Building Nspire: A Father, A Son, and a Few Strong Opinions

Building a startup is hard. Building one with your dad? That’s a whole different kind of pressure test.

This month, we sat down with the team behind Nspire Medical Technologies, where a lifetime of engineering expertise meets a career path that includes everything from BBQ pitmaster to debate judge. Entrepreneurs Richard (Rick) and Ricky Gillespie are working to bring Nspire products to market. The first two are Unio, a dual chamber syringe for streamlining biologic drug development and next-gen vaccines, and VersaJect™, a no-fear syringe-alternative for patients using vial-based injectables.

Fair warning: this story is told entirely from Ricky Gillespie’s perspective, which means a healthy mix of admiration, dry humor, and just enough honesty to keep things interesting. He offers a candid look at what it means to build something meaningful with someone who’s known you since before your first bad idea.

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Ricky and Richard Gillespie at the Southlake Innovation Cup

First, give us a quick bio about Dad's career from your perspective.

Dad, (Richard D. Gillespie III - Rick) has been engineering medical devices since before I was born. Over his career, Rick's work contributed to early versions of ground-breaking devices such as heart valves, balloon catheters and of course, autoinjectors.

With a vision for an autoinjector, he founded Innoject in 2001, ultimately selling it under the moniker PharmaPen in 2007 to West Pharmaceutical Services. West retained Rick as Director of Research and Development for Medical Devices. He "retired" in 2015, couldn't sit still, and here we are today with Nspire.

Despite the award-winning technologies Rick developed throughout his career, his pride remains in the teams he built--the people he recruited, mentored, learned from, and watched grow and succeed. Success is built through the hard work of good people, not just good ideas. That value remains central to Nspire today.

What is your back story before Nspire?

I am Ricky, Richard D. Gillespie IV, an insatiable generalist and recovering occupational nomad. Most recently, I spent several years teaching at a small charter school that serves a substance abuse rehab hospital for teens. Among my vocational past lives are roles as an accountant, BBQ pit master, thespian, network engineer, debate judge, urban farmer, paralegal, hospice caregiver, proselytizer, and sometime poet. Anything but medical devices, of course.

How did the pairing come about?

In 2024, I was taking counsel from my dad about competing job offers during yet another Bedouin career move. Unbeknownst to me, he had ulterior motives and made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

Was there a moment where it clicked in as "I have to do this?"

I cannot work for a man I don't respect; joining Nspire was a proof to that contrapositive. Surely having rebelled against everything worth rebelling against, I did the only sensible thing left: rebel against the rebellion itself. Truth be told, my father is a brilliant, stubbornly-idealistic man who is not idly content; when given the opportunity to complement his vision and energy with my own, the path was clear.

How long was the ramp-up before you felt comfortable telling the Nspire story?

It took about six months to acclimate to pharmaceutical and engineering vernacular. The process of abridging that novel to a short-story, then to a marketable haiku is a work-in-progress, and one in which TechFW has played no small part.

You and your father have different skill sets. How have you divided the work and business sides of the company?

It's always a matter of determining the right tool for the job; a good result is a reflection of selection. Rick has a reputation as a great engineer, but he also possesses strong leadership qualities ... he has been instrumental in framing our budding organization. His past experience as a founder has been essential. I wear every hat, including R&D, information technology, patent research, communications, marketing, logistics, product development, market research, PR and much more.

Have you quit or been fired yet? If so, how many times?

Not yet, but I'm still clinging to hope.

In what ways is the working partner relationship different than the father-son relationship?

Honestly, it isn't particularly different, it just introduces a necessary degree of professionalism that serves as a firebreak for escalation. Dad and I very often have competing ideas or viewpoints--we always have--and ultimately, I see this as healthy for the business. We aren't at much risk for 'yes-man' or 'group-think' pitfalls. We challenge each other and Nspire is better for it.

Is mom a referee?

The whistle and striped shirt would go straight to her head, I'm afraid. Much akin to Wile E. Coyote and Sam the Sheepdog, mine and dad's conflicts are well confined to working hours only.

Nspire Medical Technologies is a proud member of the TechFW SmartStart startup incubator program built for startups and entrepreneurs with grit. To learn more about TechFW startup programs, visit techfortworth.org.