Hey guys, I’m putting together my ET application and would appreciate your feedback on its strengths and weaknesses.
Mandatory criteria: being recognised as a leading talent
- External reference: my interview as a CEO and co-founder of an AI-based medtech startup with a leading industry journal detailing how I started the startup to solve a personal problem, the global scale of such problem, and how our product is addressing it.
- External reference: news clippings referencing me being a panel speaker at a number of events:
- a generic tech event with close to 3k attendees from 50+ countries;
- a virtual US healthcare conference, typically attended by approx 4k participants;
- a virtual digital health meetup focused on patient empowerment with participants from 30+ countries;
- a virtual pharma-led panel on a collaboration between industry players with 500 participants;
Optional criteria: innovation as a founder
- Shareholders agreement stating my position as a CEO and co-founder of the startup and listing my share ownership
- External reference: a news clipping stating our startup was selected as 1 out of 5 finalists of the #1 medtech accelerator, listing a 10k grant award. Over 500 companies typically apply.
- External reference: a news clipping stating our startup was selected as 1 out of 5 finalists of a pharma-led innovation program, listing a 30k grant award.
- External reference: a co-authored patent. Granted in one region, pending in others.
Optional criteria: impact / significant contribution
- My possibly biggest contribution has been the $2m+ pre-seed and seed rounds raised. How to best evidence that I was the person who did it, considering we didn’t announce the rounds? A reference letter from one of the investors could do it, but I’d rather use it as 1 out of 3 letters of recommendation.
- External reference: a co-authored clinical paper published in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal, detailing that I was one of the authors who did the study design.
- Internally, I led the creation of a new US-focused product, from defining app features to getting regulatory approval. Would also appreciate advice on how to best present it.
Recommendation letters:
- Managing Partner at an early stage healthtech VC fund that invested in the startup. Started career as a scientist working on new cancer therapies. Former co-founder of a medtech startup.
- Experienced medical device executive with multiple exits in his career, incl. a high 9-figure IPO. Currently serves on several companies’ boards, incl. ours. He advises me on commercialisation.
- Professor, a key opinion leader in our startup’s disease vertical, works at NHS. Member/chair of committees developing guidelines for the diagnosis and management of certain diseases. We worked together on the above-mentioned research paper (evidence #8), among other research activities.
What do you think?
Thanks so much in advance.
