Cardiovascular Systems Inc?

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Anonymous

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Anyone know anything about this company? I'm considering an interview for an "associate" type position - trying to make the jump from hospital pharma sales into a device. They specialize in peripheral/vascular instruments - Orbital PAD, ViperWire Advance guide wire, etc.

Any insight is appreciated!
 


Anonymous said:
Anyone know anything about this company? I'm considering an interview for an "associate" type position - trying to make the jump from hospital pharma sales into a device. They specialize in peripheral/vascular instruments - Orbital PAD, ViperWire Advance guide wire, etc.

Any insight is appreciated!
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Unrealistic expectations/goals. Trying to sell off the company. Heard they were looking to hire people with NO medical sales experience to reduce compensation offering.
 




Here is what I see with this company.

From first hand knowledge I worked for them for about a year. They have built a company on a rotoblator updated technology and marketed it in an area of medicine where it's to measure patient outcomes. The sales of CSI were built early one with the 80/20 rule in mind in which 20% of their sales force generated at least 80% of their sales volumes.

They hired reps early on from Foxhollow and EV3 who knew their customers well and are very close friends with the doctors they call on. They spend alot of money to entertain these docs and pretty much wine and dine their way to getting the device pulled in many cases. Many cases where the device was not medically indicated.

I saw territories that were doing 20-30 burrs per week which is about $50,000 per week in revenues and they paid the reps 100K salary and plus a 10% commission range so the top people who had well known docs doing cases could make 20-$25K per month in commission plus their salary. The docs they had were also compensated as speakers or they conducted training courses where they loaded up cases and went through 5-10 burrs in a 1 day period.

If you don't have at least 3 - 4 docs that you know well and that have built a large peripheral practice, you may be looking at about a 10-12 month stint before they let you go for lack of performance and not getting stocking orders or generating cases.

As a company they focused on cardiologists early on who were gutsy to use this device on cases. The problem is that most cardiologists don't have big peripheral practices built up and in most hosptials across the US, the surgeons have most of these cases locked up in the labs.

The surgeons are not the early adoptors and see through the smoke and mirrors the company has created in their early studies. The sales managers will push the reps to get stocking orders but in reality... this is a niche product when other means to treat the patient fail. It is merely a last chance to salvage a limb, but most docs will not buy into that because it has questionable long term outcomes. Most docs will just try a large self expanding stent/ coated stent in order to get good initial angiographic outcomes and hope for the best.

Good luck on your decision, but unless you have the right docs with the right mix of patients in thier practice and they want to buy into the hype and do training sessions, I would really consider doing something else.
 


Anonymous said:
Unrealistic expectations/goals. Trying to sell off the company. Heard they were looking to hire people with NO medical sales experience to reduce compensation offering.
Click to expand...

Re: Cardiovascular Systems Inc?

First time poster here. Finally felt compelled to share my "experience".

You are right about CSI. Failing company looking to get bought, hiring non-experienced reps to save cash.
A recruiter called me to set me up for an interview for CSI, and since I am also trying to break into market, I asked why this company would be interested in me (no OR sales, just cap equipment). He said, "they want personality". ? He was also surprised that I know quite a bit about arterial disease, limb salvage, and plaque excision. He connects with me on LinkedIn, then I also see the others he is recently connected to. All inexperienced, same territory I'm interviewing for, and out of college for 2-5 years max. So I do an initial screen, and go to face-to-face. I meet with the 'Regional Manager' who I previewed on LinkedIn as well. Looks like he cried himself to sleep the night before. He meets me, has a perma-frown, slumps in his seat, and proceeds to bash his former employer, EV3. Rolls his eyes, calls them, "Evil3", then talks about how they destroyed Foxhollow, ruined the territories, his life, etc. Barely makes eye contact, thumbs through my business plan without reading it, and gives me a sing-song, "thanks for the close, bring it to the next meeting", crap answer. Not only did this guy hate his job, but seemed to hate life in general. He was promoted from sales to DM in the 8 months he has been there. Also bitched about the former rep in the my territory.

Really?

I left there hoping he hated me as much as I hated him. Then I see one of the reps I viewed on the recruiter's LinkedIn page waiting to go in next. Poor girl probably learned to spell "atherectomy" the night before.

It also opened my eyes to end up on these boards, every time I research a company. I generally take the bitching with a grain of salt-job requirement-but there are a lot of pissed-off peripheral reps out there. Nothing new on the market, doctors getting their asses sued off, bad product reviews, lack of clinical studies, and hostile reps. I even called one of my interventional radiologist mentors to ask him about CSI's "differential sanding" device. Said he heard it was total crap-would never touch it.

Quote from another thread, "and to CSI, you should be ashamed of your product, ever wonder why patients piss blood the next day after treatment with your products?"

And to think I would consider giving up my decent job to break in to devices that way. Thank you, CSI Douchebag, for 'keeping it real'.

BTW- the recruiter called me same day to release me from that hell. I've never been so relieved to get "rejected".

