MedStars - Blog

Allylix in the news

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:56:00 -0600

HealthTech — Start-ups Opportunities to Make Healthcare More Cost Efficient

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:44:00 -0600

Follow-on Financing

Mon, 31 May 2010 12:22:00 -0600

On Tuesday May 25, 2010, I taught a course at Stanford University Continuing Studies program on Angel Investing and the specific challenges in getting follow-on financing.

Here are some key takeaways:

Do a reality check on the company status: did they meet their milestones? Is the opportunity turning into of a product or a large business? Has there been any significant product and market validation since the last round? How much money weill be needed to get to break-even?

Amendment to Financial Reform Bill will allow angel investors to stay accredited and provide seed capital to start ups

Tue, 18 May 2010 11:54:00 -0600

The Senators' amendment which passed last night, May 17, 2010, will ease restrictions in the financial reform bill for accredited investors. The amendment promotes small business startups by speeding and increasing the availability of essential seed capital from qualified investors. Specifically, the amendment eliminates the language in the underlying bill that required a 120 day Securities and Exchange Commission review period for investors that prove an annual income in excess of $200 thousand and net worth totaling more than $1 million excluding the value of the primary residence of such natural person (this is NEW and was the compromised to get the bill changed).
Initially they wanted to raise the requirement to $2.5 Million (without the house) and $500K annual income!.. which the ACA, Angel Capital Association, estimated would have eliminated the majority of existing angel investors that fund American start ups.

New angel investor group created, HealthTech Capital

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:06:00 -0600

I recently founded HealthTech Capital, a group of private investors dedicated to funding and mentoring new "HealthTech" start ups at the intersection of healthcare and the computer/consumer electronic world.

Our goal is to invest and mentor capital efficient companies that use new scalable business model to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery from the hospital to the home.

HealthTech Capital is a new private equity investment model that leverages professional investment management oversight with the collegiality and shared expertise found in organized Angel investor groups.

Body Computing Conference: The Patient is the Consumer.

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:40:00 -0700

I was a speaker at this very exciting conference. The industry is changing rapidly in the last 3 years.
New industry players are creating a new revolution that is transforming healthcare by empowering the patient and their family with new product and services.

"We are on the cusp of fundamental changes in healthcare that go beyond the government's healthcare reform efforts. As the Internet has revolutionized the dissemination of information, the Information Age still hovers outside of hospital corridors. But it is poised to make a big entrance, as a slew of networked implanted devices, wearable monitors, and a digestible chip enter the marketplace in the coming year, and beyond. Moreover, companies like Google and Microsoft are democratizing the medical information stream, creating a generation of patients who are looking at medical care in a completely different way. A paradigm shift is underway, which will have many consequences for the delivery of healthcare."

Panel One: The Technology Continuum-Games to High End Medical Diagnostics: is the Patient Pay Piece Crucial?

On 1/25/2010 Anne is a speaker on a Life Science Angel Investors Panel: Trends for 2010

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:53:00 -0700

Anne DeGheest will be a speaker at FountainBlue: Life Science Entrepreneurs Forum on January 25, 2010.

Topics will include how early stage companies can position themselves for successful partnerships and fundings, strategically plan your business based on evolving market needs, tightly manage cash flow, and build strategic alliances with larger organizations, angels, research organizations, and other key stakeholders

http://www.fountainblue.biz/lifescience.html

Below is a summary of some of the panel comments and advices to entrepreneurs looking for angel capital:

Our panelists started by remarking on both the fact that there were 40% fewer dollars AND 30% fewer deals than in 2009, the lowest level of activity since 1997, however, they remarked that angel investing is still very active with smaller amounts for more deals. But as 10% of the deals have paid 75% of the total returns, many investors, particularly early stage investors who are more likely to get diluted in future rounds, and who might have incurred huge losses, are much more cautious. VCs are actually even more cautious, waiting for angels to vet and fund early stage companies. As one investor put it, ‘there is no money on the sidelines' - investors are already "all-in". There is also unlikely to be additional money as we are all "exit challenged", with the disappearance of the IPOs.

PMWC 2010: Personalized Medicine 2010 conference

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:31:00 -0700

On January 19 and 20, 2010, we attended the Personalized Medicine conference sponsored by Stanford, UCSF and Silicom Ventures.

The conference was examining the emerging field of personalized medicine that is already providing benefits for the health care industry, while simultaneously looking at new business opportunities within the Life sciences marketplace.

MedStars is Attending JP Morgan and OneMedPlace Conferences the week of January 11, 2010

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:52:00 -0700

It’s a big week for healthcare and healthcare startups the week of January 11 to 14 in the San Francisco Bay Area. As it has for many years, the JP Morgan Healthcare conference is in town, and it attracts nearly all of the large investment bank, venture and private capital going into healthcare company investments, not to mention nearly all the major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and healthcare IT companies.