I interviewed Gerry Brunk, Managing Director Lumira Capital @NVCA Venturescape. Despite the fact that Gerry was losing his voice we had a very interesting conversation. Lumira Capital is a Health Care Life Science dedicated venture firm founded in the late 1980s started in Canada. Gerry opened up the office in Boston in 2002. They invest across the board in Life Science companies primarily developing bio-therapeutics or therapeutic medical devices. They also invest in diagnostics & occasionally health care IP companies. He has been on the business side of the pharmaceutical industry all of his career. He started out in investment banking doing health care investment banking. He was drawn to the startup world to the translation of innovation to the market place fundamentally which is easier to see @small companies often than at larger companies. That continues to be something very rewarding about the venture business especially where the fruits of their companies labours are a cure for cancer for example. He spoke about the startup ecosystem in Boston. There is no lack of innovation & no lack of startups but there is less capital to go around to fund the startups both coming from the NIH which has been a traditional source of support for early stage companies in their industry. But also among the venture industry as well. The statistics are very sobering across the US. Several years ago there might have been 25 to 35 new Health Care Venture Funds formed every year to invest in new companies. For the past 4 or 5 years that number has been 8 or 9 (so 50% to 70% less capital to move innovation forward). That means a lot less focus from their firm & their peers on earlier stage companies. They have found a great deal of success outside the markets of Boston & San Francisco – the South East, the Mid West, the Great Lakes & the Pacific North West. He spoke about the changes in the venture industry. They are very optimistic about the future, not just in terms of innovation but also in investor returns as well. Although its difficult in the short term when there is a consolidation & a right sizing, its probably for the best for the industry in the long term. It’s not easy to go through these types of transitions that any industry goes through. They have to adapt their business models as venture investors the way that any startup has to adapt to a changing environment. Some of that is going back to some of the premises of the early days of venture capital focusing on companies that were incredibly capital efficient, able to do what they need to do on fewer dollars not an abundance of dollars. When there was a lot of capital companies would get over funded & returns suffered for that. Theres a higher hurdle for the definition of innovation for example an innovative new therapy today maybe one that provides no better efficacy as a drug therapy than something that is on the market now but if it delivers that efficacy at a 1/10 of the cost that’s highly innovative. But its a different definition & maybe its not as sexy an innovation as the next big cure or the next big quantum jump in clinical outcomes but that innovation is shifting more towards cost or equally towards cost as opposed to just outcomes with no respect for cost. Health care systems globally are running out of money so we have to be responsive to that when we invest & allocate the dollars that we invest. Its taken them in some new directions & honing in on some of the biggest cost drivers in health care.
San Francisco
David Blumberg, Blumberg Capital
Nima interviewed David Blumberg, Managing Partner Blumberg Capital @TechnologyInATent earlier in the year. He spoke about entrepreneur’s lessons, example Persistence & told the story of an entrepreneur growing his vision. Also the issue of B2B & B2C. ‘It’s not about competition but partnering. In Silicon Valley 4 or 5 groups can come together to work on projects. This karmic effect of what goes around comes around!”
Greg Kidd: The Insights Behind Killer Startups
Greg Kidd Founder/CEO 3taps, an early stage investor & advisor to Twitter & Square. He founded and took public Dispatch Management Services Corp (DMSC) – the world’s largest on demand dispatch network for urgent deliveries. The company purchased more than 60 companies from Perth, Australia to Edinburgh, Scotland and the successws and mistakes of the endeavor have been chronicled in a case study taught at the Harvard Business School. From the lessons learned about “free-call” dispatching of bike messengers came insights that led DMSC alumni to start a wealth of new ventures – the most noteworthy of which have been Twitter and now Square by Jack Dorsey. Greg was an angel investor for Twitter’s first funding round and serves as a risk adviser for Square. Greg is an active angel investor in other startups that match seekers and providers (Hailo, Parking Panda, Meexo, Kabbage, and Craiggers). He is a founder and CEO of 3taps and Anoni, which facilitate searching, messaging and payments for these and other general exchange spaces like Craigslist. Besides startups, Greg’s time in the corporate world has been as a management and risk consultant for Booz Allen and the Promontory Financial Group. His focus has been on disruptive effects occurring in de-regulating industries (telecoms, transportation, financial services). Greg’s tenure in the public sector has been as a senior analyst for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in Washington DC. Greg’s time in the not-for-profit sector has been as a leader for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Prior to explorations of data visualization at Stanford’s HCI program, Greg studied public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, management at the Yale School of Management, and history at Brown University. Greg’s observation is that the little insights behind big startups can come from any person and any corner of the earth. The role of angels is to find and back the persons that have those insights. You can find Greg on Twitter @gregkidd
What are the little insights behind big outcomes for new ventures? And what is the difference between an ‘insight’ versus a mere ‘idea’. Greg Kidd discusses observations about the path to success for some of the most valuable startups in & outside of Silicon Valley. Hear why setting out to solve big problems rather than make money has the potential to yield the most amazing outcomes & remarkably short time frames.