
Hosted by Hall T Martin · EN

Core Skills for Biotech Drug Development Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors looking to invest in a biotech drug startup should diligence the team for key skills. Here are the key skills needed for biotech drug development: Knowledge of how to drug a target. This means identifying a molecule, often a protein, that is associated with the disease to be treated and could be treated by a drug. Ability to elucidate the mechanism of action. This is the process by which a drug functions to produce a pharmacological effect. Demonstrate safety and efficacy. This shows the therapeutic works and is non-toxic. Ability to design clinical trials to show safety and efficacy. This requires the ability to pick the right therapeutic indication and the appropriate patient population. Finally, understand the regulatory requirements for approval. This means identifying the right FDA path and the steps required to reach approval. Consider these skills in a founder before investing in a biotech drug startup. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, Founder and Chairman of KeyCare, a virtual care medical group that helps health systems deliver telemedicine tightly integrated with the Epic electronic health record. With coverage across all 50 U.S. states, KeyCare focuses on expanding access, coordinating virtual and in-person care, and reducing physician burnout by building on Epic rather than creating a separate technology stack. Lyle shares how virtual care shifted from a pre-pandemic "nice-to-have" into a durable part of healthcare infrastructure after reimbursement parity and broader cultural adoption, and he outlines how AI supports pre-visit intake, ambient documentation during visits, and post-visit follow-up. He also discusses the "three Cs" of digital health adoption—coordination, cultural change, and compensation redesign—along with lessons on aligning incentives in partnerships and investing, advice for founders to start with a focused niche and show traction before raising capital. Visit KeyCare at www.keycare.org/ Reach out to at www.linkedin.com/in/drlyle/ ________________________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https:/_/tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

What Investors Look for in a Market Slide Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Part of the startup's pitch deck should be a market slide. Here's what investors need to know about your startup's target market. Who is the target customer? A good market slide segments the customers into categories and highlights the ideal segments for the startup's product. Next, the market slide shows how many potential customers are in the target market. Finally, the slide shows how the startup will compete in the market. The market slide does not show the total size of the industry but rather the total amount of revenue the market can generate for your startup. The market slide shows three views of the market. Total Available Market shows the total amount of revenue from your product that could be generated annually. Service Addressable Market shows the amount of revenue generated minus the applications the product cannot address. Service Obtainable Market shows the Service Addressable Market minus the revenue that goes to competitors. Consider these points in building the market slide for your startup. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

How To Pitch the Business Case for Your Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Most first-time founders talk about the product and how it works. In pitching, it's important to make the business case for your startup. Here are some key steps to use to make the business case: Start with the problem and show how it costs the customers a substantial amount in time or dollars. Show the number of potential customers who have this problem. This is often shown in a Total Available Market slide. Highlight the current competition and their effectiveness. In most cases, the competition solves the problem but leaves plenty of room for improvement. Show your solution and highlight the competitive advantage. The competitive advantage should give your business a 30% increase in revenue over the competition or a 30% decrease in cost. Next, show the monetization model. This includes all sources of revenue. Finally, include a financial forecast to show the growth over time. It's important to validate the business case with happy customers who paid for the product. Consider these steps in making the business case for your startup. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

Growth Startups Are Not Profitable in Year One Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups require up-front costs to set up and build the company. Any financial projection that shows profitability in the first year is suspect. Upfront costs include building the website, filing the company legal entity documents, patent filings, and more. Hiring the team takes time and takes time away from building the product or closing the sale. Initial funding takes time as well. Core business processes need to be put into place. Initial leads need to be generated. These costs always outweigh the revenue coming in. Once the basic processes are in place, then the task of building products and selling to customers can increase. After the sales process has started, there will be some time before revenue comes in. It takes time to build sales momentum. Once you have a growth curve going, the opportunity for break-even becomes a possibility. Beware financial forecasts that leave no time for business or sales startup to take hold. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

