There are not many options for the early-stage biomedical entrepreneur. The field is capital, equipment, and personnel-intensive. For someone intent on starting a company, it often takes 6 months to raise capital, 6 months to set up with facilities, people, and equipment – and this is very optimistic. Vital time-to-market is lost in this process and missteps can occur frequently that prevent the entrepreneur from even getting launched. Alternatives are not wholly attractive. This includes working with universities, which have resources, but typically own any generated intellectual property. Bootstrapping in a garage setting is tried and true, but for typical biomedical ventures, the start-up cost is too significant. Recognizing this need, DMI has set up its MedAccelerator incubator that helps entrepreneurs bridge this gap.
