Glen Bressner to join Originate Growth Fund as a Managing Partner… View More 
Originate Ventures and Compass Point Receive Innovation Investment Funding from Wall Street West to Establish Open Court… View More
Adhezion Biomedical Completes Series-A Financing… View More
Mike Gausling, a Managing Partner of ORIGINATE VENTURES, recently wrote a chapter in Aspatore Books' Inside the Minds series… View More
For Immediate Release
GLEN BRESSNER TO JOIN ORIGINATE GROWTH FUND AS A MANAGING PARTNER - Fred Beste to Serve on Fund’s Advisory Board
Bethlehem, Pa, March 19, 2008 – Originate Ventures has announced that Glen Bressner will join Originate Growth Fund as a Managing Partner and Fred Beste has agreed to serve on the Fund's Advisory Board.
Bressner and Beste are co-founders of the Bethlehem-based Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds (MAVF) which, collectively, has been one of the most active investors in early stage businesses located in the Mid-Atlantic region over the past 20 years. Since its founding in 1985, MAVF I-IV has invested more than $179 million in 72 Mid-Atlantic-based companies, and 88 companies in total. Bressner, a venture capitalist for his entire 22-year career, joins Originate as a Managing Partner. He has been a general partner of MAVF I-IV, and currently serves on the boards of geoVue, TapRoot, CorePROFIT and RealWinWin. In 2000, he received the Entrepreneurial Advocate Award from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He has been a chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group and is on the Investment Advisory Committee for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Beste brings his 40 years of experience as a venture capitalist to serve Originate as an Advisory Board member. He has sat on the boards of directors of more than 40 growth companies, and is currently the vice-chair of the Board of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Beste is passionate about the venture capital industry, and continues to lecture, consult and regularly publish on venture capital, entrepreneurship and strategic planning.
"As we considered raising MAVF V, focusing on our Funds I & II strategy of investing in early stage companies primarily located in Eastern Pennsylvania, we identified the need to either add Partners or combine with an existing fund," said Glen. "We came to the realization that Originate Ventures had a nearly identical strategy and geographic focus.
By combining forces and resources, we have a much stronger platform against a common vision. Our anchor investors were very supportive, too," he concluded. "We are really excited about the addition to our leadership team" said Mike Gausling, Originate's co-founder and a Managing Partner. "Collectively, we have a deep and diverse experience set. This includes a proven track record of success as venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs, business owners, and management consultants. We look forward to using our unique combination of skills to manage, grow and brand early stage product companies." Originate leverages its extensive referral network to identify investment opportunities for Originate. It then develops brand strategies and applies its early stage investment experience to screen those investment opportunities. Once invested, Originate expects to apply its broad and complementary skill sets to help the Fund's portfolio companies implement accretive business strategies and to help manage growth from investment until exit.
About Originate Ventures (www.OriginateVentures.com) Originate Ventures was co-founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2007 by Mike Gausling and Eric Arnson. Originate seeks to make venture capital investments of $500,000 to $4 million in a broad range of early stage and emerging growth oriented companies located in eastern Pennsylvania and the surrounding area. Mike Gausling has strong ties to eastern Pennsylvania, stemming from his 19 years as a successful entrepreneur, business owner, and community leader in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Mike was a co-founder and former CEO of OraSure Technologies (NASDAQ: OSUR). He led the company from start-up to a Russell 2000 company, with a 70x return to his original angel investors. His financial, operational, and deal-making experience in growing early stage companies is expected to enhance the portfolio companies' performances from investment through exit. Eric Arnson was a Partner at McKinsey and Company. Prior to McKinsey, Eric founded and was managing partner of ENVISION, a consulting firm to many Fortune 500 clients that developed and guided new growth and stronger brand equity strategies for a broad range of products and market segments both domestically and globally. His clients represented some of the most widely recognized brand names in the world, including, Nike, Gatorade, The Weather Channel, Snapple, Allstate and Kinko's. Eric brings world-class business strategy and brand equity development expertise to the Fund.
Media interviews are available with the managing partners by contacting Shannon Morin at (610) 866.5588 or Shannon.Morin@OriginateVentures.com. Originate Ventures 205 Webster Street Bethlehem, PA 18015 T: 610.866.5588
www.OriginateVentures.com
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Contact:
Sharon Marshall, Marketing Solutions, 215-538-1437
Tom Garrity, Compass Point, 610-336-0514
Originate Ventures and Compass Point Receive Innovation Investment Funding from Wall Street West to Establish Open Court
Program Seeks to Aid Businesses in Northeast Pennsylvania Accelerate their Growth
Bethlehem, Pa., March 17, 2008 – Originate Ventures and Compass Point announced today that they are a recipient of a Wall Street West Innovation Investment to establish Open Court – a free training program for start-up and emerging businesses. The program, which will provide a presentation forum where northeastern Pennsylvania businesses can receive professional feedback on their business plan, was one of nine programs chosen from across the region for the second round of this funding opportunity. Innovation Investments help sustain Wall Street West's goal of building a stronger financial services sector in northeastern Pennsylvania through a qualified workforce. They also support workforce development organizations in relationship building, education, training, and economic development in the financial services industry.
