Getting Started for Business Entrepreneurs/Investors

What are the unmet medical needs in Epilepsy?

Getting Started in Entrepreneurship for Researchers

How do I know if I should license my IP or form a start-up?
I have an idea or some technology, but am pretty much at step zero, what do I do first?
What are some of the most common start-up mistakes that scientists make and how do you avoid them?
How long does the process take?
What are the most important factors that cause a start-up to fail?

Adding Business People to the Project

How do you find a good lawyer?
How do I get a market analysis done for my technology?
How do I meet business people, investors, and entrepreneurs?
What should I look for in an entrepreneur or business co-founder?

Getting Started in Licensing for Researchers

(DUP) How do I know if I should license my IP or form a start-up?
How do I work with the Technology Licensing Office and what are the steps in the process?
How do I find companies to license my technology?
Should I conduct a patent search?
Will I be able to publish results and still keep the commercial value of my intellectual property?

Funding

Where should I look to raise money from?
What is a term sheet?
What do VCs Look For?
How do I Approach a VC?
Should I send my business plan to every VC I have an email address for?
I've heard that "X" is really hot among VCs right now, should I incorporate that terminology into my business plan?
What do investors expect of me?
Are Venture Capitalists (VCs) going to want to own 51% of my business?
Are "Business Angels" preferred investors to VCs?

Getting Started for Business Entrepreneurs/Investors

What are the unmet medical needs in Epilepsy?
See our section on unmet medical needs. The primary ones are therapies for patients with refractory to treatment epilepsy, seizure detection/prediction, and surgical planning tools.

Getting Started in Entrepreneurship for Researchers

How do I know if I should license my IP or form a start-up?
See the section on "Licensing or Start-up?"

I have an idea or some technology, but am pretty much at step zero, what do I do first?
Start from the section of our site on Licensing or Startup?

What are some of the most common start-up mistakes that scientists make and how do you avoid them?
Here are more than 10 of them.

How long does the process take?
Startups take anywhere from 3-10 years or more, though the involvement of the founding scientist often wanes after the first few years. See the section on Expectations and on Medical Devices vs. Pharmaceuticals.

What are the most important factors that cause a start-up to fail?
The inability to resolve personality conflicts and disagreements among the founding team is one. The most proximate cause of failure is usually running out of funding, but deeper causes are countless. See the section on Common Start-up Mistakes.

Adding Business People to the Project

How do you find a good lawyer?
The best way is to ask other entrepreneurs, ask investors, ask anyone who has started a company who they used and triangulate the responses.

How do I get a market analysis done for my technology?
One way is to do it yourself by using your university library to access Frost & Sullivan or some of the other resources. The preferred way is to find an experienced cofounder with industry expertise and marketing experience. Another way is to find a group of MBA students and work with them to do it. Most likely, you should not have to pay to have this done.

How do I meet business people, investors, and entrepreneurs?
Read the section of this site on: What to Look for in an Entrepreneur? Talk with colleagues from your university or medical school who have had entrepreneurial experience, they may be able to recommend someone. You can even start creating a Scientific Advisory Board of researchers with relevant technical experience who also have commercialization experience. They can then be asked to help in finding a suitable entrepreneur. Create an elevator pitch that describes your idea in the space of 1-2 minutes. Speak with the TLO or with the Entrepreneurship Center at your local university or business school. Talk to lawyers and angel investors and attend any commercialization or entrepreneurship events happening at the local university.

What should I look for in an entrepreneur or business co-founder?
See the section on " What to Look for in an Entrepreneur?"

Getting Started in Licensing for Reearchers

How do I know if I should license my IP or form a start-up?
See the section on "Licensing or Start-up?"

How do I work with the Technology Licensing Office and what are the steps in the process?
See the sections on Licensing and on Common Licensing Mistakes. Read the guide created by the MIT and Michigan TLOs.

How do I find companies to license my technology?
First, think about some of the companies that are funding research in epilepsy or are selling therapeutics for epilepsy. Second, you should talk to the technology licensing office at your university or hospital.

Should I conduct a patent search?
No, it is typically best to leave this for the Technology Licensing Office (TLO).

Will I be able to publish results and still keep the commercial value of my intellectual property?
Yes. It is possible that you may need to delay publication for a time to file a provisional patent, but many investigators are able to both publish and patent. In fact, studies show the most productive publishers are often the most productive at patenting and commercialization as well.

Funding

Where should I look to raise money from?
It largely depends on the stage you're at with the development of the technology. Many options are listed on the funding section.

What is a term sheet?
See the VC term sheet series.

What do VCs Look For?
Early stage venture capitalists are typically looking for a strong, experienced start-up team, going after a very large market, with a product that is broadly protected by patents. Follow this link for advice on pitching to VCs.

How do I Approach a VC?
It is best to get an introduction from someone who the VC knows and trusts. More advice can be found by following the link below.
http://www.mit100k.org/docs/kivel_041702.pdf

Should I send my business plan to every VC I have an email address for?
No, definitely not.

I've heard that "X" is really hot among VCs right now, should I incorporate that terminology into my business plan?
In general this is a bad idea. By the time they drift over to the VCs and then back down to the entrepreneurs, the buzz words have probably gone through their life cycle and new ideas/trends are emerging. Stick with just describing what you are actually doing and look for VCs who have built companies doing that in the past.

What do investors expect of me?
Investors will again expect you to have a short elevator pitch about the idea. They will expect you to be timely and responsive with their inquiries and questions about the technology and about drawbacks of the technology that they may be hearing about from asking other researchers with different views. The start-up world revolves around trust, so the more that you are responsive and demonstrate yourself to be trustworthy, the more comfortable investors will be risking their funds in your ideas. Investors will also expect you to be knowledgeable about other technical approaches to solving the problem you are attempting to solve and the various advantages and drawbacks. The quicker and easier you can explain the technical merits (as well as admit the risky areas) of your idea (as well as the other approaches they may be hearing about) to them, the better and the more you will reassure their fears of the risks involved. See more on expectations on this page.

Are Venture Capitalists (VCs) going to want to own 51% of my business?
The short answer is that this is the wrong question to be asking. The even shorter answer is, "yes, most likely." But this is not a reason to avoid VCs. You go to a VC because you need a large amount of money and you have a company that fits the VC growth model and market size. If you have a way to get a large amount of money without giving up equity in the company, then you should take it. In general, your perspective should be to grow the size of the pie and find the best people to help do that, not to fight over percentages with the people who you need to help grow the company.

Are "Business Angels" preferred investors to VCs?
Not necessarily. Generally the choice comes down to the amount of money you are looking to raise. If you are only looking for under $3 million then angels may be the way to go. If you are looking for more money (as most life sciences startups are) then venture capitalists are the only way to go. Angels may allow a lifestyle firm to survive for longer, but VCs will often have better connections and more money.