Telling Your Story to Early-Stage Investors | LSI Asia '25

Tiffany Rosenhan  0:05  
Thank you all for coming. I know it's the very end of LSI, and you guys have the most stamina, because you're still coming to a 430 course. So I am Tiffany Rosenhan. I'm married to Branden Rosenhan, who runs my mountain ventures. I am here to talk about storytelling, something I'm super passionate about, and I've learned watching Brandon being married for 20 years, so I've seen the whole journey from medical school through bioengineering, through medical devices and startups, that storytelling is actually pretty relevant. It's how you get people to believe in you and invest in you. It doesn't it's not a sales strategy, it's not a marketing pitch. It's your story. And I think when you can share your story effectively, you recruit the right people. It's not that raising money is difficult. It is or it's not difficult. It is difficult, but it's even more difficult to raise money from investors who believe in you and will carry you through the entire, entire time of the products lifespan. So I want to talk to you today about something I'm excited about in our in our marriage, Brandon had a stroke six years ago, so sometimes we call it he's playing the stroke card, which means he gets a little tired and doesn't want to talk as much. So I'm he's leaving it to me to do most of the talking, because he's pulling the stroke card. So yes, so Well,

Branden Rosenhan  1:17  
yeah, at the end of the day, I was just in another panel, and Tiffany said, How'd it go? And I said, not great for me. I remembered Caitlin's name, but I forgot jordy's name, or I spelled it wrong. And see, it's

Tiffany Rosenhan  1:31  
just a good excuse, because before the stroke, he couldn't remember anyone's name. After the stroke, he still can't remember people's names, but now he has a really good excuse, right? It's his story. So okay, so this is a really fun topic. So before you go into meeting with an early stage investor, I like to think about the preparatory phase. There are some assumptions we can make as an as a as a owner of a small business that you want to get investment. Number one, the investor is going to assume that your science is sound, they are going to eventually do their due diligence that your science is real, and it's based, in fact, in data and raw core science. So there's an assumption that your science is good. There's going to be an assumption that your IP is good and that you have strong IP. Those are the first two assumptions. The third assumption is this expectation of altruism in healthcare. It's real that people change lives. You improve lives for the better. So there's this expect, or excuse me, there's an assumption that your product is going to improve people's lives. So those are three assumptions, your science is good, your IP is good, and you do want to improve patient care in people's lives. So go into any meeting with an investor having that shared assumption, therefore you don't have to spend your time talking about all the raw science until they actually want to get into that point. I would also say So first, the three assumptions, science, IP and altruism. Unless you're in a competition or a government sponsored program with a hard deadline, do not expect to walk away from your first or second or even third meeting with an investor with a verbal commitment or a check. Your expectation should shift. Instead, when you first meet with investors, focus not on stepping away with money, but on building a relationship. That's the primary goal of reaching out to early stage investors. One of Brandon's favorite tips that I don't know if you thought of yourself or someone else said to you, but when you meet early stage investors, don't ask for money. Ask for advice, because the Oh, go ahead

Branden Rosenhan  3:35  
and that's still me practical. You know, a lot of it took me a number of years in the startup world to understand what venture capitalists do. And now most of you already know, you're sophisticated, but venture capitalists, we also are raising money, and we're doing so all the time. And so therefore, yeah, it is that we you ask for money, and they'll get advice. And you know, it's not always true, but generally, you also go and ask advice and get money, and especially depending on when you're investing, you tell the right story about the right time of your interaction with with the the investors. And so that's so can I? Can I interject, interject something. So I think maybe you're going to talk about this, because Tiffany's driving this. But a little bit about getting your agent and how, Oh, she'll get there. See, this is go

