Mike Ryan

🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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One key reason why healthcare technologies like AI, telemedicine, and software haven't structurally lowered costs or broadened access for the entire system after decades of experimentation (excluding pure financial engineering of payer contracts) is the limited reimagining of care delivery itself, with asynchronous telemedicine as a notable exception. In the same way that digitizing physical paper failed to exploit the capabilities of a new computing medium for word processing, hosting physician-patient conversations over video does not transform the actual delivery of care. In telemedicine, many of the inputs (e.g., clinician time) and therefore cost structures of in-person care persist, which is why we often see fee-for-service telemedicine companies struggle to achieve economies of scale (i.e., growing revenues non-linearly while growing costs linearly). Until we deconstruct the components of a medical appointment – from intake and triage, to chart review, history gathering, physical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up – we will continue to be underwhelmed by the disconnect between the transformative potential of these technologies and real-world patient/system impact. I’m optimistic that the emergence of reliable and performant medical AI agents will urge us to perform this deconstruction and redesign the fundamental building blocks of a “medical appointment.”

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Exciting news for startups! California accounts for about 50% of all venture investments. The not-so-secret reason is that non-competes are illegal in California, so engineers at FAANGs can build competitors without fear. Today, the US Federal Trade Commission declared non-compete agreements illegal nationwide. This means that engineers at big tech companies can now leave and build their own companies without fear of violating a non-competes (legacy agreements for executives are still enforceable - talk to your lawyer), this is a step in the right direction for fostering innovation and competition across the country. A variety of big-business groups have vowed to sue to bring non-competes back, but at least for now, they're gone! #startups #innovation #competition #noncompete Official Announcement: https://lnkd.in/gRXUpgDy Impending lawsuit: https://lnkd.in/gqSiVuTd

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As the discourse shifts from models to compound AI systems / agents, we need better AI benchmarks to evaluate multi-modal and multi-step task performance, especially in healthcare and life sciences. When we wrote the first paper demonstrating ChatGPT's performance on the USMLE, we chose the US Medical Licensing Exam as a benchmark for accessibility, speed, and ease. This benchmark was never intended to represent AI model performance on real-world clinical tasks. Today, I still see so many research teams and startups using benchmarks (like the USMLE) that are ill-fitted for assessing the true clinical or scientific performance and utility of the models they are developing for real-world contexts. Benchmark development may be seen as a "less sexy" area of research, but it is of paramount importance. Years after the rise of the transformer, we still lack adequate benchmarks for so many single-step tasks in biomedicine. With compound AI systems (i.e., architectures that integrate multiple AI models to perform complex tasks) emerging, we need new benchmarks for agentic behaviors. I'd argue that developing an agent with novel capabilities without at least proposing a companion benchmark (if an industry standard does not yet exist) may hinder the adoption of said agent, especially for high-stakes workflows. Designing more benchmarks that capture/simulate real-world clinical and scientific workflows will help us mitigate the major discrepancies observed between in silico and in vivo performance and better support safe + effective deployment of AI in biomedicine. There are already brilliant people focused here, and we need more. DMs are open if you're researching or working in this area of multi-step/multi-modal benchmarking in healthcare and life sciences! #healthcare #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai

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This analysis, at least anecdotally makes sense to me. In many situations, infringe and holdout is the least painful option for large infringers. The system enables it. - The plaintiff must allocate the time and $$ to assert, taking time and $$ away from selling and developing products. Even if they engage litigation financiers they are limiting their upside potential. - The infringer continues to infringe while employing stall tactics or simply relying on the painfully slow, overburdened legal system. - The cost benefit analysis for infringers - "infringe and pay lawyers" typically outweighs the cost of design around or license. - Enhanced damages and injunctions are rare. - Litigation insurance products reduce risk all around. "The Marcum report shows that there is indeed something wrong with the patent system in the United States but it’s not excessive litigation or patent trolls. The real problem is the inability of patent owners to enforce their rights against infringers. Given the difficulty of obtaining injunctive relief and the limited enhancement of damages, it is unsurprising that predatory infringement has become a standard business practice when, at worst, all an infringer can be expected to pay is a reasonable royalty and, at best, nothing at all."

