By Amy Siegel, S2N Health
The recent receptivity of public equity markets to early stage biotech has encouraged more than a few emerging medtech companies to consider IPOs. The allure of the IPO, if successful, is obvious. More capital can potentially be raised on better terms from public investors than private ones to fund expensive commercialization efforts. More to the point, though, tired venture investors and management teams can achieve liquidity and returns sooner than waiting for an attractive M&A exit, which in medtech may require years of slogging it out on market for a multiple of sales deal.
A glance at the five emerging medtech companies to go public in the last 6 months reveals reasonable success in raising money with their dazzling stories of large and growing market opportunities. Notably, all of the companies have a product on the U.S. market, or within sniffing distance of it; contrast this with biotech where promising pipelines alone can drive successful IPOs and high market caps. Also notable is that fundraising expectations were a bit more bullish than the IPO market reality, with all five companies pricing below or at the low end of their target ranges.
If tapping the public markets is something you are considering for that next round of capital, certainly the first step is determining whether public investors are likely to come to the table. Do you have, or are you close to, U.S. revenues? Check. Is your product chasing large markets with big growth potential? Check. Are your VC investors tired and cranky? Check!
An IPO, however, is not just about the day you get listed on the NASDAQ and pocket the cash. As a wise sage told me when I was pregnant with my first child, "Don’t worry about childbirth, worry about everything that comes after." To gain some perspective on life as a public emerging medical device company, I spoke with Nassib Chamoun, former President, CEO and Founder of Aspect Medical Systems (ASPM), a brain monitoring company that went public in 2000, raising $52M in the IPO that funded the company to >$100M in sales, profitability and acquisition by Covidien in 2009.
According to Nassib, being a public medtech company has certain advantages. "You are a somewhat more legitimate entity, especially when dealing with corporate partners," says Nassib. Having that ticker next to your company name also raises your prestige with current and potential employees (I’m nominating T2 for the cutest ticker of 2014, by the way). Nassib also recalls fondly many of his interactions with sell-side and buy-side analysts. "They were like an outside board – I often got more from them than they got from me."
The leadership of the IPO-ing emerging medtech company needs to prepare for some of new unique challenges, though, that come with being a publicly traded entity. Here are a few you can expect to encounter:
- The distraction factor: As we all know, being a CXO of a start-up medtech company equates to two full time jobs at a minimum. Add an IPO to the mix and you are now 300% employed. This burden repeats itself, albeit on a smaller scale, at least every quarter once you are public. Employee fixation on the company share price also adds to the distraction factor, especially when there are big swings (a common situation for emerging medtechs – see point 4).
- The cost: According to a PWC survey, in addition to underwriting fees paid to the bank(s) taking you public, which can total as much as 5-7% of gross proceeds, companies spend an average of ~$1 million on IPO-related legal, accounting and other one-time costs, and ~$1.5M in annual recurring costs for extra staffing, legal, HR, technology and the like. These sums may not seem like much for larger companies, but for small medtechs these additional expenses can have a real impact.
- The Full Monty every quarter: If you ever listen to a JNJ earnings call, you soon realize that you are learning absolutely nothing. Contrast that with the single product medtech company, where basically every aspect of your business, from your COGS to your installed base to your clinical trial progress, is discussed in intimate detail for the analysts plugging assumptions into their 1,000 line models so they can decide what box to put you in. You might as well send your competitors and every employee in your company your weekly management report. "One of our early competitors was also public and we knew everything about each other – it was a running joke," said Nassib.
- The roller coaster ride: Most public emerging medtechs are thinly traded, which makes dramatic share price swings more likely. These swings may have little to do with your company’s results, though plenty of unanticipated things happen in early commercialization that can affect your share price. "The highs are higher and the low are lower," recalls Nassib. "The volatility brought our organization closer together as we celebrated the successes and managed through the failures." Small public companies are also more vulnerable to activist investors since it is easier to acquire a controlling share. "You can be forced to liquidate and give up significant future value for much smaller short-term gains," warned Nassib.
When I asked Nassib about Aspect’s decision to IPO, he emphasized that going public is rarely a choice. "With the amount of money and time required to develop and commercialize a novel medical device, you exhaust your angels, your VCs, your Mezzanine investors, and you still aren’t done. The exhausted investors, and employees, want some liquidity, and an IPO becomes your only option." If it had been a choice, Aspect might have stayed a private company, though "going public is on the evolutionary path toward becoming a successful company – so live it up and enjoy the journey," advised Nassib.
The views and opinions expressed on are solely those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of MassDevice.com.