Tiffany Rosenhan  4:33  
clearly, I've read the notes. No, I was going to say, you're gonna see a lot of storytelling comparables. So oftentimes I am a traditionally published author, which means I have a literary agent and a traditional publisher, and I have to go that route. When I speak to authors and writers that want to go that route and get an agent and get a publisher, they say, How do I know my manuscripts ready? And I have one hard and fast rule that is as tedious as it sounds, which is, until you can read your manuscript. Means your book. Cover, cover to cover. Allowed without stopping. It is not ready. If you have to stop to make changes, if you have to stop to add change words, alter character, increase a plot structure, it's not ready. So I think the there's a different evaluation metric in biomedicine, and I don't know what it is for every product, but identify what it is you need to do to determine whether your product and business is ready, and then go through that tedious, laborious process of the equivalent of reading your book aloud, all you know, 90,000 words. So make sure your project is ready to go. The reason I say that is I have seen in my profession over and over authors and writers being given incredible opportunities, and the book kind of fizzles, because the truth was it wasn't ready. It wasn't there. And you do not want to lose an opportunity to capitalize on a great investor. If you are preemptively pursuing early stage investors, make sure that you are ready to go before you reach out to early stage investors, which is the follow up point of ask for advice. So some ideas, some things you can ask for. Are there specific data metrics you value over others? When you're talking to early stage investors, ask them, What do you actually consider when investing in companies? Where should my company be before I take capital. In your experience, what companies have you seen succeed, and at which point did they take capital? Were they overly ambitious? Were they under underly? That's not a word. Were they not ambitious enough? If you are new to leading a med tech company, I would recommend you ask for mentorship. Med tech is kind of unique in the space, because a lot of the CEOs are science trained. They're not coming from having an MBA, or they're not coming from going to Wharton Business School. They're coming from they have a Stanford degree in biophysics or a PhD in Nuclear by I don't even know, all sorts of things. The point is, they're not typically skilled in leading company. They don't necessarily have those skills. That doesn't mean they can't learn them. It means they need mentorship. So if you are early, if you are at the point where you're asking for early stage investors, I would also prioritizing asking for early stage mentors. Ideally, this might be people who will also invest in you. Yeah, and

Branden Rosenhan  7:19  
now you made me think about when we see, so we're seed or very early, we are very much hands on. And, you know, every VC says that they they love their their investors, and they're, you know, going to help them. We actually do that. And we generally get very involved with them. And so when you get involved, one of the first things I see tying into what she says is we see these slides that say I have, like, this advisor, this advisor, and I have Dr, so and so, and PhD, so and so. And they start rattling off those names, and I sort of say, all right, who do you work with the most? Who comes and has the most meetings with you is you're building and you're raising capital. Which of these advisors are true advisors for you? And then I always ask them, just like you said, you should get true mentorship. And then I say, if they really believe in you, how much money have they put in? Have they given you an angel investing check? Have they been willing to follow you? So it ties right into, you know, the thing we talked about before, ask for money, get advice, but when you ask for advice, you really do want advice, and you really want people that will mentor you. In my startup company, I was very fortunate to have a mentor who is a medical device guru in Utah, and so Shawn came, and I think initially, like this guy's kind of laughing at us. I'm a doctor, my my partner's an attorney. We don't know what we're doing. We really don't. We're not, you know, entrepreneur experts. I'm a doctor and and so Shawn was really kind to us, and, you know, he we asked him to do more, and he did, and he was a fantastic, fantastic advisor, and we've stayed in touch now for 15 years. We've done other deals together. And so you really do need those mentors and as advisors, and not just the ones that you put on a slide deck that you talked to Dr so and so once or so and so used to be the VP of Blue Cross, Blue Shield. And in North Carolina, like you want someone who really believes in you, and you have that strong relationship, and you develop, as Tiffany said, that long standing relationship,

Tiffany Rosenhan  9:19  
yeah, I would agree. And the because the competition's intense in raising money for biotech companies or Medicare healthcare companies, and we have those assumptions that your science is good, your IP is good, those are good. More important than having all of that, or as important as having an excellent product is revealing your ability to lead an investor is really investing in you. Investors want to invest in adaptable, resilient, thoughtful, capable leaders, so your sales and marketing strategy, all the good your product can do in the world is only as relevant as your ability to lead it forward and weather the storms of entrepreneurship. Ultimately, despite the altruistic and. You know, component we all have in our businesses, it's investors want a return on their investment, so you have to prove in a short period of time that you are capable of weathering those storms, so they will perform due diligence on your product. It's efficacy where it fits in the market. But being an entrepreneur requires fortitude and adaptability. So I want to pivot into how do you pitch yourself? Tell a story. Your story first. What is this product? I kind of think we have a small room here, if we're okay with I kind of thought this be more interactive. I want to give everyone, if you're interested, the opportunity to pitch your product in one sentence, and then I'm going to kind of follow that up with what I think we can do after that. Does anyone want to take a go at it? What's your product? To your

Branden Rosenhan  10:42  
brand? Caitlin, boy, she's a yeah, she's a microphone. 

