transcript
Episode 1
[Intro music]
Joe Schaffner: Welcome to the very first episode of the BioVentures podcast, where we discuss technology transfer, entrepreneurialism, research, intellectual property and all things related to health technology.
My name is Joe Schaffner, outreach coordinator for BioVentures, and today we’ll be discussing the Arkansas Collaborative for Technological and Innovative Venture Equality, also known by the acronym ACTIVE.
Joining us is Dr. Stefanie Kennon–McGill, senior program manager for BioVentures, and Dimitri Scott, program manager for ACTIVE.
Let’s talk tech.
[Musical interlude]
Schaffner: Thank you for being here today, Stefanie and Dimitri. Welcome to the show.
Let’s kick it off by talking about ACTIVE’s, overall mission and goal.
Dmitri Scott: The overall mission and goal is two-fold. First, we want to empower socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI) entrepreneurs, specifically in the healthcare sector in Arkansas, to grow, start and fund their business. Secondly, we want to have an economic impact and statewide impact on the healthcare of Arkansans in the state.
Stefanie Kennon-McGill: So we’re trying to help healthcare, health technology entrepreneurs who are in some way socially or economically disadvantaged, which can include everything from minorities to women to people who live in rural areas to veterans and people with disabilities, which is a lot of Arkansas. It really covers a broad range of people who just don’t have the same sort of advantages that others might have, especially when it comes to starting their own businesses.
Being at BioVentures and being tied to UAMS, one of our biggest goals in everything that we do is to improve the health of Arkansans. By supporting these health entrepreneurs, we’re hoping to improve entrepreneurship and the economy of health businesses in the state. The long–term goal would be to encourage more health–related businesses in Arkansas to help improve health of Arkansans.
Schaffner: So what can an applicant expect once accepted into the program?
Scott: First and foremost, we have an amazing partner at the Venture Center that is putting together a bootcamp for the cohort to go through. That is a 12–week program that goes through the basics of starting a business, as well as tailored information for the healthcare sector. We also will have different trainings and events that focus on capital readiness and helping them get the knowledge, information and skillsets they need to become more capital ready.
There will be networking events that introduce them to people who can help them in that next level of getting funding and just getting to know the players in the industry.
Kennon-McGill: There are three different categories where we’re trying to help them, including capacity–building services. We have partners who can offer capacity–building services like financial literacy, accounting and learning to do pitches for their business.
We also have a category of helping them with access to capital services. This would be helping them get funding, so helping them apply for loans or for grants, connecting them with funders, and doing workshops about access to capital.
And then the last one is access to network services. I think for a lot of these entrepreneurs, they haven’t grown up in an entrepreneurship world. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they have the entrepreneurial mindset because that’s the environment that they’re in already, and so they already have this network built of all these people who are doing things that can help them. So they kind of are going into it with all these connections. And I think a lot of the entrepreneurs we are trying to help don’t necessarily have the same connections. And so we’re trying to help them access that by doing different things, like an entrepreneurial speed dating event, where they can sit down with someone who may be interested in helping them, or funding their business, and talk to them for five minutes, and just give them access to and exposure to a lot of different people who they may not have been able to contact before or may not have known were out there.
Schaffner: I love the idea of speed dating to match the cohort members to those who will be able to meet their needs. So after all this, what do you hope the cohort is empowered with, or what knowledge do you want them to have when they walk away from this experience?
Scott: So once they’ve been accepted into the program, the main goal is to identify their specific needs, and that looks different for each business. Since we have such a broad definition of what healthcare is, the help and assistance that we give to each business is going to look very specific to their business and their stage of business.
Kennon-McGill: We have, we have a really good group of partner service organizations from across the state who will then provide services to these businesses. So once they are assessed, like Dmitri was talking about, we figure out what their individual needs are. We will match them up with the partners who can meet those needs.
So for example, if they need really basic business knowledge on how to start a business, how to form an LLC, for example, or if they need help with figuring out customer discovery or marketing, and then also connecting them with networks of venture capitalists or other people who can help fund them, really helping them in any way that they need to be capital ready to be able to raise more funds for their businesses and become more successful.
I kind of view it as getting them to the same starting line as other people who may have had more advantages.
Schaffner: So you mentioned partners. So without naming names, because we’re probably going to leave somebody off. Can one of you, or both of you, talk about some of our partners’ backgrounds, like, say, academic universities or historically black colleges and universities, innovation hubs, you know, things like that. Can you talk about just the variety of partnership backgrounds that we have?
