adult life. You can make an impact on the world if you believe in the above and use your work-ethic to get what you want.

 Share your best piece(s) of advice for current and aspiring entrepreneurs at Mizzou.

Do it! This is the best time of your life to do this! No spouse, no kids, no mortgage, no legal consequences to signing a personal guarantee! See below, however……

Many say that entrepreneurship takes courage. I disagree. I believe that entrepreneurs only see opportunity. They do not see failure as an option. If you do not see the opportunity in front of you this way, you will fail.

You will also fail if you seek entrepreneurship as a way to enrich yourself. If you are successful, many look at you and say that you had an easy life. The truth is that this life is anything but easy. Personal enrichment is not a sufficient motivator for you to endure the difficulties that you will encounter as an entrepreneur. There is an inflection point in every startup. You will not reach that point if you are only motivated by money. Be patient. The money will come if you are pursuing your passion and sales and profits are growing.

Going into an entrepreneurial venture with an experienced successful entrepreneur is a good idea. Going into an entrepreneurial venture with your best friend, who brings nothing additional to the company and takes half of your equity is a bad idea. I have done both. When your company starts in your garage, you raise a total of $5 million, and it ultimately sells for $165 million, that 50% equity that you granted your friend (who may not be willing to work like you) is pretty expensive.

Thank you for reading! Check back in next Monday for a fresh Founder Feature.