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Episode 123

Seizing the Opportunity with a Medical Device Company with Zeynep Ilgaz

This week on The Exit: Zeynep Ilgaz migrated from Turkey 25 years ago with two suitcases and $5K to her name and made the American dream a reality. Not coming from a biotech background, Zeynep never thought she would start a medical device company but she saw an opportunity in the home testing diagnostic market and jumped on it. Starting as an internet company from their garage, the business began to grow. They went after private equity financing and then the exit conversations started to happen. Zeynep says that having a group of board members who were experienced in exiting and able to provide connections to help through the exit process was a key part to a successful acquisition. Listen to learn what other pieces of advice Zeynep has for business owners looking to exit.

Zeynep Ilgaz is a partner and co-founder of Breakaway Partners, an investment company that funds early-stage and underrepresented founder companies creating disruptive products or services. Before Breakaway, Mrs. Ilgaz was the co-founder and CEO of Confirm Biosciences, a national provider of diagnostic products for human and wellness testing, acquired by Clinical Reference Laboratory in 2021. At Confirm, Mrs. Ilgaz was responsible for leading the Company through its most significant challenges and opportunities and gaining national retail distribution for Its flagship products, Drug Confirm™ and Health Confirm™. She has been central for Confirm achieving national distribution with retailers including Walmart, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens with over 20,000 stores of distribution.

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/zeynep-ilgaz-78732a5/

Website – crossoceanfund.com/

YOUR HOST

Steve McGarry

An entrepreneur, content creator, and investor based in sunny Tampa, Florida. In 2015, while living in San Francisco, Steve sold his first fintech startup LendLayer to Max Levchin’s (founder of PayPal) consumer finance company Affirm.

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