(( Just giving honest input here- don't retaliate by calling me a douche, assclown, etc. like quite a few of the posters on CP. Beware of this company. If you work for CSI, save it and run, Forrest. ))
 


Anonymous said:
Re: Cardiovascular Systems Inc?

First time poster here. Finally felt compelled to share my "experience".

You are right about CSI. Failing company looking to get bought, hiring non-experienced reps to save cash.
A recruiter called me to set me up for an interview for CSI, and since I am also trying to break into market, I asked why this company would be interested in me (no OR sales, just cap equipment). He said, "they want personality". ? He was also surprised that I know quite a bit about arterial disease, limb salvage, and plaque excision. He connects with me on LinkedIn, then I also see the others he is recently connected to. All inexperienced, same territory I'm interviewing for, and out of college for 2-5 years max. So I do an initial screen, and go to face-to-face. I meet with the 'Regional Manager' who I previewed on LinkedIn as well. Looks like he cried himself to sleep the night before. He meets me, has a perma-frown, slumps in his seat, and proceeds to bash his former employer, EV3. Rolls his eyes, calls them, "Evil3", then talks about how they destroyed Foxhollow, ruined the territories, his life, etc. Barely makes eye contact, thumbs through my business plan without reading it, and gives me a sing-song, "thanks for the close, bring it to the next meeting", crap answer. Not only did this guy hate his job, but seemed to hate life in general. He was promoted from sales to DM in the 8 months he has been there. Also bitched about the former rep in the my territory.

Really?

I left there hoping he hated me as much as I hated him. Then I see one of the reps I viewed on the recruiter's LinkedIn page waiting to go in next. Poor girl probably learned to spell "atherectomy" the night before.

It also opened my eyes to end up on these boards, every time I research a company. I generally take the bitching with a grain of salt-job requirement-but there are a lot of pissed-off peripheral reps out there. Nothing new on the market, doctors getting their asses sued off, bad product reviews, lack of clinical studies, and hostile reps. I even called one of my interventional radiologist mentors to ask him about CSI's "differential sanding" device. Said he heard it was total crap-would never touch it.

Quote from another thread, "and to CSI, you should be ashamed of your product, ever wonder why patients piss blood the next day after treatment with your products?"

And to think I would consider giving up my decent job to break in to devices that way. Thank you, CSI Douchebag, for 'keeping it real'.

BTW- the recruiter called me same day to release me from that hell. I've never been so relieved to get "rejected".

(( Just giving honest input here- don't retaliate by calling me a douche, assclown, etc. like quite a few of the posters on CP. Beware of this company. If you work for CSI, save it and run, Forrest. ))
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CSI is suffering for sure. The product is good, in my opinion. It has its niche: spinning out hard plaques. That's it.

The reps in my area are desperate as hell. The manager is a total prick too. He is an arrogant NJ former high-school tennis star who can now charm fat admins and sell a gizmo that gives interventional cardiologists one more billing option.

As desperate as CSI is, EV3 is certainly evil. Stay away from these people too. Foxhollow was ruined by all the people at CSI because they were all at EV3 when the ship started to sink. Now the atherectomy market is bribes and backstabbing by people who jump from one sinking ship to another and pretend like they made the right decision.
 


CSI is a mess. Bad investment in either one's money or a career no matter how much they dangle in front of your face. There is much better quality out there for a person to get started in device or to switch to. Here's why:

Looking at their recent corporate earnings they doubled their loss quarter over quarter to $12M. They raised another quarter's loss worth through a below value stock offering bringing in $15M. I have not looked, but total cash should now be about 6 month's worth ($27ish). The greatest sin in their SG&A line at around $60M per year on roughly $80M per year on revenue. Take all this into account and you can see that they are on their last breath unless they cut out SG&A which means for them to cut sales staff. Sales is the only meaningful expense line outside of clinical.

One interesting point is that their inventory is extremely bloated compared to industry standards. Sales not meeting internal expectations for growth? Probably unrealistic expectations at best.

Also, they said their increased losses last quarter were due to clinical trial costs. I assume that this is related to the coronary trial. Too bad since they have not completed the trial and they then would be at least a year from any sort of approval after completing the trial and submitting to the FDA. Coronary is not a large market for atherectomy in the United States (they have no international pipeline). Flushing investor money down the toilet to create buzz?

My contacts tell me these guys are shady and a failed management crew. Apparently, few of them actually work in the home office and have direct experience prior to CSI in their roles having all been sales people. They announced bringing in a guy in from Medtronic Spine to turn around the sales force, but he has been ineffective after a year on the job. (Again, a guy not up to the leadership task.) He was on "special projects" at Medtronic before moving over to CSI and we all know what that means.

Surprisingly, Dr. Glenn Nelson continues to be their chairman. He has a great reputation in device having been a part of the Exec. management team at Medtronic back in big growth years and a big investor in Med Tech. It is a wonder how he puts up with this management team and has not caught on to all of this and forced change. Chairman not at the helm?

