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Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join Sponsored by: Purdue University entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson I invested in Savran Tech back in 2017 around the time of the first part of this interview. Recently I sat down with Cagri Savran to review the progress of his remarkable biotech startup in the last four years. Listen to the original interview followed by a recent update. Here is a list of the topics discussed: Çağrı Savran Bio (Çağrı Is Pronounced Cha-re) Accident that Took Çağrı Savran from Turkey to Indiana Purdue University’s Remarkable Support for the Commercialization of Faculty Inventions Çağrı Savran: “So, when I say "extremely rare," I mean one-in-a-billion rare.” Çağrı Savran: “Our technology can find those five or six or ten cells that are, among about a billion.“ “…from a blood sample, you have a glimpse into the tumor without cutting into the person.” The Promise of Monitoring Cancer Treatment with a Blood Draw “The advantage is if you can do this wit

Sponsored by: Purdue University entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson In December of 2017 I interviewed Çağrı Savran, Ph.D. about plans for his startup in which I had just invested. Almost four years later I interviewed him again to review the progress of the company which is changing the way breast cancer is followed up after treatment. Highlights: Update on the Original Interview with Çağrı Savran, Ph.D. In December of 2017 Savran Was Operating with Essential Components Handmade in the Lab – In October 2021 the Main Components Are Produced by a Vendor Early Technology Was Used in a Major Clinical Trial at Indiana University School of Medicine and Significantly Improved Prediction of Recurrence of a Breast Cancer The Existing Technology for Capturing Circulating Tumor Cells Is Not Scalable – Savran’s Tech Is Amenable to Scale Strategic Players in Prenatal Diagnostics Are Interested in Sequencing the Cells Captured – Savran Is Uniquely Positioned to Provide That Ability The

Sponsored by: Purdue University Entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson AI wiz, founder and angel investor Gil Syswerda on building algorithms and companies. This episode focuses on Gil’s biography and his startups. It’s the first in-studio interview since spring 2020. We had a blast! Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Gil Syswerda, Founder and Super Angel Gil Syswerda Lucked into a Great High School – Built His Own Calculator "Computer programming. What is that?" “Because programming a computer for the first time you have this machine that just does whatever you tell it to do. The power is just indescribable. It just seems like the possibilities are unlimited.” Selling Cutco Knives to Pay the Rent – Learned to Sell “...I taught myself programming on that computer at Calvin College...” “When I wasn't at a place working, I would just fly to a city where I had friends and hang out with them. I just literally lived nowhere for a year.” Gil Meets His Wife Carol - They’ve Been Marri

Sponsored by: Purdue University Entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson Medical records are way less informative to doctors than patients imagine. Electronic health records (EHRs) have failed to deliver on their promise to improve health care for forty years. Ryan Hess, founder of Connective Health, means to change that. I invited digital health founder Martín Aboitiz to co-host this valuable interview with me. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Co-Host Martín Aboitiz & Guest Ryan Hess, Founder of Connective Health Connective Health Aims to Deliver to Primary Care Physicians What Electronic Health Records Have Promised for Forty Years Ryan Hess Tells Us About What Surescripts Does Martín Aboitiz Introduces His Startup, Healthjump The Pillars on Which Ryan Hess’ Work Rests Connective Health Seeks to Provide the Primary Care Physician with a Complete Picture of Where the Patient Has Been and What Care Has Been Received “Even the basic information is helpful with behavioral he

A curious but orderly mind prepared to take advantage of serendipity has taken Adam de Sola Pool on a remarkable journey during his career. His father, Ithiel de Sola Pool, the brilliant political scientist (look up Six Degrees of Separation or Convergence) took young Adam to many different countries. These travels sparked in Adam an interest in geography which led to a job on Wall Street. From Salomon Brothers he went to the EBRD to restructure companies emerging from communism. This grew into setting up Central Europe’s first cleantech fund which produced excellent results. Now Adam is an investor and advisor in the Boston area; much respected for his fresh approach to building young companies. Topics covered in this charming interview include: Adam de Sola Pool Bio From Geography Major at University of Chicago to Wall Street From Salomon Brothers to the EBRD Adam Poole Has a Chance Encounter in the Bathroom & Gets a New Job Overheated Factories in Poland Adam Pool Discovers that Local Businesses Can B

