267 companies submitted their plans. A panel of investor judges reviewed the entries to select the MedTech Innovator Top 10 Semi-Finalists. The investor judges included Christopher P. Martin, President, RCT Ventures; Ned Scheetz, Founder & Managing Director, Aphelion Capital; James Dreher, Managing Partner, Option 3; and Brad H. Vale, Ph.D., D.V.M., Head, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC). The competition was produced by RCT Ventures, and the event’s Master of Ceremonies was Paul Grand, Managing Director, RCT Ventures.
The final phase of the competition took place live on stage during the 22nd Annual Medical Device Conference, hosted by law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) in front of an audience of more than 700 industry professionals in San Francisco. The 10 Semi-finalists competed to be among 4 Finalists who gave 5-minute presentations followed by 5 minutes of Q & A from the judges. The audience then voted in real-time for the winner using their mobile devices, which was Fibralign Corporation.
“In the more than two decades that we’ve been holding the Medical Device Conference, we’ve seen it grow from a small gathering of enthusiastic participants to one of the premier annual events in the industry. That made it the perfect setting in which to unveil the winner of the MedTech Innovator 2014 competition, which was a dynamic and engrossing contest that added another element of excitement to the conference,” said WSGR’s Casey McGlynn.
RCT Ventures contributed a $100,000 prize for the winner. “In today’s lean start-up model, the $100k prize could be enough to allow the winner to bridge the funding gap and achieve a milestone that can help them secure a larger funding round or critical industry partnership,” said Paul Grand, Managing Director, RCT Ventures.
In addition to RCT’s $100,000 contribution, the overall prize package was increased by contributions from several of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. The first place winner, Fibralign Corporation, received an additional $25,000 and state-of-the-art lab space in the Janssen Labs community valued at an additional $25,000. FLI Medical, the second place winner, also received $25,000.