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🎙️ Thrilled to share that V. Tyrone Lam, COO of GATC Health, was recently featured on the Innovation Wave Podcast! In this insightful 20’ episode with Bob McGriff and me, Ty delves into how AI-driven predictive analytics can transform our approach to disease treatment, making it more proactive and less risky. He shared compelling insights on the future of healthcare and how predictive tools can lead to earlier interventions and better patient outcomes. A must-listen for anyone interested in the cutting-edge of medical technology and AI! 👉 Check out the episode to learn more about Tyrone's vision and GATC Health's pioneering work in this exciting field. Let's discuss how these innovations are reshaping the landscape of healthcare! #HealthTech #AI #PredictiveAnalytics #Innovation

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I used to spend 2-3 hours daily on clinic notes, skeptical of AI scribe technology. However, I've been impressed with RevMaxx, a generative AI company transforming clinical note creation by listening to physician-patient conversations and automatically generating comprehensive notes. This platform accurately captures crucial ICD-10 codes, saving valuable time ⏰. 👉 Why This Matters: - **Reducing Physician Burnout:** Administrative tasks are a significant contributor to physician burnout. Innovations like RevMaxx alleviate this burden effectively. #HealthcareInnovation #AI #PhysicianBurnout #MedicalDocumentation #HealthTech #RevMaxx

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118 VCs (one hundred eighteen!) are gathering in San Diego next week - to meet with 30 SD startups. But it's so MUCH bigger than just those 30 co's. It brings VCs back - when they see quality companies. It helps those who are next-in-line and adjacent. It enables us to send deal flow all year 'round. It attracts talent and other companies. It inspires entrepreneurship. Connect is working for SD. Together, we're building the best damn innovation ecosystem on the planet. Year over year. Five.Ten.Thirty.

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The top three ecosystems maintained their same positions from 2020, with Silicon Valley remaining at the top, followed by New York City and London, which are tied for second. This is according to the just-released ranking of cities by Startup Genome in its annual Global Startup Ecosystem Report (https://lnkd.in/g727835s). Tel Aviv moved up one spot in the rankings and tied Los Angeles in the number 4 position. Interestingly enough, Miami jumped 7 spots to the 16th position, while the two leading Chinese cities, Beijing (8th) and Shanghai (11th), both slid. #startups #techrankings #israeltech #startupnation #techstartups #VC

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_What makes a good investment in healthcare? _ When is a good time to start thinking about the path to exit? _Where do we see the next #unicorn in #systemichealth? Experienced healthcare investor Dai Feng from CareCapital Group joins me and Jonathan Levine for our very first *video* episode of the #ThinkOralHealth #podcast. Take a listen.

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Excited to have led the closing panel entitled "Bridging Science and Investment" in San Diego, CA. Joined by Dr. Sanjeev Thohan (Cogentis Therapeutics, Inc./Phoenix Molecular Designs) and Dr. Yuhua Ji (Grace Science, LLC ), we explored the intersection of scientific innovation and investment strategies. Key topics of this thought-provoking panel included: - Strategic investment approaches in the evolving biotech landscape - The critical role of venture capital in accelerating drug discovery - Innovative funding models for cutting-edge pharmaceutical research - The future of biotechnologies and the investment opportunities they present Thank you to the panelists for sharing their invaluable insights. Our discussion underscored the vital role of strategic investments in driving innovation and shaping the future of drug discovery and development. Together, we are paving the way for groundbreaking advancements in biotech. #biotechnology #MedicinalChemistry, #strategy #drugdevelopment Proventa International #Bio2024 BIO International Convention #DrugDiscovery #Investment #VentureCapital #Biotech #SanDiego American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) WISE World Investors & Entrepreneurs Society Agility Pharmaceuticals Precision BioPharma #ai #news

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Gene therapy helps restore hearing in children. “Bilateral gene therapy in children with autosomal recessive deafness 9: single-arm trial results” https://lnkd.in/gPZkxCBt

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It's video 3 of attempting to #invest in 100 #crowdfunding #startups. This time, it's PinPoint - a #medtech startup developing an AI-enabled cancer screening blood test. https://lnkd.in/ebfVuTe4 Sound familiar....? ;) While, of course, the concept is a #moonshot, and there is no reason to believe the #founders aren't capable, this pitch got me viscerally angry. It breaks one of the cardinal rules in #fundraising - "wishful thinking". Did it get my cheque? No. Clearly not. I didn't even get to digging into the #pitch using my checklist because it failed so badly on the 'will I make a return on my investment' question, that I simply couldn't continue. I somewhat regret my choice of words at the very end! I was very cross. But I promised I wouldn't edit these videos to show you completely unvarnished thoughts. Gah - I'm preparing myself for some backlash on this one. Oh well... Hugs *** The Seed Stage Investor Checklist *** 1) Is there a novel invention? - Possibly 2) Does it work/change behaviour? - No idea 3) Can the founders build it themselves? - No idea 4) Can I 20x my money? - Hell no 5) Do I love it? - I wish i did The way the founders appear to have calculated their value/pre-money suggests that they are including grants raised and loans to 'bolster' their valuation. Med tech is an expensive game. We know that. But loans/grants don't add to the balance sheet. In fact, if my memory is correct, it is unlawful to sell a business where its value is derived from debt or monies intended for R&D. Don't quote me on that, but it's my understanding. I want this to be real and I want it to succeed. But it's not a good investment. Simply isn't. Good luck

