The document discusses building an effective team for a startup that will appeal to investors. It emphasizes that investors consider the management team a major risk factor. Teams with relevant experience that have worked together previously and achieved success, such as prior exits, will help mitigate this risk. The needs of the team depend on the product development stage and funding stage. Founding teams are scored based on the experience of the founders and other team members, as well as their relationships with investors. More developed teams for later funding stages require more specialized roles across functions like clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and marketing. The most important things are getting the medical innovation to patients and having a team that can work well together to inspire investor confidence.

1. Building the Best Team that Delivers
and that Investors Love
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM
WORK:

2. DEFINITIONS
• Team = people contributing to product and its interface with
medicine
• Investors = people / organizations supplying capital to
enterprise in return for ownership

3. WHO IS YOUR TEAM?
Founder
/ CEO
Employees
Management
TeamBOD
Advisors
Consultants
Investors
Suppliers
Legal
(Corp. &
IP)
Insurance

4. SPECTRUM OF INVESTORS
Seed /
Angels
(F&F)
Series A Series B
Series C…
/ IPO/ M&A
Private / Family office
Venture Fund
Strategic

5. TOP 5 THINGS INVESTORS CONSIDER
• Need
• Solution
• Protection
• Market, Investment and Return
• Team

6. INVESTORS KNOW THAT THE MANAGEMENT
TEAM IS MAJOR SOURCE OF RISK AND FAILURE
• VC survey: 65% of failures within their portfolio companies due
to problems with the startup’s management team.
• Investors report 61% of problems in their portfolio companies
involved issue within the team.

7. INVESTOR TEAM RISK MITIGATION
• Work with people and teams with whom they had success (exits)
• Work with people and teams they know
• Work with people and teams that had success (exits) for others
• Work with teams that have worked together before
• Work with teams with lots of experience

8. NON-DILUTIVE FUNDING SOURCES

9. BUILDING A TEAM DILEMMA

10. TEAM YOU NEED DEPENDS ON:
Seed / Angels
(F&F)
Series A Series B
Series C… /
IPO/ M&A
Where you are in product development
Where you are in fund raising
Concept
generation
Proof-of-
concept
First-in-
man
Filing/
Approval
Market
Launch

11. TEAM NEEDS BASED ON PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT STAGE
Concept
generation
Proof-of-
concept
First-in-
man
Filing/
Approval
Market
Launch
Medical need
Technology solution expertise
Market recognition
Product engineering
Preclinical expertise
Regulatory expertise
Market understanding
Clinical expertise
Manufacturing
Quality
Supply chain
Marketing
Reimbursement
Pipeline
Sales
Finance

12. TEAM NEEDS BASED ON FUNDING STAGE
Medical expert*
Technology expert*
Market expert*
IP attorney*
*can be
consultants,
advisors,
Board members,
contractors…
CMO
CTO
CEO
Engineering/
science team
Preclinical*
Regulatory*
IP*
CMO
CTO
CEO
Engineering/
science team
Clinical team
Regulatory
IP*
Manufacturing*
CFO
Quality
Supply chain
Marketing
Reimbursement*
CMO
CTO
CEO
Engineering/
science team
Clinical team
Regulatory
IP*
VP Manufacturing
CFO
Quality
Supply chain
Marketing
Reimbursement*
VP Sales
Seed / Angels
(F&F)
Series A Series B
Series C… /
IPO/ M&A

13. TEAM TAKE-HOMES FOR INVESTORS
• Experience matters
• Industry/ devices, investors, startups, covering all the bases
• Network matters
• Co-founders/team, investors, Board and advisors
• Success matters
• Prior marketed products, prior startup successes, prior exits

14. EVALUATING TEAM STRENGTH
A structured approach to

15. RELATIVE MINIMUM TEAM STRENGTH FOR
DIFFERENT INVESTORS & INVESTMENT STAGES
Seed /
Angels (F&F)
Series A Series B
Series C… /
IPO/ M&A
Private /
Family office
Strategic
Venture Fund
12 36 48 80
16 40 60 88
24 52 72 100