Sal's Syndicate: Click to Join Podcast Sponsored by: Purdue University's Entrepreneurship Center Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson Greg Raiz founded app-building colossus Raizlabs and sold it in 2017. He’s now the head of Techstars Boston and has big ideas in mind. Be you founder or angel, listen to this luminous interview for practical advice and inspiration on building startups. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Greg Raiz, Founder of Raizlabs, the App-building Colossus and Head of Techstars Boston Founding Story of Raizlabs “As soon as engineering starts to implement, they learn things, they discover things through the process of implementation that impact the design.” Steve Job’s Launch of the iPhone Galvanized Greg Raiz to Build Apps for the New Device RunKeeper Put Raizlabs on the Map, Then Came Rue La La The importance of Focus on Building a Brand “I think a lot of early-stage founders, they tried to boil the ocean.” “Amazon's master plan may have been to dominate e-commerce but in

Want to get rich and to pass money to your kids? Listen closely to Howard Stevenson. Here’s condensed wisdom from the heart of the investing world delivered with dry humor and charm. Professor Stevenson was a co-founder of storied Baupost Group and helped hire its legendary manager Seth Klarman. He began the study of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and eventually became HBS’ biggest fundraiser. His book “Wealth & Families” gives invaluable advice on how to make money and keep enough of it to hand down to the generations. My personal favorite is illustrated by this quote from the interview: “Whereas, some of my colleagues were going off consulting ... They were making a lot of money every day, and they go their XKE [Jaguar XKE, a coveted sports car of the era] quite quickly. I went off to places like Lima, Ohio, and I was paid $300 a day, but I got 1% of the company.” Howard Stevenson was forgoing high current income, and consumption, for the ability to own promising assets that would build his

Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Sponsors: Purdue University Entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson Thrice-exited founder Jon Hirschtick of SolidWorks and Onshape fame, talks about the promise of cloud-based technologies and how to build successful businesses in the space. Jon’s a good sport and a fun guest. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Jon Hirschtick, Founder of SolidWorks and Onshape “...the problem we were solving with Onshape is around the use of CAD, Computer-Aided-Design t” “...I had a year off and I could see the emergence of cloud technologies and I thought back to the problems I had seen users having.” “...Onshape is the Google Docs of CAD...SolidWorks was the Microsoft Word of Onshape. What came before SolidWorks was like the Wang Word Processor of CAD.” “...Marc Andreessen, he was an investor in Onshape” It Was hard to Raise Money for SolidWorks but Its Success Made It Easy to Get Onshape Funded Jon Hirschtick Was on the Famous MIT Blackjack Team

Sponsors: Purdue University Entrepreneurship Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson Sal's Syndicate: Click to Join Ty Danco is an outlier in a population of outliers. His interests are varied and pursued passionately. He’s founded two fintech companies, he’s invested in a gazillion startups and he’s been a hugely generous advisor to companies, in fact the chief advisor at Techstars. Oh, I forgot to mention he’s an Olympian and also deeply involved with crypto-currencies. In this really meaty interview, Ty and I covered a wide range of topics. He explained his ideas in his affably quirky way. This was a super fun conversation. Quotes: "Danco, why are you here? You're a marketing guy." And I said that I was here to see Lever Brothers and he goes, "You idiot, you signed up for Lehman Brothers." “So, I took a leave of absence from school, and Wharton let me make up my remaining credits over the summer, and so I tried doing all three things at the same time. It was a success on paper, I did make t