Delusions in the Early-Stage Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The early-stage startup has its own set of delusions founders must overcome. Here's a list of delusions to watch for: Everyone else is a professional but not the founder. The reality is that the founder has the opportunity to build a great business just like anyone else. Financial projections are always wrong. The mistake is believing they are right. The purpose of a financial plan is to start the process of modeling out the business. This will take some time before the financial forecast matches the actual business. The highs and the lows of the business are not forever. The excitement you have now will diminish, and the lows also will come to an end. Success stories heard from other companies typically come from unusual circumstances. The fantastic revenue growth often comes from a phenomenal spend from a highly dilutive fundraise. There's a fear others won't take you seriously. It all comes down to how seriously the founder takes himself and his role. There are rarely situations that are make-or-break for the startup. Few things in the startup experience are existential. In almost all cases, the startup can bounce back. Consider these delusions one may encounter in the startup world and how to overcome them. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

Best Practices for Explaining a Technical Concept Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In pitching investors, founders must explain how their product works. For those with highly technical products, here are some best practices for explaining it to others. Start with what the audience knows. Bridge the gap between their current knowledge and the topic under discussion. Avoid acronyms and jargon that require expertise in the space. Use a concept the audience already knows. Create an analogy that describes the technical concept of what is known. For example, the medical device acts like a blender that mixes the fluids. Focus on the core technology and avoid ancillary information as it complicates things. Break the technical concept down into a three-step process. This can help describe a technical concept as it shows how it works in a simplified manner. Throughout the process, check for understanding. Fill in the audience gaps of understanding. Adjust your presentation for the technical level of the audience. Consider these points for explaining technical concepts. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall talks with Dan Wasserman, founder of Mammoth Health Innovation, about what it takes to turn biomedical and medical technologies into commercially viable healthcare solutions. Dan shares Mammoth's origins from a Canadian innovation center, his "Health Ecosphere" framework for pulling together the elements needed to commercialize health innovation, and how a Hollywood-based plan to tap Canadian entertainment expats for funding collapsed when COVID hit. He explains Mammoth's work bridging Canadian and U.S. innovation approaches, including ACIP (Advancing Canadian Innovation Through Procurement), language from which made it into Canada's 2023 federal budget, and introduces CHIEFS, his KPI-based evaluation tool for both innovators and investors. The discussion covers aging populations, shrinking budgets, regulatory and reimbursement realities, customer discovery, partnerships, exit planning, AI's practical roles, scaling globally, fundraising readiness. Visit Mammoth Health Innovation at mammothhealth.org/ Reach out to at dan@mammothhealth.ca , and on Twww.linkedin.com/in/dan-wasserman-2074192/ ________________________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https:/_/tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

The Negative Checklist for Startup Investing Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Most investors have a checklist for what they look for in a startup investment. The counter to this is the negative list for startup investing. This list shows what the investor does not invest in. Here are some examples: Investments that will close shortly, leaving the investor no time for research or diligence. An investment that has all positives and no negatives. An investment that is risk-free or 'can't fail.' An investment that looks good only because everyone you know is in it. Any investment that has a great story but no traction, momentum or validation of the product or market. An investment with a sky-high valuation and few results so far. Any investment that relies solely on other people's money with no skin in the game from the founder. An investment that the founder can't tell you what it is because it is confidential. The negative checklist helps the investor screen out deals that won't be fundable. Consider your negative checklist for startup investing. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

Look for Founders With Balance Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors funding startups know that the team is the most important element. In reviewing the team, look for founders with balance. There are some founders who can work on multiple aspects of the business, such as sales, product development, and team building. There are others who are specialists. They work well in one aspect, such as fundraising. It's important to check the founders' skills to see that they can operate in other parts of the company. There will not be enough funding or revenue in the early days to hire everyone needed to cover all tasks. Look for those founders who have some skill in fundraising, sales, team building, and product development. These are the core elements of a successful startup. Finance, accounting, networking, and other skills can be outsourced or learned. In addition to skills, the founder must spend time on each of these areas. Look for founders with balance. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let's go startup something today. _________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.