BIOCOMX

Testimonials

Let's see what our customers say

PROBLEM VALIDATION

The interviews themselves were exceptionally valuable - these are really what helped to shape the current vision for our product and how it may really create value for patients, dr's and payers. C3i was particularly helpful in this end, in first setting very ambitious goal to speak to 50, and also for coupling that with encouragement and advice from the advisors along the way.

B. Scott Ferguson

PhD | CEO, Aptitude Medical Systems Inc.

www.aptitudemedical.com

But starting the C3i program and having the time in our schedules “blocked off” to do lots of stakeholder interviews was really useful to us. We definitely wouldn’t have felt like we had the time to do all those interviews unless we had blocked it off for ourselves as part of a program. And the information we learned from all the interviews was invaluable.

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Principal Scientist, DxDiscovery

www.dxdiscovery.com

The stakeholder interviews that were guided in C3i allowed us to learn a lot new things about the research we were performing before. I think such an exercise could lead to research proposals that are more focused on more prevalent problems in medicine today.

Andrew Paek

University of Houston

uhbmi.ee.uh.edu/members

Going through the process of interviewing stakeholders was eye-opening and should be done for all projects.

Yak-Nam Wang

University of Washington

www.apl.washington.edu/people/profile.php?last=Wang&first=Yak-Nam

BUSINESS VALIDATION

Through C3i, we have learned some important approaches/strategies for commercializing our technology, including how to determine the market size and how to form partnerships with some stakeholders.

Cang Ye

Robocane Professor, University Arkansas

www.linkedin.com/in/cang-ye-287aba2a

The program has provided the kind of dedicated knowledgeable guidance that we needed to fully understand the market opportunity and commercial value of our product. This knowledge gave us a solid foundation and confidence to move our company forward.

Mario Romero

CEO, Nerve Solutions

www.nervesol.com

When coming up with a commercialization strategy, this course makes you think comprehensively about the market you are approaching.

Zachary Helft

C. Light Technologies

www.Clighttechnologies.com

C3i provides a valuable education for investigators to learn the process of translating inventions to viable products.

James Balter

Professor, Biomedical Engineering – Medical School, University of Michigan

experts.umich.edu/en/persons/james-m-balter

They provide basic instruction on FDA and billing guidance investigations, and most importantly aid in the process of understanding the capital investment and cost recovery structure for new products and solutions.

Yue Cao

Professor Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan

medicine.umich.edu/dept/radiology/yue-cao-phd

KILLER EXPERIMENT & FDA

The other valuable thing for me was learning to look at a business idea from the killer experiment approach, to attack the idea as directly as possible to save time and resources.

Jean-Luc

Chief Scientist, Spectradyne

www.spectradyne.com

C3i provides a valuable education for investigators to learn the process of translating inventions to viable products. The organization of the C3i program provides a useful overall introduction to the concepts of understanding true versus perceived needs, determining whether a marketable product can emerge from a given research device or concept, and the definition of a “killer experiment” to minimize the risk if a decision is made to move forward. The business advisors are outstanding, and the pace of C3i is reasonable.

James Balter

Professor, Biomedical Engineering – Medical School, University of Michigan

experts.umich.edu/en/persons/james-m-balter

I also personally think that everyone should learn about the concept of the killer experiment.

Yak-Nam Wang

University of Washington

www.apl.washington.edu/people/profile.php?last=Wang&first=Yak-Nam

Certainly access to regulatory and reimbursement experts allowed us to broaden our perspective on how near term objectives have to tie into longer term vision and goals.

Donald F. Weber

CEO/President, Beacon Biomedical Inc.

www.beaconbiomedical.com

They provide basic instruction on FDA and billing guidance investigations, and most importantly aid in the process of understanding the capital investment and cost recovery structure for new products and solutions.

Yue Cao

Professor Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan

medicine.umich.edu/dept/radiology/yue-cao-phd

Through C3i, we have also learned how to implement a killer experiment to save us investment of time and funding in an unviable product and/or business plan.

Cang Ye

Robocane Professor, University Arkansas

www.linkedin.com/in/cang-ye-287aba2a

VALUE ANALYSIS

Helped us create a more focused emphasis on the “pain” associated with the problem, which makes it more personal to the targeted audience.

Donald F. Weber

CEO/President, Beacon Biomedical Inc.

www.beaconbiomedical.com

Identifying stakeholder groups was a new process to me, having no business background. I was really surprised to learn the diversity of interests among these groups, and the number of different groups that must be considered for success.

Jean-Luc

Chief Scientist, Spectradyne

www.spectradyne.com

Also, forcing us to think of the Unmet Need first, rather than the technology, is very helpful.

Oliver Graudejus

CEO, BMSEED LLC

www.bmseed.com

A better understanding of the business mindset and how to identify and understand “unmet needs”. As an example of learning the business mindset, I have always approached everything with a public health mindset – for example, “How many lives can be saved with this technology?” But now I understand that if a great, potentially life-saving technology can’t make it to market because of a business-issue (e.g IP rights, market size, profit margin, user adoption, or even conflicting stakeholder motivations.

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Principal Scientist, DxDiscovery

www.dxdiscovery.com

C3i has provided us a different perspective on the project/research. The training courses have reinforced our understanding that the end-users’ needs and device use experiences are critically important to translating a research prototype into a product, and helped us realize that other stakeholders, such as purchasing organizations, guide dog and orientation & mobility training school, etc, also play important roles in successful commercialization of our technology.