Audience Question  10:43  
Do you want the product in one sentence? 

Tiffany Rosenhan  10:45  
Yeah, if I say, what do you do? What's your product? How would you answer that? 

Audience Question  10:51  
So we automate nursing workflows to manage brain pressure through CSF drainage.

Tiffany Rosenhan  10:58  
Okay, great. It's a pretty technical answer. I like it. Go for it. Yeah.

Audience Question 2  11:04  
Better bladder cancer care. 

Tiffany Rosenhan  11:05  
Say it again. 

Audience Question 2  11:06  
Better bladder cancer care, 

Tiffany Rosenhan  11:08  
okay, great.

Audience Question 3  11:11  
We're building the first micro stand for angle closure, glaucoma. 

Tiffany Rosenhan  11:14  
Fantastic.

Branden Rosenhan  11:19  
Anyone else? Oh, she's right here.

Audience Question 4  11:23  
Hi, I'm Rachel. We have a solution for patients with asthma to take their medication more effectively and consistently.

Tiffany Rosenhan  11:31  
Fantastic. Okay, you guys are, like, ahead of the curve. Wait,

Branden Rosenhan  11:35  
someone else. Oh, back, right. Someone else. No, okay, okay, yes,

Tiffany Rosenhan  11:39  
you guys are so much better behaved than students that like jump out of their chairs to answer questions. Okay, those are all fantastic. You each gave a very scientific answer. I would like to think of what each of you has said as one clause in a conjunctive sentence. So you have your clause, which is the science, and then add to it a compound, compound clause that explains where and how it fits in the market. And I think you develop that singular sentence that's not only your actual product, but how it fits into the market and why it matters. All of that can be done in a really cohesive sentence. So lemme give an example, and this is, I think, the example Brandon was talking about. So before I became an author, you have to pitch your book. So people would say, what's your book about? And I meet these agents, and they'd ask me these questions, and they would say, tell me about book. And I would, I would start with saying, well, it's about this girl that's lived all over the world, and she moves to America after spending her entire life abroad as the daughter of US diplomats, and, you know, these bad guys are after her, and there's a love story, and they're kind of just like, Huh, okay, no hits. And then I reframed what I said, and people would say, what's your book about? And I said, Well, it's like a James Bond movie with a teenage female protagonist. Suddenly, I got published. The story didn't change at all. All that changed was my ability to communicate the experience the reader would have when they picked up the book. All you have time to do in that first introduction to an investor is to introduce the concept of what you have and how it fits what they will experience working with you. That's really important, because statistically, we have about 15 to 20 seconds to capture someone's attention. So yes, your science is super sound, but it's only as relevant as the context of the sentence it fits within. So we're going to kind of backtrack a little bit

Branden Rosenhan  13:31  
and let me interject something for the entrepreneurs and some of you have met this conference and super impressed. I actually have loved this conference. I mean a lot of talented entrepreneurs. But the thing i i also had some entrepreneurs that wanted to meet with me. And I said, Great. And most of them, I screened personally, but they didn't screen me. And they came and said, I'm raising $30 million on my series B or my Series C. And I said, but it's on my bio that we're seed investors. Okay, so we will come early and we will invest. But so when you do your messaging, take your time to prepare, because, as Caitlin did on our panel and and that was with Rachel, we met yesterday, you're gonna meet with tons and tons of VCs, tons of angel groups, I mean a lot, and you have to, you got to understand how you interact with that VC. You got to do diligence before them. So people say, Well, you want to know which VC invests in you, but honestly, as entrepreneurs like you, actually want to get the money and the commitment first, and then you can do diligence. But you also due diligence. You prepare just like you prepare your message and you keep it succinct. You understand what they're looking for. You may call other people. You can look on their web page, hey, so and so invested in this company. You may be able to call that CEO or that founder and say, Hey, I'm have a meeting with fund so and so. You know? We're going to meet with with samitra Men mountain ventures. What do you know about them? Like you guys are investors, what did you think about them? How do we, you know, win their support, and how do we receive, you know, how do we get them to invest in us? So that may have been a long way of trying.

