Below is the hyperlink to our latest CEO peers “speed-survey,” exclusively for growth-stage CEOs.  Topic– “Preparing for Recovery?”

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/D3642F14267CCC14/

We at BSG Team Ventures periodically take the temperature of the markets we serve. This speed survey is no more than 10 questions, simple multiple-choice.

Knowledge is power.  Aggregated peer-provided knowledge is “actionable power.”

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.

Position: General Manager, Simbionix eLearning

Reports to: CEO, Simbionix USA

Location: Denver, CO

Website: www.simbionix.com

“Virtual reality simulation in surgical training has become more widely used and intensely investigated in an effort to develop safer, more efficient, measurable training processes…If executed properly, virtual reality offers inherent advantages over other training systems in creating a realistic surgical environment and facilitating measurement of surgeon performance.” – E. Seymour and J.S. Rotnes, Surgical Endoscopy (2007)

“If we’re going to make a mistake, let’s make it on the simulators first.” - Dr. Karl Illig, Chief of Vascular Surgery at Strong Medical Center, Rochester, NY, on why physicians are eager to start using the new Simbionix PROcedure Studio simulator

“If the learning actually matters, use simulations. If it doesn’t, don’t worry about it.” - Clark Aldrich, founder of SimuLearn, industry visionary, and author of numerous articles and books on simulations and e-learning

SIMBIONIX IN THE NEWS

http://www.simbionix.com/News.html

http://www.simbionix.com/PROcedure.html

THE COMPANY

Surgical simulators have been developed in the past few years to enhance the training of physicians, reduce the number of animals and cadavers, and provide flexible training scenarios and preoperative planning. Despite their potential benefits, and the fact that they have precedence in flight simulators, there are very few simulators in current use globally. Simbionix as a leadership company in this growing industry is changing the medical training landscape.

As a world leader in the field of medical education and simulation technology, Simbionix offers the most comprehensive medical training experience available, using the latest software and hardware technology. The company’s state-of-the-art technology provides surgeons, interventionists, nurses, and technicians with a robust platform to learn and master critical skills to ensure procedural efficiency and promote quality patient outcomes. The systems offer a range of basic and highly advanced procedures, and incorporate detailed and complete metrics for skill assessment.

The user is free to practice skills and perform procedures until the required proficiency is attained. In addition, difficult and uncommon procedures may be practiced at any time. This maximizes consistency to optimize learning, providing a clear advantage over relying solely on previous ly available patient training methods.

History and Products

Established in 1997 by a small group of individuals with a multi-disciplinary background in marketing, software programming and 3-D graphics, the company developed the GI Mentor™, the industry’s first computer-based simulator for training endoscopic procedures skills.

Since then, Simbionix has successfully launched a complete line of medical simulators that provide medical professionals with hands-on training in a comprehensive array of Minimally Invasive Surgery procedures. This includes the URO Mentor™ — the industry’s only simulator for endourology procedures; the PERC Mentor™ for percutaneous access procedures; the LAP II Mentor™ — a multi disciplinary simulator for laparoscopic skills and surgery procedures recognized as the industry gold standard; and the ANGIO Mentor™–a multidisciplinary simulator that provides hands-on practice in an extensive and complete simulated environment of interventional endovascular procedures. Today Simbionix has progressed to the “next” generation of simulation, developing and launching PROcedure Rehearsal Studio, the first “patient specific” simulation in the industry.

Simbionix simulation products have been validated in several scientific studies and the company cooperates closely with both industry and leading medical institutions such as Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and other international institutions to develop the most advanced simulators for the training and assessment of medical professionals.

About Simbionix eLearning Division

Recognizing the ongoing trends in the certification of clinicians in a range of MIS procedures that are becoming more complex, Simbionix acquired eTrinsic, a leader in education content development. Together with the Mentor platforms, Simbionix began providing a comprehensive solution (called the MentorLearn platform) for the training and eventual certification of physicians in advanced surgery skills in a safe and controlled environment, increasing patient safety and procedure efficiency.

