Travis Rappleye is a MedTech startup project management expert, with over two decades of experience managing a variety of projects, including Class II, Class III, combination products, and pharmaceuticals.  In addition to R&D development projects he has managed transfer of a Class III manufacturing facility, implementation of Salesforce.com, pharmaceutical commercial launch and distribution, and lean manufacturing. 

Travis has spent the last 22 years studying traditional project management theory and methodology, as well as living with the reality of how projects are actually managed in MedTech startups.  Traditional project management methodology assumes that all project details are understood from the beginning, and that execution is a matter of following the plan.  However, schedules for truly innovative products evolve as we learn about user needs, regulatory pathways, novel manufacturing methods, etc.  Creating schedules that are flexible enough to keep up with these changes in real time is crucial, and Travis has spent the last several years refining techniques that strike a balance between accurate and complete schedules that are also easy to update and interpret.

Travis teaches graduate level Design Controls and Project Management at San Jose State University, and this background as an educator along with his industry experience has uniquely prepared him to quickly and dramatically improve the project management process for MedTech startups.