
This article is an excerpt from a blog post originally published on biodesignalumni.com
When Dr. Thomas Fogarty is in the office, he holds meetings all day long. Not unlike the President, he is briefed moments before every meeting. With each new visitor, he brings a fresh enthusiasm to the table, an eagerness to listen and to be impressed. Everybody gets a fair shot, and many are successful – unless, of course, they commit a cardinal sin.
I recently sat down with Dr. Fogarty to discuss how he evaluates entrepreneurs that come in asking for support, and how, in some unfortunate cases, they might fail to impress him. Dr. Fogarty estimates that over the last 30 years, he has heard an average of 30 pitches a month.
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With some 10,000 pitches under his belt, who better to shed some light on what not to do when selling an idea? So, for all those medtech innovators out there in a perpetual "fundraising phase" (like me), here you have it:
Click here for to find out about the five cardinal sins of pitching Dr. Thomas Fogarty
Fletcher Wilson is currently a resident at the Fogarty Institute for Innovation and a 2009-2011 Biodesign Innovation Fellow. He is co-founder of InterVene, Inc., an early stage medical device start-up company.