On April 28, the InvestMaryland Challenge will award more than $750,000 in prizes and crown four new winners. Those top companies will be chosen from a dozen finalists and awarded $100,000 top prizes, one each in IT, Life Sciences, Sustainability & Exploration, and Defense & Security. More than $350,000 in other prizes will be awarded as well. MDBizNews asked the same five questions of all 12 finalists in the run up to the Finale. Today's featured finalist is Harpoon Medical, a life sciences finalist from Baltimore.
1. What does your company do? Give us your elevator pitch in 100 words or less.
Harpoon Medical is a medical device company commercializing a minimally invasive, image-guided device for beating heart mitral valve repair. With the Harpoon device, physicians can access and repair the mitral valve in a beating heart through a small incision between the ribs without the need for cardiopulmonary bypass or cardiac arrest. The device secures neochords to a prolapsed mitral valve leaflet with a proprietary "bulky knot" anchor to eliminate mitral valve regurgitation. The Harpoon technology will transform conventional open heart mitral valve surgery from a complex 3-6 hour operation to a 60-minute procedure and reduce the recovery period from weeks to days.
2. What sets your company apart from others in the same, or a similar, space?
In order to succeed as a startup in the highly competitive medical device industry, a company has to have innovative, differentiated technology that meets a medical need. Harpoon Medical has a revolutionary device for minimally-invasive, mitral valve repair but what sets the company apart is its strong team of employees and advisors. In less than two years, Dr. James Gammie, the inventor and founder, and Bill Niland, the President and CEO, have assembled a cross-functional team of medical device executives with over a century of combined business experience and a world class Scientific Advisory Board of key opinion leaders. The technology gets a lot of the focus but it is the team that sets Harpoon Medical apart from similar companies in the space.
3. Why is your company important to Maryland?
Harpoon Medical, Inc. wouldn't exist if it wasn't for all of the amazing resources available for life science companies in the State of Maryland. The technology was developed at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine and has received tremendous support from the University, BioMaryland, TEDCO and the overall life science community. Our goal is to leverage that support and begin to give back to the community. The company is growing and hopes to help build a vibrant medical device echo system in downtown Baltimore.
4. What would the $100,000 top prize allow you to do?
Harpoon Medical is about to start raising another round of capital to support the clinical study that will be needed to secure CE Mark (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/single-market-goods/cemarking/) and begin European commercialization efforts. If Harpoon Medical is an InvestMaryland Challenge winner we will use the funds and positive press to launch the company's Series B financing efforts. We will turn the $100,000 in InvestMaryland prize money into $8M – $12M in additional investment capital, hire additional staff and be much closer to commercialization of our innovative, minimally invasive mitral valve repair device.
5. Based on what you've learned during your time with your company, what is the first piece of advice you would give to a new entrepreneur?
When you're first getting started, slow down and spend some time developing a plan and a few key milestones that the company needs to achieve. Having a plan will help you and your employees execute and allow you to solicit advice and feedback from other entrepreneurs, advisors and potential investors. The plan and milestones will almost certainly change and that is fine but if you don't have a clear plan at the beginning it is easy to get overwhelmed by everything you have to do to succeed.