Tiffany Rosenhan  15:14  
That's actually a really good point, I think. So as an investor, do you like when people know absolutely everything there to know about you

Branden Rosenhan  15:22  
online. Well, it depends what you mean, everything, everything about your Med mountain ventures, about the fun we really do. And I mean, we have our our mission on our web page. You can look at LinkedIn and all of our partners. And so it's not that I whether I care or not. It allows you to engage that that relationship, and so maybe I don't know, how did you meet with your agent web and, like, how did you leverage that pitch? So I'll turn the question, the question back, that's less relevant, but I think at this time, right? Because for me, it's no, no. Well, like, I was gonna say,

Tiffany Rosenhan  15:55  
when you're when you're dating, right? You kind of don't want to be like, Oh, I know that you, you know, went to that trip last week. It's kind of the opposite in venture, right? You kind of, if you're following them on Instagram, you want to say, so, think of a movie pitch, right? So I used my pitch, think of a movie pitch, if you can talk about your product in a context that the investor will immediately understand. So, what are the benchmarks? What are the other products similar that they'll be familiar with, that you can use to benchmark where your product fits, like bladder care, right? So bladder care, they might I don't know how much you know about bladder care, but if he said this product will X, Y, Z, based on a company that he knows, you're aware of how it is comparable in the market driven strategy to a company you've worked with, that immediately gives you context off the bat. So fit your pitch to the existing market, and use existing businesses that, assuming your investor will be familiar with, or ideally, ones that you know they're familiar with, to shape the place that your work fits in the market. Because, like we said, the due diligence will come. He'll learn everything there's to know about bladder care, my center. You know, once he does all the all the due diligence, all the science. But why does that matter? How big is the market? What company are you basing your take to market strategy off of

Branden Rosenhan  17:11  
and and now I'll hit on what I'm doing is a so I'm also raising capital. And because we have 20 portfolio companies now, we also help them raise capital. So I actually had meetings today where, for our portfolio company, we're pitching a larger venture fund, right? So I'm helping our investors get their next round of capital. And so a perfect example is we have this de G monitor, right? So some of you have seen a headband that's an EG monitor. Ours is much easier. So E Patel, you wear, you know, four patches, and they have electrodes, and they study your brain. They look to see if you have imaging, sorry, to look to see if you have seizures. And so people say, well, that's kind of new. It has come out in the last number of years. So how do you help them understand that what a monitor is important for and how much, and how's it going to make revenue? How's it going to have people buy products? And so people say, you ever known what a halter monitor is? Your grandpa had a question of a heart attack or has an abnormality? And so they're going to attach the wires, and they're going to wear this belt, and it's called a halter monitor, and they're going to go wear this for two or three days. It's awkward. So what happened next to that? Well, there was something called Eye rhythm. Eye rhythm looked like a cell phone. You attached it to your Pat, you know, a single patch. You attached it to your chest. If you walked around, it fell off, and you mailed it back in and you said, so epitel, our EEG monitoring system, is exactly like I rhythm. As a matter of fact, it's so much like I rhythm that one of their sales lead at I Rm is now a board member for us. And so you need to figure out how to connect your message in a way that your investor, whether it's angel or venture capitalist, can can relate how they can connect and connect those dots. Yeah,

Tiffany Rosenhan  18:59  
I think it's no different than fiction. So in fiction pitching, you're always people say, Oh, this is a book. It's like never been done before. It's always been done before. Use the existing market to tell your story. I kind of want to jump ahead for a minute. So when you're talking about pitching your story, give people a complex sentence of your product, what it is, where, if it's in the market, and benchmark it to other comparables. You want to pitch them the concept of what they can expect when they dive in deeper into this conversation with you by peaking their interest and kind of securing their attention for the next X minutes. First, kind of, what is the then you make a Dave in the following, what's the product's origin story? What is your connection to this product? Clarify that up front. I would suggest only making it personal if it's objectively personal. If you're dealing with diabetes care. Do you have diabetes? Otherwise, it's just assumed you find it interesting. Maybe there's a peripheral connection, but only dive into that personal component if it's actually relevant. I would clarify the team up front. Who are you and are attached to this business? Are you the inventor, co founder? Are you just raising the. Money, most importantly. And you could disagree with me, are you the key decision maker? And if not, who is and how long have you been on this product? I would say, do you have relevant experience taking product to market, and what is your particular expertise in relationship to this product? Of course, include upfront, any relevant red tape or complex issues that are kind of on the periphery. You don't your investor, to be surprised in a month if they find out that you actually don't have, you know, the ability to make decisions.

