https://www.nickhalper.com/home daily 1.0 2026-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/611b390952e315053ecc525f/ab55ac11-4662-4d46-84c7-8685f492409c/240403_240324_Headshots_Fitlow_Fitlow_034.jpg Home https://www.nickhalper.com/pagecv daily 0.75 2026-05-10 https://www.nickhalper.com/contact daily 0.75 2024-11-18 https://www.nickhalper.com/about-me daily 0.75 2026-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/611b390952e315053ecc525f/2cfb3de9-7dfe-4c5a-b86b-4f21871493e4/Square-Nick-Breanne.jpg About Me - About Me I've always been drawn to the question of how people get organized around big ideas — whether that's something as deliberate as the Human Genome Project or as gradual as science fiction in one era quietly becoming the research agenda of the next. My interest manifests as systems builder that helps visionary teams turn strategy into action inside of scientifically driven tech companies. That work currently lives in my role as COO of Motif Neurotech, a clinical-stage company developing a Class III active implantable epidural neurostimulation platform. My scope spans regulatory, quality, manufacturing, finance, HR, IT, legal, and program management — basically the full operating substrate of a small company doing one of the harder things in medtech. As a neuroscientist who has launched multiple venture funded startups in several different countries, I’ve not just gotten to oversee these functions, I’ve worked in them as a founder-operator. In fact, I’ve made a career out of working with early stage founders to both help them refine their vision and then turn that strategy into operating plans, purposefully designed organizations, and processes that are both aligned to both company goals and values. The challenges for deep tech companies are not usually strategy problems. Indeed, the premise of these companies is that their solution could be widely and deeply valuable if they can just solve the hard problem of building the thing. To tackle this, companies don’t just need an operator who has seen thirty different SOPs on purchase requisition, they need somebody who can turn the squishy challenge of “humanity needs a tool that can flexibly measure and control neural states” into a hiring plan, a day-level project plan, and a set of decision making and escalation processes that let the incredible scientists and engineers do their best work. I think about three layers, and most of my work is in the connective tissue between them: Strategy into plans. A company will die without a good strategy, but they also die when strategies can’t be turned into plans a team can translate into action. That translation work — what does this mean for the next quarter, who owns it, how do we know it's working — is where most companies leak. Organizational design. How people are structured to work together is upstream of almost everything else. Role clarity, reporting structure, what gets centralized and what gets pushed to the edges. I love digging into how people do their best work and I am fiercely protective of organizational structures that support it. Process design. The actual flow of work through the structure — meetings, reviews, decision rights, documentation. The goal is process that scales without becoming theater, and in many cases, the best process is the lightest. These systems have had real payoffs. At Motif, we're the fastest active implantable company to reach a multi-patient clinical trial, with less capital than any peer. Outside of my work, I live in Salt Lake City, Utah with my wife. I enjoy a variety of hobbies, but lately I find myself spending time climbing mountains, building furniture, and programming interactive art projects and home automations. For fun, I co-host Neurratives, a podcast that explores the neuroscience behind science fiction about brains. https://www.nickhalper.com/publications daily 0.75 2024-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/611b390952e315053ecc525f/fb06f3b1-239f-42fc-b59f-c4ba28884a43/1_f2bhbCSXxEjEoVnmPsbuSA.jpeg Publications Brain-Computer Interfacing: My Story on Entering this Exciting Field https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/611b390952e315053ecc525f/fc5d81d8-f0ab-471d-9f34-f69932edd6d8/1_u1QG5mdZf2ETlQBZCQLCjg.jpeg Publications https://www.nickhalper.com/ethics-and-values daily 0.75 2024-11-18 https://www.nickhalper.com/board-bio daily 0.75 2026-05-10