Entrepreneurs > Submission Guidelines
We invest in medical devices, therapeutics, diagnostics, health services, health information technologies, and relevant research-related tools including laboratory equipment. Please consider the following guidelines in preparing materials to present to MA2:
Business Areas
We consider investments in medical devices, therapeutics,
diagnostics, health services, health related IT, and
healthcare-relevant laboratory instruments.
Submission Materials
Please limit the materials to the minimum necessary. We prefer business plans in PowerPoint format. You can however, provide appropriately titled additional supporting documents. The final presentation to the group should be 15-25 PowerPoint slides.
Market
We prefer opportunities with clear unmet market need and a potential addressable market of at least $50 million. For platform technologies, the initial product market should be large enough to justify the investment on its own. We recommend market size estimates be built “bottom up” from number of patients/procedures and the price of your product and service, and not “top down” from some published number for sales related to a disease. A realistically achievable share of this addressable market should be large enough to justify your sales projections.
Proof of Concept
The company should have defined its product and established some ideally publishable data which provides proof of concept for the product's efficacy. For therapeutics, this may mean that a molecule has been identified and some small animal testing is complete. For a device, this may mean an initial model or prototype, some in-vitro testing and ideally some acute in-vivo testing has been completed. For a diagnostic, this may mean that at least retrospective testing has been completed on real samples. For a service or IT product, you need at least a prototype algorithm and/or a vaporware presentation.
External Validation
The company should ideally provide some external validation of the value of the company’s intended products or services. This can include responses from prospective customers, distribution partners, or acquirers, or support from VCs who may have expressed a future interest if certain milestones can be met. A list of reference-able potential customers who can speak to the merits of your proposed offering would be very helpful.
Amount Being Raised
We are looking for opportunities where a relatively small amount of money can remove a substantial amount of risk and therefore result in a substantial step up in valuation. You should articulate how you can get to a significant value creation milestone on the money we are being asked to put in. A “significant value creation milestone” removes a substantial amount of risk and would therefore justify a substantial, think 2X or more, increase in valuation. We would expect our first investment to be between $200,000 and $500,000 and will make subsequent investments on meeting successful milestones.
Valuation
Angels look for companies with valuations appropriate to the level of risk and return. We will not consider deals with a valuation at or above $10 million. We are unlikely to invest in businesses with valuations over $5 million; in the earliest stages, valuations should be under even that.
Plan for Exit or Return
You should articulate how you plan to ensure investors realize return on their investment - through an acquisition or technology license by another company. The plan for such an exit should ideally include the planned timing of a possible exit, a list of potential acquirers, similar acquisitions that the purchasers have made and the valuations of these acquisitions. “Cash cow” payouts are rarely attractive to angels because it is too easy for the company to decide to reinvest the cash. As a guideline, we are looking for a credible potential return to investors of at least 5X in 5 years or about a 40% annual ROI.
Amount of Capital Required
If a company requires a great deal of capital (e.g., more than $10M) to get to its exit, we will not be able to supply all of it. You should have a realistic plan for raising the follow-on capital while protecting the early investors. It is helpful to line up future investors (e.g., VCs) who will be interested in investing once you have achieved certain, specific milestones.
Structure
Preferred stock investments are ideal. If the company wishes to propose a convertible note structure which converts into the first VC round, then the company should make certain that the angels are being adequately compensated for the additional risk they are taking by investing well in advance of that VC round. This can include a combination of high interest rate, discount from the round and/or warrants. You can expect to provide 25-50% discount or warrant structure.
Barriers to Entry
You should describe the company’s intellectual property and / or other means that the company will keep competitors from being successful in copying the company’s products or services. If you are relying on patents, you should provide us with some specifics as to the claims you hope to obtain.
Other Business Considerations
We look at a variety of other business issues when we evaluate a potential investment, including competition, production and sales economics, regulatory and reimbursement issues, and the strength of your team. You should prioritize these and address each of them appropriately.
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