Branden Rosenhan  20:30  
So yeah, and I'll interject on the understanding, you know, do they have? Do you have the interaction with the decision maker? Right? So that's, you know, is you go higher in your journey, which all of you are going to raise series A and you're going to grow, and you're going to when you go to those, those higher level venture firms, you need to understand who you're meeting with as well. So there may be associates, there may be analysts, there may be principals, and so that's okay. You're gonna have to screen your way through them generally. But you also need to understand who makes the decision maker. Who is the decision maker? Like, which of the senior which of the senior partners, the general partner at the firm is really in this domain that you are in? You know that they want to know the the, you know, the renal and urology space, and so, you know, they have four partners. One does neuro one does orthopedics, and the other venture partner is the one who does everything, you know, female and gi related and in you know. So those are the ones you want to know. How do I get to that person? Okay, how do I get to that key decision maker? Even though you still have to go through the pathway of their analyst or their younger partner? No, that's great,

Tiffany Rosenhan  21:48  
because I had said earlier those assumptions that your science is good. I'm not focused. We're not focused too much on the type of science you include in your slide deck. Again, this is more about shaping your verbal relationship because and I want to pause and kind of just give some background on the medical device companies that He's invented or built, or whatever, or whatever, or whatever invented done all the things, I would say, at key points when we needed an infusion of capital, those investors came, not spontaneously or surprisingly. They came because they had, at that point, had a relationship with Brandon, or, I should say, Brandon had had a relationship with for a decade plus. And so these investors, they start to care less about just the super technicality of the product and more about your ability to take a product forward. So keep that in mind that those relationships are not value. I mean, they're always valuable, but they're not necessarily valuable only in those first few months. They can be valuable 1020, years right now down the road, good investors should be with you for the lifespan of your product and of your own career as a med tech, inventor, creator, entrepreneur. So I would say those those relationships matter from the get go, and that's why I can take a step back from the science and the pitch deck, and say, what do you actually what are you actually trying to accomplish? When you meet with investors? You're trying to build rapport. And this actually was my next point, which is I'm going to kind of get into some practical tips that I've just learned over the years help. So first this again, storytelling, what is your character? So I like to think with. So if a writer asks, How do I build character? How do I create interesting characters? My go to phrase is this, you can reveal more about a character and a single difficult decision they make than you can through 100 pages of description. So you can describe your character infinite ways, but until you put your character in positions where they're forced to make difficult choices, you don't have a strong understanding of who that character is. So when you're telling your story to investors, I would consider highlighting key points that you've been forced to make difficult decisions regarding your business. You don't have to share that you made the right decision. It's also okay to share that you made the wrong decision and how you recovered and took it forward. Do not be afraid of showcasing your vulnerabilities as an entrepreneur, because we all know you have them, and we all have them, therefore pretending they don't exist doesn't do you any favors. I would disclose decisions you make that haven't worked, and showing that you've been able to adapt and proceed forward after a unfortunate incident reveals your character and your ability to lead. So share the difficult decisions you've been forced to make early on. Talk about how you lead your company. Be willing to share failure and how you adapt it afterward. Investors are not and you could correct me, but they're not looking for leaders who dig their heels in and assume they're right. We are all going to get it wrong. The space is changing rapidly. The go to market strategies change rapidly. That the market changes rapidly. So show your resilience and commitment through specific experiences. So choose maybe one to two to three experiences to have on your speed dial to share with investors. And they say, what do you what have you done right? And you could say, well, this decision is really. Hard for me, I chose to this way, and it paid off, or we weren't sure what to do, and I don't think we had great advice, and we made this decision, it didn't work. So we recovered this way. Be vulnerable and honest about your experience, and

