26 Aug 09 Some Sources For Funding (from 8/21 meeting)
Where can medical device entrepreneurs go for funding? (NOTE: THIS IS NOT A COMPREHENSIVE LIST)
- Grant programs (e.g. National Instruments)
- Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s 21st Century Research & Technology Grant Program
- Purdue’s business plan competitions
- Emerging Innovations Fund (Purdue)
- SBA / bank lending
- Community Programs (looking to create jobs in their communities)
- Venture Club of Indiana
- HALO Capital Group
- Bio Crossroads
- Burrill
Tags: funding, medical device, start-up, venture capital
26 Aug 09 What Does A Medical Device Entrepreneur Need? (from 8/21 meeting)
Discussion: What can we do as service providers to help entrepreneurs?
PITCH
- Need a power point summary of business goals.
- A pitch, overview, an executive summary.
- Figure where they’re trying to go.
- Write a business plan.
Non-Disclosure Agreement / Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (NDA/CDA)
- Ask up front for a disclosure agreement.
- This protects the service provider as much as the entrepreneur.
- “Clean lines in the sand” on how this information is to be used.
- NDA may be project specific.
- Provides a roadmap.
BUSINESS ENTITY / STRUCTURE
- Organization documents.
- Need entity structuring “the second you get a bank account.”
- Also need management structure. (e.g. sometimes the entrepreneur is not ideally suited to manage)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP)
- Get legal advice to initially protect intellectual property.
MARKET RESEARCH
- Determine product viability.
TECHNOLOGY DETAILS
- Must be able to translate technical details of project to investors.
- Provide an overview.
- Know core competency.
- Determine “who do we need to bring to this party?”
- What are the resource needs?
SALES
- Determine commission agreement.
- Equity is often used when money is scarce.
- However, equity can be the most expensive form of collateral you have.
- Can result in your loss of incentive to proceed.
TIMELINE
- Define milestones, determine ROI for each step.
RULES
- Determine the rules under which you must operate.
- What is your regulatory strategy?
MANUFACTURING PROCESS
- What will the manufacturing process require?
- What will be your distribution chain?
- What methodology will you engage to distribute the product? (Each channel requires a plan.)
EXIT
- What is your exit strategy? (e.g. Grow to build and then sell? Or go for the bricks & mortar?)
LIABILITY
- Estimate potential product liability issues.
- Identify possible risks.
Need to develop a baseline document as an introductory portal to INpact. Start with a business plan template, specific to small medical device entrepreneurs.
Action item: Business Plan Overview / Template
Who: Dan Boots of Bingham McHale
Will start putting together such a template, based on a tech overview document they already have.
He will be assisted by: Jim Bartek & Scott Hartman
Action item: INpact Entrepreneur Advisory Group
Who: Pam Weaver will begin to define an INpact advisory group; the official “frontman” who entrepreneurs may approach
She will be assisted by: Tammy Bedinghaus
Tags: entrepreneur, medical device, start-up
25 Aug 09 September 18, 2009 – INpact Meeting
What: INpact Monthly Meeting
When: September 18, 2009 from 11:00 – 1:00
Where: Bingham-McHale (2700 Market Tower, 10 W. Market Street, Indy)
RSVP by September 16, 2009: email events@binghammchale.com or call 
317 968 5333
During September’s meeting, we will focus on networking and continue to learn how our businesses can help one another and medical device companies. As we get closer, an agenda will be finalized. We will cover the following:
- Advisory Board updates
- Recap of open house event
Continue sharing INpact with others in the medical device community. Let’s try to get a few of our “customers” in attendance.
If you are not a member but are interested, please submit an inquiry for the advisory board to review.
Not interested in being a member? You can still attend for the cost of $20.
Make checks out to INpact, Inc.
Tags: INpact, medical device, product development
24 Aug 09 INpact In The News
Here is an article by Chris O’Malley of the Indianapolis Business Journal about INpact:
Initiative to help medical device upstarts hits stride
INpact Medical Device Network also generates business for service providers
By Chris O’Malley
comalley@ibj.com
Industry groups in the life sciences, medical and information technology realms have helped lure companies to the region and foster upstarts.
Funding is almost always an issue, but it’s not the only barrier. Getting medical devices to market often requires product design, development and marketing resources that aren’t always apparent to upstarts.
Seeing an unmet need in that development and launch cycle, companies that write software, prepare regulatory filings and build prototypes quietly formed their own initiative to help emerging medicaldevice makers.
The INpact Medical Device Network, which started a year ago, recently found a permanent meeting place, at the law offices of Bingham McHale, downtown. Now, with upwards of 50 people gathering each month, INpact plans to hold its first open house Aug. 25.
Medical-device upstarts “don’t know who’s in the space, who’s a service provider who could help them,” said INpact President Jon Speer. He founded and heads Martinsville-based Creo Quality, which helps life sciences companies with product development and project management.
Speer credits as “tremendous assets” industry groups such as BioCrossroads, the Indiana Health Industry Forum and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
“There’s been a lot of focus on startups. But sort of the unknown is what are the capabilities of the service provider network” that could help them, he added.
To be sure, there’s potential money in it for the 35 companies that belong to INpact. Some have already landed work from medical-device upstarts who’ve outsourced work to them.
Perhaps the best example of the group’s potential involves Therametric Technologies, an Indianapolis dental-device company. In a hurry to build a prototype, the firm contacted local medical-device software firm RND Group. RND is an INpact member, but it doesn’t have all the expertise Therametric needed, so it steered the company to Priio, a local product development firm.
Eventually, Creo was tapped to help and, later, Online Resources Inc., in Lebanon. With the resources of various firms, RND finished a PC application for the device.
