How a software engineer tried to save his sister and invented a breakthrough medical device

I meet a lot of Silicon Valley companies but rarely do I come across a story as inspiring as this one. Robert Goldman is the founder of Vascular Designs, a company that just won FDA approval to sell a breakthrough medical device that could save the lives of countless terminally ill cancer patients.

It’s a story of Mr Goldman’s efforts to try and save his sister, diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s a story of his stubbornness to try and succeed in an area he knew absolutely nothing about, and with experts that told him it couldn’t be done.

It’s also a story of discovering a calling, to help others.

It all began in the late 1990s after Mr Goldman had sold key intellectual property to Intellectual Ventures, the IP licensing company founded by Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft CTO. He had enough money that he didn’t need to work anymore.

But he was unable to enjoy his early retirement for long because his sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer.