This executive search is for a private equity-backed, revenue-generating, 7-year-old high-growth company that represents the next generation in healthcare innovation—PatientsLikeMe brings together patients in e-communities who create insights on their diseases and treatments by sharing information that improve their conditions.  At the same time, these insights bring value to large pharma and biotech companies, influencing the way they develop and deploy drugs.  With more than 100,000 registered consumer patients, PatientsLikeMe re-balances the healthcare system, ultimately returning power to the patient.

BSG Team Ventures is  retained to identify the VP of Client Services.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Vice President of Client Services will play a senior leadership role within the management team, overseeing all client project scoping, management and delivery.

MORE COMPANY DETAIL:

The roots of the company are anchored in one of three brothers who developed ALS, a neuromuscular disease that ultimately proves fatal.  Ben and Jamie wanted to do all they could to help their brother Stephen, and—leveraging their prior career experience and entrepreneurial leanings—decided to try to help their brother gain insights from other patients with ALS in order to improve the understanding of how the disease progresses and what might be done to ease and improve one’s condition.  And so was born PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing platform.  The Heywood family’s fight to save Stephen has been chronicled in the book His Brother’s Keeper as well as the documentary “So Much So Fast.”  For more, preview an interesting short video piece on their story athttp://www.patientslikeme.com/about.

THE ROLE

This position will be responsible for the overall success of all commercial client engagements including those with pharma, payers, providers, and other related healthcare NGOs.

In addition, as the key liaison between PatientsLikeMe and the business customer,  the VP of Client Services will be responsible for driving key account relationship development, deepening the understanding of the customer’s needs with an eye to expanding PatientsLikeMe’s strategic role in providing data and analytics to further the customer’s knowledge of patients, conditions, outcomes, and insights.

Below is a bubble diagram outlining  key career & functional attributes critical to success for this role:

Specific responsibilities:

Qualifications & Experience

Skills & Personal Characteristics

This executive search is for a private equity-backed, revenue-generating, 7-year-old high-growth company that represents the next generation in healthcare innovation—PatientsLikeMe brings together patients in e-communities who create insights on their diseases and treatments by sharing information that improve their conditions.  At the same time, these insights bring value to large pharma and biotech companies, influencing the way they develop and deploy drugs.  With more than 100,000 registered consumer patients, PatientsLikeMe re-balances the healthcare system, ultimately returning power to the patient.

BSG Team Ventures is  retained to identify the VP of Product, an expert in e-community consumer acquisition, engagement, and retention.  With current pharma customers like Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi-Aventis, the Company’s goal is to grow to 2+ million registered users in the next several years.   This role will lead consumer online acquisition, experience & engagement, serving as the internal voice of the consumer.

MORE COMPANY DETAIL:

The roots of the company are anchored in one of three brothers who developed ALS, a neuromuscular disease that ultimately proves fatal.  Ben and Jamie wanted to do all they could to help their brother Stephen, and—leveraging their prior career experience and entrepreneurial leanings—decided to try to help their brother gain insights from other patients with ALS in order to improve the understanding of how the disease progresses and what might be done to ease and improve one’s condition.  And so was born PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing platform.  The Heywood family’s fight to save Stephen has been chronicled in the book His Brother’s Keeper as well as the documentary “So Much So Fast.”  For more, preview an interesting short video piece on their story at http://www.patientslikeme.com/about.

The Role

As VP Product, this consumer web expert needs to have the following 4 experiences as builder-leader:

Companies that might be part of this executive’s career progress (although less likely their most current position) include horizontal social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), online affinity groups (Eons, Weightwatchers, sports fan communities like FanIQ, etc.), social commerce properties (BuyWithMe, Gilt, Groupon), or social gaming destination sites (Gamesville, Worldwinner, Zynga).

Below is a bubble diagram outlining  key career & functional attributes critical to success for this role:

How & What Growth-stage CEOs Are Ending 2011 & Planning for 2012

Below is the hyperlink to take the Q4 CEO peers speed-survey, exclusively for growth-stage CEOs. This survey focuses on “How & What Growth-stage CEOs are Ending 2011 & Planning for 2012″

This shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes of a busy CEO’s time–

We here at BSG Team Ventures periodically take the temperature of the markets we serve. The survey is no more than 15 questions, most simple multiple-choice.