16. THE EARLY TEAM

17. START WITH FOUNDER CEO
• Pick one as CEO:
• King
• Famous
• Rich
If you didn’t pick Rich, don’t seek funding
You don’t have investors’ priorities

18. SCORING THE EARLY TEAM
Founder
experience
First time
2nd
3 or more cos.
0
8
16
Operating experience or
MD experience
12
8
Investor
relationship
Strangers
Introduced
Known – v. positive
0
4
12
Made money for an investor before
For this investor before
12
20
Other team
members
Regulatory
Clinical (CMO)
Consultants known
8
8
4
Product Development
Commercial/ Market
Advisor(s) known to investors
Board members known to investors
8
8
4
8/ea

19. • MD - idea from practice experience (8)
• Does not know investors or angels (0)
• Other team members not from medical
device industry (0)
• No well known advisors (0)
• GOING TO HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME
• Usual Solutions:
• Raise money from friends & family (12)
• Others:
• Outside advisors or Board members (4-8)
• Co-founders with industry experience (12)
• Executive with idea from industry
experience (12)
• Knows investors (12)
• Other team members with clinical (8) and
regulatory (8) medical device industry
experience (tot = 16)
• Highly credible outside Board member (8)
• TEAM WILL MAKE FINANCING MUCH
EASIER
HYPOTHETICAL FIRST TIME FOUNDERS

20. THE FUNDED TEAM

21. SCORING THE “A” TEAM
Founder
experience
First time
2nd
3 or more cos.
0
8
16
Operating experience or
MD experience
12
8
Investor
relationship
Strangers
Introduced
Known – v. positive
0
4
12
Made money for an investor before
For this investor before
12
20
Other team
members
Regulatory
Clinical (CMO)
Consultants known
8
8
4
Product Development
Commercial/ Market
Advisors known to investors
Board members known to investors
8
8
4
8
Series A

22. SCORING THE “B” TEAM
Founder
experience
First time
2nd
3 or more cos.
0
8
16
Operating experience or
MD experience
12
8
Investor
relationship
Strangers
Introduced
Known – v. positive
0
4
12
Made money for an investor before
For this investor before
12
20
Other team
members
Regulatory
Clinical (CMO)
Consultants known
Sales & Marketing
Quality (QA)
8
8
4
8
8
Product Development
Commercial/ Market
Advisors known to investors
Board members known to investors
Manufacturing/ Supply Chain
8
8
4
8
8
Prior investor(s) Unknown 4 Highly credible/ well known 16
Series B

23. SCORING THE “C” TEAM
Founder
experience
First time
2nd
3 or more cos.
0
8
16
Operating experience or
MD experience
12
8
Investor
relationship
Strangers
Introduced
Known – v. positive
0
4
12
Made money for an investor before
For this investor before
12
20
Other team
members
Regulatory
Clinical (CMO)
Consultants known
Sales & Marketing
Quality (QA)
8
8
4
8
8
Product Development
Commercial/ Market
Advisors known to investors
Board members known to investors
Manufacturing/ Supply Chain
8
8
4
8
8
Prior investor(s) Unknown 4 Highly credible/ well known 16
Series C… /
IPO/ M&A

24. MOST IMPORTANT…
• Getting your medical innovation to the market where it can help patients
Who do you need to get the job done?
Can you work together synergistically?
Can you inspire confidence in investors?

25. THINGS WILL GO WRONG!
• Inevitably there will be ups and downs
• During the downs, how does the team work?
• Pulls together – steps up – no blame – make it work – accepts help
• Finger pointing – factions – effort slacks – insular and secretive
• If someone on the team does not deliver or respond constructively to the downs, must
deal with it IMMEDIATELY!
• Change attitude, roles
• Leave company

26. TEAM TAKE-HOMES FOR ENTREPRENEUR
• Experience matters
• Network matters
• Success matters
Trust and respect matter most
Team that can get the job done will be the team
investors (& patients in the future) love!

27. MICHAEL J. WEICKERT
632 Sylvan Way
Emerald Hills, CA 94062
Phone (650) 568-6125
Cell (650) 218-1840
mweickert@gmail.com
www.witcreek.com