The Future of Technology Commercialization

Abstract

Why does our healthcare system favor, for example, artificial heart valves (which address a narrowly specific medical problem at great expense) over changes in diet, which can provide inexpensive, systemic improvement in health? The easy answers are that venture capital will flow to the higher-technology, higher-expense medical regime, and doctors will prefer the heart valve because its installation is highly billable, and reimburseable by insurance. We consumers have been conditioned to take a passive role in the healthcare marketplace, and don’t have the “discipline” to eat what’s good for us. Finally, the patient that is already hospitalized feels a sense of urgency that he/she did not feel while healthy. These answers are true but superficial.

“The real stories about successful high-technology start-ups are not about technical breakthroughs... or products. Rather, they are about unusual people with powerful ideas who are driven to do extraordinary things and are confident in their abilities to succeed.”

Ed Zchau, Wall Street Journal, (12/10/1994)

“The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.”

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1513)

“Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”

Albert Einstein

“The seed stage VC looks for a 10x productivity advantage in the entrepreneur’s product.”

Tom Winter of Onset Ventures