These surveys are created and compiled by BSG Team Ventures as a courtesy to our executive ecosystem with the belief that knowledge is power. Aggregated peer-provided knowledge is “actionable power.”

To compare how you’re feeling a year later with the survey results from Q4 2010, titled “CEOs Plan for 2011”, go to http://www.bostonsearchgroup.com/blog/q4-2010-ceo-survey-of-growth-stage-companies/

We make an effort to survey only those who fit the category (in this case, sitting CEOs or board member/founders of technology/science-driven growth-stage companies). [Note, if you don't fit the aforementioned description, please refrain from responding.]

Feel free to forward to the qualified CEOs in your sphere of influence. The more data generated, the more accurate the trend lines.

All responses are anonymous due to the web-based survey technology employed.

We will forward the survey results within the next two weeks to the email address on file. Please let us know if there is another email address you wish us to send the results to as well.

The Company

Securing Business

The Company is one of the largest global providers of IT-security solutions and IT-Services with a focus on consulting, implementation and services.

The Company has offices in 8 countries – UK, Germany, USA, France, Switzerland, Austria, United Arab Emirates and Singapore with around 500 employees. The Company has more than 3,500 blue-chip customers and a range of government agencies.

Offerings include:

• Consulting in all aspects of IT-Security

• Continuous development of a holistic IT-Security Service Portfolio via our Managed Security Service Center and Call Center

• Close relationship with the key product vendors

• Holistic portfolio of IT-Security Solutions and Products

The Position

As a key member of the Americas executive team, the VP Sales will be the primary owner and driver of revenues for the Company, responsible for selling Managed and Professional Services (MAPS) solutions keying off of its core overlapping areas of service excellence:

o Data Protection

o Mobility

o Threats & Vulnerabilities

o Risk & Compliance (GRC)

o Cloud (securing the cloud)

The VP Sales will be part of the senior operating team for the Americas with principal responsibilities including:

• Exceed quarterly and annual revenue targets

• Develop & execute strategic sales and distribution plan: provide strategic and tactical thinking, as well as broad business insight. Take a leadership role in developing the sales strategy to support the growth of the business, while continuing to drive gross margins, quarterly bookings goals, and other KPIs

• Peer with the Professional Services team on client prospecting, engagement, and delivery

• Divisional revenue ownership

• Sales team-building

• Sales leadership and sales pipeline management

• Develop and managing detailed budgeting & forecasting

• Lead the management, maintenance & development of key partnerships in upstream indirect sales channels

• Foster teamwork and create a positive work environment for a geographically disparate sales force

• Lead and develop a dynamic and creative sales infrastructure that fits the needs of the business and the products the Company provides to its customers

• Drive internal discussion about strategies, ideas, new opportunities and the best methods for achieving success in a changing marketplace

• Consult with customers on their needs and provide feedback to other departments supporting sales efforts

• Forecast, track and report sales performance using internal tools and applications such as Salesforce.com

• Conduct internal pipeline meetings and reviews with the executive team

• Manage overall budget associated with sales plan

• Lead team in structuring strategic and integrated partnerships with key customers

• Personally assist in closing large deals and managing strategic accounts

• Travel as needed to ensure that sales and client needs are met and exceeded

Ideal Candidate Profile

The diagram below illustrates a comprehensive intersection of competencies critical in the VP Sales position:

Team

Reporting to the President of the Americas, the VP Sales currently manages and leads a sales team of 11.

Compensation

Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements. In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary and incentive bonus structure based on both individual and company milestones.

Our client provides a leading Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) campaign and order management platform that serves the unique needs of Direct Response and eCommerce businesses with Web-based technology (SaaS).

As a key member of the management team, the CFO will provide strategic financial input and leadership on decision-making issues affecting the organization by the development of sophisticated financial planning, budgeting and forecasting models for operating and capital purposes, product/service profitability and contribution analyses and special project analyses as needed.  Key to the role is an ability to bring a strategic level of leadership to the finance function, serving as financial strategist while managing the day-to-day requirements of the finance, legal & HR departments.