"Wall Street West is committed to providing the region's workforce the education and training needed to meet the growing needs of the financial services industry," said Susan Shaffer, director of workforce initiatives, Wall Street West. "Through Open Court's creative program, we hope to continue the excitement and enthusiasm among the region's educational institutions, businesses and residents alike.
Open Court works on the “open court” basketball concept, where those with the courage to get in line to play, have the opportunity to play against a winning team. At Open Court, entrepreneurs who are ready to take their new business idea to the next level will be given the opportunity to present their business plan executive summary to a team of successful entrepreneurs, consultants and business leaders in a professional forum. They will receive guidance on how to best operationalize their plan, finance it and successfully enter the market.
The idea for Open Court started with Originate Ventures’ President, Mike Gausling. A successful entrepreneur in his own right, Gausling understands how beneficial professional mentoring can be in moving a business forward.
“Many entrepreneurs that are strapped for cash have great ideas, but due to lack of guidance and support often fail to see those ideas get to market. Our thinking is that Open Court can help those with the courage to move forward fine tune their approach, and offer them guidance on best practices so they don’t waste the limited resources they do have with their go-to-market strategy. If successful, the participants in Open Court will have the tools they need to seek investment from banks, angel networks or venture funds,” states Gausling.
To achieve his vision, Gausling sought out the partnership of Compass Point to oversee the program and handle the interface with Open Court applicants. As an established provider of business management consulting services to companies throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania, Compass Point has developed a network of contacts with other business professionals that will serve the advisory needs of Open Court participants.
No fees will be charged for the Open Court presentation opportunity, but interested parties will be required to complete a business plan executive summary in a PowerPoint® template provided by Open Court to qualify for participation. Once this initial plan and application has been submitted to, and accepted by Open Court, a 30-minute presentation will be scheduled.
There are no restrictions on business type for participation at Open Court, but applicants must have a business or residence in the 9-county region comprised of Berks, Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike or Wayne counties. As part of the Wall Street West mission, Open Court does hope to draw strong interest from business developers in the financial and IT sectors.
Open Court is establishing a web site presence at www.OpenCourt.biz to guide entrepreneurs through both the application process and business plan implementation. A complete resource section will be provided with links to articles and organizations indexed by business development category. The site is expected to be live within two weeks.
As active participants in the business development of the region, both Compass Point and Originate Venture see Open Court as a key ingredient to building the kind of infrastructure and business capital that will be attractive to the financial service industry on Wall Street.
States Gausling, “We need to transform the region’s thinking about financial services and IT careers and entrepreneurial companies as viable options in Northeastern PA. If we are successful at this transformation, we will inevitably increase the talent pool, thereby ensuring we have the qualified workforce essential to attract and retain businesses from Wall Street.”
Continues Tom Garrity, managing partner of Compass Point and collaborator on Open Court, “We believe that one of the keys to regional transformation is to build an entrepreneurial environment that thrives, and to do this you must provide an environment that includes guidance and mentoring from proven entrepreneurs and business leaders, funding, support and resources. Open Court will provide just that to many of region’s entrepreneurs. We are tremendously excited about what this can mean to the future of the region.”
Compass Point will act as the administrator for the Open Court program, receiving and reviewing applications and lining up the appropriate reviewers for the presentation session, as well as participating themselves in the Open Court sessions. Originate Ventures will supply the venue for Open Court at their corporate headquarters in the newly restored Victory Firehouse located in the KIZ in southside Bethlehem at 205 Webster Street. Their facility features a full basketball court with live scoreboard to help set the stage for the presentations.
Entrepreneurs desiring professional feedback on their business idea will be able to start the application process for Open Court by downloading the business plan executive summary template at www.OpenCourt.biz as soon as the site is live. Questions regarding the application process can be directed to Compass Point at 610-336-0514.
To receive an Innovation Investment, programs are required to demonstrate innovation, collaboration, regionalism, transferability, and sustainability. Additionally, they must focus on the needs of financial services, and information technology, customer service and key supporting industries, as well as be directly relevant to education and training.
About Originate Ventures
Originate Ventures is a venture capital investment firm which targets early stage product and services companies in Eastern Pennsylvania. They focus on investing in medical devices, healthcare, consumer, web based and certain commercial products and/or product distribution opportunities. Investments range from $500,000 to $4 million.
Contact Originate Ventures at Phone: 610.866.5588 or visit them on the web at www.originateventures.com.