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Model Medicines, is excited to propose a new standard for assessing the capabilities and potential of AI drug discovery companies: The AI Pharma Code. This set of criteria aims to differentiate the most promising players in the field and provide a comprehensive measure of their ability to revolutionize the drug discovery process. The AI Pharma Code consists of the following criteria: 1. New Biology/Target Discovery 2. New Chemical Entities 3. Zero-Shot Hit Rates >30% at <20μM 4. Tanimoto Scores <0.5 5. Pipeline Across Biology & Disease 6. Preclinical POC in Gold Standard Animal Model At Model Medicines, we are proud to adhere to The AI Pharma Code. Our proprietary GALILEO™ platform has enabled us to identify novel targets, such as the RdRp Thumb-1 site, and generate NCEs with an unprecedented 66.7% hit rate for pan-antiviral activity at a concentration well below 20μM in zero-shot learning experiments. Our AI-generated compounds have an average Tanimoto score of 0.32, showcasing their structural novelty and diversity. We have a broad pipeline spanning multiple therapeutic areas of oncology, virology, weight disorders, and rare diseases. Our lead asset, MDL-001, has demonstrated preclinical proof of concept in a gold-standard animal model. We believe that The AI Pharma Code sets a new bar for excellence in AI drug discovery, and we encourage our peers, partners, and investors to embrace this standard. By holding ourselves accountable to these rigorous criteria, we can accelerate the development of transformative therapies and realize the full potential of AI in revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry. Join us in this exciting journey as we redefine the future of drug discovery and development! 🚀 #TheAIPharmaCode #AIDrugDiscovery Sean Russell Tyler Umansky Virgil Woods Navya Tippananapalya Ramesh Patrick ONeill Lani O. Bret Awbrey Thalia Gietzen Davey Smith, MD, MAS, FACP, FIDSA Tushar Menon, PhD David Garvey Launa Aspeslet 8VC Alex Moore Nex Cubed Kip Quackenbush Marlon Evans ParticleX Jeffrey Friedman Thermopolis Partners LLC Philip Treick Clayton E. Hartman Kevin Whalen Irving Investors Jeremy Abelson Andrew Kalmar Christopher Chism Delilah Panio Kristina M. Herbert, Ph.D. Greg Goldner Stephanie Walek Nick Phillips Paul Ostrowski Tim Lugo Greg White Fan Zhang, PhD Oivin Guicherit Stacie Calad-Thomson Ken Denman

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LSI, BioscienceLA, #LAMedtechweek, and HLTH's #VIVE2024 event resulted in the latest GTM Pulse Check offering which has successfully taken off! As a result, I am continuing on last week's series of go-to-market tactics. Crafting a robust marketing plan is essential for medical device companies to thrive in today's world. By leveraging these outlined sections, organizations can optimize their marketing strategies and drive meaningful impact.This post takes a step back to outline the sections of a marketing plan. Read on 👇🏼 Looking for support in creating your marketing plan?  Let’s chat! Book here 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/g92YA9WK _____ P.S. Enjoying my content? ⚕️Follow me for more tips on medical device commercialization and repost to share with your network. #medtech #gotomarket #medicaldevices #healthcareinnovation

