Raising Money for Technological Startups
.pdfRaising Money for Technology Start-ups
David Baker
Executive Director
University Technology Park at IIT
Perm, Russia, May 6, 2014
Incubators: Working with Start-ups
•Establishing annual milestones
•Support for business plan development, marketing, pitches to potential funders
•Identifying funding sources
–Angels
–VCs
–Government
Advanced Cooling Therapies
UTP Success Story
•Product: medical device for rapid body cooling for stroke and heart attack victims
Early Funding
•Friends and family—personal funds
•iBIO Index pitch winner--$10,000
•Support from University Technology Park to:
–Identify and schedule presentations to funders
–Introductions to state government
Product Credibility
•Successful animal trials
•Prototype development and systems development for hospitals
•Simple and credible solution to a real problem
•Led to $1 million round of funding from Angel Groups in Chicago
Marketing Strategy
•Establishment of connections in major EU health clusters—International marketing director
–Identification of leading emergency room doctors
–Support from University Technology Park through connections with European tech parks
•Funding enabled production of product, expansion of staff to meet expected demand
Next Challenges
•Obtain USA FDA 510k regulatory approval
•Use EU experience to gain credibility
•Design go-to-market strategy for manufacturing of product, and selection of required chillers
•Preparation for exit
Other Success Stories
•Cleversafe—secure archiving of the world’s data
–Financed with VC rounds
•Chromatin—mini-chromasomes for tracking rapid hybridization of cereal crops
–Financed with VC rounds
•Therapeutic Proteins—First to market in the US with Bio-similar pharmaceuticals
–Financed by UTP developer and private investors
Main mistakes of Start-Ups
•Technology first instead of customer needs
•Too many markets at once
•Under-estimating regulatory delays
•Disappointing investors with too ambitious claims
•Intellectual property issues
•Under-estimating cost of manufacturing
•No idea of distribution requirements, costs
•Competition
Investment Chart: stages and appropriate investors
Crowdfunding
Lawyer
University
FFF
Credit
Cards
Self
Volunteers
Accelerato
r
Grants
Angels
Customer
Philanthropy
Entrep Org
VC
Funds
Strategic
Partner
Angel
Orgs
SBA
Mortgage
Idea |
Seed |
Early |