How medtech IP can help a startup navigate a ‘brutal’ environment
Now is the time for startups to build medtech IP for a future funding or exit, experts said at DeviceTalks Boston.
There’s no sugar-coating the state of venture capital investment for young medical device companies that are looking for funding while building their medtech IP.
“It’s brutal out there,” said venture capitalist Jeremy Sohn, managing general partner at P74 Ventures. “… Is it completely bleak? Absolutely not. There’s a lot of money out there, billions and billions if not trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines. There absolutely is money to be taken. You’ve just got to be creative” to close a financing.
Sohn was speaking in early May at a DeviceTalks Boston panel with Greenberg Traurig patent attorneys David Dykeman and Roman Fayerberg, as well as Luis Barros, an MIT lecturer and managing partner of Leading Business Ventures.
“It’s actually a great time to be starting a company,” Dykeman said. “In the public markets, there aren’t exits, but you’re not exiting a public market for two or three years. Now’s the time to build your company, build your relationships and get your house in order so when that window opens, you’re ready to jump through it.”
Medtech IP is a critical consideration in that process. Patents can help device companies secure new investments, control costs to buy more time, or sell their technology to a strategic buyer.
‘It is tough out there’
“It is tough out there, but the good management teams with protected technology going after a big unmet need are still closing rounds,” Dykeman said. “It might not be at the valuation they want [or] the exact terms they want. It might take twice as long as they thought it would. But there is money being put to work. It’s much more a buyer’s market for the VCs and investors.”
He advised medtech founders to…
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