Gertler: Again, the greatest landmine [for a company looking for investment] is, ultimately, a lack of lack of preparation and understanding, [of] what you have.

I always use the term ‘control the debate.’ [If you are prepared], you may still have your own biases and you may have data sources that actually have not served you completely, but at least you will have a base of an argument. [Investors] will pick it apart and so you have to have ready answers and at least a plan that will allow you to create a productive argument [such that] you're not just back on your heels and having terms dictated to you.

[Also, all too frequently] people don't match their technology – their asset or their invention – to the right structure for building a company.

Match the asset to the capital.

Medtech [has] three categories, broadly.

One is the far-reaching, absolutely 'crazy' idea. [For example, angioplasty], 35 or 40 years ago, was nuts. Who would blow up a balloon in an artery, especially one leading to the brain? That was crazy. But it turns out that it works, and now there is an incremental improvement every couple of years in balloon profiles. But at that time, it was more than radical. It had a ‘biotech profile,’ which means about 99% of those things fail and 1% really succeed.

The vast middle in medtech are those [ideas] which are really predicated on very sound engineering and clinical principles, but somehow are meaningfully improving them. In order to come to an investor with that kind of story, you have to really understand why it's meaningfully improved and how you can change behavior [to drive adoption.]

And then the third category [of technology] are the extremely valuable-but-incremental improvements. That really has no place in a venture fund.

There is nothing wrong with that. It's an extremely valuable contribution. It's just the wrong … asset-to-capital match up. That's where the pitfalls are that people should pay more attention to.

‘Build A Company To Be Bought, Not Sold,' 'Match The Asset To The Capital,' And Other Advice From VC Experts

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