Scott: The ACTIVE program is focused on healthcare and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. From an entrepreneurship standpoint, BioVentures traditionally has been in the healthcare sector. Understanding that and wanting to be as helpful to these individuals as possible, we’ve partnered with people who are more experienced in those areas, so partnering with people who are what we call ESOs, or entrepreneurial support organizations, that have tons of experience helping entrepreneurs get started, grow and build capacity with their business, as well as organizations that have a history of helping people who are socially and economically disadvantaged, the historically black colleges and universities that we’ve partnered with, and so those are some of the partnerships that we have.
Kennon-McGill: So BioVentures kind of historically has worked mostly just with our core function as a tech transfer office for UAMS. So really, most of the work that we do is related to intellectual property that comes out of UAMS inventors. And then we also work with small businesses, startups that are related to that. So this is really one of our first big endeavors helping entrepreneurs in Arkansas, outside of UAMS and outside of any relationship to UAMS. And then also our first endeavor helping the SEDI population, and so we can’t do this alone. Partnership and teamwork is really invaluable for this program.
Scott: BioVentures is very collaborative. We want to build a network of helping these individuals that spans the state, and so working with people who are already in the space, and building those relationships is something that’s going to benefit everyone who’s involved.
Schaffner: OK, what about timeframe once an applicant is accepted into the program? How long is the program? Will you continue to support these people in their endeavors?
Kennon-McGill: A lot of it is going to be dependent on the person and the business. But our hope is that they can get through the program in about six months, and so in that timeframe, that will they’ll be able to do the bootcamp with the Venture Center, that they’ll be able to do all the events that we have planned for them, and that we will have set them up with all of the partner services that that they need. What it looks like at the end will also be different for everyone. And I think we’re still trying to figure out what that’s going to mean. What do you what do you think?
Scott: Yeah, I think it’s really hard to identify what it’s going to look like at the end, when everyone’s needs are so different, and since we are trying to build a program that caters to the specific needs of the people in the cohort, the end is going to look different; the process is going to look different; the funding that’s needed or that’s available is going to look different.
But one thing that we do want to be the same is that the relationship that we build with the cohort is something that lasts outside of the cohort. So just because we want them to get through the program in six months doesn’t mean we stop communicating with them after that. We want to build this relationship where we get to experience their journey, not just once we help them get their funding, that we get to join them as they grow and learn and continue to make strides to make Arkansas a healthier place to live. So that’s kind of the goal and the idea there.
Kennon-McGill: I think that one of the things that makes this program so great is that it’s dependent on the individual. It‘s not just cookie cutter where everybody goes through the same things, and then you just kind of hope that what you need was covered. We’re really taking the time to work with each person individually, checking in with them every month, and working with our advisory board to really make sure that it is completely tailored to their needs. And I think that that’s something that’s a real strength of the program.
Scott: Absolutely. One thing that we are going to do for each cohort member is meet with them monthly to evaluate where they are in their process and how we can better help and serve them and make sure that they’re getting everything that they need out of the ACTIVE program. So meeting with them every month, continuing to build that relationship, connecting them with other ESOs throughout the state or other resources that can help them on their journey.
Schaffner: So you’re hoping to do this in six months, and in that time, you’ll have a bootcamp, networking opportunities, other offerings. How are you going to measure the effectiveness of these services along the way?
Kennon-McGill: We do have certain metrics that that are written into the grant that our funding source, the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), wants to see. So we want to have X amount of capital raised each for each cohort, and X amount of small business loans put in from each cohort. So we can track it in a quantifiable measure, but obviously there’s going to be a lot of impact that’s not quantifiable in numbers.
Scott: I think one thing that really speaks to success, and whether or not we’re actually having an impact, is that relationship that we have outside of the program with the cohort members. Because when you really genuinely have an impact on someone, they usually want to stick around and want to continue communicating. And so as we build an alumni network of previous cohort members, I think that will speak to the impact that we’re having as we build more partners and build more relationships.
Kennon-McGill: We’re about to launch our first cohort, and so we don’t really know what it’s going to look like at the end, at this point, but one of the things that I really love about this first round of applicants is that so many of them have businesses that are focused on helping their communities. So not only are we hoping to have an impact on these entrepreneurs and helping them and their lives and their businesses, but it’s also great just knowing that there’s kind of a downstream effect. So we’re hoping to help these entrepreneurs, but they are doing things that I think are going to be really helpful for different underserved communities, people who don’t have access to healthcare in an easy way because they live in rural Arkansas, for example.
So I think that’s an example of the kinds of things that are harder to measure in terms of impact, but they’re going to be there.
