How Did You Do That?

Pete Ullrich was a young spine surgeon in Neenah, Wis., who wasn’t satisfied with the available tools. So he came up with a new one: a titanium spacer to put between vertebrae during spinal fusion surgery. "We really thought we saw an opportunity for an unmet market need," notes Ullrich. "And another thing is I knew nobody else was going to do this, and the patients were doing significantly better." The invention took Ullrich, a self-described reluctant entrepreneur, on a very successful startup journey. He and Kevin Gemas, an experienced business person who happened to be his best friend from high school, built Mequon-based Titan Spine . The innovative company grew to obtain multiple patents, experienced rapid revenue growth and employs 134 people. Today, Titan Spine leads the category of surface-enhanced titanium interbody implants. It also has a world-leading nanosurface technology that encourages the body’s stem cells to mature into bone-healing cells. In June 2019, Titan Spine was