Join Sal Daher's Syndicate List: Click to Join Sponsored by Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson Born out of COVID in 2020, TBD Angels is Boston’s newest angel group. In its first seventeen months it has already invested in forty startups. Members David Chang and Yael deCapo spoke about what TBD offers startups and investors. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Yael deCapo and David Chang of TBD Angels TBD Angel’s Process is Real-Time Not Batch “We try to match their velocity, which is pretty hard to do, but we occasionally succeed at that.” “There is a tool-based voting that if enough members vote that they're interested in hearing a pitch, we have an automatic way to schedule that pitch.” TBD Angels Invests via a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) “It's a little bit of an experiment from our standpoint. We started this group in the middle of a pandemic, the beginning of 2020.” Sal Daher Thanks Matt Fates for Introducing Him to TBD Angels In Seventeen Months, TBD Angels Has Invested in 40 Companies

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join This podcast is brought to you by Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ While in prep school Matt Singer performed at a religious ceremony and became fascinated with the impact his music had on the congregants. This fascination led Matt Singer to major in music at Yale, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, and to think of how to make a life in music. Matt hit the streets soon after graduating to start his music business. For ten years he built Dawn Treader Production with marquee names such as Paul McCartney, James Earl Jones and the New York Philharmonic. Relying on the emotional connection possible on TV, he sold the CDs he produced by the tens of thousands on QVC. In 2007 he joined co-founder Amanda Eilian, in starting a company that is now changing the way large enterprises communicate with their customers and employees via video. Videolicious makes it easy for employees to produce polished videos perso

Join Sal Daher's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join Sponsored by Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson Brad Feld and Dave Jilk bring the wisdom of modernity's most unsettling thinker to entrepreneurship.  Like the ancient Stoics, Nietzsche has much to add to the thought of people disrupting existing assumptions today. Brief excerpts from Nietzsche  are paired with essays from founders who grapple with the ideas in question.  Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Brad Feld, Co-Founder of Techstars The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors by Dave Jilk & Brad Feld “…for every two lines of Nietzsche, there's probably two pages of Brad Feld and another entrepreneur talking about something really important.” “…I thought I knew something about Nietzsche, and pretty much everything I knew about Nietzsche was wrong.” “…Nietzsche was a Nazi.” - "Don't believe everything you hear about Nietzsche." Nietzsche’s Sister and Literary Executor Was Indeed a Nazi Who Tried to Co-opt Her Brothe

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Bettina Hein is the founder of Pixability, one of the fastest-growing companies in Massachusetts. She was also co-founder of SVOX, a profitable Swiss startup sold to Nuance Communications for $125MM. This record may make her success seem easier to achieve than it was. Bettina Hein overcame numerous obstacles to justify the sobriquet “Fearless Founder”. Learn from her as I did. She is an exemplar of resilience, grace under fire and plain common sense. She also has much to teach us about how a startup might best raise money. Whenever I ask angel investors about a remarkable pivot by a founder, there’s a good chance Bettina’s name will come up. Don’t miss this charming and instructive conversation with a star founder. Here are topics and quotes from the interview: Bettina Hein Bio How Bettina Hein Found Her Entrepreneurial Path in Life Bettina Hein Used to Write Computer Programs in Fourth Grade but Did Not Learn to Code in College; Why? Professors Discouraged

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Repeat biotech founder Todd Zion on SmartCells (acquired by Merck for $500MM) and his current venture Akston Bio which is doing cool things with proteins. Todd has valuable insights on VC funding, angel investing and founding teams. This interview’s a peach! Intro of Todd Zion, PhD Co-Founder of SmartCells (Merck) and Akston Bio Todd Zion Was Fascinated by the Potential of Polymers to Do Powerful Things Smart Drug Delivery – Making Insulin Adapt to Blood Glucose Levels “…then got bitten by the bug, like I said, of the entrepreneurial spirit that runs quite strong through MIT.” “…with SmartCells, we made a conscious effort to build a company that could be capital efficient and achieve what angels want out of an investment…” Jeff Behrens’ Experience at Siamab Is Discussed Todd Zion Is Leery of Raising Big Money Because It Raises Costs “…you should always be betting on the jockey and not necessarily the horse.” “Sometimes you may throw out really good ideas, d