Therametric got its prototype in just over a month.
“That worked very well for us,” said George Stookey, owner of Therametric. On Aug. 19, the company said it would build a $4 million headquarters in Noblesville and hire an additional 40 people to make the device. It is said to detect the formation of tooth cavities years earlier than traditional techniques.
Speer got the idea for INpact about a year ago, after he was called to assist a company with a project late in the process. The client didn’t necessarily have the best vendors in place to work on development.
“I thought, there’s got to be a better way of doing things,” Speer said.
Speer compared notes with Pete Kissinger, founder of Indianapolis-based analytical-chemistry-device developer Prosolia. Might they be able to build a matrix of service providers based on their capabilities?
The circle of firms that came together as a result learned more about one another and their individual capabilities. Their discussions gave them a better idea of where to steer an upstart medical-device maker needing help.
“We’ve made referrals back and forth. This has helped everybody build business as well,” said Fran Gale, co-founder of Indianapolis-based Gale Force Software, a service provider and member of INpact.
Gale’s firm worked with a local business trying to get its medical device to market, helping with quality system and design controls for the firm’s submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Working with upstarts is no panacea, however.
“Last month’s [INpact group] topic was how you help a startup that doesn’t have any funding,” Speer said.
Some of the work might have to be done pro bono, with the hope the service provider gets future business from the upstart as it grows.
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Tags: ibj, indianapolis business journal, INpact, medical device, product development
21 Aug 09 RND Awarded 2009 Indiana Company to Watch
Tom Gardner (317) 841-8014 x101
tom.gardner@RNDGroup.com
The RND Group, Inc. Honored as One of the 2009 Indiana Companies to Watch
May 18, 2009 – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The RND Group, Inc. has been recognized as one of the 2009 Indiana Companies to Watch, an awards program presented by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, its Small Business Development Center network, Purdue University and the Edward Lowe Foundation.
Fifty companies from Indiana will be honored as outstanding second-stage companies during the second annual Indiana Companies to Watch awards program, held on Aug. 27 in Indianapolis.
Companies to Watch is an awards program that celebrates Indiana privately held second-stage companies, typically those businesses that are past the startup phase, are considered to be established, and face issues of growth, not survival.
Among the 50 honored companies in 2009 is The RND Group, Inc.
“We are proud to be recognized by the state,” said Tim DeFrench, President of The RND Group. “We have seen consistent growth in customer base and revenues over the last four years, and we look to continue that success in the years to come.”
Companies honored range from traditional businesses involved in manufacturing, financial services and retail trade to high-tech companies working in the life sciences, information technology, telecommunications, and aerospace industries.
About the RND Group
The RND Group provides full life cycle software engineering services specializing in medical device and consumer electronic product development. We work with companies by partnering with their product development organizations in providing project management, requirements management, software engineering, and product testing services as needed to complement our clients’ existing engineering departments. For more information on The RND Group, visit www.rndgroup.com
About Indiana Companies to Watch
Companies to Watch firms must employ between six and 150 full-time equivalent employees, have between $750,000 and $100 million in annual revenue or working capital in place, and demonstrate the intent and capacity to grow based on employee or sales growth, exceptional entrepreneurial leadership, sustainable competitive advantage or other notable strengths.
This year more than 500 Indiana companies, representing 59 Indiana counties, were nominated for the Companies to Watch program. The number of applicants was narrowed to 214 businesses, from 50 counties. From that pool, 106 finalists were selected, and 50 companies from 17 counties emerged to become the 2009 Indiana Companies to Watch.
This awards program is unique because of its focus on second-stage companies. The impact of these companies on Indiana’s economy is immense. During 2005-2007 Indiana’s resident companies averaged more than 32,000 second-stage establishments according to YourEconomy.org, an online resource of the Edward Lowe Foundation. Those second-stage companies employed more than 760,000 workers.
Looking at the contributions of these companies from a broader perspective, from 1993 to 2007 only 15 percent of Indiana’s resident establishments were in the second-stage category, however, they generated nearly 41 percent of net new jobs.
Indiana Companies to Watch is a collaboration among the Indiana Economic Development Corp., through its Small Business Development Center Network, Purdue University and the Edward Lowe Foundation.
This program would not be possible without the generous support of the following: New Paradigm Sponsor: Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Visionary Sponsors: Katz, Sapper & Miller; KeyBank; Ivy Tech Community College; and Premier Capital Corporation.
About the program presenters:
The state of Indiana’s lead economic development agency, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation oversees Indiana’s statewide business attraction and development efforts, coordinates state programs, and incentives for companies looking to grow in Indiana, and provides assistance and funding to Indiana entrepreneurs and high-tech start-ups.
The Indiana Small Business Development Center Network offers free and low-cost information, management counseling and educational services to support the state’s small-business owners and potential entrepreneurs, boosting economic development and creating jobs within the state.
The Purdue team supporting the program includes representatives from the Purdue Center for Regional Development, Purdue’s Discovery Park including the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, the College of Agriculture, Krannert School of Management, Purdue Alumni Association, Purdue Cooperative Extension Service and Purdue Research Park.
The Edward Lowe Foundation, based in Cassopolis, Mich., created the Companies to Watch program to paint a realistic picture of a statewide or regional economy. The foundation also presents Companies to Watch in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan and Mississippi.
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Tags: Indiana, lowe foundation, medical device, rnd group, software
11 Aug 09 Topics for August 21 Meeting. Please Comment.
I heard some positive feedback about the July meeting. Attendees seemed to enjoy the interactive discussion on “What If The Start-Up Has Little to No $?”
Of course we will have networking and will discuss the Open House. So what else should we discuss in August?Add a comment
