Regular listeners to Your American Story Radio are no doubt familiar with our groundbreaking “Running With the Bulls” feature presentation, the second iteration of which just wrapped up a successful six-week run.
With six of the leading life science entrepreneurs in Western Pennsylvania pitching their companies to three of the region’s premier venture capital professionals, it was radio like no other, and a showcase for what the region’s life sciences sector has to offer to the global economy.
While all six of our entrepreneur/contestants were excellent in their own right, when all was said and done, two of them were a step above. Entrepreneurs Rick Cancelliere of Treatspace and Dr. Urmi Ashar of Advanced Technology Healthcare Solutions (ATHS) received investment dollars as a result of their performance in the competition, as Treatspace received a $50,000 investment capital pledge on-air from one of our judges, Jim Jordan of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, and ATHS received the most votes from our audience participation contest, netting a $2,500 cash prize in the process.
Both Rick and Urmi make their return to the Your American Story studios in this episode, as Raja goes one-on-one with each entrepreneur to find out what makes them tick, what the end game is for each of their companies, and what they do on a daily basis to survive, and thrive, in such a competitive sector.
Plus, Raja discusses his recent trip to Botswana, and the lessons he learned during his time overseas.
Today, we wrap up six weeks of our groundbreaking “Running With the Bulls” feature, as Raja reveals which of our entrepreneurs will receive investment capital from our three judges, James Jordan of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Ned Renzi of Birchmere Ventures, and Mike Stubler of Draper Triangle Ventures. We talk with each investment professional about his decision of whether to invest or not to invest, (and how much), and why. Plus, we reveal the winner of the audience participation prize, as Raja talks with the winner of the $2,500 cash prize. And we take a minute to chat with the entrepreneurs who will be receiving these funds, as THEY discuss how they will allocate these resources within their companies.
Running With the Bulls: Let’s Take a Look Back
We’re almost there!!!
We’ve heard from all three judges.
We’ve heard from all six entrepreneurs.
Voting for the audience participation prize ($2,500 cash) is in full effect, with a record turnout.
On Sunday, July 13, we wrap up our groundbreaking “Running With the Bulls” feature, as Raja reveals which of our entrepreneurs will receive investment capital from our three judges, James Jordan of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Ned Renzi ofBirchmere Ventures, and Mike Stubler of Draper Triangle Ventures. We talk with each investment professional about his decision of whether to invest or not to invest, (and how much), and why. Plus, we reveal the winner of the audience participation prize, as Raja talks with the winner of the $2,500 cash prize. And we take a minute to chat with the entrepreneurs who will be receiving these funds, as THEY discuss how they will allocate these resources within their companies.
But before that, we use THIS episode to take a look back at the contest so far. We revisit Raja’s conversations with our three judges, as well as the pitches that each of our six entrepreneur contestants put forth in hopes of raising the critical investment capital necessary to move their companies forward.
You’ll hear from:
Bill Kaigler (New Care Solutions)
NewCare Solutions is the parent company behind the groundbreaking technology of the SilentAlert Monitor. The SilentAlert Monitor is the only system designed specifically for the Assisted Living and Memory Care Unit environments to help caregivers better manager their residents and maintain their comfort, safety, and high quality of life.
Mike Lang (NanoVision Diagnostics)
NanoVision Diagnostics (NVD) is commercializing a breakthrough cancer detection technology. The system detects cancer earlier and more accurately than current techniques. Additionally, it can identify which pre-cancerous lesions are likely to progress to cancer. Predicting rich progression guides the use of cancer prevention therapies, which are demonstrated to prevent cancers.
NVD is a breakthrough cancer detection technology. It has 1000 times the sensitivity of an optical microscope, allowing it to detect molecular changes in nuclear structure, which are not detectable by conventional pathology. These molecular changes manifest prior to changes in cells, allowing earlier and more accurate cancer detection.
NVD technology is developed and has been extensively tested in 11 clinical studies on 1,000 patients. These studies demonstrate its ability to detect cancer in multiple tissue types and to predict which pre-cancerous lesions will progress to cancer. In all studies, NVD technology has been able to show early, more accurate cancer detection.
Urmi Ashar (Advanced Technology Healthcare Solutions)
Advanced Technology Healthcare Solutions (ATHS) is a bioinformatics company that focuses on reducing adverse drug reactions and improving prescription drug effectiveness for patients aged 50 and older, and children aged 18 and under. Results from ATHS’s individual genetic test are combined with the most current biomedical information to produce an actionable personalized report called MySafeMeds. Physicians and consumers use the insights from this report to personalize their prescriptions to help improve outcomes from treatment.
Rick Cancelliere (Treatspace)
Treatspace specializes in leading edge clinical social software that connects patients, providers, and practices to optimize patient engagement, clinical collaboration, and referral management.
Mike Cham (BlenderHouse)
BlenderHouse is a data analytics and decision support company that aims at realizing the potential of data to improve healthcare, from basic research to routine patient care. BlenderHouse provides data driven solutions for research, decision making and process improvement. BlenderHouse was founded in early 2008 with the goal of empowering enterprises to take advantages of all the newly available data to improve decision making through data management and machine learning. Recent advances in computational and academic breakthroughs related to Machine Learning have made it a viable and valuable tool.
Our newest clinical decision support tool, CHRiSS: Cardiac Health Risk Stratification System, assists both physicians and their patients in navigating the complicated, multifaceted treatment trajectory surrounding patients who are too ill to wait for a heart donor, or who are not eligible for a heart transplant because of age or other medical problems and are considering a ventricular assist device (VAD) implant.
Ginny Pribanic (MedRespond)
MedRespond is an online healthcare communications company that combines artificial intelligence, search and streaming media so that health care enterprises can provide interactive, personalized, relevant and inexpensive communication solutions for their customers, patients, and clients, and health care training solutions for their personnel.
And after hearing the entrepreneurs pitch, it’s YOUR turn! We have re-opened the voting for all six companies, to compete against each other for a second week of audience participation voting. Just go to YourAmericanStory.com to the Running With the Bulls section to find out more about the entrepreneurs, listen to the pitches, and determine for yourself who had the better pitch. Cast your vote, and it will be tabulated in order to determine who had the most popular pitch, and who will receive the $2,500 cash prize. Voting for this week’s contestants ends at noon on Thursday, July 10.
