MaRS mission to New York: Success through perspiration

Was it Edison who said that “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”? After countless rounds of coaching and dress rehearsals, the time had come to get on stage for six MaRS high-potential clients. All participants were selected by a panel of US venture capital firms to present at 2009 Life Sciences and Healthcare Venture Summit in NYC.

Six Ontario companies out of sixty presenters is not a bad score, is it? We’ll be able to tell in a few months whether the initial interest from prospective investors and strategic partners has resulted in actual commerce. For now, I’m pleased to see us help really young, small companies to punch above their weight and get in front of important audiences. Take Somnaform, producer of a treatment for sleep apnea (and snoring!) who was recently profiled on BNN’s Next technology segment. It’s a big win for these guys that we helped make happen.

Other clients involved in the conference include Biomedical Photometrics, Colibri Technologies, INTERxVENT, MedCurrent, Profound Medical and Rejuven8 Labroratories. Download the dealbook to read all their stories (PDF) or flip through it below.

The mission to NYC is just one of many small steps towards addressing the big challenges of launching a new enterprise, and it is so easy to get bogged down in all the difficult bits of developing a brand-new business. I had a perfect illustration of how hard work ultimately pays off on the way back from New York. As fate would have it, on my flight back to Toronto I ran into Nick Koudas, Founder of Sysomos (and a master of perspiration). I first started working with Nick in February of 2007 when Sysomos was nothing more than a vague concept for commercializing Blogscope, a technology developed by his graduate student. Today, Sysomos has 12 employees and a growing roster of big name clients.

In short, perspiration pays off… most of the time.
Life Sciences and Healthcare Venture Summit Deal Book
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