Currently, the medical course content division of Simbionix (now branded as a division of Simbionix) specializes in developing online medical education products for professional education, including training modules and assessment tools. This division’s products are designed for manufacturers of medical devices, who use the company’s products to launch their own products and train their customers as well as sales representatives, physicians, and clinicians.

Simbioniox’ medical eLearning division combines its proven content development process with an understanding that adult learning is fundamentally different from learning created for the captive audience of children. Adult learning for physicians, clinicians, and medical device employees requires the information design to be more practical, more concise, and extremely intuitive and realistic to the end user. With this in mind, the course content division uses proprietary learning methodology developed over years, allowing the learner to apply his/her knowledge in a practical and hands-on way in the course of the online learning experience.

COMPANY INVESTORS

About River Cities

River Cities Capital Funds is a venture capital firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio with an office in Raleigh, North Carolina.  It has raised nearly $400MM in four venture funds since being founded in 1994, and has backed over 80 portfolio companies, located mainly in the Midwest and Southeastern regions of the U.S.  River Cities invests behind exceptional management teams in expansion stage companies in healthcare and information technology that have unique technology or services and strong market positions, with a special emphasis on recurring revenue business models.  For more information, please visit www.rccf.com.

About Early Stage Partners

Early Stage Partners is an early stage venture capital firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. The company invests in promising opportunities in instrumentation and control technology, life sciences, advanced materials, energy, information technology, and electronics. The company’s principals have over one hundred years combined experience in early stage company formation and development, with a significant network of relationships throughout the United State that can be used to attract management, develop strategic partnerships, and provide later stage funding. For more information, please visit www.esplp.com.

THE CHALLENGE

As part of its post-funding expansion plans, Simbionix will be hiring a senior executive to drive its new direction into the eLearning world and training market sector in Denver. This General Manager will have overall responsibility for developing a commercial business plan and establishing, building, and managing a successful global eLearning business focused on a wide range of medical training markets—medical school, hospital, and clinics, as well as publishers and other re-sellers—and leveraging Simbionix’ world-class simulation archive of courses and equipment. The goal of the company is to develop a recurring revenue model.

Reporting to CEO, the new General Manager will work with the CEO and his leadership team to quickly build Simbionix’s eLearning division into a $20M – $50M operation. The new GM will use his or her previous expertise and knowledge of the eLearning world to identify and develop a new eLearning market sector for the company that integrates its core medical simulation technology.

Critical to his/her success will be the ability to combine the company’s core medical simulation products within the eLearning environment, assess market trends and opportunities, and move aggressively to create a new businesses that exploits these opportunities. This requires not only strategic vision but also the ability to establish an appropriate sales distribution model and possibly develop partnership and joint venture relationships. Success will be measured by a combination of growth, profitability, and ultimately enhancement of company value.

Reporting to the new GM will be a current staff of fewer than twenty employees, including project managers, data base experts, graphic artists, other technical employees and sales representatives.

Specific responsibilities and expectations include the following:

• Develop an eLearning business plan and commercial model that includes a re-occurring revenue component
• Identify market opportunities associated with the Simbionix core simulation business, integrate these, and develop a comprehensive business plan for creating revenue streams in medical training for each of these markets
• Leverage previous contacts within the eLearning/Training space to develop partnerships and possibly joint ventures that could jump start entry into these various markets
• Establish an effective eLearning Sales and Distributions organization focused on these markets
• Move quickly to implement these plans and strategies within the limitations of resources and budgets
• Manage this businesses profitably while achieving rapid growth in revenues
• Operate as “Pied Piper”—recruiting and mentoring talent into the organization from previous companies as well as other eLearning companies
• Work effectively and harmoniously within a matrix organization with the team in Denver, Israel, and, most importantly, the CEO in the Company’s HQ’s in Cleveland, as well as other senior managers.
• Ability to present well and coherently

It is important to note that the company has more than ten years of technology development and twelve years of operating history delivering world-class core simulation products and training solutions to the medical market.

