Dear Readers,
This week on Out of Programme, we’re joined by Dr Alastair Darwood — a medical doctor who sold a surgical robotics startup before finishing FY1, built a ventilator with Red Bull during COVID, raised £14M for an e-bike company, and licensed an analgesic mask to one of the world’s largest anaesthesia suppliers. His secret? He invents. He validates. He licenses. Then he moves on — and never runs the businesses he creates.
🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
You can also listen on: 🎧 Spotify
🔬 Selling a Startup in FY1 - As a medical student, Alastair invented a new approach to intraoperative arthroplasty, raised £170k, hired KPMG as M&A advisors, and sold the company to De Souter Medical before finishing his foundation year. The Solito robot is now in use on patients.
🫁 Red Bull and the COVID Ventilator - Alastair’s low-cost ventilator startup was partnered with Red Bull Advanced Technologies during the pandemic. Two months of intense work produced a device that was starting to work — before the government shut the programme down. The patent still sits unused.
🚴 Scarpa: £14M, Without Running the Business - Scarpa electrifies any bicycle without modifying the underlying bike. It has raised £14M, employs 22 people, and is in 70 shops across the UK. Alastair invented the technology. His co-founders run everything else. Deliberately.
😷 The Analgesic Mask - Tired of watching patients with minor procedures get sent home to fast for a full GA, Alastair designed patient-controlled inhalational analgesia. Licensed to Intersurgical, it is now in clinical trials at St Mary’s.
🤖 AI Has Turned Invention Into Lego Bricks - A project that would have taken a year now takes three weeks. Alastair built a power switching system, wrote the control code, and shipped a phone app — without hiring a single external consultant.
💡 Stop Optimising, Start Inventing - 95–98% of clinician innovation in the UK is optimisation. Alastair’s challenge: focus on problems you don’t know have an answer. Those are the only ones worth solving.
Alastair’s episode is proof that:
🔬 You don’t need to build a company to be a successful inventor — licensing IP is a legitimate and often smarter playbook
🤝 Knowing your own strengths and sticking to them is a superpower — Alastair has never pretended to be anything other than an inventor
🤖 The barriers to hardware invention have fallen dramatically — if you have the imagination to define the problem, AI can now help you build the solution
💡 The clinicians who will make the biggest impact are those willing to ask whether a problem should exist at all, not just how to solve it more efficiently
As Alastair says:
“Focus on a problem that you don’t know if it actually has an answer. Because those are the really exciting problems — and if you solve those problems, you’ve genuinely created something new.”
🧠 Interested in building in digital health?
Applications are open for the BiteLabs Digital Health, AI & Innovation Fellowship — cohorts in both the UK and the US.
BiteLabs is where clinicians build, launch and lead in digital health. 800+ fellows · 200+ advisors · £15M+ raised · Rated 4.9 on Google.
Apply via Out of Programme and you’ll receive: ✅ Extra points on your application 🎯 A 1:1 career coaching session with the BiteLabs team 🤝 A personal session with a BiteLabs founder
🔗 Apply at bitelabs.io 💬 Use referral code: OUTOFPROGRAMME in your application form
💡 Subscribe for more stories of career reinvention:
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If you know someone contemplating their next move — share this episode with them!
Until next time,
Dr Jing Ouyang
👉 Follow me on LinkedIn for a behind-the-scenes look and reflections on Out of Programme.
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