Funding and Scaling your Med Device Startup with Jen Baird
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Getting funding and scaling a medical device business alone is challenging. But challenges don't deter entrepreneurs like Jen Baird. From being disregarded at first from VCs simply because she was a woman, to then selling her company for $205M, to today scaling a med device startup with a denovo FDA application, Jen has done it all! If that's not impressive enough, she takes time to write her insights as a startup CEO in her personal blog.
Jen has founded and led multiple healthcare ventures. Her most successful company to date was Accuri Cytometers which Jen led from inception to global commercialization. She raised over $30 million in angel and venture capital financing, developed a product and achieved more than $12 million in annual sales in just five years. In 2011, Accuri was sold to Becton Dickinson for $205 million, which is a 10X revenue multiple and Jen generated, or a 5X return for her investors.
Most recently, Jen raised an $11.5 million Series A to found and build Fifth Eye, a medical device software company that detects hemodynamic status from a single streaming lead of ECG. Her career also includes stints in commercial banking, management consulting, and several other previous startups. Jen graduated at the top of her class with a master's in management, from Northwestern University's Kellogg graduate school of management and earned a BA in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.
For everyone who's listening and in the trenches of building a life sciences company, Jen has been there many times and has had some incredible exits.
I hope you enjoy listening and learning from her wisdom and experience.
Show notes:
- FifthEye.com
- Jen's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jenbaird
- Jen's blog: StartupCEOReflections.com
Jen's Photo credit Leisa Thompson