THE CAREER OPPORTUNITY

To an experienced builder-leader executive, this opportunity offers several attractive features:

• Opportunity to establish and manage a profitable, rapidly growing division, with significant ownership stake and company value strongly influenced by the GM’s performance
• The opportunity to create an enterprise, not just optimize what someone else built—to help lead and grow a cutting edge, state-of-the-art eLearning business
• The opportunity to join a small executive team and have “a seat at the table” as the company charts its future
• Strong, committed investors and Board that is willing to fund growth
• The opportunity to gain both domestic and international experience since the company is a true globally-focused operation with an installed base and activities in more than 35 countries around the world
• The opportunity to work in the attractive, thriving city of Denver

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate currently is the General Manager, COO, President, or other senior operating executive of a company that provides eLearning/training solutions. He or she has P&L responsibility and has demonstrated the ability to identify eLearning market trends and products, proven knowledge of the distribution and marketing of eLearning products, and has built a profitable eLearning business.

It is preferable—though not essential– that the candidate have experience with hospitals, clinics, medical schools, and/or other healthcare organizations. What is essential is that he or she have a demonstrated understanding of distribution of web-based training solutions and content (publishers and others), to commercial or, more broadly, to corporate and academic markets.

Specifically, this individual has—

• Significant experience and success managing an eLearning business, ideally from a “best of breed” company
• A strong record of performance taking a company from <$5M to $20M or more as operating manager with P&L responsibility
• An ability to develop a strategic commercial business plan and implement it
• A keen understanding of eLearning distribution
• Experience with functional areas such as product development (IT), product management, marketing, sales management, and business development
• Outstanding general management and leadership skills developed in a fast-paced, dynamic, multi-tasking environment
• Experience in the global eLearning arena
• (Ideally) Experience working in a matrix-type organizational structure with vertical and lateral relationships between colleagues in the US and abroad (in this case, Israel); this requires flexibility and adaptability in a cross-cultured company
• An entrepreneurial spirit–whether within a small or large company; not a “big company mentality”
• A leadership style that is open and transparent, with no BS or hidden agendas
• A team player mentality, with understanding that success comes from his / her integration into the parent company, and in developing close working relationships with the CEO and other senior managers
• A willingness to relocate to Denver if not already located there
• A college degree

This involves a range of personal attributes– flexibility and adaptability; a great work ethic; strong leadership skills with supervision; an ability to develop a strategic commercial plan and implement it; an ability to analyze and evaluate one’s own (and other’s) performance and to develop plans to improve performance; excellent presentation skills; willingness to take responsibility for both success and failure; a thick skin; self-confidence; a positive attitude about self, company, marketplace; and a strong desire for success.

COMPENSATION

Compensation will include salary, bonus, and equity in line with the individual’s experience.

TRAVEL

Travel may be as much as 30 percent initially in addition to any commuting.

Please use the following link to apply:

http://155.212.246.208/JobDescriptionMultiple.asp?WebJobPostingsID=180&chkbox180=chkbox180

Given survey responses, it appears the bell curve peak is in the 20-40% reduction in headcount.  The group of CEOs who indicated these reductions were approximately half of the 60 CEO respondents.

• •    40% or more staff reductions? ~ 10% of total CEOs surveyed
• •    Less than 20% staff reductions? ~ About 17% of all CEO respondents

Winner on this question was “more than 9 months,” with more than 40% of the CEOs.  Runners-up were the “0-to-6 months of cash” CEOs, evenly split with 25% saying 3 to 6 months, and another 25% saying “less than 3 months.”  What this may indicate is that there is a bimodal distribution of funding in the market –those who are well-funded, with 9 months or more, and those companies who are running out of cash (popular definition = less than 6 months of cash remaining).  This is reinforced by the fact that very few companies responded that they had 7-9 months of cash (less than 10% of companies).  Therefore, one might imagine that those companies who are shortest on cash are also those who are making the deepest cuts in staffing.  In addition, that there may be another round of cuts in store for those low-cash companies if they can’t get another round closed soon.