Branden Rosenhan  25:13  
also, it's the same thing with us. So going back to my so I'm going to tie this into a few things. Number one is that long standing story for you, and think of the journey for your company you may be so it may take a long time to raise the capital you want. You're going to have hiccups. Nobody goes up into the right there is no, you know, there is no silver bullet. The thing you want to think about is, again, how do you communicate clearly where you have messed up, but also how those relationships can take you through that? And that wasn't articulated well, but, but to give an example, with my first startup, pen blade. I thought this is the greatest thing in the world. Everyone's going to buy it. It's amazing. And of course, every entrepreneur thinks that, and you want them to think that? And then we started to have our first commercialization, and we said, oh, wait, like we thought the surgeons would buy this Scalpel as a new Scalpel as something they would love and but they haven't changed the way they've used the Scalpel for 200 years. So okay, well, then maybe the surgeons aren't the right customer. So we went our first six months going after customer in the surgeon. They said, Well, wait a minute. What about wound surgeons? Or sorry, wound care doctors. So you have to be able to be adaptive, listen to your advisors, and then who acquired our company. We were at our first conference, 2015 and someone came by our booth. By the way, show and tell is a big thing, right? Just like you show them the the man the transcript, or the the what's the word you use, manuscript. Thank you. You show them the manuscript. It's the same thing. You know, I'm a big believer of show and tell, right? If you bring a dat, a device, and you're trying to pitch me as an investor, as a venture capitalist. So we had someone run by the booth, and guess what? Six years we stayed in touch. He said, Oh, love this. We just sold a company similar in this space. It's in a kit. Let's, let's circle back in seven, six years later, yeah, 2019 so maybe it's 2014 maybe it's five, six years later, they purchased us, and so that relationship from five years that was nourished has ended up who acquired it, and will be the similar thing for you. If you're going to be five, six years from now, raising your series B, or you're going to need a bridge round you, those people who fire believe in you and believe in your story. You're humble about that. You know when you make mistakes. You know in well,

Tiffany Rosenhan  27:47  
to emphasize what you're saying about I won't call them necessarily mistakes, but the experience of pen blade, the same investors that invested in pen blade early on and were there for the journey of not getting right out of the gate with surgeons etc, are still investing in his companies, which means it's not a turn off to make an error. It's showcasing your ability to lead and pivot. That's more important, I would say, in the long run. Okay, so with this, with your character, talking about your decision making process, I would also add to two kind of points. I think you've seen this as more than often than not. Maybe it's where we are, but I would be really careful. Assuming you had a lot of several partners and worked with other people, be very careful how you talk about former investors, former partners, former colleagues. Basically only talk positively if there's something that's relevant, legally or ethically or whatever. You can disclose that. But I would simplify any type of previous negative interaction to we parted ways. Do not talk bad about other investors. It's kind of like general rule of thumb, surprising how often it happens. I think people like to share what wasn't good, but just be very careful how you talk about other people that you've worked with on

Branden Rosenhan  28:56  
your business, and particularly venture capital. That's right, because we'd know each other. I mean, there were a bunch of us that are family offices, venture capitalists at a dinner, you know, two nights ago. And guess what? We we will see a lot of the same deals together. And last, so it last LSI and I was at a one of these. They do a breakfast together. They want entrepreneurs sitting by venture capitalists. And one of them pitched his company, and I sort of said, this is cool. You know, we're here for an interaction. Like, do you want any suggestions? And all he did for like, the next five minutes was say, I don't understand how no one wants to invest in this, how no one believes this. And he was basically bashing all of the and I'm like, so yeah, not the right approach. And and so yes, silly

Tiffany Rosenhan  29:40  
things that we just need a good reminder, because you can get really burnt in this industry, and that's okay, and it's not wrong. But just be careful when you're talking to investors that you keep certain things private. And then the other second point is when you're pitching your story and we're talking about sharing your decision making process. I this is, this is my third and final Creative Writing i. Analogy. So with creative writing, with fiction, I always say that the magic with Creative Writing happens at this convergence point between who you are and what your unique, unique experiences have been, and your unique skill set and what you are uniquely interested and curious about. This convergence point is where the magic happens with fiction. I actually think it's pretty similar in Medtech. I think the magic with your business happens at this convergence point between what your unique experience is and skill set and what you're uniquely interested and passionate about. You each have that if you're running a Medtech company, I'm convinced of it, but you need to share and disclose and what that is and why you are the right person to lead this type of company, this type of product, to the potential investor. Because ultimately, it circles back to what we said in the beginning, you're asking them to invest in you. Yes, it's a tool. Yes, it's a device. Yes, it can, you know, cure and do all these things. However, ultimately an investor is investing in your ability to take this company forward. Because again, investors do want a return on their investment, and a return on their investment can't happen. If an individual gets flustered at the first sign of, you know, backlash, or they get a battery, you know, a bad review, or some type of legislation comes out that limits it, you can always adapt. So show your ability to adapt, and then show how you are the right and pretty much the only person that should be taking this type of product to market at this time. I think that's really important to kind of share that,