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HawkTower is a new venture capital firm focused on Underleveraged California. Our mission is to foster innovation and commercialization in critical rising and emerging regions of California, a state that still holds untapped potential as the world's fifth-largest economy. A thriving California, one that continues to grow, compete, and innovate on a global scale, is crucial for America's overall prosperity. Today, our website launched. We are also excited to announce additions to the team and advisory, including: Bill Sherrod, EdD, a 29-year Navy veteran and former Strategic Advisor to the President of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), has joined HawkTower as a Venture Partner. Bill, who initially joined us as an advisor in February, has quickly become an indispensable part of our team. His extensive experience in dual-use technology, advanced air mobility, and more brings HawkTower a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Vittoria Lecomte is a new Venture Partner. Tori is a former Forbes 30 Under 30 and an investment banker at Barclays in their Technology, Media, and Telecom Group. She was lead analyst on the Fitbit (now part of Google) and GoPro IPOs. Before joining HawkTower, she was the founder and CEO of Sesh which had a successful exit to Caraway. HawkTower is thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Tesserakt Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Central California. This collaboration, at a time of critical opportunity for emerging California, will drive cohesion in the marketplace. Daniel Emilio Sabzehzar (Venture Partner) and Phoenix Skeahan (Operating Partner) will join HawkTower, enhancing our sourcing, diligence, and portfolio support capabilities. Lenny Mendonca, a Turlock native, is a new advisor. He served as Governor Newsom's Chief Economic and Business Advisor and is also a Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, where he founded the firm's U.S. state and local public sector consulting practice. Walt Duflock, head of innovation for the Western Growers , is also a new advisor. Walt is a partner at a 5th-generation family farming operation in Monterey County. In addition to 30 years of experience at Silicon Valley tech startups, Walt and his team at WGA are extraordinary thought leaders in the AgTech ecosystem. Our technical advisory capacity is significantly strengthened with the support of Alexander Wolf, Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at University of California, Santa Cruz, Amy Fleischer, Dean, the College of Engineering California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), and Rakesh Goel, Dean, School of Engineering, University of California, Merced. HawkTower is confident in the entrepreneurial acumen and potential of each of these universities (as well as NPS, UC Davis, Fresno St., and others). I'm humbled to share these updates with you as we continue to grow our firm out in the open with your input.

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According to the latest report from Rock Health, digital health funding in Q1 2024 totaled $2.7B across 133 deals, with an average deal size of $20.6M. It doesn’t break out device-related investments, but most medtech founders I meet these days are being forced to chase tiny rounds made up of endless little checks, consuming valuable energy and slowing their progress. The benign neglect of this next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic devices is counterproductive and surprising. Given the crowded virtual care market, for example, I’d expect more such companies would be exploring medtech partnerships, investments or acquisitions that'd enable them to back integrate into delivering sharper, and more differentiated, care and treatment. This is exactly what Maverix Medical is doing from the other direction: Reshaping the entire spectrum of lung cancer care by integrating more advanced + effective approaches to screening and diagnosis, treatment and therapeutics, and even palliative care…And putting it all to work through an innovative provider network. One notable investor exception is Y Combinator partner Surbhi Sarna who’s been backing great teams like Selera Medical (YC W24) doing foundational work on ambitious medical devices. Without more support from investors like her, we’re going to increasingly find ourselves stuck with the incremental portfolio improvements from the incumbents, and that’s just not nearly enough.

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Digital Health: Countervailing Forces… Consider this: over the past five years nearly $78 billion has been invested in digital health companies and yet just this past year over 20 million Americans were taken off the Medicaid rolls. Certain policy changes can be very damaging, to say nothing of other human-induced factors like pollution, climate change, wars, inadequate housing and education, and hunger which have staggering implications on health. At times it can feel like bailing water out of a sinking ship.    The overall venture capital activity in 1Q24 was a relatively muted $36.6 billion across 2,882 companies for an average round size of $12.7 million, as compared to $51.6 billion and 4,026 companies in 1Q23. Notwithstanding that the level of investment activity in the healthcare technology sector has receded from the $30 billion highwater mark in 2021 to a more manageable $10 – $12 billion annual pace, the opportunities to “transform the business of healthcare” remain obvious and acute. Arguably, the 2021 hangover still lingers in the healthcare technology sector as companies that raised too much capital at too high a price work to sort out challenging cap tables. Out of the 2021 mosh pit of too many companies, it appears that the sector is in an “Emerging Winners” phase that will drive companies with narrow and/or incomplete offerings to combine or shut down.   Thoughts on what to expect for the remainder of the year… https://lnkd.in/egy7Afhg Flare Capital Partners #digitalhealth

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According to the latest Pitchbook data, venture creation in biotech hit its slowest quarterly pace in eight years during 1Q 2024. With just over 60 new biotechs raising their first round of financing, the sector’s company formation activity has slowed 50-60% from its historic peak in 2021. Thank you Bruce Booth for penning your views on why this is a good thing. -Contraction in venture creation IS a healthy dynamic for the sector. -We need to ensure that the best ideas are getting advanced by the sector. -Greater discipline should translate into better returns in the long term for LPs and GPs/ VC #Venturecapital #Startups

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