Celebration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
2025 Emerging Innovators of the Year
Many physician-scientists aspire to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Given the choice, Beth and Jeff Gusenoff would rather be invited to pitch their products on Shark Tank.
A podiatrist and plastic surgeon by day, the couple married their talents at Pitt in performing and teaching fat grafting surgeries for various foot conditions. They are gratified that they can make life better for their patients and pass their skills on to the next generation, but their true passion lies in bringing new products to market that solve unmet needs for patients and practitioners alike.
For their relentless dedication to achieving impact through commercial translation of their ideas, the Gusenoffs have been selected as the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Emerging Innovators for 2025.
Pass the Potatoes (and the Ideas)
Entrepreneurship permeates both the Gusenoffs’ work and home lives.
Dinner conversations may begin with a mix of school activities or current events. Inevitably, they steer toward new ideas for social media posts to promote their recovery insole product, PopSole, or the regulatory pathway for their newest product, Push2Spin (nearing commercial launch with a new name still under wraps).
“We try to instill the innovative spirit in our kids,” Beth said. “They have a lot of ideas for PopSole, so that helps keep it fun.”
Even when they are on vacation, they bring a supply of PopSoles to ship to fulfill orders as they continue to bootstrap the development and financing of the product.
“We are keeping PopSole homegrown for now,” Jeff said, adding that they have sold more than 1,000 units to date. “It’s been a grass-roots effort to build the brand. We are gradually getting market adoption and some great feedback from users.”
Moving From Idea to Market, One Step at a Time
PopSole began as an idea from Jeff as he watched Beth improvise surgical “offloading” shoe inserts for patients undergoing fat grafting foot surgery. She would cut pads in the areas where each individual needed pressure relief as they recovered.
His innovation was to create an insert with numerous air-filled compartments that can be pricked with a pin to deflate in the areas needing pressure relief.
That’s when they discovered the Pitt innovation ecosystem and the funding, education and mentoring support that it provides for academic entrepreneurs eager to translate their ideas into products and services that solve real-world problems.
They received initial funding support from the Center for Medical Innovation and later won a $25,000 award in the Pitt Innovation Challenge sponsored by the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, which allowed them to develop a prototype and conduct clinical studies.
Through the Innovation Institute’s suite of innovator programming, they developed their go-to-market plan. With support from the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, a sister operating unit of the Innovation Institute within the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, they identified a manufacturer for their prototype.
Both Beth and Jeff have figuratively and literally been “pounding the pavement” to promote PopSole. They take turns filming promotions for the product for their LinkedIn page demonstrating the many ways PopSole inserts can be customized. They have also done several webinars and been invited to podiatry podcasts.
They have approached local shoe retailers and were invited by Walmart to demonstrate the product at its Moon Township store. Along the way, they are discovering potential new ways to use the inserts, including some people who prefer to insert PopSole in their shoes with the air compartment side down.
“People are encouraged to use it as a recovery device, but there are so many other applications,” Beth said. Some people are using them in the shower as water shoes, and people with diabetic foot ulcers use them in their slippers when having to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
The Gusenoffs said they are preparing to debut their next iteration of the product as they explore a potential distribution partnership. Their product is being manufactured nearby in Butler County, and they are proud to contribute to the regional economy.
And, yes, they continue to apply for Shark Tank.
Slimming the Time for Fat Grafting Surgeries
Not long after the Gusenoffs began their entrepreneurial journey with PopSole, inspiration struck again as they discussed the laborious process of extracting and processing fat from one area of the body to be used in another, as with the surgeries they perform for foot conditions like plantar fasciitis.
The process involves removing the fat through liposuction, then placing many syringes into a centrifuge to separate fat cells from oils and blood, then manually removing any remaining impurities. It’s a painstaking, messy task that can extend the foot fat grafting cases to two to three hours.
Jeff has developed a device that removes and processes the fat without ever removing it from the device. This can reduce the time needed to produce pure fat for grafting – potentially saving doctors and patients significant time and expense.
For this device, which requires FDA approval, the Gusenoffs have brought in a co-founder whom they met after a Shark Tank-style pitch competition at a meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Denise Gottfried, a 30-year veteran of the medical device industry and a member of the ASPS board, said she immediately saw the potential for the Push2Spin device.
“They showed me their technology, and I thought to myself that there is nothing like this available in the marketplace,” she said. “It was innovative and elegant, and I could conceptualize right away how to bring it to market. The next six months are going to be very exciting for Push2Spin.”
With Gottfried’s support and Silicon Valley connections, the Gusenoffs are preparing to raise a round of venture financing for the device as they continue laying the groundwork for regulatory approval. They had previously raised a seed round of $1.2 million.
“We have a finalized design for the device and are working toward a May launch,” Jeff said. “We are getting quotes from manufacturers and would like to keep production of this device in the U.S. like we are doing with PopSole.”
They plan to conduct an initial rollout of the device with about 100 key opinion leaders in ear, nose, and throat (ENT), podiatry, and orthopedics.
“Our niche is small-volume fat transfer,” Beth said. “We have a compelling business case for moving these procedures from the operating room to an office setting.”
The Gusenoffs said the device can be used for a wide range of procedures, including aesthetic and reconstructive needs, wound and ulcer care, breast reconstruction, vocal cord surgery, and osteoarthritis care. Another emerging opportunity is for people who are losing weight from popular GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs that can result in drawn faces. Fat injections can help restore facial volume in these cases.
More to Come
Even as they focus on bringing their first two products to market, the Gusenoffs say they are constantly on the lookout for new problems to solve.
“Innovation is stressful. There is a lot of fear and anxiety, but we love it,” Beth said. “It helps keep our lives interesting and fulfilling.”
Jeff said they are currently exploring ways to incorporate AI into their innovations.
They are also helping inspire students and clinical residents to be innovators.
Jeff mentors students in the Department of Bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, while they both are sounding boards for clinical residents in their respective departments.
“We love to inspire others to pursue their ideas,” Beth said.