About Compass Point
Compass Point works with the owners of closely held, lower mid-market companies to develop plans to beat competitors and generate substantial, lasting financial impact. Their clients have historically outperformed their competitors by 4:1. They help companies find where to make their money, make more of it faster, and sustain its growth longer. Compass Point helps management make the big decisions on strategy, mergers and acquisitions, finance, organization, and sales. Where appropriate, they work with them to make it happen. They also work individually with owners, helping them develop ownership plans that will allow the owner to get out of the business on their terms, and maximize their cash upon exit. Contact Compass Point at 610-336-0514 or visit them on the web at www.compasspt.com.
About Wall Street West
Wall Street West is a not-fbr-profit partnership of more than two dozen local, regional and statewide economic development agencies, technology investment groups, workforce development organizations, educational and research institutions and experts from the private sector. The group secured a $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to help fund its effort to attract New York City-based financial institutions to establish their back-up and back-room operations in the region. The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania is the fiscal agent of Wall Street West. The following institutions are Wall Street West partners: PA Dept. of Labor and Industry, U.S. Dept. of Labor, PA Dept. of Community & Economic Development, Air Products & Chemicals, Berks County Workforce Investment Board, Berks Economic Partnership, Blue Cross of NBPA, BobHay.com Realtors, CANDO. Inc., Coronel Management Group, Inc., Department of Community & Economic Development Lehigh County, Diversified Information Technologies Inc., DSS Corporation, East Stroudsburg University, Fulton Bank, Great Valley Division; Greater Berks Development Fund, Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business & Industry, Junior Achievement, Berks; Junior Achievement of Northeastern PA, Inc., Kutztown University, Lackawanna County WIA, Lakeland High School, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Lehigh University, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, Luzerne County Community College, Luzerne County Workforce Investment Office, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds, Monroe County CareerLink, NE PA Educational Intermediate Unit, NEPA Alliance, Northampton Community College, Northeast Pennsylvania Technology Institute, PA Office of Financial Education, Penn State University, Berks; Penn's Northeast, Pike County Workforce Development Agency, Pocono Counties WIA, Pocono Counties Workforce Investment Board, Pocono Mountains Chamber of Commerce, Pocono Mountain Economic Development Corp., PPL Corporation, Reading Area Community College, Riverside School District, Team Pennsylvania Foundation, Technology Development & Innovation-University of Scranton, Wayne County Economic Development Corp. and Wilkes University.
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Mike Gausling, a Managing Partner of ORIGINATE VENTURES, recently wrote a chapter in Aspatore Books' Inside the Minds series...
I was honored to be recruited by Aspatore Books to write a chapter in its critically acclaimed Inside the Minds series which is written by C-level executives (CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO). C-Level Business Intelligence™, as conceptualized and developed by Aspatore Books, provides professionals with proven business intelligence from business leaders, direct and unfiltered insight from those who know it best.
The book is titled Inside the Minds: Medical Devices Venture Capital and it is an authoritative, insider’s perspective on the ins and outs of the medical device industry for VC’s, entrepreneurs, and industry executives. My chapter is the first one in the book and is titled Life as an Entrepreneur, Medical Device CEO, and New Venture Capital Investor. No doubt, this chapter reinforces many of the business principles that are an integral part of the foundation of our philosophies that heavily influence Originate Ventures going forward.
An excerpt from the book follows:
Qualities to Look For in a Medical Device CEO A CEO in this industry must have a passion for his business; a long-standing reputation of trustworthiness; and a track record as a confirmed workaholic. He or she must also be financially astute; have a great understanding of the market demand for his products/services; and be transparent in his communications regarding performance against his stated objectives. I also believe sweat equity beats a hired gun any day.
Passion Sells – I can’t count the number of times that investors would say that they got excited about our business because of my enthusiasm, my large equity position, and the personal guarantees that I signed to fund the business.
Trustworthy – What more do I need to say? As I recall our core value of trust, you earn a reputation as an honest person by delivering total quality, solving problems quickly, and resolving issues equitably.
Confirmed Workaholic – Anybody who thinks that growing a medical device business is not a 24/7 passion of love, get out. Unfortunately, E-mail and Blackberry’s made it even easier to take my business wherever I went.
Financially Astute – I have a huge bias on this topic, but I strongly believe that the most successful medical device companies will have a financially astute CEO and an equally, if not stronger CFO who are constantly looking for ways to improve the bottom line of the business.
Understand Your Markets – My four-year stint at Proctor & Gamble as a financial analyst taught me invaluable lessons about branding a product and the importance to fully understand your customers, their habits and practices, and how to deliver a quality product that builds brand loyalty over a long period of time.
Transparency – I tried to communicate as openly and candidly with our employees, our customers, and our investors as reasonable possible. It is amazing to me how honest communications will build loyalty that will help you through the inevitable ups and downs of growing your medical device business. People love to cheer on the entrepreneur and they will inevitably give you the benefit of the doubt if you let them share in your journey.
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