Branden Rosenhan  31:21  
yeah, with with us. So, because we're very early, I would say 50% in people argue. Well, you invite, you invest in people, you invest in products, and you invest in markets, right? So, you know, does the, does all of those three come together? We say, okay, the market, once we see it's big, and sort of generally big, there's a lot of challenges, not just in med tech, but really we're betting on people. And at the end of the day, there are tons of great products. There's a graveyard of amazing new medical devices, great gadgets, and they never made it to market, and they never were successful. And so really it is the people. We're early. We have two companies right now that are already on, like a third, third pivot. But we bet on those investors. We bet on those those entrepreneurs. We love them. We're we believe in them, and they've continued to follow advice. So even goes back to your advice with Angel groups and other people that are advisors. Be Yeah, really, really understand how you can leverage them.

Tiffany Rosenhan  32:24  
That's great. My last point, and I wanna open up to questions. Make sure we have time. I would say to the slide deck, I know we said not to talk about too much about it, but whether it's on the slide deck or you're just verbally communicating, I would be really careful to limit your hyperbole. Do not over exaggerate. I would refrain from saying things like this will change the world. This will impact every single person with cancer, for example, if you say this will change the life of every teen girl in America. My first reaction is, how different socioeconomic positions, different access points? How does that really happen? It's impossible, seemingly, to do to a variety of you know, variables. So instead, I would recommend choosing the smallest, most accurate number you can. So for example, this has been proven to improve, sorry, this has been proven to improve the lives of 18% of all teen girls in Utah. Suddenly, that sounds like a pharma realistic statistic. Then this will improve the lives of every teen girl. So focus on reducing your percentages to something that's attainable. It sounds like a real number, and it sounds like a benchmark you can meet and then and then expand upon. So if you start out of the gate saying this is going to every single person with diabetes, every single person with, you know, renal failure, all these people, that's true, and we can get there, but I would limit yourself, limit that, that dialog, to more specific percentages that you can attain and then prove. So for example, back to that early meeting with early stage investors, and you're saying, Hey, what are you looking for from me? If you give this huge number, we're going to change this. Every female you know in America will have this access, and you don't do that. Have you failed? Well, not necessarily, but you failed according to your own metric. So reduce that number. So you say, we're trying to access 15% of all people in blah, blah, blah, do that. And then you meet with your investor six months later, who's now become your mentor, and you say, actually, we did this, and we've been able to reach not only 15, we reached 16% of all these people. Suddenly, you seem like a winner. So be really careful with your hyperbole, really careful with your your statements. If you've noticed, in the presentations the other day. I feel like a lot of them said our market cap is several billion dollars. That's true. We can get there, but it doesn't start that way. And I would, I would limit that language as much as possible, because your statistics are still good. They're still strong and valuable. But give, give real points that you can actually showcase improvement on. If you start out saying it's everything, then you have nowhere to go. Start smaller and improve. Do you have a comment

Branden Rosenhan  34:43  
on that? Well, I love that. You all know what. You know, total addressable market. You everyone has the same, you know, three, three circles you have. And how big the market is, the way we would say it is. I said, What is your what is your beachfront? Okay, so even if you're going to a small, small market, like she said, her way of saying how focused. Is it? How are you going to get that in? How are you going to get that we talked last night with one of these entrepreneurs, and we chat, and I said, Okay, you have all this amazing things. My, my, my idea. We may be disagreeing. This is great. That's what entrepreneurs and venture capitalists do. One in a row, I would say something, one in a row, get your first product in, get your first customer, and then you can grow based off that. And I actually got that advice from one of my venture capitalist mentors when I started my first startup. He said, and I said, I have this other idea, and I'm going to license this technology from another. And he said, one in a row, Brandon, one in a row. And so, yeah, she ever

