Video: Founder’s Story Featuring DASI Simulations CO-Founders Teri Sirset and Prasad Dasi
The August Founder’s Story features the journey of two impassioned co-founders from significantly different careers. Teri Sirset, CEO, and Dr. Prasad Dasi, CTO, came together serendipitously to build DASI Simulations, a company to save lives and improve medical outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart valve disease.
“Magical moment. Most exciting project ever. Most rewarding experience in a career. Intent on the action. Joint vision. Young talent. Passionate physicians. Right place. Right time. Transformational.”
These are the words that Sirset and Dr. Dasi evoke to describe their shared vision and entrepreneurial path.
Using cutting-edge technology to save lives is at the center of DASI’s mission. Teri Sirset and Dr. Dasi have come together to build a company focused on improving outcomes for patients with structural heart disease while also reducing healthcare costs. This vision positions them well to build and grow a successful company here in Central Ohio.
Highlights from the DASI Journey
- Shared passion and goals. Dr. Dasi and Teri Sirset met at a trade show. Afterward, he contacted her and acquired some of her models for his work. A year after that, he invited her to visit his wet lab. As a daughter who lost her father to complications of heart disease, Sirset couldn’t get the DASI technology out of her mind. They started and built the company over Zoom. In less than two years, DASI’s technology is under consideration in twenty of the nation’s most preeminent hospitals and medical facilities.
- Everyone at DASI is on the same page. The culture at DASI is built on helping save lives. That drives the team every day—the notion that they can make that kind of a difference.
- The “Aha” Moment. Dasi recognized the power of Dasi’s predictive technology when he was observing images of a patient whose individual anatomy created a type of complication that, if predicted, could greatly alter the patient’s outcome.
Startup Tips from the DASI Playbook
- Reach out to mentors strategically, then listen to your intuition and heart.
- Collaboration is the key to success. In DASI’s case, hospitals have data. Physicians and medical teams have expertise. Once those industry leaders recognize a potential solution to a known problem, they will help.
- No startup journey is linear. Prepare to pivot.
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ABOUT THE FOUNDERS
Lakshmi Prasad Dasi, Ph.D. FACC, and Teri Sirset, M.S., co-founded DASI Simulations in 2019.
Teri Sirset is Co-founder and CEO of DASI Simulations. She has 25 years’ senior management experience in medical device sales and marketing. Her expertise includes sales and new business development for a startup in the cardiovascular and neurovascular space, fund-raising, quality assurance, and FDA submission experience. She earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Ohio University and is currently participating in the Entrepreneurship Accelerated Program at the Wharton School of Business.
Dr. Prasad Dasi, Co-founder and CTO of DASI Simulations, invented the technology for DASI Simulations. He is a leading bioengineer in the field of heart valve engineering with 16+ years of experience with an active and extensive publication record. Previously at The Ohio State University, he runs an independent research laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology as Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Dasi has raised over $6M in federal funding for heart valve research.
Read more about DASI Simulations on the Rev1 Blog.
