Critical Questions For Start-up Success

For me, as an entrepreneur, inventor, investor and CEO, the essence of the entrepreneurial endeavor is to create something that provides value and positively impacts as many people as possible.  Our innate human desire to positively impact others is one of the reasons that entrepreneurship is hot now – there are countless books, websites, classes, accelerators, incubators, mentors, and other resources out there to support these pursuits.  However, as both a consumer and provider of these resources, it has been my experience that most of the strategic issues – most of this “noise” – can be boiled down to a few, critical questions.  Even highly experienced and successful entrepreneurs don’t always ask these questions; when we do, we find that it is always difficult and sometimes impossible to answer them correctly.  During this session we will discuss these essential questions and use them to review current Boston-based startups that are looking for investors and customers.

Mike Dempsey is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), with over 25 years experience in medical devices.  Over the course of his career, he has invented or worked on products that have treated over twelve million people.  At CIMIT, Mike focuses on finding, funding, and facilitating innovations that are to be handed off to industry within twelve to eighteen months.  Mike received a special citation from the Commissioner of the FDA for “exceptional initiative and leadership to protect the public health.