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Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Sponsored by Peter fasse, patent attorney: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ Angel investor Paul Silva has an idea about how to help startups after they exit accelerators. Launch413 is taking the friction out of getting and giving advice to founders. Great chat with a fun guest who is also a listener. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Angel Investor Paul Silva “…because they're a first-time founder, so they're going to make all the first-timer mistakes. We don't want to pay the tuition bill for them to learn, right?” “…a lot of great founders out there that don't…have access to those things, and so angels…say no because they're inexperienced. That drove me nuts. That was the problem that inspired Launch413.” “…providing each of our entrepreneurs a virtual C-suite of executive coaches.” “…we get compensation…through a royalty sharing agreement with the entrepreneurs. We don't take any equity.” 413 Portfolio Startup IgnitePost Greatly Improves Responses to Sal

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join In 2013*, my brother-in-law Martin Aboitiz sat in my dining room and sketched out a business he planned to start. I thought “majnun” which is Arabic for crazy! How would this guy who had built software companies in Argentina found a startup to help Americans have better access to their healthcare data? But I underestimated his resourcefulness and titanic tenacity. Four years later, Healthjump is at cashflow break even and has 7.5 million patients in its data warehouse. I’m glad because I have some real money riding on Martin’s company. Listen to this lighthearted but informative interview. It was inspired, in part, by an excellent meal shared by the interlocutors the night before which included an outstanding paella (see photo) and some delightful wines. We talked healthcare, pivots, angel investing homeruns and flops and many other matters. * (I said 2003 in the podcast by mistake) Topics covered include: Sal Daher’s Intro for the Relaunch Martin Aboitiz B

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Purdue is going all out to be Innovation U. Professor Wayne Chen and I spoke of the various initiatives to that end including evaluating faculty on the patents they get and what startups they found. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Professor Wayne Chen Who Leads Innovation at Purdue’s School of Engineering Initiatives Afoot at Purdue to Get Technology Out of the Lab and Into Society Sal Talks About How Çağrı Savran, a Purdue Professor Was Helped in Founding Savran Technologies Applying Machine Learning to Determine the Best Management Strategies The Value of Machine Learning: “…you hit something that the typical human cannot see, that's where your opportunity space, right?” Purdue School of Engineering Now Being Evaluated on Value of Patents and Starting Companies “…"No, I'm not a CEO material," we find you a CEO.” Purdue Is Making Big Investments in Creating Spaces to Connect with Industry Pitch for Peter Passe, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson How

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join Federico Cismondi, co-founder of Sal’s portfolio company doDoc, is back on the podcast to talk about the company’s acquisition and the lessons he learned from the initial raise to the exit. A charming and instructive conversation with a thoughtful founder. Why Getting the Best Patent Advice is Indispensable Sal Daher Introduces Federico Cismondi, Co-Founder of doDoc Which Was Recently Acquired The Problem that doDoc Solves “This is the platform for those people who need workarounds because Google Docs just doesn't cut it for them, or Microsoft Word…” Federico, as CEO, Learned He Needed to Delegate More doDocs Pivot from Academic Clients to Pharmaceutical Clients doDoc’s Near-Death Experience and What Federico Learned from It doDoc Was Initially Built with Unsuitable Technology - Making a Dog Meow Entrepreneurship in Portugal - What Argentina and Portugal Have in Common How the Exit Came About “...we try to create settings for people to share their ideas, to pres

Sponsored by Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ Join Sal's Syndicate: Click Here Two brilliant scholarship kids became friends at Georgia Tech and went on to found a company that could change the world. This is the story of Matthew Stellmaker and Keith Hearon and of the good chemistry manifested in their friendship and in the creation of new polymers friendly to people and nature. The idea came to Matthew when he was working at a large company that produces 50,000 tons of citrus waste per year. His friend Keith thought that he could do something interesting with the citrus rinds so Matthew got the company to fund the research into creating a use for this natural material. These two young founders display remarkable self-knowledge and reveal discoveries in the art of founding companies that could help other founders, technical or not. It’s a valuable conversation that includes the following topics: Keith Hearon Bio Matthew Stellmaker Bio Keith Hearon