DC Regional Universities Use Lean Startup in Healthcare | NSF I-CORPS

I have been following the NSF I-Corps experiment since its inception and have been pleasantly surprised by its growth and expanding reach. GWU, University of Maryland and Virginia Tech have taken the lead in our region (the DC I-Corps) and have some great people working on the program. I came across a piece from Stephanie Baum at Med City News highlighting some of the innovative teams and projects taking part. From Baum,

Here’s a sample of the healthcare and device technologies involved in the program, which runs through November 19.

University of Maryland, College Park

Myotherapeutics is developing a clinical assay for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Eva Chin, an assistant professor, leads the group.

George Washington University

Key Orthopedics has a 3D-printed polymer device for growing stem cells in bone and cartilage tissue and is led by Benjamin Holmes, a Ph.D student.

NanoChon is producing joint injury therapeutic technologies for extended and sustained biologic delivery. It’s led by Nathan Castro, a Ph.D. student.

Its exciting to see our local universities, their leaders, faculty, and graduate students learning to employ lean in the development of their ideas and technologies. Exciting time.

How the iPhone Got Tail Fins – Part 2 of 2 | Steve Blank

Steve Blank offers part 2 of his must read – How the iPhone Got Tail Fins. Again, I love this case (of GM) as it highlights how an industry (both a durable good and a consumer good) can blow-up, mature, and then challenge participants to continue to find growth. From Steve Blank:

For fifty years, until the Japanese imports of the 1970’s, Americans talked about the brand and model year of your car – was it a ’58 Chevy, ’65 Mustang, or 58 Eldorado? Each had its particular cachet, status and admirers. People had heated arguments about who made the best brand.

The car had become part of your personal identity while it became a symbol of 20th Century America.

After Sloan took over General Motors its share of U.S cars sold skyrocketed from 12 per cent in 1920, until it passed Ford in 1930, and when Sloan retired as GM’s CEO in 1956 half the cars sold in the U.S. were made by GM. It would keep that 50% share for another 10 years. (Today GM’s share of cars total sold in the U.S. has declined to 19%.)

How the iPhone Got Tail Fins

Over the last five years Apple has adopted the GM playbook from the 1920′s – take a product, which originally solved a problem – cheap communication – and turn it into a need.

In doing so Apple did to Nokia and RIM what General Motors did to Ford. In both cases, innovation in marketing completely negated these firms’ strengths in reducing costs. The iPhone transformed the cell phone from a device for cheap communication into a touchstone about the user’s image. Just like cars in the 20th century, the iPhone connected with its customers emotionally and viscerally as it became a symbol of who you are.

Again, the piece is full of insights and also, beautiful old graphics and media (old tv commercials).

Nothing super new here, but a well put together lessons on industries, marketing, and customer development.

via How the iPhone Got Tail Fins – Part 2 of 2 « Steve Blank.

Moot Corp Lesson: Even the Best Plans Change

Tim Berry has a great post, Moot Corp Lesson: Even the Best Plans Change. It highlights the level of competence in some of the top business plan competitions and also makes clear the value in these exercises.

Tim writes,

One of the judges commented that what was on the slide was different from what he saw in the business plan. The entrepreneur immediately answered “no, of course not, that was an earlier iteration.”

That favorite moment wasn’t part of the flawless finals session of the winner. It was in the finals, though, as a Carnegie Mellon team presented a technology to monitor glucose levels using contact lenses. What I liked about that quick answer was the underlying assumption that plans change. New information matters. There was no reason to keep the numbers from last week after new information this week suggested they should change.

If the projections today don’t match those from two weeks ago, no apology is necessary.

The winner, BiologicsMD, also won the Rice University competition a few weeks ago. If you get a chance to see the video of their performance, both with their pitch and their business and their answers to judges’ question, take it. That’s the best I’ve ever seen. The company, one of two finalists from the University of Arkansas, has developed a new medicine to treat osteoporosis. It included a PhD researcher, an MD researcher, and two business executives. The panel of judges, three of the four of them with backgrounds related to medical technology and FDA approval and such, asked an amazing array of detailed industry-specific questions. And they were presented with an even more amazing array of straight-on answers. That was as good as it gets.

I recently read an article decrying business plans, their static nature, and business plan competitions. (Steve Blank is new to me, but I am reading some of his stuff). I will share some of his thoughts in a separate post later this week. Tim and others clearly articulate the importance of change in the business plan process.

But Tim’s example highlights that importance of the act of writing plans and defending them to those with critical lenses.  That even holds true for in-class  competitions where part-time undergrads are subjected to questions about their “used jean retailers” by judges of adjunct faculty members and local bankers.

Berry’s Moot Corp example and my undergrad retailer example exist at different points on the business plan and competition spectrum, but provide important value to society and the economy — from viable, potentially high-impact firms to a generation of college grads who understand the importance and role of small businesses and entrepreneurs.