The CFO will be part of the senior operating team with principal responsibilities including:

**********

Ideal Candidate Profile

The diagram below illustrates a comprehensive intersection of competencies critical in the CFO position:

Team

Reporting to the CEO, the CFO shares the responsibility for communication with the board.  Reporting currently to the CFO are an accounting manager and a contracts manager. Total employee base is approximately 25 and growing.

Compensation

Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements.  In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary, incentive bonus structure based on both individual and company milestones, and a stakeholder position in the company.

The Company

Our client provides education solutions software for risk management and patient safety.   It has strategic partnerships with Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions; and Hospital Corporation of America. Our Clients customers deploying its e-learning content represent a who’s-who of nationally recognized hospital systems and medical malpractice insurers.

The Position

The Vice President of Sales for the eLearning product suite will report to the CEO, and be responsible for all revenue generating activities within the group.

Essential Responsibilities

Ideal Candidate Profile

The diagram below illustrates the intersection of competencies critical in the VP Sales position:

Staff & Team

The company currently employs 35 full time staff and a large pool of contractors involved in product development.  As the company evolves their focus to place greater emphasis on the larger accounts, this team will evolve.  Historically the sales team has reported to the CEO, with the addition last year of a Director of Sales.  In the future, the VP of Sales will report to the CEO and the full sales team will report to the VP.  The VP Sales will have a team of both inside and outside sales, currently comprised of 6.

Financial Backing

The company is a privately held, profitable company with significant growth over the preceding two years.  As part of their growth strategy, the company took private equity capital in 2009.  Future growth will be funded by a combination of cash flow generated from retained earnings, prior external equity capital, and potential additional equity capital as deemed attractive by current company stakeholders and leadership.

Compensation

Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements.  In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary and incentive bonus structure based on both individual, department, and corporate qualitative and quantitative MBOs.

“]

Rob Day, Black Coral Capital | Michael Balmuth, Edison Ventures | Alexis Borisy, Third Rock Ventures

Once or twice a year we as a firm gather CEOs from the Boston innovation ecosystem to share thoughts amongst themselves.  Often, the format is lubricated by a panel to kick things off.  Always, the format is lubricated by an open bar and dinner.

 This Fall’s CEO gathering in early November brought together 50 or so CEOs around the topic of planning for 2011, and what to expect as a CEO. 

Whether early-stage venture, or mid-stage growth, investors are adopting a different approach to what they are looking for, how much they are putting to work, and what they expect to see as an end result.  This is proving true not just in the tech sector, but cleantech, medical device, and biotech.

 If CEOs are looking for more investment, whether growth equity, seed capital, or something in between, what are the “new normals” to think about going into 2011.  And if CEOs aren’t looking for money, but looking for exits, what are the expectations of investors in 2011 and beyond? 

 We assembled a panel of venture capital investors who all had raised new funds in the last year or so.  These investors also represented a different flavor than traditional venture capital.

 On the panel? 

• Michael Balmuth, General Partner, Edison Venture Fund
• Alexis Borisy, Partner, Third Rock Ventures
• Rob Day, Partner, Black Coral Capital

 What were the “new normals” CEOs and VCs talked about?

 Here are a few that got some air time:

2011 is likely to be an economic “ground hog year.”  The current economic cycle of “flat is the new up” is here to stay for the medium term;  In taking a flash vote of the room, the overwhelming majority felt that the economic conditions in which companies are being created are not going to change for the better any time soon.  Simply turning the calendar over from 2010 to 2011 is not likely to yield a more fertile or forgiving economic climate in which to grow innovation-stage companies.  In our recent survey  of growth-stage CEOsfor Q4 2010, we noted in a prior blog post that the vast majority of CEOs had already shifted their strategies or were planning to in the near future as a direct result of an expectation that 2011 might look a lot more like the end of 2009 or 2010 than ‘07 [see CEO survey pie chart below]

