Surgilum’s first product, the RoboMarker, was borne out of frustration with the devices for cataract surgery on the market at the time.

Alan Brown, an eye surgeon with 30 years of experience, knew he could improve upon what was currently available. The company’s president, Rocco Quaranto III, describes the RoboMarker as, “an innovation for cornea-marking accuracy for cataract surgery.” The device saves time and cuts down on the number of tools needed, according to company officials. But the RoboMarker was only the beginning – more inventions would follow.

The Wilmington-based company’s products are created by a team headed by Brown focused on anticipating the needs of eye surgeons.

“Here at Surgilum, we are creating a line of innovative eye surgery devices that are meant to help the surgeon have an easier and more effective surgery and give the patient a better result,” Quaranto said.

“We don’t just stop at making revolutionary devices. We have pride in our products and spend a vast amount of time and energy to make sure our devices are beautiful and ergonomic,” said Quaranto, whose work already has spanned a number of different sectors in the area.

Prior to becoming president of Surgilum, he co-founded Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt, which expanded to multiple locations before the owners sold the franchise in February. He then worked as chief marketing officer for CloudWyze and infant care products company MimiJumi. The final four months of 2014 saw him working nights and weekends on a consulting basis for Surgilum.

He resigned the marketing positions to become full-time president of Surgilum earlier this month.

“Surgilum has some very bright people on board with revolutionary ideas and products but needed some help guiding the ship from the business side,” Quaranto said. “I had – and still have – some learning to do within the industry. But once you are inside of the company, the blocking and tackling of running a start-up stage business is similar from frozen yogurt to baby bottles to IT solutions to medical devices. The rules and regulations differ, but at the end of the day it comes down to providing a quality good or service that fills a gap in the marketplace and gaining happy clients.”

Surgilum is in the process of receiving its CE mark, which will allow them to sell in most European countries.

With distributors already interested in the RoboMarker, company officials are looking to launch it once they receive the mark in the first quarter of this year.

“Our goal is to be the brand standard in the eye surgery device industry that other companies look at us to see what products we will release next,” Quaranto said.