PBN: After years of promise, R.I. medtech sector emerging from Boston’s shadow

After working for a large company for more than a decade, Dom Messerli was on his own for the first time in 2016.

He’d just launched a medical-technology startup out of his Bristol home specializing in spinal implants. A lot of work remained between the implant concept and the market, including clearing regulatory hurdles, and Messerli felt isolated.

“I was struggling, because I didn’t know anyone in the field,” he said. “I felt like I was this lonely guy in the medtech industry, and I just didn’t feel that there was anyone … who was doing the same thing.”