Seed rounds are becoming pervasive compared to prior quarters.  And these aren’t for Web 2.0 companies only.  CB Insights in their Q3 2010 summary demonstrated that this is a trend that is occurring in cleantech / greentech as well as healthcare IT.  All 3 investors on the panel agreed that seed funding makes sense.  Alexis Borisy, Partner at Third Rock Ventures, talked about their approach to seeding, saying that they tend to help start the companies, not just fund them, often taking an interim role on the executive team to incubate to a point of value inflection.  Michael Balmuth mentioned that although Edison Ventures doesn’t do “seed stage investing” per se, he loves to see companies that get seed rounds, as it often is an effort to drive toward profitability faster.  At that point, Edison may be more interested in a seed-funded company that achieves an early positive cash flow position than a typical heavily syndicated, multi-series venture-backed portfolio company.  Black Coral’s Rob Day added that he felt that investing in capital-efficient companies, even in the cleantech sector, was something he has advocated for a long time.  [see CB Insights graph of growth in seed round funding over last 5 trailing quarters, 2009-2010]

• As an asset class, venture funds have lost money for a while now.  Limited partner investors in venture capital and even private equity believe that they still have to invest in this asset class because it does make money during economic or industry sector bubble periods, and to invest once a bubble has been established would mean missing the upside.  During other times, LPs try their best to pick the funds that outperform their peers.

• Using investment banks to raise equity capital  should be done selectively.  If the industry is a small one, and the network is well established (like biotech investing Alexis pointed out), using an i-bank at an early stage is not the best idea.  However, in the cleantech sector where there are more total number of investors, they are internationally distributed, the industry is younger and less well-networked, and there is an imbalance in demand-supply (more money chasing fewer good deals), the investment banking solution may be just the right one.  One CEO, Larry Letteney of Second Wind in the cleantech sector, shared just such a recent positive experience in going out for their next round. 

• Seek out funds that have real capital to invest, preferably “fresh.”  Each of the three funds represented on the panel had all raised funds in the last twelve months or so.  But there are a lot of funds that are at the end of their last fund.  Many are unlikely to raise another fund.  Many investors are taking meetings, but setting the bar exceedingly high because they have only an investment or two left, and they don’t want to get caught making a bad one given the challenge in delivering returns to LPs in the most recent investing vintages.  There was also a “beware” comment about funds who are making seed round investments at the end of their funds.  They are more likely to do so, as it is an easier story to message an investment mulligan to LPs if you can just say, “It was just a small seed investment, so no biggie.”  Caution was also expressed that an investor at the end of a fund making a seed investment will be less likely to have additional capital to invest even if the company is doing well.

We hope to post a video snippet of the the VC-CEO dialogue for a flavor of the evening’s conversation in the near future.

Each quarter we survey growth stage CEOs who are running innovation driven companies.  This quarter,  we had more than 60 CEOs responding.  CEOs were running companies in broadly defined technology (software, hardware, semiconductor, telecom), Internet (e-commerce, media, social, entertainment), medical devices, biotech, and cleantech / renewable energy sectors.

A note on methodology.  We send these surveys only to those who fit the category (in this case, sitting CEOs or board member/founders of technology/science-driven growth-stage companies).    All responses were anonymous due to the web-based survey technology employed. The majority of respondents were in the United States, with the highest concentration on the East and West coasts (New York, Boston, and San Francisco/Silicon Valley areas).

For prior survey results from Q2 2010, titled “Impact of Economy and Renewed Growth”, go to http://www.bostonsearchgroup.com/blog/ceo-survey-results-q2-2010-%e2%80%93-impact-of-economy-renewed-growth/ .

ECONOMIC CLIMATE

The first set of questions was around the economic conditions in which each CEO felt s/he was operating.    One question we continue to ask and re-ask over the last six quarters or so targets the turbulence in the macro- economic climate.  It is interesting to compare CEO responses to the same question, “Do you anticipate a double dip in the near term future?”

* In Q3 2009, more than half  (54%) of CEOs polled were expecting a double dip, and planning accordingly

* In our Q2 2010 survey,  again 50% felt a second economic correction was likely, the biggest percentage of those CEOs believing it would be in either Q3 2010 or sometime in 2011.  The other half  of CEOs felt the specter of recession was behind them

* Currently in Q4 CEOs were consistent with prior quarters with a bit more than 50% indicating they didn’t feel a double dip was likely, and the other half of the CEOs saying either a 50/50 probability or greater (16% feeling more likely than not)

So less than 1 in 5 CEOs feel another economic dip is likely.  No CEOs selected the ” greater than 75%” probability.

