One of the prevailing misconceptions about the deal flow in which we participate at Texas Medical Center is that it is fundamentally transactional.
Over the past three years, the team at Texas Medical Center has been strategically working in the international healthcare community to establish four BioBridge partnerships. The goal of these relationships is to provide start-up and scaling companies an efficient entry point into the US healthcare system through our incredible marketplace.
Companies who invest time in connecting with and learning from others by being present in order to take advantage of our proximity with corporate partners and member institutions can attest to the power of conversations in the hallway.
The willingness and ability to engage in person leads to collaborative research and cross-cutting technologies.
Yeshwanth Pulijala is a great example of the benefits of putting in the time and effort to cultivate relationships across TMC. He is the CEO of Scalpel and a participant of Accelerator for HealthTech, which requires companies to attend a 2-week boot camp and in-person monthly meetings. He was there for all of it and more.
Yeshwanth knew to enter the US market; he couldn’t just rely on Scalpel’s success in the UK; it would take understanding a new market and building relationships with the right stakeholders. He spent months at the TMC Innovation Factory. He honed in on his vision for the future of surgery and patient safety, starting with intelligent real-time analytics in operating rooms across our immense marketplace. Scalpel is currently negotiating contracts with two TMC health systems and collaborating with a corporate partner.
“We couldn’t have done this without the incredible support from the TMCi network. The biggest value adds we had been learning to operate from first principles, redefining our vision, and finding clinical champions that stress-tested our vision.”
– Yeshwanth Pulijala, Founder, Scalpel
To be successful in accessing TMC’s market a unique mixture of time, interdisciplinary collaboration, and engaged relationships are required. We do not take a transactional approach but rather focus on generating strategic, collaborative relationships that take the unified efforts of diverse stakeholders to push the boundaries of healthcare.
The reality is that successful international deal flow comes from repeated engagements with members of our community.
While this can be a challenge for companies from different geographies, our Innovation platform can support this by the use of structured programs designed to involve all parties. At the outset, we look for cross-collaborations from interdisciplinary stakeholders, while over time effective and engaging conversations reveal the strength of the team and appropriate collaborators.
To strengthen community engagement, we actively contribute to and show value within relationships. Our programs (TMCi Accelerators, and Biodesign) are pivotal for the TMCi team to clarify the long view for life science founders, as they provide structured introductions to stakeholders in the Texas Medical Center. This access allows for everyone to contribute individually, thus affording multidisciplinary talent the opportunity to contribute to making a company successful.
Companies who invest time in connecting with and learning from others by being present in order to take advantage of our proximity with corporate partners and member institutions can attest to the power of conversations in the hallway.
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