––they only matter if they enable attractive high-growth business models...
3/ Here's WHY––
Today' medtech industry hasn't kept pace with the rate of innovation + value creation of TECH companies
VC-backed medtech has produced only a HANDFUL of innovative companies with large cap valuations since the turn of this century...
4/ There are incredible success stories — Insulet, Livongo, 10x Genomics, NovoCure, Guardant, Penumbra, and iRhythm, to name a few —
but only ONE of the companies sits above $15 billion in market value....
5/ To find larger success stories we have to look back to Intuitive Surgical (now $81 billion in market cap), which was founded in... 1995!
Another huge success founded by Lux's late partner Larry Bock––last century––Illumina–– in 1998 is now over $45 billion in value. BUT...
6/ Beyond that––slim pickings.
In CONTRAST over the same time TECH created trillions of dollars in shareholder wealth from a blank canvas, propelling once humble start-ups to the upper echelon of the S&P 500: AMZN, FB, GOOG, Salesforce, Paypal, Netflix, Broadcom, ServiceNow…
7/ The list of multi-billion public TECH founded since 1995 is in the hundreds
So too biotech––from 1976 creation of Genentech (+ Amgen in 1980) scores of public co's valued in billions — Gilead, Vertex, Biogen, Regeneron, Alexion, Incyte, BioMarin, Moderna...
Medtech? BUBKIS.
8/ Current crop of public US medtech — Abbott , Baxter , Becton Dickinson, Boston Scientific, J&J, Medtronic, Stryker, Zimmer — have an average founding date of... 1924.
Their age creates one significant disadvantage––REALLY dated business models.
9/ WHY?
medtech VC for too long saw success in tuck-in M&A fetching relatively low price tags in the low-to-mid hundreds of millions.
The result? Low ambitions + consolidation in the industry around a few REALLY old centenarian incumbents.
10/ We've over the past few months been quietly assembling + partnering with some INCREDIBLE savvy scientific entrepreneurs.
And many plans are NOT yet announced...BUT...
11/
TODAY we announce the start of a new initiative, which we intend catalyzes + ultimately leads to––
a NEW generation of standalone medical technology companies developing high-impact, high-growth, and high-value platform innovation:
Can listen endlessly to this—4 note progression (for 0:55) with harmonic synth building to a crescendo bridge of explosive dissonance + thrashing emotional release.
A few of my favorite new tracks.
This is “Genesis” from @deftones.
2/ This is called “This Link is Dead” by @deftones
The tempo switch from melodic calm— to a bit of the old chaotic thrash.
10 people who look different but think alike are NOT diverse. The real value of diversity is that diverse backgrounds + life experiences most typically lead to diverse thinking.
2/ A predictably necessary warning: Please do not lazily distort or misrepresent my words nor project preconceived bias
Diversity trumps ability + the basis for that diversity is people thinking differently + they think differently often because of their experience/identity—
3/ Two papers that empirically and scientifically support this (and say nothing giving any Boards or companies any kind of out for avoiding diversity)
Make no mistake––I know as an atheist (who does not believe in existence of supernatural forces or gods) how easy it is for me to judge or trivialize this as:
‘Country leader sentences 13yo boy to 10yrs prison for insulting invisible character in argument w/friend’––BUT
2/ What should the Nigerian President do?
If he pardons the boy, he creates precedent + backlash likely leading to his ousting from religious believers.
If he doesn’t he faces backlash from breaking with constitution of Nigeria which entitles freedom of thought + expression.
3/ I know religion has done much to unify communities, provide moral templates, do philanthropy––but this one for me is in the bucket of:
more reason
more critical thinking
less tradition
less dogma
reduce human suffering + let this 13yr old child be free
PLEASE
2/ This is true first in religion & politics—where indoctrination happens very young (emulating parents) and the chains of belief are too WEAK to be felt until too STRONG to be broken—pain of being social ostracized is horrible.
And a "biological trap" for many—how?...
3/ A "biological trap" is like the moth in the fridge. 🦋
A moth is trapped in a fridge.
Open the door to free it—
But it cannot leave.
Because— the 💡
Show most the light and the binds of the tribe triumph tightly over truth that can free..
3/ So the IMPROBABLE SPECULATION (imagining failure)–
Scientists identify canine/feline spread disease, epidemiologists track dog parks + dog walkers as superspreaders, households infected, outrage follows––both against pet owners––and pet owners (gasp) against euthanizing pets–