Schaffner: You mentioned the Minority Business Development Agency or the MBDA being the funder. Can you talk more about the funding?
Scott: BioVentures in collaboration with some of our sub-awardees, received a grant from the MBDA, which is under the U.S. Department of Commerce, and so they, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Treasury, created a Capital Readiness Program grant that we applied for at BioVentures.
The main goal of the Capital Readiness Program is to target SEDI – socially and economically disadvantaged individuals – and help to increase the capital readiness of these entrepreneurs, to help them get funding for their business, specifically (State Small Business Credit Initiative) SSBCI funding.
Kennon-McGill: This is the first year of the Capital Readiness Program. We were very excited to get this grant. I think there were over 1,000 applicants from across the country, and they funded 42, 43, something like that. And so we’re one of the 43, and we are the only healthcare–specific program that they funded. Or, I think there’s another that’s like a health …
Scott: Their focus is on biotechnology and climate change.
Kennon-McGill: Yeah, so we’re the only healthcare–focused program that they’re funding in this cohort. So we feel like we have the opportunity to do something really unique and impactful, particularly in Arkansas, where there’s a lot of healthcare needs.
Schaffner: With this being the first BioVentures podcast, how would you describe ACTIVE’s place within BioVentures’ overall, mission and goals.
Kennon-McGill: BioVentures has been around for few decades now, in various forms. Our primary responsibility, kind of core function of BioVentures is as the technology transfer office for UAMS, which really just means we are the ones who take any intellectual property that comes out of UAMS, and if the inventor wants to protect it – so patent it, copyright, trademark – we will do that. And we will also help commercialize the intellectual property. That’s our main responsibility, but we also have an interest in bolstering the healthcare economy in the state of Arkansas and healthcare entrepreneurship and building infrastructure and networks to support those things.
So we’re the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, right? So we’re all here because we want to improve health, is the main goal at UAMS. There are a lot of entrepreneurial support organizations in the state, but we’re really one of the only ones who focus specifically on healthcare and health technology, biomedical entrepreneurship.
ACTIVE, while it’s not specific to UAMS inventors, I think it really does fit under the umbrella of BioVentures’ mission of trying to build infrastructure and networks for health entrepreneurship and health economy in the state. And then the ultimate goal is to improve health through that.
Schaffner: What about roadblocks? Do you foresee any upcoming challenges?
Scott: I know me and Stefanie have talked a lot about how with this being a new program, there’s going to be a lot of growing pains in the first year, which I think we’re excited for. And as much as we try to anticipate and avoid roadblocks, I think it’s just natural when you’re building something from scratch to have those roadblocks. It’s going to be new; it’s going to require a lot of flexibility and growth on our end; but I think that’s one of the things that’s exciting about it.
Kennon-McGill: I feel like we’re building as we go a little bit, and not due to incompetence or laziness, but because we don’t really know what to expect, because this is something we’ve never done before. For example, take recruiting. Our goal was 25 businesses per year. And when we recruited for this first cohort, we weren’t even sure if we would get more than 10 applicants. We didn’t know who was out there; what’s out there; what kind of businesses we were going to get.
And we ended up with 29 applicants, and they’re all really fantastic. I think it’s hard to whittle it down to our 25 so. We just didn’t really know.
And I think a lot of this first year is going to be like that. We will find out, and we can adjust and pivot as needed when roadblocks come up.
Schaffner: You said you had some fantastic applicants. Would you mind speaking about them in general? Tell us a little bit more about what the cohort is going to look like.
Kennon-McGill: I mean, it was a really interesting range of applicants in terms of what they’re proposing to do, or what they’re already doing, what their small businesses, everything from mental health counseling programs to medical transportation to yoga to healthcare clinics to apps and other health technology devices. It’s a really broad range of people and what their businesses are. Quite a few of them, their businesses are focused specifically on SEDI populations, businesses that are tailored to women or to people who live in rural areas or to minority groups.
Schaffner: What is the long–term outlook for ACTIVE? What’s next? What does the future hold?
Scott: Right now, we’re planning four years. So this is the first of four. We definitely are going to have more of these cohorts in the future. Ideally, we want this to be something that lasts longer than four years, but since the grant only funds four years, that’s something that we will have to plan for and think of as we get towards that end.
[Outro music]
Schaffner: Thanks for tuning in. You can find out more about ACTIVE by visiting http://bioventures.tech/active. Keep up with BioVentures by following us on X, LinkedIn and Facebook. Feel free to reach out through email at bioventures@uams.edu, and let’s keep the conversation going.