science to profits

Tag: startups

  • Web-based healthtech startups have invention risk. Surprise!

    As readers of this blog know, I am interested in the potential of novel social networking and other internet-age techniques to transform our creaky healthcare system. A particularly intriguing class of startups is using these social techniques to change the behavior of patients in ways that lead to better health. For example, helping people to…

  • Invention risk makes lean science startups different

    A hallmark of new ventures that are based on scientific advances in fields like medical devices, health tech, or cleantech is that they often have invention risk. Frequently they also have market risk. And while the standard venture capital reaction to startups with both market and invention risk is “come back when one of the…

  • Democratization of healthcare innovation: Stethocloud

    Here is a summer story that is a counterpoint to the daily gloom and doom in the news. It’s about healthcare innovation, unlocked by some of my favorite trends: democratization of innovation;  low-cost startups; and the “death of geography”. On reflection, I am reminded of just what powerful drivers of better medicine and reduced healthcare costs…

  • Crowdfunding: more work needed

    Crowd-funding challenges Nice post yesterday by “Startup Iceland” on the challenges of creating a robust Crowdfunding platform. This concept is certainly resonating way beyond the normal Silicon Valley world! The author acknowledges some of the issues that are scaring various pundits in the blogosphere, and might make crowdfunding “risky”. He mentions: Information asymmetry; Valuation issues; High…

  • Crowdfunding and the Nanny State

    Lots of activity in the blogosphere this week on Crowdfunding, coinciding with debate in the Senate of the so-called JOBS bill (HR3606), which contains various provisions relating to Crowdfunding. I wanted to comment on some of the different perspectives, and in particular, on a series of recent posts in one of my favorite blogs, Baseline Scenario.

  • Runaway healthcare costs create opportunities

    We all know US healthcare costs are growing at a rate most consider unsustainable. If you accept the premise that a lot of time and attention will be focused over the next decade on ways to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs (or perhaps reduce costs without reducing quality?), then there are likely to be…

  • Crowdfunding and the ninety nine percent

    I have been following the idea of “crowd-funding” for several years and am a great fan. A couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with a colleague who is starting a new crowd-funding site. As we discussed it, I realized that crowd-funding represents an antidote to one of the many ways in which today…

  • “Lean” medical device, cleantech, telco startups

    The Lean Startup movement is a good example of the new internet-company methodologies mentioned in my last post. I got around to reading Eric Ries’ book over Thanksgiving. I liked it a lot, and I have been mulling over what its lessons are for non-internet businesses – particularly for the sort of science-based business I…

  • Reinventing the Board Meeting

    Very relevant blog by Steve Blank on Reinventing the Board meeting for startups. I think the concept we call here [at Acceleration Co-op] the “Virtual Advisory Board” is targeted at many of the issues mentioned in the blog posting, although we have been focusing on advisory boards rather than Boards of Directors.

  • Bridges to Silicon Valley from other countries

    Spent the last couple of days at an interesting conference called Incubate 2.0, organized by Startup Cause. The idea was to discuss how various initiatives to “help entrepreneurs” might collaborate/work together/learn from each other.