It’s interesting to do a meta graph of the changing CEO sentiment on this question.  Surprisingly, the graph would be sloping downward, but not as much as many would hope.  The high point was certainly back in Q3 2009, but even throughout 2010, as many CEOs were fearful of a negative correction as those who felt it was behind us.  No doubt this “lack of confidence” index doesn’t inspire the CEO with a swashbuckling, damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead attitude toward growing their companies.  Rather, it makes CEOs think in short-term windows, perhaps 3 months at a time, with little appetite to make medium or long-term bets.

Those CEOs who felt another downturn was likey referenced several factors that might tip the scales negative–  gridlock in Congress due to midterm elections and likelihood that Democrats lose congressional majority, a belief that a bad Q4 holiday retail shopping was likely, and the persistent overhang of ongoing commercial and residential loan defaults.

As for when another economic dip might occur if it were to occur, the vast majority of CEOs pointed to Q1, 2011, with Q4 of this year and Q2 2011 tying for second at 18% each.

STRATEGY

Almost 50% of CEOs polled said that they had either made a shift in strategy in 2010, or were planning to in the near future.  Granted, growth-stage companies are prone to shifting strategy until they land upon the best formula for significant and sustainable growth.  However ~50% is a big number, and clearly a chunk of those companies have been driven to rethink their strategies because of the challenging economic climate, the concern over the future, and the possibility that 2010 might represent “the new normal” where with no economic “rising tide” no help generated to float all company boats as in periods of economic expansion in the past (1997-2000, 2005-2008, etc).

CASH FLOW

The majority of CEO survey respondents (49%) indicated that they were still planning on burning cash over the next 2 quarters.  24% indicated they would be profitable.  CEO comments regarding this question indicated an overwhelming drive toward cash flow break even.  That was the big push and focus for their companies in 2010, and if they hadn’t achieved it yet, they were gunning to by end of the first quarter of 2011.  CEOs also commented that they were trying to run their companies at break even, with any extra EBIT being reinvested back into the company for additional growth.

COST REDUCTION PLANS

When asked what were the top 3 areas CEOs were targeting for cost reduction, the following table summarizes their responses, representing a combination of spend reduction and staff reduction in non-core areas.  There was a preference by CEOs to favor non-staff cuts over cutting headcount if at all possible, but many acknowledged that in order to make meaningful cuts, staff had  to be considered in the equation.

CEO responses when asked about increasesin spend were logical.  The top three in order were sales, marketing, and R&D.  Many of the comments about this question noted the fact that outside of directly growing revenues, additional spend was hard to build in when many CEOs are driving toward a minimum cash-neutral mandate and economic uncertainties are driving CEOs to think conservatively rather than expansively.

[Click on "more" below for remaining 8 slides and narrative from Q4 2010 CEO survey]

More…

September in New England is all about Fall, football, and at least for the last 4 years, philanthropy.  On September 23rd, 2010, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and professional services providers celebrated the 4th consecutive year putting this tournament on.

The goals?

1) Sweat doing one of my favorite sports on one of its most challenging surfaces–

chasing a white ball around a grass lawn where the verb “to bounce” is used only in a relative sense.  Imagine a super-high gravity environment where what goes down, stays down.  A bit more like dropping a plate, versus bouncing a ball.

2) Compete in teams, with venture capitalists comprising one team, pitted against entrepreneurs, the other team.   This brings together the two key stakeholders in the business ecosystem in which our firm operates.   OK, so the entrepreneurs always get a bit feisty because they often feel the perceived chafe of the unspoken universal order, “those who have the gold make the rules.”  But in this format, spicy works.  Feisty is good. For further flavor,  see video mash-up of the tournament highlights below.

3) Give to charity, and create a collaborative giving engine that may at some point outstrip at least this author’s individual efforts.

The supplemental benefits of combining these three above?

1) Sweating couldn’t be in a lovelier setting.  The Longwood Cricket Club is just a spectacular venue, and again this year we were graced with perfect early Fall weather–blue sky highlighted by  brilliant reds of the autumn maple trees ringing the club house and the courts.  Sweating somehow is also a whole lot more fun on a tennis court if you play barefoot.  Don’t try this on hard courts or clay folks.  But at Longwood, all 40+ players doffed their togs and got back to nature (photos and video for up close and personals).

