FUS Partners Resources for Entrepreneurs

This collection of resources for entrepreneurs is a living document which we will update over time. We hope you find it helpful.

Funding The Development of a Focused Ultrasound Product

This executive summary provides a high-level overview of focused ultrasound product development and the fundraising process, complementing the vlog below. The audience for this piece is scientific founders, entrepreneurs, and supporters of the focused ultrasound industry seeking more information on the challenges companies in the field face.

Read the Executive Summary

Funding a Focused Ultrasound Product

In this video blog titled “Funding a Focused Ultrasound Product,” the Foundation’s Commercial Initiatives and Strategy Director, Cindy Clark, provides a high-level overview of the entire product development and the fundraising process. The vlog is geared toward entrepreneurs considering starting their own company, existing company leaders, and those seeking more information on the challenges companies in this field face. 

Click here to access supplemental materials that offer a deeper dive into many of the topics covered.  

Liquid Biopsy Market

In this FUS Partners’ video blog titled “Liquid Biopsy Market,” the Foundation’s Commercial Initiatives and Strategy Director, Cindy Clark, summarizes recent market research reports on the multi-billion-dollar liquid biopsy market.

Click here to access supplemental materials. 

Why it Takes So Long To Develop a Medical Technology

In this 14-part blog series, Dr. Mark Carol, a Senior Advisor to FUS Partners and the former CEO of Sonablate, gives a high-level overview of the reasons why it takes five to 10+ years to develop a medical technology like focused ultrasound.

Read the blog series for a deeper dive into the complex issues and diverse stakeholders involved in the process of bringing a medical device from benchtop to bedside.

The Executive Summary also offers an abridged version.

Entrepreneur’s Guide to Fundraising Decks

A fundraising pitch deck is unique to a company and to where that company is in its lifecycle. Even so, there are common elements to successful pitch decks. The FUS Partners team has compiled a slide-by-slide guide to creating effective pitch decks. For each slide type, there are suggestions about what kinds of content should be on it and why as well as illustrative examples, some from real-world use cases.

See the “Entrepreneur’s Guide to Fundraising Decks”

Books

Blogs

LifeSciVC by Bruce Booth.
Booth is a partner at Atlas Venture, a biotech-focused early stage venture capital firm, where he focuses on helping start and fund emerging therapeutics companies.

AVC by Fred Wilson
Wilson is a legendary VC at Union Square Ventures. He invested in companies like Zynga, Etsy, Tumblr, Twitter and Kickstarter. He’s one of the first VC’s to start blogging daily and covers startups, technology and also personal stuff – it’s a great mix and comes highly recommended.

Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster
Suster is a 2x entrepreneur turned VC. He joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. Now, he writes about startups and offers his viewpoint from both perspectives: founders and investors (as he is both). 

Paul Graham
Graham is one of the most influential thinkers in tech space. As a founder and former president of Y Combinator, his impact on the startup world is immense. Y Combinator made companies like Airbnb and Dropbox possible, but it also inspired the ‘accelerator’ model replicated all over the world. In addition, Paul writes some of the most helpful essays for entrepreneurs out there.

Elad Blog by Elad Gil
Gill is a serial entrepreneur obsessed with technology and startups. His last startup Mixer Labs was acquired by Twitter and is now working on something new.

Tomasz Tunguz
Tunguz is a principal at Red Point Ventures. He blogs daily, and writes data-driven blog posts about key questions startups face including how to raise, startup benchmarks, management best practices and team building.

Podcasts

Andreessen Horowitz Podcast
The a16z Podcast discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future — especially as ‘software eats the world’. It features industry experts, business leaders, and other interesting thinkers and voices from around the world. Multiple episodes are released every week.

The Twenty Minute VC
Harry Stebbings made headlines recently by becoming one of the VC world’s youngest players. Inspired by the Facebook movie, The Social Network, Stebbings started podcasting unceasingly about the world of venture capital. Grasping early the startup world’s need for brevity, Stebbings limited his interviews with VCs to just 20 minutes.

Particular Topics

Spinning out of an Academic Research Institution

Business Planning

Choosing an Investor

Raising Capital

Working with a Board of Directors

Understanding Venture Capital and the Money Behind It

Regulatory Matters

General Resources