Cang Ye

Robocane Professor, University Arkansas

www.linkedin.com/in/cang-ye-287aba2a

In our case specifically, we learned a considerable amount on how to develop a compelling value-proposition for our product. In addition, the training on giving a compelling pitch/presentation was invaluable. The course strongly encouraged interactions with other teams, business advisors and VCs; their perspectives and thoughts added layers of valuable feedback!

Chris Drake

Senior Radiochemist, Sofie Bioscience

www.sofibioscience.com

BUSINESS PLAN

When coming up with a commercialization strategy, this course makes you think comprehensively about the market you are approaching. By providing great mentorship feedback from investors, you get an understanding of what they are looking for, red flags that teams need to overcome, and ultimately this will strengthen future fund-raising activities or grant applications.

Zachary Helft

C. Light Technologies

www.clighttechnologies.com

I think the most useful thing for me has been the structured approach to the commercialization plan. Some of this I had seen before, but it has been helpful to see it with the medtech focus.

Franklin Monzon

CEO, Spectradyne

www.spectradyne.com

I found very helpful that the C3i program forces the participants to think through all aspects of the commercialization of technology in the medical field.

Oliver Graudejus

CEO, BMSEED LLC

www.bmseed.com

I don’t think a lot of researchers are aware of what it takes to take something from the benchtop to market. The C3i course can help guide them in the correct direction. Without such help, I don’t think most research breakthroughs would be able to make it to the general public.

Adhira Sunkara

10 Newtons

www.linkedin.com/in/adhira-sunkara-5b6b3415

Researchers in academia should have a general understanding of the long and rigorous process involved in transforming a new idea into medicine that would help. Those interested in creating startups are definitely given a more realistic picture of how much time and resources such an endeavor might take.

Andrew Paek

University of Houston

uhbmi.ee.uh.edu/members

We have also learned how to implement a killer experiment to save us investment of time and funding in an unviable product and/or business plan.

Cang Ye

Robocane Professor, University Arkansas

www.linkedin.com/in/cang-ye-287aba2a

Barbara is wonderful. The company is getting a bit of press now and her guidance in public speaking and general presence was invaluable.

Anna Christensen Ph.D.

President & CEO, Magnetic Insight

www.magneticinsight.com

I also found working with Barbara's on the pitch very helpful. She was very instrumental to declutter the original slides, and organize them in a manner that somebody who never heard of the technology could follow the presentation.

Oliver Graudejus

CEO, BMSEED LLC

www.bmseed.com

BUSINESS ADVISORS

The mentor alignment was extremely good and proven helpful to not only our goals in the program, but in currently challenges within the company.

Anna Christensen Ph.D.

President & CEO

www.magneticinsight.com

Access to investors/VC experts allowed us to broaden our perspective on how near term objectives have to tie into longer term vision and goals…and how best to potentially communicate that to prospective investors.

Donald F. Weber

CEO/President, Beacon Biomedical Inc.

www.beaconbiomedical.com

I found the interactions with business advisors with so much industry and VC experience the most useful, especially when really diving into what your addressable market is. Oftentimes, just from reading through literature and doing general web searches, it's very difficult to get a grasp of the real market we can address with our technologies. This is where the business advisors were very helpful in tempering our expectations.

Todd Landsman

Engineering Manager, Shape Memory Therapeutics, Inc.

www.linkedin.com/in/todd-landsman-ph-d-4b116a32

The mentors and weekly calls were very useful in keeping us on track and forcing us to think like entrepreneurs rather than researchers.

Adhira Sunkara

10 Newtons

www.linkedin.com/in/adhira-sunkara-5b6b3415

For me, the process opened up a ton of possibilities, which also made it very hard to focus. The advisors really helped to make sense of the info I was collecting and the problems I was experiencing and helped me to focus my energy to yield fruitful outputs. The advisors also shared their experience on a regular basis at each stage of the process. This was helpful to learn what's normal for creating a new medical device venture and what to expect, and how to deal with unexpected findings.

B. Scott Ferguson

PhD | CEO, Aptitude Medical Systems Inc.

www.aptitudemedical.com

Access to an experienced business advisor. Talking with our business advisors weekly allowed us to ask all sorts of business-related questions that we couldn’t have otherwise because none of our academic colleagues have much experience with VC funding, IP licensing, FDA regulatory approval process, etc.

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Principal Scientist, DxDiscovery

www.dxdiscovery.com

I would encourage all SBIR/STTR applicants and grantees to attend. I consider the training provided by C3i and the mentorship from the advisors to be critical to the success of such grantees and have greatly appreciated the opportunity to participate in it.

Ryan Flyn

Clinical Associates Professor of Radiation Oncology, University of Iowa

medicine.uiowa.edu/radiationoncology/profile/ryan-flynn

Testimonials

Let's see what our customers say

PROBLEM VALIDATION

B. Scott Ferguson

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Andrew Paek

Yak-Nam Wang

BUSINESS VALIDATION

Cang Ye

Mario Romero

Zachary Helft

James Balter

Yue Cao

KILLER EXPERIMENT & FDA

Jean-Luc

James Balter

Yak-Nam Wang

Donald F. Weber

Yue Cao

Cang Ye

VALUE ANALYSIS

Donald F. Weber

Jean-Luc

Oliver Graudejus

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Cang Ye

Chris Drake

BUSINESS PLAN

Zachary Helft

Franklin Monzon

Oliver Graudejus

Adhira Sunkara

Andrew Paek

Cang Ye

Anna Christensen Ph.D.

Oliver Graudejus

BUSINESS ADVISORS

Anna Christensen Ph.D.

Donald F. Weber

Todd Landsman

Adhira Sunkara

B. Scott Ferguson

Amanda Burnham-Marusich

Ryan Flyn