Tiffany Rosenhan  35:36  
mentored Brandon is constantly trying to just slow him down. And I think it's generally good advice. It is a one step at a time. How do you you know? How do you move forward? One step, one day, one benchmark, I would say, be excited. But practical scientists should be excited about your product. You should be it should be the most exciting thing you want to talk about, but be practical about again, where it goes, how it fits in the market. My last really piece of advice is to practice your proposal, practice how you speak. I know it sounds goofy, but I promise if you stand in front of your mirror and start sharing your product with yourself in the mirror, can I would? I would recommend actually writing out your sentences, your complex, compound sentences that share as much as possible and as short of information practice saying that so that way, and an investor says, Tell me about yourself. You've got this super fluid sentence that tells them everything they're going to need to know in about 15 seconds. And you don't stumble over your words, and you don't get sidetracked into like the weeds of the science and the mechanics of your device. If they're another scientist and they've asked for the science, I would do that. But up front, investors want to know that you're capable. You're excited about your product. Again, it goes back to the assumption is it's a real product, right? The assumption is, very soon they're going to realize this is or isn't real. So therefore, show your excitement. Limit your exaggerated like, oh, it's going to be change the entire world. It could, but it's less likely. So focus on a limited viewpoint of what your product can do, and be really comfortable and confident sharing those, I would call them, complex sentences that tell as much as possible in a shortest period of time, that shows your own competence, and it makes you less reactive to someone's response. So you can, you can feel confident in your messaging that you've already thought through, how you share this and give them as much information as you can right off, right off the gate.

Branden Rosenhan  37:26  
And I'm going to tie in one quick thing. And I know we're around time. We're here to chat with you afterwards. If there's questions, I know there's a lot of awesome entrepreneurs. So Tiffany, how many pages did you sort of write for before your first book was published? To get to what, 380 pages. I don't talk about such. She's humble, 1000s, right? So I think what she's saying is, right, you, per you practice. I love the idea of looking in a mirror. You practice your presentation, because then when you get you need a ton of content, and you need to, would like,

Tiffany Rosenhan  37:55  
you're all smart. You guys can have like, flash cards in your brain. Have like, three flash cards in your brain, and that's this flash card is for an investor that I really, really want. This flash card is for a guy that I don't really care if you invest, but I want him as a mentor. This flash card is for like, this person. I don't know how much money they have, but they seem to be just giving money away. Let's just try it. Like, have three different flash cards in your brain that you can pull from and say, Okay, this is my sentence for this this is my pitch to this person. This is my pitch to this person. And then you're adaptable, and you're capable of starting that conversation with anyone that is interested in your in your product. Yes, you never know who they're gonna

Branden Rosenhan  38:25  
introduce. Yeah, and some of you have done great. I've already seen the dex is so you have different versions of your decks. You've all done this. And then if you're gonna go sit down with someone, you should be able to just, this is my story. All right, for us, med mountain Ventures is a pre seed, seed healthcare generalist fund that has no competition in Utah, and we have four incredible partners, three of which are physicians.

Tiffany Rosenhan  38:48  
Notice how he said in Utah, it's not there's no competition. There's no competition in Utah, which is still significant, but it's, it's not saying this whole thing, oh my gosh, we're the only ones ever, no, but we're the only ones in our huge regional market, and that's still, that's still very relevant. So I want to open up to questions. Or do you have anything to say? No, that's we have questions. I don't really

Branden Rosenhan  39:08  
know. We have one minute. Who has the most point one

Tiffany Rosenhan  39:11  
minute or what? No, no, I don't something's gonna happen.

Audience Question 5  39:14  
I just want to know what is the biggest blender red flower obviously bleed out when they're approaching

Tiffany Rosenhan  39:20  
Oh. Great question. So,

Branden Rosenhan  39:23  
you know, the negative part of me saying there's so many, I would say, I would say not I would say not being honest. I would just say, like, look, be humble and be honest. I've been there, right? I still struggle raising capital for my future LPs, it still takes me. As a matter of fact, I've already had meetings with some of the people this, this conference that I want, as investors in our fund, in five years, you have to build that. You got to be humble, honest and patient. And I

Tiffany Rosenhan  39:54  
would definitely say honesty. Do not the transparency will all shall be revealed during. The due diligence process. So don't hide anything if you've made mistakes, own them. If there's complicated former partners that are trying to swindle you, whatever it could be, just be transparent and don't this is a bad this is my this is my our rule for our oldest daughters. My rule was, if I ever hear something from someone else that I should should have heard from you, you you will be in trouble. That was the rule. It is the rule. I think it's the same with investors. If they hear something from a third source that they should have heard from you, you have kind of lost trust. So be transparent. Don't be afraid of sharing real information, even if you feel like it makes you look bad, like if you make a mistake or you did something wrong, disclose it. I would say lack of honesty has been the biggest turn off with potential,

Branden Rosenhan  40:43  
great question, I think we're out of time. Okay, okay, thanks so much. You.