Kevin Dempsey, Tecan Group - Laboratory Instruments & Solutions Provider | LSI USA '24

Kevin Dempsey  0:03  
My name is Kevin    Dempsey. And I work with Tecan Technology development group where emphasis were based in Boston, Massachusetts. And before I introduce you this afternoon to eight great companies, I'd like to share an idea. So the single biggest reason startups succeed, Bill Gross Idealab has brought over 100 companies to market. Some of them have been wildly successful, some of them not so much. So Bill said about trying to understand the difference. And he studied 100 of his own companies and 100, non Idealab companies on five factors he believed were important for successful startups. And in his 2015 TED Talk, which I'd highly recommend, he concluded that timing was the most important factor. Now I know Idealab, don't bring medical devices to the market. And medical devices are very complex. But anyone who was around during COVID knew that if you had a COVID test or a ventilator alternative, you were in a very favorable regulatory and financial market. That's the good news. The bad news is you had a very narrow window of opportunity to hit. So you needed speed. Now, you don't have to be a genius to work out, or you don't need to European Commission or expensive consultants to tell you, if you have a very complex medical device, you need a very strong technical team. So do you have the right technical expertise. So today's medical devices, they're very complex, they involve a lot of systems, electromechanical systems, data, software, user interface, all that kind of stuff. So you need interdisciplinary teams, you need system thinking, I've worked with a lot of startup companies that have had different groups develop different subsystems. And then you have a medical device that's designed by committee. And that's not a good idea. So you need to design it with a multifunction interdiscipline team in mind, you need integration skills to bring all of those different sub assemblies and sub systems together. And then when you get to your clinical trials, you're gonna get some surprises. So you need to be able to tap and adjust and you need to be able to adapt, you'll have some areas where your device is not working, and other areas where you see an opportunity, and you might want to tap and change. So you need a really strong physical or technical team. So my idea today is least don't buy. So there are many service providers, not just t cans emphasis, but many service providers that can give you the technical expertise that you need. And I've been in contract design and manufacturing for many years. And it's very rare, you see a program plan or a project plan with whole numbers on it, you'll see a project manager, one project manager, which you'll generally see when you get to mechanical engineering, 1.8, electrical engineering, 1.2 systems engineering, maybe point eight software engineering, point five, quality, supplies, material quality documentation, you know, it's all fractions of an engineer. So it's very hard for an a small startup entity to have all of those skill sets, and to be able to fully utilize those skill sets when they have them. So as I say, there's a lot of providers that can help you out. But I would encourage you to put the same effort into finding a service provider as you would into hiring your own team, writing job descriptions, going out trying to find the right people, interviewing them, getting references, onboarding them, integrating them, and getting given them time to ramp up. If you do that with your technology service provider, you will be in very good shape. One of our value propositions in emphasis T cam company, as I mentioned, is that we can get you to studies IDE studies really, really quickly. And the reason for that is that we have over 200 background patterns that we have developed in our efforts to produce highly configurable electronic software control systems. So when someone comes to us with an idea, we can generate an alpha prototype, sometimes in days. But typically in weeks, we had an example recently where a company, they wanted to have a wireless power implant to generate huge forces in the body, they weren't able to get enough power in, we were to after an initial consult with them, we were to develop a proposal. Instead, we went and made a prototype they visited five days later, and we were able to demonstrate that we were able to deliver the kind of power that they wanted. So that's the that's the value of having these sunk systems and the patents and I don't have to tell this group about why speed is important. You know, if you're not generating revenue, burn rate becomes very important. We all know in medical device first America is really critical. That's where the opportunities can be. And if you have shorter development cycles, you're gonna have reduced development costs. And probably the most important point on this slide is investor confidence. You need a really high say do ratio. So if you say you're going to do something by a certain date, you need to do that. That could be having samples for sure and tells it could be having data from clinical trials, etc. But if you want to keep the funding keep common, you got to hit your mark, you got to hit your your, you got to hit your numbers, and you got to do what you say you'll do. So our unique value proposition is I think we have unparalleled industry leading simulation experience. So everyone's talking about digital twin now do it on a computer, it's quicker than doing it physically. And I would agree with that. Sometimes simulation is required. And it's important. So we can actually simulate your problem and choose the best path to go to our quick Alpha prototype setup. And get you can get your early testing very quickly and iterate on that. And that's really good to reduce risk. tailor the idea and really get something before you go into full industrial design on that. We also have tissue benches to do biological system characterization. And we can do spot small batch production. So to get you through your show and tell so get you through your clinicals, etc. And when you've had really successful clinical trials, which I hope you all do, we actually have product development in California. We've got contract manufacturing in Silicon Valley in California and in Southeast Asia. So after doing your technology development with us, we can bring you through regulated, highly regulated 1345 product development and into contract manufacturing either in the US or in the low cost geography. So if anything I said is of interest, please tap me on the shoulder say hello. Reach out on LinkedIn or send me an email. Thank you very much for your attention.