the-foundry
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Hanson Gifford and the company before the company
An engineer, a guest cottage, and a career spent turning ideas into organizations. Hanson Gifford’s story follows the less visible work of entrepreneurship: assembling the people, finding the money, and knowing when to hand over the decisions.
Karun Naga Left Patent Law to Build What the Patents Promised
His route from Michigan engineering classrooms to a $130 million clinical-stage company is a study in useful detours, patient capital and the discipline to stop doing everything at once.
Apreo Health
Apreo Health is a clinical-stage medical device company in Menlo Park, California developing the BREATHE Airway Scaffold, a bronchoscopically delivered, self-expanding nitinol implant that relieves lung hyperinflation in patients with severe emphysema. Unlike existing valve and surgical treatments that collapse or remove lung tissue, the scaffold gently tents open damaged airways to release trapped air while sparing healthy tissue, aiming to expand who can be treated. The company raised a $130M Series B in August 2025 to run its pivotal BREATHE-3 trial and prepare for early commercialization.