I was at an event last week organized by a company I invested in about three years ago. The business is called Medical Futures and exists to encourage and promote innovation in health care. It is a fabulous business and one that I am very proud to associate myself with.
The event that I went to was the Medical Futures Innovation Award. The business runs this as a not-for-profit event and as a result of that, it is able to generate a great deal of goodwill. The process involves putting together a panel of the great and the good in specific medical fields to validate and probe business ideas put forward by entrants in the competition.
If you can imagine it, is a dragon’s den made up of people who actually do know what they are talking about and who want to support rather than knock the entrants in the competition. Because the event is not for profit, the panel is willing to give up their very precious time for free. As a result of this input from them, the winners are very good and are able to go on to successful funding rounds.
The company makes its money by persuading some of these businesses to work with us to get funds raised and to allow us to invest in them. Whilst many people like to invest in the healthcare sector because of the potential for great returns, it is a notoriously difficult sector to get right. It really does require a lot of due diligence and specialized knowledge which most angel investors simply do not have.
This is an example of a business that has a clear vision of the future and has worked out how to create a compelling pipeline of companies to invest in. It has also worked out a long-term plan. It is very happy to run these events on a not-for-profit basis (a lot of money was raised for a charity that night) because it is thinking of long-term gain and not short-term.
Sadly, not enough businesses do that. I am constantly amazed at the huge amount of goodwill that exists out there. My own career has numerous examples of people giving me a lucky break or helping me with something which had no gain for them. One of these people is Chris Gorman (who also happens to be a shareholder in Medical Futures).
I remember asking Chris on one occasion why he was so generous with his time and money supporting me. He answered back “Because I see you as a good long-term bet!”
Apart from the enormous encouragement I got from this vote of confidence, it highlights again the virtue of taking a long-term and hopefully ethical view in your dealings with people and businesses. Time will tell whether or not I do turn out to be a good investment for Chris, but certainly, I feel obliged to do my utmost to repay his faith.