Top implied answer here?   Don’t raise a venture round in 2009.  And this is what the largest slug of CEOs responded with (33%).  Of those who are going to try to raise in 2009,

• •    one-third of CEOs see a flat round
• •    16% feel they’ll get an up round
• •    and almost half (45%) are predicting a down round

Winner for this question shows some great optimism however, with about 1/3 each of the CEOs responding answering with either “revenues up 1 to 25%”  or “Up more than 50%.”

There was an intentional effort to get a fairly even distribution of venture-backed CEO respondents for this survey, to try to avoid sector bias.  We were fortunate to have at least 10% (6 or more companies) from each of life sciences / biotech, medical devices, and the cleantech sectors.  Software/Internet/telecom was the largest category represented, with 42% of CEOs hailing from this sector.

BONUS SLIDE

Q: If YOU could survey your peer CEOs, what question(s) are both urgent AND important to running your business you’d like us to consider asking in future polls?

This was one of the most rewarding questions for which to see the responses.  Fully half of the CEOs polled had a question they’d like to pose to their peers, and some CEOs had several.  Below is a partial list of questions we’ll choose from in follow-on surveys.  If any of those CEOs would like to respond individually to any of the questions below, feel free to post a comment on this blog entry and we’ll post it for public consumption (clustered by general question subcategory as well as by industry sector).  Of course, the winning question asked by one of you CEOs, just to validate that venture capital-backed CEOs are-if anything-self-aware, pragmatic, and not fatally over-optimistic:

“What will CEOs do if their company fails?!”
1.   Cost-related questions

• •    Approaches or success stories in restructuring debt to the company’s advantage.
• •    Is it better to reduce headcount 20%, go to a 4-day work week, or reduce salaries by 20%?
• •    In addition to headcount reductions (if any), what type of expenses are you reducing?  Are you delaying new projects/initiatives?  How have investors reacted to this?
• •    Will you consider outsourcing some of your product development to make cost variable, at the expense of some know-how then being outside the company?

2.    Sales/Marketing/Revenue-related questions

• •    How are you using the economic downturn to improve your business position/model?
• •    What are you going to spend more money on in 2009 than in 2008?
• •    What changes in the sales cycle are you seeing in the last 6months, 2 months, currently?  What does the resultant trend point to for 2009 and what actions are you taking in response?
• •    How has your visibility into the level of future business changed in the last 3-6 months?Asked another way – what level of confidence do you have in your current forecast of business?
• •    (1) What emphasis do you place on marketing in your organization? (2) What do you consider the top 3 most important elements of marketing to be?
• •    How will you as CEO deal with longer term rate issues if you are a service business as it seems all labor rates are being pushed down?
• •    The number one reason why clients buy your product is? (cost, quality, service, other?)

3.    Funding/exit/valuation questions

• •    Are you finding lending lines out there?
• •    If an acquirer made an offer to buy your company today, but at a multiple less than what it would be in a strong economy, would you consider it, or wait until the economy improves so you could get a higher valuation?
• •    Are you considering merging your company with another? Are you looking at merger partners as a legitimate exit option in 2009?
• •    Are you looking to current investors or new investors for additional rounds of financing?

4.    Board of Directors/investor-related questions

• •    How will venture capital investing change in 2009?
• •    What is your satisfaction with your Board’s ability to fundraise in the future? (I think the current environment highlights a board’s function as protector of value through fundraising and too few board members are good at it)?
• •    Compensation for outside board members?

5.    Staffing/talent questions

• •    How are you balancing full time versus contract employees?
• •    How are you retaining employees during these tough times?
• •    What kind of retention ideas have you considered to make sure your key folks don’t bail for a more stable environment?
• •    What skills are you as CEO still looking to hire?
• •    What do you do to conserve cash? attract customers?
• •    How many of you CEOs have proposed reducing people to part time levels and adding equity compensation instead of releasing them all together?

6.    Economy-related questions

• •    When do you predict the market conditions to take a turn for the better?

There a few industry-specific questions CEOs wanted to ask their peer as well:

Life sciences/biotech-related questions

• •    What kind of deal structures are you seeing in liquidity-directed partnerships? What kind of partnerships, if any, are you envisioning for discovery stage assets?

Medical devices-related questions

• •    How do you expect reimbursement to be influenced during the next administration?