2)  Competing with VC and entrepreneur teams brings out…  well…  a prime opportunity for trash talking in the safety of numbers let us say.  It’s great to get both sides out in a friendly face off, united at the end for a good cause.

3) Giving to charity is something that seems easier the more perceived value is generated (for the altruist), or we receive (for those solipsists).  This year’s charity was again the Tenacity program, founded by Ned Eames.  We heard from some of the at-risk urban middle school children who have found Tenacity a backbone for discipline and achievement in an often keelless school environment.  Hearing some of their stories made us all reflect on our paths to relative success, and how those challenges compared to what these children face.  The goal was to raise $5,000 or more, and although the P&L is still being cyphered, we either met or came close to the target.

Who won this year? Technically, the Entrepreneurs won when toting up the total games score.  However, the VCs took it in a hotly contested 10-game pro set finals match   [see score card below]

The VC team was represented by Michael Balmuth of Edison Ventures and Michael Quinn of sponsor Silicon Valley Bank.  This fearsome duo faced off against entrepreneurs Bill Stone, co-founder of OutsideGC and Dean  Bogdanovic of CounterPath .

No doubt however that all players won in the larger sense what with the weather, the setting, and the collegiality.

Attributions:

To Sung Park who– as the poster-child for entrepreneurial ideation– decided years ago to innovate the fundraising process for his son’s school.  To do this, he cooked up the first VC vs. Entrepreneurs golf tournament we took part in some 6 or more years ago.  I asked him if he had the IP locked up on the idea or could I port the concept to the tennis court, and being the philanthropist that he is, he said heck no, it was “open source.”   Thanks Sung.

To Longwood Cricket Club, who has been a supporter of the event from the beginning, and Larry, the head tennis pro, who makes it a pleasure to orchestrate.

Tenacity’s Ned Eames, who’s vision and personal tenacity has grown a philanthropic organization that touches thousands of inner-city youth with a caring and purpose driven mission. See www.tenacity.org for more.

To our corporate underwriters without whom the event would not achieve its goals–  Silicon Valley Bank, XConomy, Version 2.0 Communications, the Boston Lobsters, and Microsoft.

To the captains of each team, who were elected in a rigorous vetting process operating under the game principle of “tag, your it!”

And of course, our guests/the players.  Getting ~40 or so players to set prioritize their time and money during a weekday afternoon is definitely worthy of acknowledge and appreciation.

And Cristina, no doubt all of us thank you for all you did in helping to pull the event together yet another year!

Photo Gallery

Pre-tournament chalk talk

For the last pro set of the tourney, barefooting experiment for all

Boston Lobsters mascot, offering support for which team?

Grass court form can be quickly compromised by a bad bounce

Dynamic Xconomy sponsored team with ringer Lyn Calkins

Perfect serve form demonstrated by none other than Tenacity's Ned Eames himself

Doug Denny-Brown in serve-return combat pose

VC vs. Entrepreneurs 2010 Longwood Team

Entrepreneur Doug Denny-Brown, tennis gladiator at the ready

Registration is Now Open

4th Annual Benefit

VCs vs. Entrepreneurs – Davis Cup Challenge

Thursday, September 23, 2010
Longwood Grass Courts  /  2:00 – 7:30pm

Welcome Back!  BSG Team Ventures is proud to once again host the 4th Annual  Benefit: VC vs.  Entrepreneur Tennis Tournament – Davis Cup Challenge, and we are thrilled to have you join us.

The VC/Entrepreneur tennis community has been growing every year so please register now so we can build the teams early.

Entry is by donation of $175.00.  Please click here to register!

For questions, please email Cristina Vieira Abramson at cvieira@bsgtv.com or call 617.784.4987

Agenda Overview

VCs vs. Entrepreneurs - Thursday, September 23, 2010

Format - Round Robin, Doubles

Time - 2:00 – 7:30pm (includes tournament, finals, cocktails, dinner and networking)

Location – Longwood Cricket Club, Chestnut Hill, MA

REGISTER