In this interview, Surbhi Sarna, CEO and founder of Envision (nVision), shares practical guidance for Draper University alumni launching startups and provides a status update on her own company. She emphasizes the importance of preparing three core documents—a solid executive summary, a compelling pitch deck, and a thorough business plan—before seeking investment, arguing that these materials help founders clarify their vision and answer investor questions succinctly. Sarna advises new entrepreneurs to become the foremost expert in their target domain, deeply understand the competitive landscape, and avoid hiring out of convenience, instead aligning team members with specific milestones and required expertise. She highlights that the most rewarding part of entrepreneurship is building a strong, committed team. Regarding Envision, she reports that the company recently submitted an FDA application, completed a 20‑person clinical trial with 100% success and no adverse events, and expects preliminary FDA feedback within 60 days. She plans to raise a Series B round after receiving FDA input and is concurrently finalizing a second product while deepening manufacturing knowledge. Throughout, her tone is instructional and optimistic, underscoring preparation, expertise, and people as keys to startup success.
They'll have pitch day, then they have graduation, and then they move out. What do you think the first thing they should do after they leave Draper University is?
So if— so it depends on what you guys want to do with your— like, so you're saying, so assume that they want to start their own company?
Sure.
Yeah, so I mean one thing that is kind of still like very controversial in Silicon Valley is writing a business plan, right? There's a lot of pushback saying business plans aren't worth it, they aren't worth the time, that kind of thing. But I think especially as a first-time entrepreneur, getting all of your thoughts down on paper so that you can really understand where you are now, what your next steps are, and all of that, it's really important. Plus, Tim asked me for a business plan, and then he was able to make his decision in a day. because I had all of that written down. It just shows that you're really— you've really thought through all the different aspects of your company. So I would just have your— like the 3 main documents, like your executive summary, your pitch deck, and your business plan all solidified before you start going out. Because like as an entrepreneur, like you really— like you're very, very anxious to go pitch right away and see if you can raise money, right? But the thing is that for each investor you meet, you're only going to have one shot at making that first impression where they then decide that they should go ahead and invest in your company. So to make that impression as strong as possible, definitely do your homework. Like if you can shoot holes in your own idea, trust me, an investor will be able to. So be patient. Just like another month, Another month to solidify everything you're thinking and plug up the holes or get the right advisors is absolutely worth it. You know, you should be thinking of everything they could possibly ask you and have that done like 100% before you pitch. And it'll really separate you out from a lot of the other entrepreneurs which are coming in trying to raise money, because a lot of people don't do that. But if you can give really succinct, like, 5-word answers, like 1 or 2 sentence answers to every single question they ask you right away, and they can tell it's really well thought out, they're gonna have a much harder time ignoring you, and you'll stand out in their memory. So I would say as soon as you leave here, if you're not already, become an expert at whatever it is you're trying to disrupt or do. Like, nobody should know more about this subject than you do. You should be able to write a book on it.
All right.
You should understand the competitive landscape really well. You should understand the market really well. And everybody, when you have that amount of knowledge, everybody will take you very seriously when you speak, because there won't be a paper out there that you haven't read. There won't be an article on the subject that you haven't read or seen. I would just take your time to do that.
Fast forward now almost 2 years. Where are you? What are you doing? How's Envision?
Yeah, Envision's doing well. We just submitted our application to the FDA last week, actually. That's been really exciting. We've also completed a 20-person clinical trial, and the device is working perfectly. We had 100% results, no adverse clinical events, meaning the patients weren't hurt at all during it. So yeah, now we're just waiting on seeing what the FDA says. And next year, I'll probably go out to raise our Series B with the feedback from the FDA and the additional clinical trials and all of that.
How long do you have to wait for the FDA?
So, the FDA will get back to us with their preliminary thoughts in 60 days.
Okay.
Yeah. So, not, not too long.
And what do you do from now until then?
So, we have a second product.
Gotcha.
So, we're finalizing all the details around that and building that out. And we're better understanding, you know, manufacturing and everything else. So, yeah. Cool.
Well, congratulations.
Oh, thank you so much. Yeah.
That's great.
It's been, it's been a lot of fun. getting it done and the team is amazing. And yeah, oh, that's another thing in terms of like what to do right when you get out of here. As you're thinking about like putting your teams together, I knew that there are many different parts about like being an entrepreneur that would be— that was going to be rewarding, okay? Like I knew that conceptualizing an idea and then creating a device which I could then hold in my hand would be incredibly rewarding. I knew the same with clinical trials. The first time that it successfully treated a patient, it was going to be rewarding. What I wasn't expecting is that the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur are the people you work with. Finding the right team who really believes in you and believes in your idea makes every hard day and every bump in the road a little bit easier to deal with and every high moment that much better, you know.
Yeah.
So when you graduate, I would really think about who you want to work with and don't, don't work with someone out of convenience. A lot of people make that mistake. I made that mistake on— mistake, and I had to let someone go recently as a result of it. But sometimes it's really easy because someone's there, or you've known them for a while, and they seem really enthusiastic. So without necessarily looking at the milestones and what exactly needs to get done, you just say, this person's great. I want to work with them. And you pull them on. Like, that might work for a little while, but eventually it'll really hurt you.
Yeah.
So, you know, right when you get out of here, as you're becoming an expert on the field, you're also coming up with a plan. Like, what do I want to achieve with my company in 6 months? What are the milestones? Like, what are the goals? What do I want to achieve in 1 year? And then after you do that, you think, who's going to help me get there? And like, what experience do those people need to have? Versus the other way around. Some people will just find co-founders or early-stage people to work with them, and then they'll start putting their plan around. But there's no way you can successfully hire like that, right?
Yeah.
You need to understand the goals in order to understand the necessary background.