I am told that the business they have is due to relationships and payments to use the device. A small percentage of procedures use atherectomy in either peripheral or coronary so any sales job a person is offered will be a slog with several competitors occupying the same, small market and a lack of clinical proof that these devices make any difference.
 










nothing has "really changed". You will get the story of "recognizing high attrition" and "we set our minds to change and make people successful". Some of this is true as they changed the culture by flipping middle management however, something drastic needed to be done to give company a face lift. Average ten is 2yrs and frankly they are looking for "entry market meat" If you have too much experience forget about it. They want someone who "believes" and will grind and hound and scrape/chase for cases to make a number at the expense of personal lives. I say this because......in the end clawing to scrounge up cases and hit numbers really doesn't build a market and eventually the forecast hits you in the face and your done. Your left confused and worn out, "I worked my butt off, they are using more product than ever etc...Manger just reposts position and resets number (plug-n-play). The company is thin on real business tools to effectively drive business. They hire light med sale, b2b or pharma/RN (young!!). Look elsewhere if you want to where lead, and if not realize the only thing that will sink faster than lead on a lake will be your credibility in driving the "compliance" bs to a surgeon. They care less and just want to bypass and will be happy to let you spin your wheels.
 


Very interesting... SO is it his and miss with territories or is it getting some ground since there is a coronary device now?

Anonymous said:
nothing has "really changed". You will get the story of "recognizing high attrition" and "we set our minds to change and make people successful". Some of this is true as they changed the culture by flipping middle management however, something drastic needed to be done to give company a face lift. Average ten is 2yrs and frankly they are looking for "entry market meat" If you have too much experience forget about it. They want someone who "believes" and will grind and hound and scrape/chase for cases to make a number at the expense of personal lives. I say this because......in the end clawing to scrounge up cases and hit numbers really doesn't build a market and eventually the forecast hits you in the face and your done. Your left confused and worn out, "I worked my butt off, they are using more product than ever etc...Manger just reposts position and resets number (plug-n-play). The company is thin on real business tools to effectively drive business. They hire light med sale, b2b or pharma/RN (young!!). Look elsewhere if you want to where lead, and if not realize the only thing that will sink faster than lead on a lake will be your credibility in driving the "compliance" bs to a surgeon. They care less and just want to bypass and will be happy to let you spin your wheels.
Click to expand...
 




Good morning,

I'm looking into a expansion position becoming available in my area. Am currently working in med device sales and have 12 years in this position. Territory is at he point where we have 90% market share and growth has become a challenge so I'm looking at CSI.

If you are working or have worked as a sales rep any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you.
 


Looking at a position as well, with interview next week....

Tough finding any recent numbers on base, commissions, etc...

If anyone has feedback on current culture working with company, interview schedule, etc., it would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
 


Stay as far away from this company as you can. Worse company culture...EVER. Bad getting worse. They will lie about your comp, probably your territory and shady managers and leaders here.
 


Can anyone tell me about the RSM, as well as the DSMs in the Northwest, and whether or not they operate as a team? Are they intelligent, talented and fun to be around? Any strong opinions, one way or the other...?

Thank you in advance for your insight.
 


No complaints on my end. I'm currently a DSM with CSI; I've been with them for almost a year and they are BY FAR the best med device company I've worked for (of the 3 I've been with). Very aggressive comp plan, they reward top performers, possess innovative technology, and boast great corporate vision and leadership...the company's success is predicated on high growth/high performance. Quarterly growth expectations range anywhere from 10-30% over the previous quarter, so that can be a drag...it is definitely a "what have you done for me lately" culture. I've been impressed with management, for the most part. Great business acumen, very strategic mindset, resources are always made available to the sales force.

I love my job, I couldn't imagine working for anyone else in the vascular space. The device may be considered a "niche" device, as it does its best work in the presence of calcium. If you're looking to treat soft plaque, thrombus, or in-stent restenosis...CSI may not be the best option. Balloon angioplasty works fine in softer plaques and other atherectomy devices like laser (Spectranetics) and JetStream (BSci) will deliver great results in soft plaque/ISR. CSI has the advantage of being "low profile", as it can be delivered through a 4F sheath and traverses well through distal anatomy; it can also be used from a "tibiopedal" approach, where a physician may elect to re-cannulate a diseased artery by gaining access in the foot or ankle. Laser is also 4F compatible but, in my experience, does not do appreciable work on dense calcium (the composition of most tibial disease - especially in diabetics/smokers/ESR patients).

The introduction of the coronary CSI device has opened up a whole new market...demand is outpacing supply, as I have cardiologists requesting the technology at facilities that haven't been approved for "launch"...yet...but it's only a matter of time before CSI becomes a standard of care, in conjunction with angioplasty and coronary stenting, for treating patients with severe coronary calcium.

RSM in the northwest is awesome, nothing but high praise from me. I interviewed with him several times during the hiring process. Great guy to work for. IMO, the sales force are all exceptionally knowledgeable and very hard workers, at least in my region. Nobody knows peripheral intervention the way we do...we're the PAD and CLI experts in the field.

Hope that was helpful. I definitely encourage anyone who has the opportunity to compete for a position with CSI to pursue it to the full extent.
 





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